Take over while the bot is talking; hand it back to a flow when you are done
This page answers "what if the bot upsets the customer?". When a bot flow is running in a conversation you see a strip under the header: which flow, which step. With the Take Over button in the strip you stop the bot and continue yourself. When the job is done you can hand the conversation back to a flow.
While the bot is running, the "Active Flow" strip is visible. Press and hold the Take Over button; the bot stops, the conversation passes to you and the customer gets your next messages from you. When the conversation is done, choose "Send to Flow" from the "More" menu and pick a flow; the bot continues from the start of that flow, not where it left off. Until you take over, the bot only follows the steps of the flow you built.
What you provide
- A simple rule for when a human takes over (negative tone, price negotiation, the bot misunderstood twice)
- The habit of reading the step in the strip before taking over
- Handing the conversation back to a flow when done
What Chatinbox does
- Places "Hand off to agent" steps in the right spots in your flows
- Defines the takeover rule with your team
- Reviews taken-over conversations with you in the first week: where the bot got stuck
- What the Active Flow strip tells you
- Taking over: press and hold
- When to take over
- Handing back to a flow
Step by step
Read the strip
The strip under the header shows the flow's name and the step it is on. Hovering over the Take Over button shows a short brief: is it urgent, is taking over needed.
Press and hold Take Over
Click the button and hold; when the fill completes, the bot stops. This prevents accidental takeovers. With the keyboard: focus the button and press Enter or Space. The screen shows "Bot flow stopped — you've taken over the conversation".
The agent takes overContinue yourself
It is now a normal conversation: saved replies, internal notes, handoff — all available. Start where the customer got stuck with the bot; the single sentence "I understand, I'm handling this now" defuses most tension.
Hand it back to a flow when done
Choose "Send to Flow" from the "More" menu and pick the flow from the list. A "sent to ... flow" note appears in the conversation and the bot continues from the start of that flow. You can take over again on the next message.
When to take over?
Take over
- The sentiment badge turned negative
- The customer wrote the same thing a second time, the bot did not understand
- Price negotiation, complaint, special case
- The customer explicitly said "I want to talk to a human"
Wait
- If the bot is answering correctly from the knowledge base — stepping in slows things down
- In the middle of a menu flow — the customer is choosing
- Just to watch — the strip and the brief already show it
Where the bot stops and where a human takes over — let's set it up together
In a 15 minute call we define the handoff points in your flows and your team's takeover rule.
Panel strip and button names can change. This page was checked against the interface recording on 18 August 2026.
