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Taking over a conversation

Any live conversation can be taken over by a human. The bot stops answering, you reply directly, and the visitor knows they are talking to a person.

How to take over​

  1. Open Live Chats and select the conversation
  2. Click Take over

That is it. The message box unlocks and you can type.

Until you take over, the reply box is disabled and reads "Take over the chat to reply yourself" — a guard against typing a reply into a conversation the bot is still handling.

What the visitor sees​

The moment you take over:

  • They are told a human has joined the conversation
  • Your replies appear attributed to you by name, not as bot messages
  • They see a typing indicator while you are writing

The bot says nothing while you hold the conversation. There is no risk of it talking over you.

Replying​

Type in the message box and send. The visitor sees it immediately.

You are a person now — write like one. The bot's careful, structured, grounded style is right for automated answers; it is not right for you. Short, direct, human sentences work better.

You are also not bound by the knowledge base. Say the thing the bot could not: make the exception, quote the discount, explain what actually went wrong.

Handing it back​

Click Hand back to bot when you are finished.

The takeover ends, the visitor returns to the chatbot, and automated answering resumes. The conversation history stays intact.

Say goodbye before you hand back. Being silently returned to a bot mid-conversation is a poor experience:

That's all sorted — I've refunded it and you'll see it in 3-5 days. I'll pop you back to the assistant now, it can help with anything else.

When to take over​

Take over when:

  • The visitor asked for a human
  • The bot is clearly stuck, repeating itself, or has misread the question
  • Someone is upset, complaining, or reporting a fault
  • The question needs judgement, an exception, or a commitment only a person can make
  • Real money or a live sale is on the line

Do not take over when:

  • The bot is answering perfectly well — you add latency, not value
  • You cannot stay for the whole exchange. A takeover that goes silent halfway through is worse than never intervening.

One agent at a time​

A conversation can only be held by one agent. If a colleague has already taken it, you will see that rather than being able to take it out from under them.

You cannot take over a session that has already ended — there is nobody there.

Practicalities​

Reply quickly. The visitor has been told a human is joining. A three-minute silence undoes the goodwill that promise created.

Watch your tone in writing. Chat has no facial expression. Warmth has to be explicit.

Follow up if they disappear. If they left contact details through lead capture, you can email them. If not, the transcript is still there for context next time.

After the conversation​

The full transcript, including your messages, is saved with the rest of the conversation history.

Two things worth doing afterwards:

  • If you answered something the bot should have known, add it as a pasted text source so the bot handles it next time
  • If the bot got something actively wrong, check whether stale content is still indexed — see Keeping content fresh