The Guest Escalation Message

When Vanio AI decides a conversation needs a person, it hands the conversation to your team. By default, it also sends the guest a short note so they know a human will follow up — something like "Thanks for the message, I've passed this along to our team and someone will get back to you shortly."

Some teams would rather the handoff be invisible to the guest. You can now turn that message off.

What the setting does

Go to Settings → Vanio AI and look for Tell the guest when Vanio AI escalates to a human.

• On (default) — when Vanio AI escalates, the guest receives the short acknowledgement message, then your team takes over.
• Off — the handoff is silent to the guest. Vanio AI sends them nothing. Your team is still alerted, the conversation is still flagged and reassigned exactly as before — the only difference is the guest doesn't see a message from Vanio AI.

When to turn it off

• You'd rather your team reply in their own voice the moment they pick up, with no "a bot is handing you off" preamble.
• You want escalations to feel seamless to the guest, as if a person was there all along.

Leave it on if you want guests to get an immediate "we've got this" reassurance even before a teammate is free to reply.

How escalations work now

Vanio AI handles assigned and unassigned conversations a little differently, and guests are kept in the loop either way.

When the conversation is assigned to a team member: Vanio AI prepares exactly what it would do to resolve the issue and presents it to that team member with a one-tap approval button. They can approve Vanio's suggestion instantly or handle the reply themselves. While they decide, the guest automatically receives a brief holding acknowledgment — so they're never left wondering if anyone has seen their message.

When the conversation is unassigned: Vanio AI acts right away without waiting for approval. The guest still receives an immediate acknowledgment while the issue is being resolved.

In both cases, the guest's acknowledgment is sent the moment escalation occurs — before any team member has had a chance to reply manually. This is what keeps response times feeling fast even when your team is busy.

[Screenshot: A guest-facing acknowledgment message appearing in a conversation thread while a team member's approval is pending]

What you see when Vanio AI hands over

Whenever Vanio AI escalates a conversation to your team, the thread now always includes a note explaining what happened. You'll see one of two kinds of note:

• Vanio AI researched but couldn't conclude — it looked into the guest's question but wasn't able to pull together a complete answer in time. The note tells you how much work it did and confirms that nothing was sent to the guest.
• Vanio AI returned nothing — in rare cases Vanio AI produces no response at all. The note tells you this explicitly so you know to reply directly, rather than assuming something was already sent.

In both cases the note is there to give you context the moment you open the thread — you'll never see a blank handover with no explanation.

[Screenshot: An internal handover note in a thread, explaining that Vanio AI worked on the question but did not produce an answer, with a prompt to reply directly]

Key features

• Immediate guest acknowledgment — guests hear back right away, even before a team member has acted, so no one is left waiting in silence.
• One-tap approval for assigned messages — team members see Vanio AI's suggested response and can approve or override it with a single tap.
• Autonomous action for unassigned messages — Vanio AI resolves unassigned conversations on its own, without requiring a team member to be in the loop first.
• Acknowledgment toggle — if you prefer a fully invisible handoff, you can turn the guest-facing message off entirely in Settings.
• Always-explained handovers — every escalation now includes a plain-language note for your team, so you always know whether Vanio AI sent something to the guest or handed over without replying.

Tips & best practices

• Keep the acknowledgment on if your team sometimes takes a few minutes to review suggestions. Guests feel reassured the moment escalation happens, which reduces follow-up messages.
• Turn it off if your team is highly responsive and you want every guest-facing message to come directly from a person, with no automated preamble.
• Make sure your most important conversations are assigned to a specific team member — that way they get Vanio's one-tap suggestion and can act (or take over) immediately.
• Unassigned conversations move fastest, since Vanio AI can act without waiting for an approval step. If speed is your priority and you trust Vanio AI's judgment, leaving conversations unassigned is a valid strategy.
• Read the handover note before replying — it tells you exactly what Vanio AI tried and confirms whether the guest has already received anything, so you can pick up the thread in the right place.

Common questions

Does the guest get two messages — the acknowledgment and then my team's reply? Yes, if the acknowledgment is turned on, the guest sees the holding note first, then your team member's reply (or Vanio AI's approved response) when it's ready. The acknowledgment is intentionally brief so the follow-up reply feels like a natural continuation.

Can my team still override Vanio AI's suggestion even after the guest acknowledgment is sent? Absolutely. The acknowledgment just tells the guest someone is on it — it doesn't commit to any specific resolution. Your team member can approve Vanio's suggestion, edit it, or write their own reply entirely.

What if I turn the acknowledgment off — will guests still be notified once the issue is resolved? Yes. Turning off the acknowledgment only suppresses the initial holding message. Whatever reply your team sends (or approves) still goes to the guest as normal — the toggle has no effect on that final response.

What does the handover note look like when Vanio AI couldn't finish? You'll see a short internal note at the top of the thread — visible only to your team, never to the guest. It explains whether Vanio AI was partway through researching the question or produced nothing at all, and it always ends with a prompt to reply directly. The guest receives nothing until you do.

Good to know

Turning this off never reduces what your team sees. Every escalation still alerts the right people and still moves the conversation into your team's hands — the toggle only affects what the guest sees.

Vanio AI will never leave a guest or your team in silence without explanation. If it can't produce an answer, it hands over to your team with a note — so there's always a clear next step, even when things don't go as expected.

Related

• How Vanio AI Handles Messages — when and why Vanio AI escalates.
• Notification Settings — how your team is alerted to escalations.