Choose when Ivy hands off

The rules live in Ivy,Behavior, in the Handoff rules card. Owners and admins can change them. Who receives a handoff, and how fast your team promises to reply, are set in Settings,Team under Handoffs; what happens after hours is in Settings,Business hours.

What triggers a handoff?#

A conversation reaches your team in one of these ways:

• A built-in rule fires (the four rules below).
• One of your keyword rules finds its words in the shopper's message.
• A refund request, following the refund row of the Orders card: see Let Ivy work on orders.
• A handoff that is always on, like a lost package (listed further down).
• The shopper asks directly: the Talk to the team button on the chat's welcome screen and the A person can join anytime. link under the composer always reach your team, whatever your rules say.

The built-in rules#

All four are on by default, with the action Hand off to your team.

The last rule counts the questions Ivy couldn't answer from your knowledge since your team last stepped in.

Change a rule#

1. Open Ivy,Behavior and scroll to Handoff rules.
2. Click the rule, or its Edit button. The Edit rule panel opens.
3. Under Do this, pick the Action. The panel shows What the shopper sees, for example.
4. Or switch the rule off with its switch, in the row or at the top of the panel.
5. Press Done, then Save changes at the bottom of the page.

Switching a built-in rule off doesn't mean Ivy never brings in your team for it. It means she tries first, and hands off only if she gets stuck. A keyword rule switched off does nothing.

What each action does#

The reply target comes from Settings,Team › Handoffs › Reply target: 5, 10 (default), 15, 30 minutes or 1 hour.

Add a keyword rule#

1. In the Handoff rules card, press New rule.

2. Pick a template and press Use template. A template you already used shows Added, except Your own words, which you can use again and again.

   

3. In the panel that opens, check Words that trigger it (separated by commas) and the Action.

4. Press Done, then Save changes.

How the words are matched:

• Any one of the words is enough. Case doesn't matter, and only whole words count: "sue" doesn't match "issue".
• They're checked on the shopper's message before Ivy replies. With Hand off or Collect the shopper's email, the shopper gets a fixed sentence instead of an answer from Ivy.
• The first matching rule that is on wins. Blocked topics (in Guardrails) are checked before keyword rules.

To remove a rule, open it and press Delete rule, then Save changes. Right after deleting, Undo brings it back.

For the busiest weekend of the year, the Black Friday checklist for Shopify stores lists the handoff rules worth turning on before the sale.

What happens after hours or when nobody is available?#

Ivy keeps answering outside your business hours: nothing pauses. What a handoff does then is set in Settings,Business hours, under Outside business hours, Ivy will:

Either way your team is notified when the conversation reaches Needs you, following each person's notification settings: someone who pauses alerts while away gets the email but no push. The Business hours page describes Keep answering as "No alerts until you're back"; in practice the alert goes out once the shopper has left an email.

The Talk to the team button follows its own rule: outside your hours it always asks for the shopper's email (unless the chat already has it), whichever choice you made.

Inside your hours, if everyone on the team is set to Away, Ivy asks for the shopper's email and hands off for a reply by email. The line at the bottom of the Handoff rules card shows your current choice, with Change in Business hours. See Hours, holidays and who's available.

Handoffs that are always on#

These aren't rules you can switch off. They show in the Inbox with these reasons:

Your keyword rules show as Mentioned followed by the rule's name.

What does the shopper see while waiting?#

Under Ivy's message, the chat shows a card: The team will reply here (or The team will reply by email when nobody is online), with Usually within 10 minutes. from your reply target. Until the chat knows their email, the shopper can leave it under Get the answer by email too and press Notify me. Then the card confirms where your team will write. See What shoppers see.

What your team gets#

• The conversation lands in Inbox,Needs you with the reason, a summary by Ivy and a reply she drafted. See How the Inbox works.
• Notifications follow each person's settings: see Choose your notifications.
• Who it's assigned to follows Settings,Team › Handoffs › When Ivy hands off: Leave it for anyone to take (default) leaves it unassigned for the first to reply; Assign to whoever is available gives it to one available teammate in turn, skipping anyone away.
• Who is alerted is a separate choice, made by each person in Settings,Notifications: with Alert me about set to Every handoff (the default), they get the email and push even when the conversation was assigned to someone else. The bell row and the desktop alert of an assigned handoff go to the assignee only.
• In the conversation, Why Ivy handed off names the rule, with a link to change it.

Limits#