---
title: Handoff to people
summary: The online admin hands a conversation to the team with a reason. Some reasons also pause it. The handoff waits in Waiting for you and goes away when the client has been answered.
tools: [talemo_hand_over_conversation, talemo_get_conversation]
related: [draft-replies, who-answers, conversation-and-person, ignore-spam-and-stop, channel-window-and-templates]
search: [human handoff, escalation, talk to a person]
---

# Handoff to people

Only the online admin hands a conversation over, and it names a reason. It tells
the client first and then hands over.

| Reason | What happens |
|---|---|
| doesn't know the answer | The online admin goes on answering everything else. |
| asks for advice | The same. It says politely that it gives no advice. Asking for advice a second time is still advice, not a complaint. |
| asks for a person | The online admin goes quiet until a person gives the conversation back. |
| a complaint | It does not argue or promise anything, says a person will reply, and goes quiet. |
| the script says so | A rule of the [script](../admin-online/conversation-script.md) that ends with a handoff. It goes quiet. |

Talemo names six more reasons when a run of the online admin broke off and nothing
reached the client: it changed something and did not reply, it took too many steps,
it failed, the conversation was too long to read in one go, it hit its spending limit, or
it could not reply. The online admin does not name these, and they pause nothing.

## The item in Waiting for you

A handoff becomes an item in [Waiting for you](../work/item-kinds.md) for the
people who can answer in the conversation's branch, and rings the app (see
[Push "waiting for a reply"](../work/waiting-push.md)). A conversation has one
open handoff. A stronger reason replaces a weaker one, in this order: complaint, asks
for a person, script, advice, doesn't know. A handoff with a pause marks the
conversation **needs a person**.

The line of the item also says whether a word has gone to the client. If the online
admin has answered the client nothing since the run that handed over began, the line
says exactly that: no reply has gone to the client yet. It does not retell what the
online admin said or promised. For a decided item the same reads "no reply had gone to
the client before the handover". The six reasons Talemo names do not depend on this:
nothing goes to the client for them, and the line asks you to reply. Only for a decided
item of four of them (took too many steps, failed before replying, the conversation did
not fit, couldn't reply) the line opens with "The online admin couldn't reply to the
client" instead, since there is no one left to ask.

The handoff has no decision. It goes away when the client gets an answer from a
person: from the web, through the assistant in the app, or from the business phone.
When the online admin did not know the answer and the answer is then approved in
Knowledge, the online admin answers the client itself while the window is open, and
the item closes as "The online admin answered by the new knowledge".

It also closes without an answer when **Give back to the online admin** is pressed,
or when the person's card moves to Spam. If a person has already replied or taken the
conversation over, the online admin does not hand it over.

## Answering a handoff

- On the web: **Reply and give back to the online admin**, or **Reply and keep it
  yourself**.
- In the app: **Reply**. The assistant shows the message first, and in its
  card you choose: **Send and give back to the online admin** or **Send and keep it
  yourself**. While the online admin is paused there is also **Give back to the online
  admin** without a reply.
- When the channel window is closed Talemo cannot send the reply, and the item offers
  **Open {channel}**, so the answer goes from the channel's own app (see
  [Channel window and WhatsApp templates](channel-window-and-templates.md)).

## Who sees it

A person who has the right to answer conversations in that branch sees the handoff.
A role limited to its own conversations sees handoffs only in the conversations it is
responsible for. Conversations of Spam cards have no handoffs.

## Tools and refusals

- Only the online admin answering in the conversation hands it over with `talemo_hand_over_conversation`; anyone else is answered `not_found`, and a person takes a conversation with `talemo_take_conversation`. Tell the client first, then hand over.
- `reason` is `unknown_answer`, `consultation`, `asks_for_person`, `conflict` or `script_rule`. `asks_for_person`, `conflict` and `script_rule` also pause the online admin in this conversation until a person returns it; after `unknown_answer` and `consultation` it keeps answering everything else. A handoff already waiting with the same or a stronger reason is answered as it is, and no second one is made; a stronger reason replaces it with a new one. From the strongest: `conflict`, `asks_for_person`, `script_rule`, `consultation`, `unknown_answer`.
- Once a person replied or took the conversation, or the online admin is off, the handoff is refused with `conversation.agent_held` and `params.mode`. In drafts mode it is not held back: it goes at once, while the reply waits for a person.
- Talemo itself hands a conversation over when a run of the online admin broke off before it wrote to the client — it took too many steps, failed, could not fit the conversation into one request, hit its spending limit, or twice ended in words that never went to the client. `talemo_get_conversation` shows that handoff with the reason `step_limit`, `run_failed`, `context_too_large`, `spend_limit` or `reply_not_sent`, or `changed_no_reply` when the run had changed something first, such as booked, moved or cancelled a visit. Those reasons are not named by the online admin, and `talemo_hand_over_conversation` refuses them. They pause nothing.
- The handoff in the answer of `talemo_hand_over_conversation` and in `talemo_get_conversation` carries `told`: `true` when a message of the business was queued for the client in this conversation since the run that handed it over began (a withdrawn one does not count, one that then failed to go does); `false` means no reply has gone to the client yet, and the people of the business see that in the item.