Chatbots handle high-volume, repetitive queries; humans handle complexity and empathy.
The handoff is critical—pass full context so customers don't repeat themselves.
Design escalation triggers: keywords, sentiment, or low confidence.
Chatbots can handle a lot—but the split between bot and human matters as much as the bot itself. When to hand off, and how smoothly, makes or breaks the experience. We've built chatbots for support, sales, and booking. Here's how we think about it.
What chatbots do well
Chatbots excel at high-volume, repetitive queries. FAQs, order status, booking slots, password resets. Anything with clear answers and a predictable flow. They're available 24/7, they don't get tired, and they scale without adding headcount.
Where humans are essential
Complex complaints, sensitive topics, edge cases, and anything that requires empathy or judgment. A customer who's been wronged doesn't want to talk to a bot. Someone with a nuanced question needs a person who can think, not just match keywords.
The handoff is everything
The worst experience is a bot that loops or dumps someone into a queue with no context. Design handoffs so the human gets the full conversation history and the customer doesn't have to repeat themselves. That single change transforms the experience.
Chatbot handles
FAQs and common questions
Order status and tracking
Booking and scheduling
Simple troubleshooting
Human handles
Complex complaints
Sensitive or emotional issues
Edge cases and exceptions
Sales and high-value conversations
FAQs
Start with your top 10–20 support queries. If they have clear answers and predictable flows, the bot can handle them. Everything else goes to humans.
Design feedback loops and monitor conversations. Retrain when you see patterns. And always make it easy to reach a human.
The chatbot should pass the full conversation history, customer details, and any relevant data. Many platforms support this natively. The goal is that the customer never has to repeat themselves.
