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Human support lets a visitor ask for a person during a conversation. When the conversation escalates, the AI stops answering and your team replies. To learn how AI mode, human mode, and escalation fit together, see Conversations and handoff.

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Before you start

  • Plan: any plan. See Plans and limits.
  • Role: Manager or higher. See Team members.
  • Decide who on your team answers escalated conversations, and when.

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Turn on human support

1

Open Human Support

In your chatbot’s sidebar, select Leads > Human Support.
2

Turn it on

Under Human Support Options, turn on Enable Human Support.
3

Save

Select Save Changes.
The AI can now escalate a conversation when the visitor asks for a person. The other settings on this page stay unavailable until you turn on Enable Human Support.

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Set the escalation buttons

The widget can show two buttons after each AI answer. One says that the answer helped. The other asks for a person.
1

Show the buttons

Under Escalation Button Settings, turn on Show escalation buttons after responses. When this is off, visitors can ask for a person only by writing in the chat.
2

Choose where the buttons go

Turn on Replace other suggestions with escalation buttons to show only these two buttons. When it is off, the buttons show next to your conversation starters and follow-up suggestions.
3

Write the button text

In Positive Feedback Prompt, enter the text of the “that helped” button. In Request Human Support Prompt, enter the text of the button that asks for a person.
4

Write the confirmation message

In Human Support Confirmation Message, enter the message the visitor sees after they ask for a person. For example: Your request has been forwarded to our human support team. They will respond soon.
5

Save

Select Save Changes.
Show escalation buttons after responses and Replace other suggestions with escalation buttons apply to the website widget only. On chat channels such as Slack, Messenger, Crisp, and Freshdesk Messaging, answers that use your content show the two prompts whenever human support is on. Each integration page describes what shows on that channel. See Integrations. The three fields show default text when you turn on human support. When you select Save Changes, SiteGPT saves that text. Do not leave a field empty. If a field is empty, the widget shows an empty button or no confirmation message.

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Tell the AI when to escalate

By default, the AI escalates in three cases: the visitor asks for a person, the situation is urgent, or the visitor is frustrated after an answer that did not help. To use your own rules:
  1. Under Escalation Policy, write your rules in When should the AI escalate? Use plain language. The limit is 2,000 characters.
  2. Select Save Changes.
Your rules replace the default triggers completely. Include every case where you want a person, including “the visitor asks for a person” if you still want it. Example:
To go back to the defaults, clear the field and save.

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Choose who answers new conversations

The chat mode sets how every new conversation starts.
1

Open Chat Modes

In your chatbot’s sidebar, select Settings > Chat Modes.
2

Choose a mode

Select Always Starts New Conversation with AI or Always Starts New Conversation with Human.
3

Save

Select Save Changes.
The mode applies only to new conversations. To move one conversation between the AI and your team, see Reply to visitors and take over conversations. In human mode, the visitor sees a Continue with AI button and can switch the conversation to the AI. To stop this, take over the conversation.

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Other ways a conversation escalates

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What the visitor sees

  1. The visitor selects the escalation button, or the AI decides to escalate.
  2. If the visitor selected the button, the widget asks them to confirm.
  3. The chat shows that the conversation changed to human mode. Then it shows your confirmation message.
  4. The chat asks for contact details if lead collection is on, or if Pre-Chat User Details is Required or Optional. Your team can then follow up by email. See Collect leads from conversations.
  5. The AI stops answering. The visitor’s messages wait for your team.
You can change the visitor-facing texts in Language & Region. See Change the widget language and text.

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Get notified when a conversation escalates

SiteGPT emails the chatbot owner for each escalation. To send the emails to other people, and to set up other alerts, see Choose who gets notified.

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Check that it works

  1. Open your chatbot on your website or in the dashboard preview.
  2. Ask a question. After the answer, select the button with your Request Human Support Prompt text, then confirm.
  3. The chat shows your confirmation message.
  4. In the dashboard, open Chat History. The conversation shows the Escalated badge and is in the Attention view.
To answer the visitor, see Reply to visitors and take over conversations.