Take and hand over a conversation

Read this page to take work, to pass it on, and to avoid answering a customer twice.

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One conversation, one assignee

A conversation has one assignee: the teammate who holds it. The composer stays locked until somebody holds it. Two teammates answering one customer is the mistake this rule prevents.

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Take a conversation nobody holds

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Hand it to a teammate

Use Assignment in the details panel on the right. Select the menu, then select the teammate. You can also use Assign to someone else in the bar above the composer. The green dot beside a name means that teammate is online now. Give the conversation to somebody who is there. To put a conversation back in the queue, select Unassigned in the same menu.

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See who is reading it

Under Assignment, the panel shows the teammates who have this conversation open right now, as 1 viewing now. Read that line before you type. If a teammate is already in the thread, one of you should leave it. The conversation list shows the same thing: small avatars on a row mean somebody is in that thread.

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Assignee and account owner are different

These two words look alike, and they are not the same thing. The account owner gets the customer’s next conversation, but only while that conversation is still unassigned. This is why a new conversation can arrive already assigned to you: you own that customer. Ownership routes new work only. It never takes a conversation back from the teammate a manager gave it to. The details panel shows Account owner as part of the customer record. A Manager or an Admin sets it. See Contacts and account owners.

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What a handoff looks like from your seat

When Kai cannot answer safely, it hands the conversation to a person. From your seat this is what you see:

1. Kai stops. It writes nothing more on that conversation.
2. The conversation waits with no assignee, so it shows in Unassigned.
3. The row is marked, and the bar above the composer says Kai handed this conversation over. Nobody has it yet.

Kai hands over when a human handoff rule fires, when the reply would quote a number Kai cannot verify, or when Kai is not confident enough. Kai often leaves a draft with the handoff. Read it, then decide. Take the conversation the same way as any other: Assign to me.

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Practice

1. Go to Unassigned, open a conversation, and select Assign to me. Confirm it now shows in Mine.
2. Open the details panel and read Account owner. Note whether it is you.
3. Open Assignment and give the conversation to a teammate with a green dot. Then take it back with Assign to me.

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