Documentation/Live Chat & Escalation
Live Chat & Escalation

Live Chat & Escalation

Not every conversation should be handled by AI alone. SolveoAI provides smart 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 creates a handoff. The conversation then appears in your team's inbox under Live Chat → Queue, where a human agent can take over.

1

Rule triggered

2

Agent shows handoff message

3

Appears in team queue

4

Human agent responds

Escalation trigger types

Negative sentiment

Escalate when the customer's message is classified as negative or very negative.

Rule: "If sentiment is Negative → show Talk to agent button"

Keyword match

Escalate when specific words or phrases appear in the customer's message.

Rule: "If message contains 'refund', 'cancel', or 'cancel my account' → escalate"

Message count

Escalate after a conversation exceeds a set number of messages without resolution.

Rule: "If conversation has more than 8 messages → escalate"

Low confidence

Escalate when the agent is not confident it can answer the question from the knowledge base.

Rule: "If agent confidence is below 60% → suggest human agent"

Intent detection

Escalate based on detected intent (complaint, cancellation, legal threat, etc.).

Rule: "If intent is Complaint or Cancellation → escalate to senior support"

Outside business hours

When the agent receives a message outside your defined business hours, trigger a specific escalation behavior.

Rule: "Outside business hours → send 'We'll respond when we're back online' and create ticket"

Setting up escalation rules

1

Go to Agent Settings → Escalation

Select your agent, then open the Settings tab and click Escalation Rules.

2

Click Add Rule

Define the trigger condition: sentiment, keyword, message count, confidence threshold, or outside business hours.

3

Choose the escalation action

Options: show a "Talk to agent" button, stop responding and display a message, or automatically create a support ticket in Zendesk, Freshdesk, or Jira.

4

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

Thanks for reaching out! I'm checking on that now.
I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing this issue.
Can you share your order number so I can look into this?
I've escalated this to our specialist team — you'll hear back within 24 hours.
We've received your message and will get back to you shortly.

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 "low confidence" is the top trigger, your knowledge base likely has gaps — add more documentation. If "negative sentiment" is high, check your agent's tone and response quality.