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A procedure can end by passing the conversation to your team: straight away, after Aide has worked through its steps, or once it has collected the details you ticked. You choose this under Finish in the procedure, under Procedures in the sidebar. For hand-offs in general (what the customer sees, who receives them), see How Aide hands a conversation to your team.

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The three finishes

  • Reply and stay open (default): Aide replies and leaves the conversation open for the customer’s answer.
  • Hand off: Aide hands the conversation to your team. When it does so depends on the procedure, as described below.
  • Close: Aide closes the conversation once it has replied.

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Hand off straight away

Choose New > Hand off when… for a situation your team should always take, such as a legal threat. The procedure has no steps: write the When to use and set it live. It hands off as soon as a message fits, even in the middle of another procedure, whatever that procedure’s “If the customer changes subject” settings say.

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Work through the steps, then hand off

Give a procedure steps and set Finish to Hand off. The hint under Finish reads “Aide works through the steps, one at a time, then hands the conversation to your team.” For a damaged item, that could be: ask for the order number, ask which item, ask for a photo, ask whether they want a replacement or a refund.
  • Aide asks the first step on the customer’s first message, then one step per reply.
  • A step written as plain text, such as “ask if they have a picture”, waits for an answer like a step that collects a field. Customers can attach the photo in the chat (see Aide looks at the photos customers send).
  • If the customer’s answer already covers a later step, Aide skips that step.
  • A step that asks nothing, such as “apologise for the inconvenience”, goes in the same reply as the next step.
  • When every step is answered, Aide hands off.

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If the customer doesn’t answer

If the customer replies without answering the last step, Aide asks once more. If the next reply still doesn’t answer it, the conversation goes to your team rather than Aide asking a third time. A last step that is an If with several questions gets to ask all of them first.

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The closing message

Write what Aide should say at the end in the last step, for example “Tell them our team will respond within 1-2 business days.” Aide sends that message as the step asks, then hands off. The customer gets only this closing message, without your standard handoff message under it. In chat, they are asked for their email only if Aide doesn’t have it. Routing, assignment and alerts work as for any hand-off.

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Hand off once details are collected

Under Finish > Hand off, tick fields under Hand off once these details are collected. The list offers the fields the procedure collects. If it is empty, add a field to collect to the procedure first. Aide hands off as soon as every ticked field has a value. Because it collects details first, this kind of procedure takes over from another procedure only when it fits better.

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If the customer changes subject

Once a procedure starts, it stays active until it finishes. This section, collapsed under the procedure, sets what happens when the customer moves on:

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After the hand-off

In Aide Chat, Aide keeps answering the customer’s new questions until a teammate replies or takes over, and leaves the handed-off issue to your team. To have it go quiet instead, turn off Keep answering in chat until your team joins under AI Agent > Per channel > Handoff, in Before and during a handoff. On every other channel, Aide stays quiet after a hand-off.