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Handover Reasons

Handover reasons tell your AI agent when to hand a conversation over to your human team, who it should go to, and what happens to the AI afterwards. They are the conditions the AI watches for — like "the customer is frustrated" or "the customer asked for a human."

Where handover reasons live​

Handover reasons are set up in two places:

  1. Settings → Handover Reasons — where you create and manage the reasons for your whole workspace. Every agent draws from this shared list.
  2. The agent's Handover tab (Agents → your agent → Handover) — where you choose which of those reasons this particular agent is allowed to use, and set its Handover Greeting.
Assigning is the on/off switch

A reason only applies to an agent once you assign it on that agent's Handover tab. If an agent has no reasons assigned, it cannot hand over at all.

What is a handover reason?​

Each reason has these parts:

FieldWhat it means
LabelA short name for the reason (e.g. "Frustrated Customer"). 2–50 characters, must be unique. This is also the label your team sees when the chat is escalated.
DescriptionA plain-English description of when this reason applies (e.g. "The customer explicitly asked to speak to a human, a manager, or a superior"). 20–200 characters. This is the instruction your AI follows — see How the AI reads your reasons.
TeamThe human team the conversation is routed to when this reason fires. Leave it unassigned to notify everyone.
Pause AI on handoverWhen on, the AI stops replying once this reason fires and waits for a human. When off, the AI keeps helping until a teammate takes over.
DefaultMarks a reason as a starter reason. Default reasons are automatically assigned to new agents and don't count toward your custom-reason limit. Your workspace must always keep at least one default.

How your AI decides to hand over​

This is the most important thing to understand — and it changed from older versions of Orki.

Your agent does not transfer people in the middle of an answer. Instead:

  1. As the conversation happens, your agent can offer to connect the customer — for example, "Would you like me to connect you with a team member?"
  2. After each customer message, Orki checks whether that message clearly matches one of your assigned handover reasons, or whether the customer clearly accepted the offer ("yes, please").
  3. When it does, the conversation is handed to the right team, with a short summary for whoever picks it up.
Write reasons from the customer's side

Because the match is made against the customer's own words, write each Description as something the customer says or does — not something your agent decides. "The customer says the product arrived damaged" works; "escalate difficult cases" does not.

Default handover reasons​

Every workspace starts with three default reasons that cover the most common situations:

ReasonWhen it applies
Frustrated CustomerThe customer seems dissatisfied, angry, or upset with the interaction.
Requested HumanThe customer explicitly asked to talk to a human, a manager, or a superior.
Insufficient InformationThe agent doesn't have enough information to answer accurately.

These are ordinary reasons — you can edit their wording, change their team, or delete them just like any custom reason.

Keep at least one default

Your workspace must always have at least one reason marked as Default. If you try to delete or un-mark the last default, Orki blocks it and asks you to mark another reason as default first.

Custom handover reasons​

Beyond the defaults, create custom reasons for situations specific to your business — for example:

  • The customer is planning a wedding (route to your events team)
  • The customer has a complaint about a previous order
  • The customer asks about bulk or corporate pricing

To create one:

  1. Go to Settings → Handover Reasons and click Add.
  2. Fill in a Label and a Description of when it should apply.
  3. Optionally pick a Team and turn on Pause AI on handover.
  4. Save. The reason now appears in the shared list, ready to assign to your agents.
Custom-reason limit

The number of custom reasons you can add depends on your plan (default reasons don't count). Check your usage under Settings → Billing.

Assigning reasons to an agent​

Open Agents → your agent → Handover and turn on the reasons this agent should be able to use.

  • Assignment is the per-agent on/off switch — only assigned reasons are available to that agent.
  • If no reasons are assigned, the agent cannot hand over at all.
  • Different agents can use different sets of reasons (e.g. a sales agent and a support agent).

Routing to a team​

Each reason can route to a specific team, so the right people handle the right conversations.

AssignmentWhat happens
No teamEveryone on your team is notified.
A specific teamOnly that team is notified.

Example:

  • "Frustrated Customer" → Customer Support team
  • "Wedding Planning" → Events team
  • "Corporate Inquiry" → Sales team

Teams are created in Settings → Team. See Team Management.

Routing to another AI agent

Handover reasons route to human teams. To route between AI agents instead, see Sibling Agents.

Pause AI on handover​

Each reason has its own Pause AI on handover setting:

  • On — the AI stops replying the moment this reason fires, and the chat waits for a human. Best for sensitive situations (complaints, cancellations).
  • Off — the handover still notifies your team and marks the chat, but the AI keeps helping until someone takes over. Best when the AI can still be useful while a human joins.

When a handover happens, the chat moves to the Needs Attention status and your team is notified by email with the reason and a summary. See Chat Actions for taking over.

The Handover Greeting​

When a conversation is handed over, your agent can send the customer a short message letting them know a human is joining. You set this on the agent's Handover tab.

  • Toggle it on or off (turn it off if you don't want any message).
  • Edit the text to match your brand voice.
  • Click Save & Translate to translate it into every language you support; you can fine-tune any translation afterward. The greeting is sent in the customer's preferred language.

A good default reads like: "I've connected you with a specialist from our team — they'll be with you shortly."

Precheck Guidance​

On the Settings → Handover Reasons page you'll also find a Precheck Guidance box. This is optional free-text guidance that applies to all of your handover reasons at once — use it to add nuance the individual descriptions don't cover (e.g. "Never hand over pricing questions; answer those directly"). Leave it empty if you don't need it.

How the AI reads your reasons​

Your reasons aren't just settings — the Description you write is handed to the AI as an instruction. Internally each assigned reason is presented to the model as:

LABEL: your description text

So the clearer and more specific your Description, the better the AI matches it. When the AI decides to hand over, it picks exactly one reason and writes a short summary for the receiving team.

Writing good handover reasons​

  • Describe the customer's behavior, not a category. "The customer says they want a refund" beats "refunds."
  • Keep it judgeable from the conversation. The AI can only see the chat — it can't check your CRM or order system.
  • Be specific enough to route. If two reasons go to different teams, make their descriptions clearly distinct.
  • Don't overlap the defaults. You rarely need a custom "wants a human" reason — that's what Requested Human is for.

Best practices​

  • Keep the human-request reasons on. Customers expect to reach a person when they explicitly ask — keep Requested Human and Frustrated Customer assigned to customer-facing agents.
  • Set up teams first. Create your teams in Team Management before routing reasons to them.
  • Test in the Playground. Simulate the situations that should hand over and confirm the right reason fires and the right team is notified.
  • Pause the AI for sensitive cases. Turn on Pause AI on handover for complaints and cancellations so a human owns the conversation.

Next Steps​