Human Handoff

Let end-users jump from your AI assistant to a live agent during (or outside) business hours, while collecting any details your team needs to help them faster.

Prerequisite : Connect Helpdesk Integration

Before you start, make sure at least one helpdesk integration is active (Integrations → Helpdesk Integration).

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Navigation

1. Alhena Dashboard

2. Sidebar → Integrations

3. Click Human transfer hours under the Helpdesk integrations section.

(You should now see the screen shown below.)

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1 · Business hours tab

1.1 Choose availability

Option	What happens
Enabled 24/7	Requests are always routed to a human agent.
Set custom hours	Routing follows your schedule (steps 1.2–1.3).

1.2 Pick a timezone

All hand-off rules are evaluated in the selected timezone.

1.3 Define hand-off hours

1. Tick each day you serve live chats.

2. Set Start and End times for that day.

3. Leave unchecked days marked unavailable.

Example (split Friday schedule):

Day	Start	End
Monday–Thursday	9:00 AM	5:00 PM
Friday	10:45 AM	5:45 PM
Sat / Sun	—	Unavailable

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1.4 Collect additional information

Toggle each field Enabled and, if mandatory, Required.

Field	Typical use-case
Email (enabled + required)	Create tickets / send transcripts
Name (enabled)	Friendly greeting
Phone number	Call-back workflows

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1.5 Configure user messages

Slot	When it shows	Example
Before transfer	Immediately after user requests a human	“I’m transferring you to …”
Form title	Above the info-collection form	“Please enter your email to get connected.”
After transfer	After the form is submitted	“Your query has been captured…”

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2 · Outside business hours tab

2.1 Enable / disable Human transfer outside business hours

• ON – Allow human transfer even after outside business hours (sections 2.2–2.3).

• OFF – Shows a single fallback message (section 2.4).

2.2 Collect info (Outside business hours)

You can ask for the same or different fields than during business hours. Example: only email, always required.

2.3 Custom messages (Outside business hours)

Configure Before, Form title, and After just like in step 1.5. Keep the tone clear that an agent may take longer to reply.

2.4 Unavailable fallback

If Outside business hours transfer is disabled, users see one message instead:

“We are not available right now, please contact ...”

2.5 List of holidays for the year

What it does Every date you add here disables all human-transfer routing for 24 hours, no matter which business-hour rule would normally apply.

Add a holiday

1. Click Add holiday +.

2. Enter an internal label (e.g. “Independence Day”).

3. Choose the date.

4. Save changes.

Tip Use descriptive names for holiday, so that AI can inform to user.

Edit or delete

Action	How
Change date	Click the date field → pick a new day.
Remove	Click the 🗑️ icon.

Removing a holiday immediately re-enables live transfer if the current time now falls inside an active schedule.

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3 · Save changes

Click Save Changes at the bottom of either tab. A confirmation toast appears if the update succeeds.

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Behaviour matrix

Time window	Transfer toggle	Result	Message flow
Business hrs	ON	✅ Transfer	Before → Form → After
Outside hrs	ON	✅ Transfer	Before → Form → After
Outside hrs	OFF	❌ No transfer	Fallback message
Holiday	-	❌ No transfer	Custom message from AI, based on name of the holiday.