Running Inquiru alongside an existing Zendesk bot

When you need this

Use this only if you want Inquiru to share the chat widget with an existing Zendesk Bot Builder / Answer Bot / AI Agents bot — for example, an established decision tree (account-status checks, FAQ menu, language gate) that runs first and only escalates certain branches to Inquiru. Most teams don't need this; the default "Inquiru as your chat AI" setup is recommended.

Without coexistence configured, both bots respond to the same message. The Bot coexistence setting holds Inquiru silent until your in-Zendesk bot explicitly hands over via a configured signal phrase.

Choose 'Only respond after handoff signal'

Edit your Zendesk integration and find the Bot coexistence panel. Change Respond mode to Only respond after handoff signal. Save. Inquiru now ignores every customer message until a handoff signal lands.

Add handoff signal phrases

Each phrase is matched case-insensitively as a substring of any chat message — from either your bot or the customer. You can add up to 10. Two common patterns:

• Bot-side transition — e.g. "Transferring you to an agent". Add this if your Zendesk bot sends a sentence when handing off.
• Customer-side selection — e.g. "Speak to an agent". Add this if your bot offers buttons; the widget posts the button label as plain text, which Inquiru matches.

Add both to cover both paths. Once a conversation is handed off, the stamp persists for the rest of that chat session.

Optional — customise the greeting

The Greeting message is what Inquiru posts the instant a handoff is detected. There's a sensible default; rewrite it to match your brand, or clear it entirely to have Inquiru wait silently for the customer's next message.

Configure your bot in Zendesk

Open Admin Centre → Bot management → Bot Builder (or AI Agents) and edit the bot in your Messaging widget. Find the branch offering options like Deposits / Withdrawals / Speak to an agent.

Critical: a plain "Send a message" step ends the current branch, not the bot's involvement. After the branch ends, the bot returns to its workspace-level matcher and, if Generative Replies are on, keeps responding alongside Inquiru. To get a clean handoff, use a step that terminates the bot.

The most reliable pattern:

1. Add a "Speak to AI" branch using the "Transfer to agent" step. Counter-intuitive but correct — it is the only step that permanently silences the bot for the rest of the conversation. Put the handoff phrase in the step's customer-facing message text (e.g. "Connecting you to our AI assistant").
2. Create a Zendesk group for AI conversations. The Transfer-to-agent step creates a real Support ticket and assigns it via routing rules. Either use a dedicated shadow agent (e.g. inquiru-ai@yourdomain.com with the Agent role, email notifications off) or a real user with notifications muted. The group becomes your "handled by AI" marker for dashboards, SLAs, and CSAT.
3. Add a ticket tag like inquiru_handled on the same step for trigger exclusion.
4. Critical — exclude AI tickets from your new-ticket Trigger. Add a condition: Tags → Contains none of the following → inquiru_handled (or Group → Is not → AI Agents). Otherwise an AI-handoff ticket fires the Trigger and Inquiru replies twice.

Keep a separate "Speak to a human" branch using a regular Transfer-to-agent step routed to your staffed group — its message text must NOT contain Inquiru's signal phrase.

Alternative if you can't use Transfer-to-agent: disable your bot's Generative Replies / free-text fallback at the workspace level. With only menu-driven responses, a plain "Send a message" step on the AI branch is enough.

Advanced — Sunshine Conversations switchboard

The cleanest architecture runs on SC's switchboard mode, where exactly one integration is active at a time and control transitions are explicit. Your bot calls SC's passControl API targeting the Inquiru AI custom integration. Inquiru subscribes to switchboard:passControl and switchboard:offerControl events and stamps the handoff automatically — no phrase matching, no ticket overhead. Probably overkill for low-medium chat volumes.

What the customer sees

• Customer chats with your in-Zendesk bot — Inquiru stays silent.
• Customer clicks Speak to AI (or the bot sends the transition sentence) → Inquiru posts its greeting and is now active.
• Customer's next message → Inquiru replies with full access to knowledge, skills, and CRM data.
• If a human agent later joins, Inquiru goes silent again automatically.

Pitfalls to avoid

• Don't end the AI branch with a plain "Send a message" step alone unless you've disabled Generative Replies — otherwise you get dual replies.
• Don't reuse a signal phrase elsewhere in your bot flow, or Inquiru will activate on both branches.
• If your "Speak to a human" branch uses Transfer-to-agent, ensure its message text does NOT contain Inquiru's signal phrase.
• If your new-ticket Trigger does NOT exclude AI-handoff tickets, you'll get duplicate replies. Add the inquiru_handled tag exclusion — the single most important step.
• If you reword the transition message in Bot Builder, update the matching phrase in Inquiru too.

Once handed off, Inquiru owns the conversation for that chat session. To return to your own bot for a fresh decision-tree run, the customer must start a new chat.