# Customers

URL: /en/docs/customers

Every person who messages your agent gets a customer profile that follows them across channels. Merge duplicates and take over chats from your staff.



Every person who messages your agent becomes a customer in Ecbot. The profile keeps their name, contact details, notes and tags, and it follows them across channels, so a customer who writes on Messenger and later on Zalo can be treated as one person. You see and edit it next to each conversation.

## Customer profiles [#customer-profiles]

A profile is created the first time someone messages one of your channels. After that it fills in by itself:

* the name comes from the chat app when it is available;
* the agent saves the name, phone, email and language the customer shares, and other details you ask it to collect (for example a delivery address);
* after a conversation ends, Ecbot adds tags such as Hot lead or Returning customer, and a short summary for the agent.

The agent never stores payment details. To see or edit a profile, open **Conversations**, pick a chat, and use the customer panel on the side. It shows the name, phone, email, language and notes, the **Contact points** (each chat app the customer wrote from), **Tags** and the customer's follow-ups.

## Merge duplicate customers [#merge-duplicate-customers]

When two profiles in your workspace end up with the same phone number or email, Ecbot suggests merging them and notifies your team.

![The customer suggestions page with pending suggestions](https://ecbot.dev/_docs/screenshots/en/customer-suggestions.png)

1. **Suggestion** under **Customers** in the sidebar. A badge shows how many are waiting.
2. Suggestions waiting for you. Each row shows the two customers and the matching phone or email.

Choose **Review** on a suggestion, pick the customer to keep and which name, phone, email, language and notes to keep, then **Confirm merge**. Their chats and contact points move to the kept profile. Choose **Dismiss** if they are different people. If you merged by mistake, open the customer panel and choose **Unmerge**.

## Conversations and handoff [#conversations-and-handoff]

Open **Conversations** to read every chat.

### Conversation statuses [#conversation-statuses]

Each conversation shows one status. Hover it in the app to see what it means.

| Status              | Meaning                                                                                                                                |
| ------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Bot active**      | The agent is replying to the customer.                                                                                                 |
| **Needs you**       | The agent handed the chat to your staff and stopped replying. Someone on your team should answer.                                      |
| **You're handling** | A staff member paused the agent and is replying. The agent stays quiet until it is switched back on.                                   |
| **Resolved**        | Staff handled what was handed over. The agent answers again and does not hand the same matter over again. You can still send messages. |

<ConversationStatusDiagram />

How a conversation moves between them:

* **Bot active** becomes **Needs you** when the agent hands over (see below).
* **Bot active** becomes **You're handling** when a staff member chooses **Pause bot**.
* **Needs you** or **You're handling** becomes **Resolved** when a staff member chooses **Resolve**, or **Bot active** when they switch the bot back on.
* **Resolved** becomes **Bot active** again when the customer sends a new message, or when a staff member chooses **Restore to auto** from the conversation menu.
* A new request that needs staff, such as an order change, hands over again even after **Resolved**.

The agent hands a conversation to your staff when:

* the customer asks for a person, using words such as "staff", "nhân viên" or "tư vấn viên", or the keywords you add in the agent's **Handoff Settings**;
* the agent fails to reply several times in a row (3 by default);
* the customer gets a tag that triggers a handoff, see [Customer tags](https://ecbot.dev/docs/customers/tags);
* a guardrail blocks a message and the agent is set to escalate blocked messages.

On handoff the agent stops replying in that conversation and everyone in the workspace gets a notification. Reply from the conversation, use **Pause bot** to take over a chat yourself, **Resolve** when you are done (the agent answers again and does not hand that over again), or **Restore to auto** to let the agent answer again.


## FAQ

### Where do I see a customer's details?

Open the conversation from Conversations. The customer panel beside the chat shows their name, phone, email, language, notes, contact points, tags and follow-ups.

### What happens when two profiles have the same phone number?

Ecbot creates a suggestion under Suggestion. You choose which profile to keep and which details to use, or dismiss it. A merge can be undone with Unmerge.

### Does the agent keep replying after a handoff?

No. The agent pauses in that conversation and your staff get a notification. Reply from the conversation, then choose Resolve when you are done and want the agent to continue.