Agent Behavior
The Behavior tab decides what happens when your agent reaches the edge of what it can do - when it can't answer, or when a message clearly needs a human. You set where those moments go, what you promise the customer, and a few automatic rules for common situations.
The Behavior tab showing escalation settings, the escalation routing toggles, and behavior rules
Escalation Settings
These set the tone and timing of every escalation:
- Support email - where escalations and notifications go (defaults to your account email).
- Response window - how soon your team usually replies. The agent tells the customer this when it hands off ("our team will respond within 4 hours").
- Custom escalation message - the exact words the agent uses when it escalates. Leave it blank for a sensible default that points to your support email and response window.
- Fallback message - shown only if the AI itself is unavailable (a model error or outage). Blank uses a default that points the customer at your support email.
Escalation Routing
When the agent escalates, you choose what actually happens - and you can turn on more than one:
Create a DeskClone ticket
The default. The conversation becomes a ticket in your Tickets list for your team to pick up.
Send an email notification
Email an address you specify - handy if your team lives in their inbox.
Invoke a custom API tool
Call one of the agent's own custom API tools with the escalation details - for example, open a Zendesk ticket or post to Slack. Pick the tool from the dropdown.
Keep Create a DeskClone ticket on even if you also email or call a tool - it keeps a record you can track and resolve in one place.
Behavior Rules
Rules act on what the customer types, before the agent even reasons about it - useful for sensitive or repetitive cases. Add a rule and pick its type:
- Escalate to team - if the message contains certain keywords (like "refund" or "cancel"), skip the AI and escalate straight away.
- Respond with canned text - reply with a fixed message for specific keywords (like business hours or your return policy).
- Politely redirect - steer clearly off-topic messages back to what your agent is for.
Keep rules few and specific - they are a scalpel for known cases, not a replacement for a good knowledge base.
What's Next
Give your agent the tools to actually resolve those escalations in Tools and Integrations, or fine-tune how it reasons in Advanced Agent Settings.
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