Some questions shouldn't be answered by a bot at all — billing disputes, complaints, cancellations. Escalation topics let you name them. When a visitor's message is about one, the assistant stops answering, tells the visitor a person is coming, and brings in your team.
Set it up under Knowledge → Chatbot Rules → Escalate to a human.
How do I set escalation topics?
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Turn on Route these topics to a human.
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List your topics, one per line, in plain language:
billing disputes cancelling or rescheduling an appointment legal or complaint questions refund requests -
Optionally write what the visitor is told when it fires — for example "Let me bring in a member of our team to help you with that — they'll join this chat shortly." Leave blank for the default.
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Save. It applies to new messages immediately.
You need at least one topic or the gate can't fire.
Do visitors have to use my exact words?
No. The AI matches on meaning, not keywords. A visitor who writes "I was charged twice and nobody will call me back" trips the "billing disputes" topic without using either word. Write your topics the way you'd describe them to a new hire.
How does my team find out?
Two ways, always:
- The conversation is highlighted for takeover in the AI-handled list.
- Your operators get a push notification, including on their phones with the mobile app closed.
And optionally a third: text these numbers on escalation. Add one phone number
per line in international format (+15551234567). We text from our own number —
you don't need a Twilio account of your own. SMS alerts are a paid-plan
feature; the escalation itself and the push alerts work on every plan.
How is this different from "let visitors ask to reach a human"?
- Let visitors ask is reactive — the visitor has to request a person. See How the AI answers.
- Escalation topics are proactive — the assistant recognises a topic and escalates on its own, whether or not the visitor thought to ask.
Most teams want both.
What about emergencies?
Escalation topics are for business topics, deliberately. They never produce "call 911" wording. If your business has real-world emergencies — a gas leak, a poisoned pet — that's a different mechanism, with different urgency: Crisis safety and emergency escalation.