Support Team: requests, reminders and automatic return

A need is an open item requiring your team’s input, not a takeover. omotto flags what needs attention and keeps helping the customer. It goes quiet when a person takes control of the conversation.

How it works

This article explains the policy settings. Start with the suggested workflow for working with the bot rather than replacing it. See the internal channel and connected team channel for answering requests and approval cards, and taking over a conversation for replying to the customer yourself. Experts are a separate way to consult a named person. Use the Coach for reviewed improvements that should apply beyond the current case.

Stage	What happens
omotto needs the team	A need is raised for your attention. omotto keeps helping; the conversation has not been taken over.
If nobody answers yet	Team reminders can follow. An optional, separate setting reassures a customer waiting for a promised update.
A person takes over	A teammate explicitly takes control in the Inbox. omotto stops replying in that conversation.
Handback after inactivity	An inactive human-controlled conversation returns after its own timer, unless automatic return is disabled or the person has chosen to keep it.
Something breaks	When omotto first fails to generate a reply, it uses a saved fallback message and raises the problem for attention. Repeated failures in the same ongoing problem normally do not send another fallback. This can happen at any stage; it is not the next step in a normal wait.

Where to find it

Open the Handbook and find When … needs the team. The heading uses your bot’s name. Click a setting’s value in the timeline to open its editor.

Saved links to the old Support Team page take you to the matching Handbook setting.

Set it up

1. Choose Show advanced options if you need the extra controls.
2. Find When to involve the team and click its current wording to review it.
3. Choose how to handle requests for a person.
4. Choose the acknowledgment style.
5. Set the reminder and automatic-return timers described below.
6. Open team availability and check the hours, then click Save.
7. Check the saving indicator before leaving.

Single-setting editors save automatically. Text saves after a short pause in typing or when you leave the field. Choices save when changed. Check the saving indicator at the top before leaving. Editors that group settings, such as team availability and the pair of exact fallback replies, have Save and Cancel buttons. Use Save to apply those changes.

Hide advanced options hides the extra controls; it does not turn their behaviour off. Advanced sections with custom wording remain visible. If controls are disabled, ask the workspace owner to check your permission to change bot settings.

Settings

Blank fields, defaults and your own wording

Most text fields here are guidance, not messages copied to the customer. Describe what the reply should convey. omotto writes the actual reply in the customer’s language.

• A blank guidance field uses the selected preset or omotto’s built-in guidance. Blank does not switch the behaviour off.
• Your own guidance replaces that field’s default in full. Keep the parts you still want, rather than writing only a small amendment.
• The editor shows the wording currently in use so you can read and edit it. Leaving the default unchanged keeps following the built-in wording, including future improvements.
• Choose Our own wording to write your own guidance. On the older Support Team page, this choice is Custom…. Choosing another preset clears that preset’s custom wording after confirmation.
• Back to the default, where shown, removes the custom text. For a preset-controlled field, the selected preset then applies.

Two important exceptions: an empty Repeat reminders list removes the extra early repeats, and failure replies are sent exactly as written, not rewritten or translated. Both are explained below.

When omotto should involve the team

When omotto should involve the team is the general rule for deciding when a person is needed.

The built-in guidance covers:

• Business information omotto cannot look up, such as a current quote, availability, policy detail or status.
• A decision, exception or action it cannot carry out itself.
• A question the team returned to omotto that is still unresolved.
• A customer pushing back on omotto’s own answer or repeating an unresolved request, even if the records supported that answer.

It also tells omotto not to involve the team for something its available information already settles. Once the team has answered, disagreement alone is not a new need; something the team’s answer did not cover can be.

Add the situations that matter to your business. Leave the field blank to use the built-in rule. A custom rule does not turn off everything else: possible harm to a person, the photo rule below, applicable complaint and allowance rules, action approvals, and technical failure notices have their own handling.

When a customer asks for a person

This is a separate setting, not part of the general guidance box.

Choice	Meaning
Try to help first — default	Try to resolve the issue with the available tools first. Involve the team if the customer remains dissatisfied and still asks for a person. The default does not offer a representative unprompted.
Involve on request	Involve the team when the customer explicitly asks for a person, even if omotto could answer the question itself.
Our own wording	Write your own guidance for these requests. A blank custom field falls back to the selected preset.

Involving the team still does not transfer control. A teammate must take over to make omotto go quiet.

Acknowledgment: what the customer hears when help is requested

Under Acknowledgment, choose the style of the reply that accompanies involving the team. This is not a receipt sent for every incoming message or a general after-hours reply.

Choice	During staffer hours	Outside staffer hours
Reassuring — default	Let the customer know a teammate will follow up shortly.	Explain that the team is offline and will follow up when the business reopens.
To the point	Confirm the involvement briefly, in one sentence.	Briefly say the team is offline and will pick it up when the business reopens.
Apologetic	Apologise for not resolving it directly and reassure the customer that a teammate is being involved.	Apologise, explain that the team is offline and say someone will follow up when it reopens.
Our own wording	Edit During business hours.	Edit Outside business hours separately.

These use staff availability, described below. With no effective staff hours set, the team counts as available all the time, so the out-of-hours version is not used.

When omotto cannot read a message

This advanced control applies when a message’s contents cannot be read, not merely because the customer attached a file.

Setting or choice	Meaning and default
When omotto cannot read a message → Involve the team	Default. Request help with the unreadable content while omotto continues helping.
Ask the customer for text	Ask the customer to describe what they sent in text, without alerting the team just for unreadability. Other reasons to involve the team still apply.
Ask-for-text guidance	Guidance for that request. Blank uses the default: explain the limitation, ask for a text description and mention that a teammate can look if needed.

When voice transcription is active, readable voice notes are answered normally. This fallback also applies if transcription fails. See understanding customer attachments for photos, voice notes and documents.

When a photo should still reach a person

This advanced field appears when photo understanding is active. It concerns photos omotto can read but should not decide on alone.

The default involves a person when a photo is evidence for a decision omotto cannot make: damage, a defect, a wrong or missing item, or a matter heading toward a refund, replacement or an allowance. It also covers identity or medical documents, and apparent payment confirmations that would otherwise be taken on trust.

For other photos, the default is to answer from what is visible and ask for a better photo or a missing detail rather than guess. Your own text replaces this photo guidance; blank restores the default. Reading a photo does not itself authorise an action such as a refund.

If nobody answers: team reminders

These reminders are for your team, not messages to the customer. They do not take control away from omotto.

Setting	Meaning	Default
Remind the team after	Minutes before the first follow-up reminder for an open need. 0 turns off early reminders, not the opening alert or daily reminder.	10 minutes
Repeat reminders	A list of waits, each measured from the previous reminder. Choose minutes or hours for each wait. After the list ends, reminders continue daily while the need is open.	1 hour, then 3 hours

For example, with the defaults and the team available throughout: an opening alert, a reminder about 10 minutes later, another 60 minutes after that, another 180 minutes after that, then daily reminders. Follow-up reminders are sent during staffer hours; a due reminder can wait until those hours resume.

For the later-reminder list:

• Use + Add another reminder to add a wait; remove a reminder to delete its wait. Remove all waits for no extra early repeats after the first reminder. The daily reminder remains.
• Use positive whole numbers and choose minutes or hours. 0 is not a valid wait.
• Each delay may be at most 43,200 minutes (30 days).
• If Remind the team after is 0, the whole early sequence is off, even if this list still contains numbers.

Resolving the need stops its reminders. Merely opening the conversation, returning it to omotto or turning early reminders off does not resolve it. See handling team requests.

Approval deadlines are not takeover timers

An action approval needs a human decision before the protected action can proceed. For an unanswered approval with a customer still waiting, the positive Remind the team after value also sets when it is raised for further attention after the team was alerted. This happens during staffer hours.

The approval stays open: the deadline is not automatic approval, rejection or permission for omotto to bypass the decision. Setting the value to 0 disables this early escalation timer. It does not approve anything. The automatic-return timers below govern human control of a conversation, not approval authority.

Customer reassurance while an update is late

Reassure the client after is independent of team reminders. It is 0, off, by default.

A positive number enables a short update when a promised customer update remains unmet. It is not a follow-up for every customer who goes quiet, and it is not sent merely because a staff reminder fired. The message says the matter is still being handled, in the customer’s language, without inventing a time or date. At most two are sent per wait. Checks run about every 10 minutes, so this is not an exact send-time guarantee.

The update still depends on permission to message the customer. If the messaging window is closed, it waits for the customer’s next message. This update does not send a template to reopen the conversation. On WhatsApp, ordinary replies are allowed within 24 hours of the customer’s last message; outside that window an approved template is required. See WhatsApp templates and the messaging window. An opt-out from all messages prevents this update altogether; opting out only from marketing does not.

For a team follow-up, the minutes count from the promise, or from the next staff opening if the promise was made outside hours. After a reassurance is delivered, the same interval applies again from that update, using the next opening if it was sent outside hours. An Expert’s first due time follows that Expert question’s response window; this setting does not shorten it. If the Expert answers or asks something back, that wait ends and no waiting update is sent for it unless the bot asks the Expert again.

Under Reassurance message, choose:

• Reassuring — default: briefly apologise for the wait, say a teammate will be in touch and offer help meanwhile.
• Apologetic + offer help — a warmer apology, taking responsibility and actively offering help meanwhile.
• Brief — a one-sentence update that the team has been reminded and someone will be in touch.
• Our own wording — your own guidance for the update. Blank falls back to the selected preset; it does not turn reassurance off. Use 0 in the timer to turn it off.

Acknowledge the wait for an answer

This setting affects the reply when a team or Expert answer finally reaches the customer, rather than sending a separate waiting update.

Options are Off, 1 hour, 2 hours (default), 4 hours and Next day. Once the selected wait is reached, the delivering reply thanks the customer for waiting or apologises for a long delay. Next day means a later calendar day in your workspace’s time zone and at least four hours after the question, not simply passing midnight.

It changes the acknowledgment, not the answer. A staff answer required to be sent word for word is not rewritten to add it.

Handback after a person takes over

Setting	Applies to	Default
Return after a person is inactive in the Inbox · minutes	Inactivity before a conversation taken over in the Inbox returns to omotto.	5 minutes
Return conversations after the human in the WhatsApp Business app / Instagram app is inactive for (minutes)	Replies from the relevant connected app. The label names WhatsApp Business, Instagram or both, and the row is hidden when neither applies.	15 minutes

The countdown starts when control is taken and restarts when the human replies or the first unanswered customer message arrives. Further unanswered customer messages do not keep postponing it.

0 means never return automatically, not return immediately, when that value is applied as control starts or a running timer renews. The person must then hand the conversation back. Changing the setting alone does not replace a countdown already running. For example, changing 5 to 0 during an inactive takeover leaves its existing deadline in place; it can still expire. The current value is read at the next renewal or new takeover.

Choosing Keep until I hand back in the Inbox stops automatic return for that conversation. A held conversation does not become timed again merely because someone changes a setting or replies from the other app.

Handback guidance

The advanced Handback fields guide the first reply after automatic return:

• Automatic-return guidance (business hours): by default, resume helping with the last message if it needs a reply; stay silent if no reply is needed.
• Automatic-return guidance (after hours): by default, help with what is possible and note that the team will follow up when back, if a reply is needed. Otherwise stay silent.

These use staffer hours, even where the field name says business hours. Blank uses the built-in guidance. Editing the wording does not start or stop the return timer.

Support Team availability

Staffer hours mean when your team is available to help. They are distinct from the location’s customer-facing opening hours and do not limit when the bot answers.

Mirror the primary location’s business hours

This switch is on by default. Staff availability follows the primary location’s hours, including its closures and special-date openings. The grid here is read-only while mirroring is on; change that schedule at the location.

To use independent team hours:

1. Turn off Mirror the primary location’s business hours.
2. Choose Set staffer hours if no schedule is shown.
3. Find the day you want to edit.
4. Choose Add window.
5. Set Open and Close.
6. Add a second window if the team has a break, or use Remove to delete a window.
7. Click Save.

There can be up to two windows per day. Hours use the workspace’s time zone. With a schedule set, a day without a window is unavailable. If the entire schedule is empty, the team counts as available 24/7. An empty mirrored location schedule also counts as available all the time. Independent hours do not inherit the location’s closures or special-date hours.

Alert outside staffer hours

Alert outside staffer hours is on by default: the opening team alert can go out immediately, around the clock. Turn it off to hold out-of-hours alerts until the next opening, rather than discard them.

This changes staff-alert timing, not customer replies. After-hours acknowledgment and return wording still use the team’s availability. Follow-up team reminders run during staffer hours. Choose who receives notifications through Notification routes, under Chat; see notification settings.

Something breaks: exact fallback replies

These advanced settings apply when omotto itself cannot generate a reply. They are not general away messages or the wording used merely because the team is busy.

Setting	Meaning and default
In-hours exact fallback reply	Saved text for a failure during staffer hours. Blank uses the built-in reply.
Out-of-hours exact fallback reply	Saved text for a failure outside staffer hours. Blank uses the built-in reply.
Alert outside business hours	On by default. Also allow the separate “assistant is failing” staff alert outside staffer hours. During staffer hours that alert remains enabled. This does not control ordinary team-request alerts.
Re-alert at most once every	Minimum interval between those failure alerts across the workspace, not per customer. Blank uses 30 minutes. Enter a positive number; this is not an off switch.

The built-in English messages are:

• During hours: “Sorry, we’re having a brief technical issue — one of our team will contact you shortly.”
• Outside hours: “Sorry, we’re not available right now — one of our team will get back to you during business hours.”

The failure-alert interval does not change customer replies or team-reminder intervals. A new failure can trigger another alert after the interval, but repeats within the same ongoing conversation failure are normally suppressed. Waiting out the interval does not remove that suppression. The setting does not send alerts on a timer with no new failure.

Saved language versions of the fallback reply

Unlike guidance, these replies are sent word for word. omotto does not translate your custom text during a failure.

1. Write the main reply in your business’s main customer language.
2. Under that reply, choose Add a language for another language.
3. Enter the exact wording for that language.
4. Repeat separately for the in-hours and out-of-hours replies.
5. Click Save.

A saved version for the customer’s language is used first. Your main text applies to customers using your business’s main language and when the customer’s language is unknown. Other supported languages use omotto’s built-in translation unless you saved a version. If no language default has been set anywhere, English is the fallback. Clearing or removing a language version restores the normal fallback order, not necessarily the built-in reply. For your business’s main language, a custom main reply still takes precedence over the built-in text. Removing a version does not disable failure replies.

What happens when…

A takeover timer expires

When a timed takeover expires with a customer still waiting, omotto resumes to handle the unanswered customer message, and the team is notified that control expired unanswered. The unresolved need can remain for the team. This differs from a deliberate handback, which does not itself make omotto answer old messages. See takeover and handback and customer pauses and timeouts for the cases where it stays silent.

The same customer writes again during an ongoing failure

If omotto fails again before the ongoing failure has cleared, it normally sends no second fallback reply and no new separate failure alert. The customer may therefore receive no further fallback even after writing again. Waiting out Re-alert at most once every does not reset this. A successful customer-facing bot reply clears the failure state, so a later, separate failure can trigger a fallback again.

If the customer is still waiting, have a teammate take over and reply. Contact support if the technical problem continues.

Troubleshooting

• An overdue reassurance did not arrive: check the messaging window and messaging consent. With a closed window, this update waits for the customer to write; it does not send a reopening template. An opt-out from all messages prevents it.
• The conversation returned after you changed the timer to 0: an existing countdown keeps its saved deadline until renewal. Use Keep until I hand back to stop automatic return for that conversation now.
• The customer got no second fallback: repeats in the same ongoing failure are normally suppressed, even after the failure-alert interval. Have a teammate reply and contact support if the problem persists.
• omotto still answers after requesting help: that is normal. Requesting team help is not takeover.
• The bot is silent after someone replied: check who controls the conversation, whether a timer is 0, and whether someone chose to keep it. Also check pauses and timeouts.
• Daily reminders continue after setting 0: 0 only disables early reminders. Resolve the open need through the team request.
• An after-hours message is never used: check mirroring and whether effective staff hours exist. No hours means always available.
• A custom rule did not stop a request: check the separate person-request and photo settings, and any applicable approval or safety rule.
• A change did not save: correct the field error and check the saving indicator. Ask the owner about permissions if the field is read-only. Contact support if a valid change still fails to save or the saved policy is not being applied.

Related

• Suggested workflow: work with the bot

• The Coach and lasting improvements

• Experts for specialist information

• Answering team requests

• Taking over and handing back conversations

• Notification settings

• WhatsApp templates and messaging windows

• Messaging consent

  • ‘app/javascript/pages/Assistant/Escalation.tsx’