Handoffs
Handoffs, and Talk to a human in the chat, turn on once you add an address on the Handoffs page or connect Slack or Discord. Once they are on, a question Cactus cannot answer reaches your team by email and in any connected channel, and a teammate claims it, replies to the visitor or closes it from its card.
On this page
Turn handoffs on
Until you add an address or connect a channel, handoffs stay off, and so does Talk to a human in the chat. The Handoffs page turns them on once you add an address or connect Slack or Discord.
Who gets a handoff
Every handoff is emailed to your team, to the addresses you added and to your team's members. Each one also sits in the Escalated view of Conversations.
- In Slack, a card in #cactus-escalations once Slack is connected.
- In Discord, a card in the handoff channel you choose once Discord is connected.
Claim, reply and close
In the handoff's card in Slack or Discord, select Claim. The first teammate to claim it holds it, and the card shows Claimed.
Select Reply. The form that opens sends what you type to the visitor, through the widget and by email.
Select Close once the visitor has what they need. The card shows Closed, and selecting Reopen on it brings the handoff back.
Anything else your team writes in the handoff thread stays private, kept on the conversation as a note.
Open, claimed and closed
A handoff's card shows Open until a teammate claims it, Claimed while one holds it, and Closed once it is closed.
On Discord
A Discord teammate links their account with /cactus link before they can claim, reply to or close a handoff.
When a visitor asks for a person
If Cactus has no address for the visitor, it asks for one, with a name field, before the handoff goes out.
If the same visitor asks for a person again within an hour, Cactus reuses the open handoff rather than opening a second one. A new handoff opens with the line the visitor typed to ask for a person, as their own message, when the chat sends that line; the page they asked from is kept on that message.
If a handoff doesn't reach your team
What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
"Too many requests to reach the team right now. Try again later." | What it means The team has been asked for a person too often for now, or too many contacts have reached teams from the visitor's network this hour or across all teams today, including an address typed with a handoff | What to do Wait, then ask again |
"Too many messages are going to teams right now. Try again later." | What it means Too many contacts reach teams across all products at once | What to do Try again later |
"Cactus could not reach the team just now. Please try again." | What it means The handoff did not go through | What to do Try again |
"That handoff is closed. Reopen it first if it needs somebody." | What it means A teammate tried to claim a closed handoff | What to do Select Reopen on the card, then Claim |
"The teammate's name already has this one." | What it means Another teammate claimed it first | What to do Leave it with them, or ask them to close it |
"That handoff is not on this server." | What it means The handoff belongs to another Discord server | What to do Act on it in the server it came from |
"Link your account with /cactus link first." | What it means The Discord teammate's account is not linked | What to do Run |
"Only the person who asked can hand this to the team." | What it means Someone other than the visitor pressed Talk to a person on a Discord answer | What to do Ask the visitor to press it |
"Handoffs have no channel yet." | What it means No Slack or Discord channel is set for handoffs | What to do Select Create #cactus-escalations on the Handoffs page; until then, handoffs still reach your team by email |