Switch it on
Actions on the agent has the toggle. Until it is on, there is no request-a-human tool at all, which is why a caller repeating 'representative' can get a polite non-answer three times in a row — the agent has nothing to reach for.
Turn it on once you know two things: who takes a transferred call, and who watches the dashboard for flagged chats. Both are real commitments, and handover without either is a promise you will break in front of a customer.
On the phone: a live transfer
Set a transfer number under How it talks. When the caller asks, the agent transfers them live to it — a real handoff, not a callback promise. The number must be answered by a person, and it must not be a line that forwards back into WireDesk, or you will hand the caller straight back to the agent.
A mobile is fine. A desk phone somebody actually sits at is fine. A voicemail box is not — the caller asked for a person and would rather have had an honest message taken.
In chat and email: somebody takes over
There is no transfer to make, so the conversation is flagged instead and shows up for your team. Whoever opens it writes the next reply themselves, and the agent stops replying the moment they join. The customer's widget picks up the human replies as they arrive, so from their side the conversation simply continues.
Hand it back when you are done and the agent resumes. A conversation the customer reopens later always comes back to the agent first, so nobody has to remember to release it.
Watch Conversations
Flagged conversations are the ones asking for you.
Open and reply
Your reply joins the thread and silences the agent for that conversation.
Hand it back
The agent picks up again. Replies record who wrote them, so the history reads as a team.
Outside business hours
Handover can be limited to your business hours, and outside them the agent takes a structured message instead of promising a person who is not there. Those land in your Inbox, and with SMS notifications configured somebody gets told rather than finding it tomorrow.
If a request goes unanswered for too long, it times out and the agent says so rather than leaving the customer waiting on a person who never came. That is the honest outcome, and it is better than silence — but it is a signal to look at who is watching the queue.