Bot or human: where do you draw the line?
by•
One theme came up again and again in today's comments: when should a chatbot stop and hand over to a person?
Some people let the bot handle everything and only collect an email when it's stuck. Others hand over the moment money, complaints or anything emotional comes up. Some route straight to Slack so a human can step in within seconds.
We're designing live takeover for N8N Chat UI now, so I'd love to hear how you handle it:
What should always go to a human?
Should the visitor be told when a person takes over?
Out of hours: bot only, or "leave a message"?
Your answers will shape how we build it.
— Dani
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Replies
Anything involving money, complaints, or account access should go to a person. The visitor should always know when the handoff happens.
Agree with Yash on money, complaints and account access. Two more triggers I'd add:
• Someone asks the same thing twice. The bot has failed, even if it thinks it answered.
• Someone types "human", "agent" or "person". Don't make them ask a third time.
On telling the visitor: yes, and show it in the UI, not just in a message. A name and avatar change plus a short line like "Sam from support joined the chat". People write differently to a person than to a bot, so they should know which one they're talking to.
Out of hours: bot first, but say honestly when a human will reply ("we'll get back to you by 9am CET") and ask for an email. A clear time feels much better than "we'll get back to you soon".