Skip to main content
No matter how well your agent is trained, some conversations belong with a human. A visitor with a complex complaint, an unusual order situation, or a direct request to speak with someone real — these deserve a warm, considered handover rather than a dead end. MerchantAI is designed so that stepping back gracefully is just as important as answering well: your agent passes the full context to your team, and the visitor never has to start the conversation over.

​
When handover is triggered

Handover can be triggered automatically by the system, or manually by the visitor: Automatic triggers:
  • The agent’s confidence in its answer falls below your configured threshold
  • The visitor’s message matches a blocked topic or escalation keyword
  • An escalation rule in your topic routing configuration is matched (for example, “billing questions → always escalate”)
Manual triggers:
  • The visitor explicitly asks to speak with a person, a manager, or your team
  • The visitor clicks the Contact us option or handover card shown in the chat
When handover fires, the visitor sees a clear message that a member of your team will follow up, and the full conversation is routed to your configured channels.

​
Email handover

Email handover sends a notification to your support inbox the moment a conversation is escalated. Each email notification contains:
  • The full conversation transcript
  • The visitor’s name and email address (if captured during the conversation)
  • The source pages or knowledge entries the agent referenced
  • The conversation timestamp and session identifier
To configure email handover:
1

Open Handover settings

In your dashboard, go to Configuration → Handover.
2

Enter your email address

In the Email address field, type the address where you want handover notifications delivered. This can be an individual inbox or a shared support address.
3

Save

Click Save. Handover notifications will begin arriving at that address immediately — no additional setup or DNS configuration required on your end.
Email handover notifications are powered by Resend. Delivery is handled entirely by MerchantAI — you do not need a Resend account or any email infrastructure of your own.

​
Contacts inbox

Every handover conversation — and every lead captured by the agent — appears in the Contacts inbox in your dashboard. The inbox is your central view of visitor activity that needs human attention. From the Contacts inbox you can:
  • Read the full conversation history for each contact
  • See the visitor’s name, email address, and any other details captured during the chat
  • Review which knowledge sources the agent cited in its answers
  • Filter by status: open, taken over, or resolved
The Contacts inbox is always up to date — new handovers appear in real time without needing a page refresh.

​
Live takeover

If a conversation is active and a team member is available, you can join it in real time from the Contacts inbox.
  1. Open the conversation in the Contacts inbox.
  2. Click Take over.
  3. The agent steps back immediately. The visitor sees a message indicating that a member of the team has joined.
  4. Your team member types replies directly into the conversation thread, which appears inline with the existing chat history.
The visitor’s experience is seamless — the conversation continues in the same chat window with no interruption.

​
Lead capture

Even when handover is never triggered, the agent can collect a visitor’s name and email address during the conversation flow — for example, before answering a question that requires follow-up, or when a visitor asks a question the agent answers partially and offers to send more detail via email. Captured leads appear in the Contacts inbox alongside handover conversations, with the full conversation context attached. This means your Contacts inbox doubles as a lightweight CRM for visitors who engaged with your agent.
Lead capture is available on the Pro plan and above. On the Starter plan, contact details are only collected when a visitor explicitly triggers handover.
Review your Contacts inbox every day for the first two to four weeks after launch. Early patterns — recurring topics that trigger handover, questions the agent answers poorly, or common lead-capture moments — will tell you exactly where to improve your knowledge sources and system prompt.