What your team sees while a bot answers

Bots reply inside your normal Inbox (menu group Engage → Inbox). Nothing moves to a separate screen: the customer's messages and the bot's replies appear in the thread as they happen, the bot's replies with the bot's name as the author. This article explains the extra things you see on a conversation that a bot is handling, and what the bot does when it steps aside.

The bot chip

In the header of a direct-message thread, a small chip with a robot icon shows the latest bot session of that conversation:

• [name] is answering (green) — the bot is in the middle of the conversation. Hover over it to see At step: …, the name of the question the bot is waiting on. The chip refreshes itself every 15 seconds. It says [name] paused: channel disconnected (red) instead when the bot is mid-conversation but the account it answers on is disconnected, so it cannot reply (the Bots page says the same); point at it for what to do: claim the conversation and answer yourself once the account is reconnected.
• [name] handed over — the bot passed the conversation to your team (see "The hand-over" below).
• [name] stopped — a member of your team pressed Stop bot, someone claimed the conversation while the bot was running, or the customer asked the bot to stop.
• [name] finished — the bot completed its task (for example a booking) and closed the session.

When the customer simply stops replying, the session ends after a period of silence and the chip disappears (see "Abandoned chats" below).

What the customer told the bot

When the bot has collected answers, the chip shows a count such as 3 answers. Click the chip to open What the customer told the bot: one line per answer, for example name, phone, doctor, date or booking time. The names on the left are the names the bot's designer gave each question, so they are in English whatever language you use the app in. Nothing collected yet. means the customer has not answered any question yet. Click the chip again to close the list.

Stop bot

While the chip says is answering, members who may reply in the inbox see a Stop bot button next to it. Use it when the bot is stuck, or when you want to take over yourself. In a narrow thread header (a small window, or with Conversation details open) the chip moves under the contact's name and Stop bot becomes a small button beside it there.

1. Open the conversation in the Inbox.
2. Click Stop bot.
3. The chip changes to [name] stopped, and a note appears in the thread: "[your name] stopped the bot. The team has this conversation."

Stopping does not send anything to the customer and does not assign the conversation to anyone — claim it or assign it as usual, then reply. The bot stays out of that conversation for 12 hours.

Claiming or assigning the conversation also stops the bot: a bot never answers in a conversation that has an assignee, and it closes its session as soon as the customer writes again.

Notifications while a bot answers

While a bot session is running in a conversation, new messages from that customer do not trigger new-message notifications — the bot is handling them, and ringing the team on each one would only be noise. This includes the customer's first message: when the bot takes it and starts answering, the new-message notification for it is removed from the bell. You are told once, when the bot hands over or when a customer who gave details stops replying.

The hand-over

The bot hands a conversation to your team when:

• the customer picks a menu option that goes to a person (for example Talk to reception) or reaches a step designed to hand over;
• the customer types a word asking for a person (see "Words customers can type");
• the customer gives three wrong answers in a row to the same question;
• your FAQ does not answer the customer's question;
• there are no free times, a booking or a cancellation could not be made, or one of your systems did not answer;
• the bot could not deliver its reply (for example outside the WhatsApp 24-hour window) — tag bot-error.

What happens, in this order:

1. The bot tells the customer, by default "Let me connect you with a member of our team." (or the text written for that step).
2. The conversation is reopened. If OmniBrand set a person to receive hand-overs, and that person can still read this inbox and nobody else is already assigned, it is assigned to them; otherwise it stays in the Unassigned tab for the team.
3. The bot adds an internal note to the thread, written in your team's language (which language): why it handed over (for example "The customer asked for a person." or the bot's own message such as "New Flight booking request from the bot - please reply with options and prices."), then Collected by the bot: and the customer's answers as a list — each answer under a short name (Service, Departure date, Full name…), in the order the customer gave them. Press Copy summary on the note to copy it.
4. Any tags from the bot's design are added to the conversation.
5. A notification with the reason goes to the assigned person — or, when nobody is assigned, to everyone who may read that inbox. It reads "[customer] needs a person", in each reader's app language (in Arabic "[customer] يحتاج إلى شخص من الفريق"); the reason under it is in English, or in Arabic for an Arabic reader. It replaces any unread new-message notification for the same conversation.

After a hand-over the bot stays out of that conversation for 12 hours, so your team can talk to the customer undisturbed. After that, a new message can start the bot again.

If the customer asks for a person again during those 12 hours (for example types agent or موظف) and nobody has claimed the conversation yet, the bot does not reply, but your team is told again: a note "The customer asked for a person again." and a new "needs a person" notification, and the conversation is assigned to the hand-over person if OmniBrand set one.

When the bot finishes normally

When the bot completes its task (for example after confirming a booking), it saves what it learned on the contact and in a note (details), but it does not assign the conversation or send a notification. If the customer writes again soon after — "thank you!" — the bot stays quiet for its silence period (60 minutes unless OmniBrand set a different time), so the menu does not pop up again; the message waits in the inbox like any other. Typing a menu word brings the bot back at once, and typing a word asking for a person (for example agent, as the FAQ answers suggest) hands the conversation to your team at once, as described in "The hand-over".

Abandoned chats

If the customer stops answering in the middle, the session ends after the silence period (60 minutes unless OmniBrand set another time). When the customer had already given at least one answer, the bot:

• adds a note in your team's language, "The customer stopped replying at "[question]"." (for example "…at "Departure date"."), followed by Collected by the bot: and the answers;
• adds the tag bot-abandoned to the conversation;
• sends one notification, titled "[customer] needs a person" with the text "Stopped replying to the bot - follow up." (in Arabic "توقف عن الرد على البوت - تابِعه."), to the hand-over person if one is set, otherwise to everyone who may read the inbox, and assigns it to that person.

If the customer had not answered anything, the session simply ends. Filter the inbox by the tag bot-abandoned to follow up on these leads.

Words customers can type

Customers can type these words at any point while the bot is waiting for an answer, and as their very first message; the hand-over and start-again words also work right after the bot has finished (a stop word then does nothing, as there is nothing left to stop). The whole message must be the word (capital letters, accents and Arabic diacritics do not matter, so menu and menú are the same). The words work in every language the app speaks, whichever language the bot is speaking. OmniBrand can change the list for a particular bot; the bot then uses its own words in all these places.

• Talk to a person: agent, human, person, موظف, خدمة العملاء, انسان / إنسان, humain, conseiller, agente, humano, atendente, Mitarbeiter, temsilci, manusia, ایجنٹ, نمائندہ, एजेंट, इंसान — the bot hands over at once. During the 12 hours after a hand-over, these words notify your team again (see "The hand-over").
• Start again (main menu): menu, start, restart, القائمة, قائمة, ابدأ, recommencer, inicio, começar, Neustart, başla, mulai, مینو, शुरू, मेनू / मेन्यू — the bot goes back to its first step. These words also bring the bot back after it has finished.
• Stop the bot: stop bot, انهاء / إنهاء, arrêter, parar, sair, beenden, durdur, berhenti, बंद करो, بند کریں — the bot stops without replying and stays out of the conversation for 12 hours; the chip shows stopped.
• Change language: language, اللغة, langue, idioma, língua, Sprache, dil, bahasa, भाषा, زبان — the bot shows its languages, each in its own script; after the customer picks one, it asks its last question again in that language (Languages).
• Unsubscribe: STOP, unsubscribe, إيقاف, إلغاء الاشتراك and the other opt-out words (plus your own from Messaging rules) are never answered by a bot, whatever its trigger, at any time. A bot conversation in progress stops (the chip shows stopped) and the opt-out is recorded as described in Consent and opt-out. Only typed words count: when a customer taps one of the bot's own buttons or list options, such as one you named Cancel or Stop, the bot follows that option as usual. A typed message of just cancel, end, quit or إلغاء is not an opt-out word: the bot answers it like any other message (for example to cancel a booking), and the customer only stops receiving marketing, as described in Consent and opt-out.

If something goes wrong

• The bot keeps replying although you want to answer → click Stop bot, or claim the conversation.
• The bot did not answer a customer → the message was STOP or another opt-out word, the conversation was assigned or claimed, the bot handed over or was stopped less than 12 hours ago, the bot had just finished with this customer, the message was a public comment, or the bot is not set to answer that account or at that time. Ask support if none of these applies.
• The chip shows handed over but nobody was notified → check the notification bell and the Unassigned tab; notifications go only to members who may read that inbox.
• The note says the bot "could not send its reply" (tag bot-error) → reply yourself; on WhatsApp, outside the 24-hour window you need an approved template (WhatsApp).

Related

• The inbox
• Inbox bots: what they do and how to get one
• Where the bot saves what customers tell it
• The Bookings page