- On the phone, the agent transfers the caller live to a number you choose.
- In chat and email, the agent flags the conversation. Someone on your team opens it in Wiredesk and replies, and the agent stops talking until they hand it back.
Handoff is off until you turn it on
Turning handoff on promises your customers that a person is coming. That’s only true if somebody is available. So:- A person in chat & email (chat, email and WhatsApp) is off on every new agent. Turn it on under Agents → your agent → Handoff.
- Transfer calls to a person (phone) needs a transfer number, entered in the same row on Handoff. The switch can only be turned on once a number is saved, and it comes on when you save one. Turning it off keeps the number.
On the phone: live transfer
When a caller asks for a person, is upset, or has an urgent problem the agent can’t solve, the agent says it’s transferring them and then transfers the call to your transfer number. After the transfer, the call is between the caller and whoever answers.- The transfer number must be a real phone that someone answers, such as a mobile or a staffed desk line. It must not be the number customers dial, or a line that forwards back to Wiredesk. Wiredesk refuses a transfer it can see would loop back to the agent.
- If the transfer fails, the agent apologises and takes a message.
- Business hours don’t apply to call transfers.
- You can’t test a transfer from a Preview call. Call your number from a phone instead.
In chat and email: your team takes over
When a visitor asks for a person, or has something the agent can’t handle, the agent flags the conversation. It tells the visitor someone has been notified and asks for their name and contact details, so nothing is lost if nobody arrives. A flagged conversation moves through these states. The labels in brackets are what Wiredesk shows in lists.How a conversation moves between states
- Joining. On the conversation page, click I’ll take this one (the button reads Take over from the agent when no request is waiting), or just send a reply under Reply as owner. Either way the conversation becomes yours and the agent pauses. Chat replies appear in the visitor’s widget. Email replies are sent from the agent’s address, threaded into the customer’s inbox.
- Handing back. Click Hand back to the agent. If the person who took over sends nothing for 30 minutes, the conversation goes back to the agent automatically.
- Timing out. If nobody joins within 10 minutes of the request, it becomes unanswered. The visitor can ask again, and that starts a new request.
- Coming back later. A chat that has been quiet for half an hour is closed. If the visitor returns and writes again, it reopens with the agent answering, even if a person had taken it over before.
Business hours
You can limit A person in chat & email to your opening hours. Under Business hours on Handoff, turn on Only during business hours and set a schedule and time zone. Outside those hours the agent can’t flag conversations. Instead it says nobody can be reached right now and offers to take a message. This stops it promising a person at 3am. See business hours.Who is notified, and who can respond
- Notifications. When someone asks for a person, the workspace owner gets an email by default, headed “Someone asked for a person”. Under Settings → Notifications you can switch this to a text message, sent to the agent’s transfer number, or to both. If the visitor asks again, you’re told again, at most once every five minutes. See notifications.
- The dashboard and the Inbox. The Needs you card on Dashboard and the Needs you page of the Inbox list chats where someone is waiting for a person, requests nobody answered in the last day, and chats someone on your team is in.
- Who can respond. Anyone in the workspace can reply to, take over, and hand back a chat or email conversation, including people with the Agent role. Replies carry the name of the person who wrote them, and when one person has a conversation, everyone else sees who.