Arbyn's default is to handle a conversation with grace rather than hand it off at the first sign of difficulty. Escalation is reserved for the conversations that genuinely need a person, and when one does, Arbyn makes sure you know about it, why, and gives you a clean way to hand it back once you're done.
What it does
Arbyn escalates a conversation to your team in a small number of specific situations, notifies you right away with a plain-English reason, and lets a customer know a person is taking over. When you're finished, you can hand the conversation straight back to Arbyn with a note, and it carries your guidance into its next reply rather than starting from scratch.
Where to find it
Escalated conversations are flagged in your Inbox and carry an "Escalated" status. The rules that decide when this happens live under Settings, Escalation rules. Every escalation also leaves a plain entry on that conversation's own timeline explaining exactly why it happened, so you never have to guess.
How it works
What actually triggers an escalation. A few distinct things can hand a conversation to your team:
A rule you've set up matches. Escalation rules can trigger on a phrase or keyword, a particular type of request, a customer's sentiment turning negative over several messages on the same unresolved topic, an order's value or a requested refund amount crossing a threshold you choose, an order's age, or an attempted return on an item you've marked final sale. A set of ready-made rules covering the most common cases is turned on for every store from the start; you can disable any of them, edit them, or add as many custom ones of your own as you like.
A safety-critical situation comes up. A small, fixed list of serious topics (things like a legal threat, a safety or medical emergency, or a request to delete personal data) always forces an immediate handoff, no matter what your own rules say. This is a backstop that's on for every store and isn't configurable, precisely because it should never depend on a rule being set up correctly.
A guardrail you've configured blocks an action outright. If an action is turned off entirely, or a request exceeds the cap you've set for automatic handling, Arbyn escalates instead of attempting it or quietly dropping it.
You or a teammate steps in. Taking over a conversation, or escalating it yourself, works the same way and produces the same notifications as an automatic escalation.
What is not an escalation. A low-confidence draft on its own does not escalate anything. If Arbyn isn't confident enough in a reply to send it automatically, but nothing above applies, it simply holds that reply for your review instead, so you can approve or edit it before it goes out. Escalation is reserved for conversations that genuinely need a person; a shaky draft on an everyday question is a lighter touch than that. Day-to-day chat about products or general questions is never held up by a confidence check at all. It's only requests that touch money, an order, or a policy exception where a low-confidence draft gets paused for your review rather than sent straight through.
It's also worth knowing that the words in a reply aren't what escalate a conversation. Only the actual handoff does that, and it's what triggers every notification described below. If you ever read a reply that talks about bringing in the team, check that conversation's own status rather than assuming it happened; Arbyn is built to keep what it says lined up with what it actually does, but the status and the timeline entry are always the source of truth.
What happens the moment it escalates. You get a plain-English summary of why, written for you rather than pulled from raw internal codes, both as an entry on the conversation and as an email to your configured alert address with a link straight into the conversation. To avoid flooding your inbox during a fast back-and-forth, that email is limited to at most one per hour per conversation, though the conversation's own timeline always shows everything as it happens. If it's a chat conversation and Arbyn knows the customer's email address, they also get a short note letting them know a person is taking over, with a link back into that same chat. Email customers don't get a separate note for this, since they're already watching the same thread they wrote in.
Handing it back. There are three ways to move a conversation between Arbyn and a person, and all three carry a note forward so nothing is lost in the handoff:
Resolve the escalation and return it to Arbyn with a note about what to do next, anything from "customer confirmed the address, go ahead with the refund" to "they want the green one, not the blue one." Arbyn reads your most recent notes on that conversation before its next reply, so it won't repeat a question you've already answered for it.
Take the conversation over yourself. Any reply Arbyn had queued is discarded and the conversation stays with your team until you hand it back.
Return a conversation to Arbyn once you're done with it, with a note the same way.
If a handed-off conversation goes quiet. When a person on your team is handling a conversation and it sits untouched for a while (48 hours by default, adjustable), Arbyn doesn't take it back or say anything to the customer. Instead it reads the thread and drafts a suggested next step as an internal note for you, and sends you a nudge email, so a conversation your team is handling never quietly goes stale without you noticing.
Good to know
A low-confidence draft is a pause for your review, not an escalation. Only a specific rule match, a safety-critical topic, a blocked guardrail, or a person stepping in actually escalates a conversation.
Ordinary product and shopping questions are never delayed by a confidence check. Only requests touching money, orders, or a policy exception can be held for your review.
Escalation emails are throttled to one per hour per conversation, so a rapid exchange doesn't flood your inbox. The conversation's own timeline still reflects everything in real time.
A note always travels with a handoff, in either direction, so nothing you or Arbyn already knows about a conversation gets lost when it changes hands.
A stalled handoff nudges you, never the customer. If your team is sitting on an escalated conversation, Arbyn helps you catch up rather than reaching out to the customer on your behalf.
FAQ
If Arbyn tells a customer it's bringing in a person, has the conversation actually escalated? Not necessarily on its own. What actually hands a conversation over is the underlying status change, which is what fires every notification described above. Check the conversation's own status and timeline if you want to be certain.
Can I turn off the safety-critical escalation backstop? No, and it applies to every store the same way, precisely so it never depends on a rule being set up correctly.
How many escalation rules can I add? As many as you like, on top of the ready-made set every store starts with. You can also disable any of the ready-made ones individually.
Will I get an email every single time a busy conversation escalates repeatedly? No. Escalation emails for the same conversation are limited to one per hour, so a rapid exchange doesn't flood your inbox, though you'll still see everything on the conversation's timeline as it happens.
What happens if my team takes over a conversation and forgets about it? After the window you've set (48 hours by default), Arbyn drafts a suggested next step for you as an internal note and emails you a nudge. The customer is never contacted and the conversation's status doesn't change on its own.