When Pippin Hands a Conversation to a Person

Summary

Overview: Pippin answers most conversations on its own, but some need a person. Pippin hands a conversation to your team when a request is sensitive, or when the customer asks for a person and a booking link is not the right answer. It also holds a new email when it is not sure a real customer wrote. Your team can also take over at any time. This guide explains each case and how to hand the conversation back.

Prerequisites:

• None.

How Pippin Decides

1. The request is sensitive, or the customer asks for a person. For a sensitive request, such as a complaint about a payment, Pippin hands the conversation over and pauses itself on that lead. The assigned team member gets a notification. If no one is assigned, the notification goes to the first active member of your workspace. Pippin does not tell the customer about any internal hand-over.
2. Your catalog has no price for a clear request. In a workspace that quotes from its catalog, when the customer has said what they want but your knowledge has no price for it, Pippin hands the quote (not the whole conversation) to your team. It tells the customer your team is preparing their quote personally, the lead moves to Quote Requested if it hadn't reached the quote stage yet, and your team gets "Pippin couldn't price <name>'s request from your catalog — draft the quote" so a Sales Manager or Admin can prepare it. Pippin keeps answering the conversation. See How Pippin Drafts a Quote.
3. Asking for a person often gets a booking link instead. When a customer simply asks to talk to a real person and your booking link is set up, Pippin usually offers the booking link so they can pick a time, and keeps handling the conversation. Pippin decides from the conversation which one fits. See How Pippin Sends a Booking Link.
4. Off-topic questions are not handed over. If someone asks about something unrelated to your business, Pippin politely declines and steers back, instead of calling a person. See What Topics Pippin Won't Discuss.
5. Pippin is not sure a new email is a real inquiry for your business. It creates the lead but holds it, and waits for someone to choose Real inquiry or Ignore. See How to Check a Lead Pippin Held for Review.
6. A customer who opted out writes again. Pippin stays silent and your team gets "… sent a message but has opted out — the AI won't reply; respond manually if needed".
7. The same contact starts a second new conversation shortly after Pippin answered the first. Pippin does not send a second introduction. Your team gets "New message from …" so a person can answer it.
8. Someone on your team replies by hand. Sending your own reply from the Inbox takes the conversation over. Pippin stops replying on that lead, a pending drafted reply for it is closed, and a held lead counts as a real inquiry.
9. Someone clicks Pause AI. This takes over without sending anything.
10. Pippin always checks again before sending. If someone took over while Pippin was writing, Pippin does not send its reply.
11. While a person owns the conversation, the lead's follow-up sequence is paused. When you hand it back with Resume AI, the sequence resumes and the next step is rescheduled from that moment. Replying by hand by email, SMS or WhatsApp ends the sequence instead of pausing it.

Limits

• Hand-over works the same on every plan.
• While a conversation is taken over, Pippin does not reply by email, SMS, WhatsApp, Messenger or web chat.
• A held lead cannot be handed to Pippin with Resume AI. Use Real inquiry.
• An archived lead is handed back by unarchiving it, not with Resume AI.
• Pippin also stays silent on leads marked won or lost, archived leads and opted-out leads. Those are not hand-overs. See What Happens When a Customer Opts Out.

Step-by-Step Instructions

Step 1: Find conversations that need a person

1. Watch your notifications for hand-overs, opted-out messages, "New message from …" and "Pippin couldn't price … from your catalog — draft the quote".
2. In the Inbox, open the conversation. The bar shows You've taken over this thread when a person owns it.

Step 2: Take over a conversation yourself

1. Open the conversation in the Inbox.
2. Click Pause AI, or type and send your own reply.

Step 3: Hand the conversation back to Pippin

1. Open the conversation.
2. Click Resume AI. The bar changes to AI is handling this thread.
3. Pippin replies to the customer's next message.

Step 4: Decide on a held lead

1. Open the held conversation.
2. Click Real inquiry to let Pippin reply now, or Ignore and then Confirm ignore to delete the lead.

Verify It Worked

Success criteria:

• After you take over, the bar shows You've taken over this thread and the button reads Resume AI.
• After you hand it back, the bar shows AI is handling this thread and the button reads Pause AI.

Troubleshooting

Common errors

• "This lead is archived. Unarchive it to hand it back to Pippin.": you clicked Resume AI on an archived lead. Fix: unarchive it. See How to Archive or Unarchive a Lead.
• "This lead is waiting for sender review — choose Real inquiry or Ignore": the lead is held. Fix: click Real inquiry or Ignore.

Limitations & considerations

• Pippin does not reply to the message that arrived while a person owned the conversation. After Resume AI, it waits for the customer's next message.
• Pausing one lead does not affect any other lead.

Next Steps & Related Resources

• Next steps:
  • How to Take Over a Conversation From Pippin
  • How to Check a Lead Pippin Held for Review
• Related articles:
  • How to Reply to a Lead From the Inbox
  • What Happens When a New Email Arrives
  • What Happens When a Customer Opts Out
  • What Topics Pippin Won't Discuss
  • How Pippin Sends a Booking Link
  • How Notifications Work
  • How Pippin Drafts a Quote
  • How to See Who Is on a Sequence and Why It Stopped

Need more help? For more information and assistance, please send an email to support@pippify.ai.

Last Updated: 10/19/2026