There is a growing reliance on AI chatbots to handle routine queries. Chatbots can answer about 79% of routine queries. However, some queries are complex and need input from the human agent. For example, a customer may face a technical issue that isn't covered in the chatbot's knowledge base. So, a human takeover is essential in such situations.
A seamless transition between chatbot and human agents leads to enhanced customer experience. This requires the chatbot to be smart enough to automatically direct the conversation to the human agent for complex queries or when the customer requests it. This guide will cover in detail the steps to build a seamless chatbot to human handoff system. But first, let's quickly look at the benefits and real-world use cases of human handoff chatbot.
Part 1: Benefits of a Seamless Handoff
A seamless chatbot human handoff ensures that human agents hear customer issues from the same chat window in real time. Organizations that have integrated chatbot to human handoff systems have experienced significant benefits.
Increase Productivity
Chatbots can handle a significant portion of routine queries. This frees human agents from common queries and lets them focus only on complex queries when chatbot human handoff triggers. This helps the organization optimize its use of human resources and increase its productivity.
Reduce Costs
The smart use of chatbots and the right triggers for chatbot to human handoff brings financial savings for organizations. Chatbots automate repetitive queries, which reduces the need for a large human workforce and optimizes operational expenditures. Secondly, the human handoff reduces customer wait times, increasing customer satisfaction and driving more sales.
Improve Customer Loyalty/Retention
Today's customers value customer service experience significantly. 93% of customers will conduct repeat purchases with businesses offering exceptional customer service experience. With a human handoff chatbot, customers don't have to wait. A human agent joins the chat in real-time, reviews the previous conversations with the chatbot, and provides the needed support in minimal time. This responsive support experience improves customer loyalty and retention.
Valuable Feedback and Analytics
The human handoff chatbot is also a source of valuable feedback and analytics. It highlights the strengths and weaknesses of the chatbot as well as user engagement/preferences and customer satisfaction. These insights are then used to make the chatbot more capable and optimize other operations accordingly.
Part 2: Case Studies and Real-World Examples
Chatbot human handoff is not a new concept. Hundreds of companies are already offering this support in their chatbots. Some of the common scenarios companies consider to call for the chatbot to human handoff include:
- Issue complexity
- Issue urgency
- User preference to talk to a human instead of a bot
- Grasp potential leads
- Frequent bot failure
Temu
Temu is the e-commerce giant and one of America's most downloaded new apps. It offers a chatbot to answer user questions about general queries, order queries, shipping time, and other similar issues. However, it also supports chatbot human handoff.
If you feel like the chatbot cannot answer your question correctly, you can write a simple prompt like “I want to talk to a human agent”. Temu chatbot will immediately link to a human agent who will first read your previous messages with the chatbot and then provide the assistance you need. This way, Temu can manage common queries autonomously and complex ones by human agents.
Payoneer
Payoneer is a financial services company that provides an online payment processing platform. Freelancers and businesses commonly use it to exchange payments digitally across borders. It also provides an AI chatbot to help answer common queries related to payment fees, debit cards, etc.
Payoneer allows users to easily switch the conversation to human agents. Users can simply write the prompt to talk to the human agent, and the Payoneer chatbot will connect them to the human agent immediately.
MongoDB
MongoDB is a globally known database company that helps organizations manage document-oriented information. It provides two types of chatbots, i.e., chat with sales and chat about product support.
At first, MongoDB chatbot will try to hear and resolve the issue on its own. If you are unsatisfied or want to talk to the agent, you can type that prompt and ask for help. Within seconds, the human agent will join the same chat and assist you right away.
Part 3: How to Build a Seamless Chatbot to Human Handoff Without Hassle
Building a chatbot with human handoff requires training the bot to recognize scenarios when to call for human support. Although human handoff functionality looks like technical work, it is straightforward if you use the right chatbot builder. That's where GPTBots comes into play.
GPTBots is an AI chatbot builder that provides a no-code modernized interface to build chatbots with human handoff functionality. It provides a drag-and-drop visual builder to integrate various scenarios and user inputs to trigger human handoff.
For now, GPTBots can integrate human handoff support with Intercom and Webhook. This implies that when a customer requests human support, GPTBots allows the support agent to take over the conversation directly from the Intercom or Webhook system.
Why GPTBots is best for building a chatbot with human handoff is evident from its below features:
- Web-based tool with a flow-based visual interface to build complete chatbots.
- Incorporate chatbot to human handoff by configuring it with Intercom or Webhook.
- Customizable human handoff settings like active period, waiting/session timeout, and more.
- Train chatbot with the company's knowledge base in PDFs, docs, spreadsheets, URLs, etc.
- Pre-designed templates to create a bot for customer support, SEO content writing, lead generation, etc.
- Empower customers to provide inputs in text, images, videos, etc.
- Integrate the chatbot into the website, WhatsApp, Messenger, Zapier, Discord, Slack, etc.
Here are the simple steps to build a seamless chatbot to human handoff with GPTBots:
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Step 1. Sign Up with GPTBots.ai
Head to GPTBots.ai and sign up. -
Step 2. Create a New Bot
Click "New Bot", choose a template or tap "Create from Blank".
If you create from blank, give the bot a name, select the "FlowBot" option, and click "Create". -
Step 3. Build Chatbot with Visual Interface
Click the "Edit" button to begin building the chatbot flow using drag-and-drop elements.
Use the blocks from the left sidebar to insert components like LLM, branch condition, etc. -
Step 4: Set Up Authentication for Human Handoff
To ensure secure and seamless communication during the human handoff, it is essential to set up authentication. This step involves configuring secure access protocols for human agents who will take over the conversation from the chatbot. Depending on your integration choice, you will need to follow different instructions:
For Intercom:
For Webhook:
For detailed instructions on how to set up authentication for Intercom or Webhook, please refer to this guide.
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Step 5. Add Chatbot Human Handoff Functionality
To add "Human handoff", drag and drop its block from the left sidebar.
Click the "Settings" icon and customize the settings of the human handoff such as receiving medium, active period, timeout mechanism, and more.
At this stage, you have to configure this human handoff with an Intercom/Webhook to allow the human agent to interact with the customer from the chatbot through the third-party service. Check this guide to learn the steps to configure human handoff. -
Step 6. Train the Chatbot with a Corporate Knowledge Base
To train the chatbot with the corporate knowledge base, go back to the "Config" panel and select Knowledge Base Documents Create Knowledge Base.
Upload your corporate data in PDF, doc, spreadsheet, URLs, and other formats.
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Step 7. Debug Chatbot
Now that the chatbot flow is designed and the bot has been trained, you can use the "Debug" interface to debug the bot and check its responses. -
Step 8. Integrate and Publish Chatbot
Lastly, click the "Integrations" option and integrate the chatbot into your preferred medium like WhatsApp, Discord, Slack, etc.
Conclusion
Chatbot to human handoff is an essential functionality to integrate when creating chatbots. It ensures that complex issues are dealt with in real time without delays. Furthermore, it also empowers customers to talk directly with human agents instead of chatbots.
With GPTBots, it is easier to build a full-fledged chatbot with human handoff functionality. You can easily set multiple triggers to call chatbot human handoff for different scenarios. So why wait more? Sign up with GPTBots.ai, follow the above steps, and build your human handoff chatbot right away.
Discover how GPTBots can simplify and revolutionize your business today.