Live chat and escalation
Not every conversation should be handled by AI alone. Sell Whisper AI provides escalation rules, a human agent queue, business hours, and global alert notifications so your team can step in at exactly the right moment.
How escalation works
When an escalation rule is triggered, the AI agent shows a "Talk to a human" button or stops responding and escalates. The conversation then appears in your team's inbox under Live Chat → Queue, where a human agent can take over.
Rule triggered
Agent shows the escalation message
Appears in team queue
Human agent responds
Escalation trigger types
Customer request
Escalate when your customer asks for a person, for example by tapping Talk to a human.
AI confidence drop
Escalate when the agent's confidence stays below a threshold for several turns in a row.
Negative sentiment
Escalate when your customer's message is classified as negative.
Conversation loop
Escalate when your customer keeps sending the same question without getting further.
Topic or keyword
Escalate when the conversation reaches a topic or a word you choose.
VIP
Route conversations from customers you mark as VIP straight to your team.
Manual
A teammate forwards a conversation to a person or a team by hand.
Setting up escalation rules
Go to Agent Settings → Escalation
Select your agent, then open the Settings tab and click Escalation Rules.
Click Add Rule
Define the trigger: customer request, AI confidence drop, negative sentiment, conversation loop, topic or keyword, or VIP. Outside business hours is offline handling, set under Business hours below.
Choose the escalation action
Options: show a "Talk to agent" button, stop responding and display a message, or automatically create a support ticket.
Save and test
Use the test playground and trigger the rule manually to verify the behavior before going live.
Human agent queue
The queue (accessible at Live Chat → Queue) lists all escalated conversations waiting for a human agent. Team members can claim conversations, view the full AI transcript, and respond directly from the dashboard.
Full context handoff
Human agents see the complete AI conversation before responding—no re-asking for information.
Conversation assignment
Assign escalated conversations to specific agents or let them self-assign from the queue.
Global escalation alerts
A real-time alert banner in the dashboard shows active escalations across all agents so nothing gets missed.
Wait time tracking
See how long each escalated conversation has been waiting so you can prioritize urgent cases.
Business hours
Define when your team is available. During business hours, the AI can offer to connect the customer with a human. Outside business hours, it can display a message like "We're offline—we'll get back to you when we're open."
Configuring business hours
- Go to Live Chat → Business Hours in the dashboard
- Set your active days and hours for each day of the week
- Set the timezone for your team
- Configure the outside-hours message and escalation behavior per agent
- Test by temporarily adjusting hours and using the test panel
Canned responses
Save frequently used replies as canned responses so human agents can respond faster. Access them from the reply box by typing / followed by the shortcut name.
Example canned responses
Manage canned responses at Live Chat → Canned Responses in the dashboard.
Escalation analytics
The Escalation Analytics dashboard (Live Chat → Escalation Analytics) shows trends for escalation volume, average resolution time, and top escalation reasons. Use this to tune your rules and identify knowledge base gaps.
Escalation rate
% of total conversations escalated
Avg resolution time
Time from escalation to human close
Top triggers
Which rules fire most often
High escalation rate? Check the top trigger reasons. If "AI confidence drop" is the top trigger, your knowledge base likely has gaps, so add more documentation. If "negative sentiment" is high, check your agent's tone and response quality.