How to use the Handover Protocol

Configure your bot to allow users to message your Facebook Inbox and talk to a human.

Tom Gibby avatar
Written by Tom Gibby
Updated over a week ago

Here are detailed instructions and a step by step process to set up your bot. The Handover Protocol will allow bot users to click out of the bot and message a human in the Inbox of your Facebook page. The Protocol will then allow the user to click back into the bot when they are done or the person on the Facebook Inbox side can pass the user back to the bot.

Preparing your Facebook Page

There’s a couple of settings you need to change on your Facebook Page before configuring the bot itself:

  1. Go to your Facebook Page

  2. Click on the “Settings” link in the top right

  3. Click on the “Messenger Platform” link in the left sidebar settings menu

  4. Scroll to the “Response method” bold heading

  5. Ensure that the third radio button is selected “Responses are partially automated, with some support by people” - this sets the expectation for how your bot will respond to users

  6. Scroll to the “Connected apps” bold heading

  7. Under "App Settings", click the "Configure" button to open up the receiver settings

  8. Set “Primary Receiver” to TheBotPlatform

  9. Set “Secondary Receiver” to Page Inbox

  10. Close the dialogue box and all done!

The Bot Platform CMS

Below are three messages that we recommend you set up in order to fully implement the Handover Protocol in your bot.

Setting up Handover to the Page Inbox

  1. Create a new Message

  2. Add a Text part and add text such as “Click the button below to speak to a real person”

  3. Add a button and label it such as “Talk to human”

  4. On the button configuration, set up as:
    a. Handover Protocol
    b. Handover to Page Inbox
    c. Select a message that confirms the handover has taken place (create a new message here)

  5. Save the button

  6. Save the message

Setting up Handover back to Bot

  1. Edit the message that you created in 4.c. in the previous steps

  2. Add a Text part and add text such as “You’re now chatting to a real person.  When you’re done, press the button below to return to the bot”

  3. Add a button and label it such as “Return to bot”

  4. On the button configuration, set up as:
    a. Handover Protocol
    b. Pass control back to Bot
    c. Select a message that confirms the handover has finished (create a new message here)

  5.  Save the button

  6.  Save the message

Confirmation of back in Bot

  1. Edit the message that you created in 4.c. in the previous steps

  2. Add a Text part and add text such as “You’re now back in the bot”

  3. Add a button or quick reply to go back to the Main Menu, or wherever you deem appropriate

Be sure to push all the changes to your bot!

In Practice

General

You may be used to seeing bot usage in your Facebook Page inbox.  Users will continue to appear in the Page Inbox until they’ve been through the Handover Protocol flow.

When the user chooses to talk to a human, they will still appear in the Page Inbox, so you know you can start talking to them.

When they’ve handed back to the bot, they will be moved from the Page Inbox to a list called “Done”.

You can access that Done list by clicking on the “Inbox” text in the top-left and selecting “Done” from the list.  When you’re done with the Done list, you can switch back to the Inbox view by clicking in the top-left again and selecting Inbox.

Manually Pulling Users into a Chat

As the bot owner, if you would like to manually start talking to a user, you can!

  1. Go to your Page Inbox and select the Done list, as described above

  2. Select the user you wish to chat to

  3. Click the “Move to inbox” button in the top-right

  4. The user will be moved to the Page Inbox (currently you need to manually select the Inbox view again, so the user will appear to disappear!)

  5. The user will get the same message as you selected in the step Setting up Handover to the Page Inbox 4.c.

  6. When you have finished chatting to the user, you can also manually close down the conversation by clicking “Mark as done” in the top-right of the chat

  7. The user will then receive the same message as you selected in the step Setting up Handover back to Bot 4.c.

  8. The user will move into the Done list


It's best practice to hand the user back to the bot once they have been 'speaking with a human'. 

You can do this by ticking 'Mark as done' from the page inbox for that conversation.


It's also recommended that you direct a user to type a keyword or use the persistent menu to re-engage with the bot once they have been handed back.

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