Working with humans

Tori and your team can help customers in the same conversation. Your team can see what the customer has asked, what Tori has answered, and what still needs attention.

Some requests need a human to answer or take action. Your team may need to check an account, approve an exception, or investigate something that isn't covered by your sources.

Following customer conversations

The Tori inbox shows customer conversations, including those Tori has not escalated. Your team can read them and join in when needed.

You don't need to wait for Tori to ask for help before replying to a customer. You can also watch conversations without taking part in each one.

Escalation

An escalation is a request for your team's attention. Tori adds an escalation tag to the conversation and writes an internal note explaining why help is needed.

The note gives your team a starting point. It describes the customer's question, what Tori has found or tried, and what a human needs to answer or do. Your team can read the original conversation for more detail.

Tori also tells the customer that it has asked your team for help. By default, it doesn't promise when a human will reply.

See Escalation behaviour for the default reasons Tori escalates and the categories it uses.

Knowing when help is needed

Escalation tags appear in the conversation list so your team can see which conversations need attention. Your team can open the conversation, reply to the customer, and remove the tag once they have dealt with the request.

You can also use the escalation webhook to notify your team outside the inbox. For example, you could connect it to a system that posts a message in Slack. This needs an integration.

An escalation category describes the kind of help needed. It does not, by itself, assign the conversation to a particular teammate or notify a department.

Escalation and AI replies

Escalation does not turn off AI replies. Tori can ask for human help and still answer parts of the question it can handle.

Replying as a human does not by itself stop Tori from answering later customer messages. Escalation, staff assignment, and whether Tori replies are separate things.

Removing an escalation tag clears the request for attention. It does not close the conversation or erase its history.

Customer replies and internal discussion

Each customer conversation has a separate internal discussion for your team. Customers don't see that discussion.

Tori writes its escalation notes there, but it does not read messages your team adds to the internal discussion. An internal note does not give Tori new information or instructions for its next reply.

Tori can read messages your team sends in the customer conversation. Those messages are also visible to the customer. For example, if a teammate tells the customer that an exception has been approved, Tori can use that information when answering later questions in the same conversation.

See Staff messages and instructions for how Tori handles guidance from your team.

When a customer leaves

Your team can reply after the customer leaves the site. The reply stays in the conversation and is visible when the customer returns with the same identity.

Tori does not currently send an email to tell the customer that a human has replied. An anonymous visitor needs to return to the site to see it. Keep this in mind when deciding how your team will follow up on requests that cannot be handled immediately.

Changing when Tori asks for help

You can use custom instructions to change when Tori escalates. For example:

If a customer asks for a refund, explain the refund policy and then escalate so our team can process the request.

Changing the instruction changes when Tori asks for help. It doesn't give Tori access to your payment system or the ability to issue the refund itself.