How to set up automatic handoffs between departments
Make the customer move on their own to the right department when they change stages, like from sales to service after a purchase.
1 min readBasicUpdated on November 12, 2026
Where to find it in Cognizy
Video lesson coming soon. For now, follow the steps below.
A handoff moves the customer from one department to another along with a summary of what's already known about them, and notifies everyone in the receiving department. There are four: qualified lead to Sales, won sale to Service, won sale to Finance, and lost customer to Marketing.
Where to find it in Cognizy
Before you start
- Only the owner and administrators can set up departments.
- Each handoff needs a department with the matching area.
Step by step
- Step 1:
Open . First, set the area for each department: in the department, click Edit.
- Step 2:
In Department area, choose Sales, Service, Finance, or Marketing, then click Update. The handoff uses the area to find the department.
- Step 3:
Scroll down to the Handoffs between departments card. For each handoff, choose the mode: Automatic moves the customer on its own, Suggest asks a person to confirm, and Off does nothing.
- Step 4:
On the won sale to Service handoff, click Edit checklist to write the welcome tasks for the new customer. Then click Save checklist.
- Step 5:
On the lost customer handoff, choose after how many days without conversation and without a purchase the customer moves to Marketing.
- Step 6:
At the bottom of the card, choose how soon the owner and administrators are notified when no one in the department accepts the handoff.
How to know it worked
When the customer moves to a new stage, the conversation goes to the right department along with the summary, and that department's team gets notified.
If something goes wrong
The handoff shows a warning to choose the area in a department.
No department has the area for this handoff. Edit the department and choose its area.
Next step
Invite your team and assign each person to the right department.
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