Control when Vex hands off to a human

Three ways a handoff happens

Vex can escalate a conversation to a human agent in three different ways, and you control each one independently:

1. Visitor asks for a human — Vex recognizes phrases like "I want to talk to a person" and escalates immediately. This is always on and can't be disabled.
2. Vex can't answer — When the visitor's question falls outside your knowledge sources, Vex either declines politely, escalates automatically, or answers from general knowledge. Your choice.
3. Automatic handoff after N messages — Vex shows a "Talk to support" button after the visitor has sent a configurable number of messages in a short window.

Configure the "can't answer" behavior

Go to Automation → AI → your chatbot → AI Identity tab. Under When AI Doesn't Know Answer, choose:

• Politely decline (recommended): Vex says it doesn't have that information and suggests contacting support. No automatic handoff — the visitor decides.
• Transfer to human agent: Vex escalates automatically. Best when first-reply coverage is critical and your team is always available.
• Answer anyway: Vex draws on its general LLM knowledge. Risks hallucinated answers — use only if your topic is general-knowledge safe.

Configure the "Talk to support" button

Go to the Agent Handoff tab. Here you control:

• Automatic agent handoff toggle: Master switch. When off, Vex never proactively offers a handoff button (visitors can still ask for a human).
• Handoff message: The message Vex sends just before connecting the visitor to a human. Customize it to set expectations ("Connecting you to a support agent — average wait is 2 minutes.").
• Show button after N messages: Default is 6 messages within the last 5 minutes. Lower this number if your visitors expect escalation quickly; raise it if Vex is handling most questions well.

Business hours and handoff

If no agents are online when a handoff happens, the conversation is queued in the inbox as an unassigned ticket. The visitor receives your standard offline message. To control offline messaging, configure business hours in Settings → Business hours.

What the visitor sees during handoff

1. Vex sends the handoff message.
2. The conversation appears in the inbox as unassigned.
3. An agent picks it up and continues from the same thread — the full Vex conversation history is visible to the agent.

Next step

Once handoff is configured, check how often Vex actually escalates: Find knowledge gaps Vex couldn't answer. High escalation rates usually mean missing knowledge sources.