Playbooks
Give a customer agent a goal to work toward in conversation, then a set of ways to hand the customer to a human when it's done.
Where guidance cards are a library of unordered rules, a playbook is a single goal-directed flow. You give the agent a goal, an ordered set of things to cover, and the ways it can route the customer to a human—and it works toward that goal naturally across the conversation.
A playbook is optional and there's one per agent. A good fit is qualifying an inbound lead, booking a consult, or triaging a request before a person takes over.
What a playbook contains
- Goal — one line describing what the agent is trying to achieve. "Qualify an inbound lead and route them to sales."
- Objectives — an ordered list of things to cover. The agent weaves them into the conversation rather than interrogating the customer—it won't fire them off as a checklist.
- Pacing note (optional) — guidance on timing. "Have a couple of exchanges before offering to hand off."
- Handoff options — the ways the agent can offer to continue with a person (see below).
flowchart LR
Start["Customer arrives"] --> Work["Work through objectives\nin natural conversation"]
Work --> Done{"Objectives covered\nor customer asks?"}
Done -- "yes" --> Offer["Offer a handoff option"]
Offer --> Pick["Customer picks one"]
Pick --> HO["Hand off to a human →\nagent stops replying"]Handoff options
Handoff options are the menu the agent offers once the goal is met (or the moment the customer asks for a person). Each option has a type and a label—the label is what the customer sees:
| Type | Example label |
|---|---|
| Phone | "A phone call" |
| Online meeting | "A video call" |
| On-site meeting | "An in-person meeting" |
| LINE salesperson | "Chat with our sales team" |
| Operator | "A member of our team" |
When the customer picks one, the agent hands the conversation to a human and stops replying. An operator handoff is always available as a fallback, even if you don't add it explicitly—the agent can always escalate to a person.
A handoff option is an offer and a routing label, not an integration. Choosing "A phone call" marks the conversation as handed off and tells your team how the customer wants to continue—your team takes it from there.
What happens at handoff
Once the agent hands off:
- The conversation is marked as handed off and the agent won't reply again—on any channel—until your team resumes it.
- It surfaces in the Conversation Pool for a person to pick up, with the route the customer chose.
- Reply mode is independent of handoff. A handoff stops the agent regardless of whether it was in auto-send or auto-draft.
See handing off to a human for the operator side and how to resume.
Playbook vs. guidance cards
| Use a… | When you want… |
|---|---|
| Guidance card | A standing rule that's always true—tone, formatting, what to avoid. |
| Playbook | A goal with a beginning and an end—gather what you need, then hand off. |
They compose: an agent can run a playbook and follow its conventions at the same time.