Guide
Alerts when a customer needs a person
Who is told when the agent hands a conversation to the team, and how the alert arrives (bell, email, browser with sound and your own WhatsApp), with its limits.
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- 7 min read
In this article
When an agent hands a conversation to your team, the owners, admins and members of the account are told. The alert always arrives in the app and by email, and each person can add two quicker ways: a browser notification with a sound, and a message on their own WhatsApp. Everything is chosen under Settings › Notifications.
The four ways
| Way | How it arrives | Starts as |
|---|---|---|
| In-app | Under Notifications, the bell icon, with the title “A customer needs a person” and the reason. Pressing it opens the conversation | On |
| An email with the reason and a link to the conversation | On | |
| Browser notification and Sound | A browser notification and two short notes, even with iAgentify in another tab | Off. Switched on per device |
| On your WhatsApp | A message on your phone, sent from iAgentify’s number | Off. Each person switches it on |
Who receives the alert
- Owners, admins and members. Anyone with the Read only role receives none, because they cannot reply to customers.
- Each person decides their own ways. Preferences are personal: switching your email off changes nothing for your colleagues.
- If the conversation is assigned, the browser notification and the WhatsApp message only reach the person it is assigned to. The in-app notice and the email reach the whole team all the same.
When it is sent and when it is not
It is sent when the agent hands the conversation to a person: because the customer asks, because one of your rules applies, or because the agent could not answer. See when the agent hands over by itself.
It is not sent:
- When it is someone on the team who takes over with Take over or by sending a reply.
- For each new message from a customer the AI is answering. You see those in the inbox, as unread messages.
- In tests. A handoff made in the Playground tab alerts nobody.
- If the agent has handoff switched off and the customer asks for a person: the agent gives them your contact details and does not hand the conversation over.
The browser notification has one more case: it also fires when a customer writes in a conversation a person is already handling, with the text “… has written”.
In the app and by email
They are on to begin with. You change them under Settings › Notifications › Notifications, in the A customer asks for a person row, with the Email and In-app switches. The steps are in choose your notices.
In the browser, with a sound
Go to Settings › Notifications and scroll down to When a customer needs a person › On this device.
Switch on Browser notification. The browser asks for permission: accept.
Switch on Sound if you want to hear the alert.
Press Test to see and hear how it arrives.
You can also switch it on from Conversations: the first time you see the box “Know at once when a customer asks for a person”, with the Switch alerts on button.
Bear in mind:
- It is kept in that browser. Switch it on in every computer or phone you answer from.
- It needs iAgentify open in a tab. It can be in the background, but with the browser closed nothing arrives. To find out away from your computer, use email or WhatsApp.
- It does not alert you about the conversation you are already reading, nor about the ones assigned to someone else.
- The tab title always shows it, even if you switch nothing on: “(1) Customer waiting”.
- If the browser has them blocked, you see “Blocked by the browser”. Click the icon next to the page address, change “Notifications” to “Allow” and come back to the tab.
On your WhatsApp
It is a message on your own phone with the agent and the channel, the reason for the handoff, the start of the customer’s last message and the link to open the conversation. iAgentify sends it from its own number and it uses no credits.
Save your number: under Settings › Security › WhatsApp phone, enter it in international format, for example
+34 600 111 222, and press Link number. It is the same number the iAgentify assistant uses to recognise you.Go back to Settings › Notifications › On your WhatsApp and switch on Alert me on WhatsApp when a conversation is handed to a person.
Write once to iAgentify’s number from that phone, for example “hola”. The section shows iAgentify’s number and the Open WhatsApp and write button. Once is enough: it is how we check the number is yours.
Press I have done it: check. The label changes to On and you see “Alerts will reach you at” with your number.
If the label says On, but not reaching you, the section itself explains why and what to do.
The limits of the WhatsApp alert
- The 24-hour rule. WhatsApp only lets a business send you a normal message during the 24 hours after your last message. After that, the alert only goes out if iAgentify has an alert template approved by WhatsApp. The section tells you which of the two cases you are in. If there is no template, you see “More than 24 hours have passed since your last message”: write “hola” to iAgentify’s number again and alerts come back for 24 hours.
- A daily maximum. Each person receives a limited number of alerts in 24 hours, usually 20. The section counts them under Alerts in the last 24 hours.
- It is not repeated straight away. No more than one alert about the same conversation arrives within a while, usually 15 minutes, nor two alerts in the same minute.
- Only conversations that are unassigned or assigned to you.
- There are no quiet hours. A handoff at three in the morning alerts at three in the morning. If you do not want alerts outside work, switch it off when you finish.
- BAJA stops it. If you reply BAJA or STOP to iAgentify’s number, you stop receiving messages. To come back, send ALTA.
- One number, one account. The same phone can only be linked to one iAgentify account.
- It is not for answering the customer. What you reply to that message does not reach the customer: that number belongs to the iAgentify assistant. To answer them, open the conversation with the link in the alert.
If the alert stops making sense in the meantime (someone has returned the conversation to the AI, resolved it or assigned it to someone else), it is not sent.
If you are not hearing about handoffs
Check your role. With Read only no alert arrives.
Check your preferences. Under Settings › Notifications, the A customer asks for a person row needs at least one way switched on, and the changes saved.
Check whether the conversation is assigned to someone else. Then the browser and WhatsApp only alert that person.
In the browser, check that iAgentify is open in a tab and that the label of On this device says On.
On WhatsApp, look at Latest alert in the On your WhatsApp section: it says whether it was sent, whether it was delivered, or why it did not go out.
Check that the agent can hand over. Under Agents › your agent › Behaviour, Allow handoff to a person has to be switched on.
The other notifications of the account, and what to do if emails do not arrive, are in notices: what you hear about and how.
Related articles
- Notices: what you hear about and howWhich notices iAgentify sends, when and to whom, how they reach you (the bell and email) and how each person chooses their own under Settings › Notifications.
- Take over a conversation and return it to the AIHow to reply to a customer yourself, what they notice on each channel and how to pause, resolve or return the conversation to the agent. The AI does not come back on its own.
- Tags and assignment: organising the team’s conversationsHow to tag a conversation, assign it to a person on your team and filter the inbox by both. What assignment does and what it does not do.
- The support PIN for WhatsAppWhat the 6-digit PIN the iAgentify assistant asks for on WhatsApp is, how to set it together with your number, and what the assistant can do once it is verified.