Fail-Safes & Audit Trails
Fail-Safes & Audit Trails
Fallback intents, safe actions, and complete logs for compliance.
Bots don’t fail when they say “I don’t know.” They fail when they guess. A resilient system assumes ambiguity will happen and plans for it: switch modes, choose safe actions, escalate with full context, and log every decision. Below is a practical blueprint for building fail-safes and audit trails across WhatsApp and web chat—so your automation stays useful, POPIA-aware, and provably compliant.
What a fail-safe stack looks like
A healthy bot has three layers working together:
Knowledge with guardrails — answers grounded in your docs, citations on longer replies, and confidence thresholds that prevent guesswork (see our Chatbots and AI WhatsApp Chatbots).
Task execution with limits — a whitelist of allowed actions (book, quote, request docs, send payment link) and nothing else.
Observability & control — SLAs, templates, opt-outs, and outcomes tracked end-to-end in InOne CRM.
Add a high-intent capture point on site via WhatsApp Website Integration so conversations start with context (page, UTM, device) and your audit log begins at the very first tap.
Fallback intents: switch modes, not just models
When retrieval confidence dips, the bot must change the interaction, not double-down. Good fallbacks:
Clarify once: ask a single, precise question to narrow scope.
Offer safe defaults: provide the closest policy paragraph with a clear caveat and a link to the full answer.
Escalate warmly: hand off to a person with the last 5–10 turns, detected intent, and suggested next step—no “please repeat that.”
We encode these as fallback intents inside your playbooks, so behaviour is consistent across channels and teams.
Safe actions & permissioning
Every action should be explicit, reversible, and logged.
Action whitelist: the bot may only book, generate quotes, request KYC, or send payment/track links. No free-form API calls, no file deletions, no policy changes.
Context gates: high-value actions (e.g., refunds) require a human confirm; VIP or risk flags force HITL.
Template discipline: outside WhatsApp’s 24-hour window, only approved business-initiated templates with visible opt-outs. Your policy basics live in the FAQ; we keep the library tidy.
Audit trails that survive audits
If it isn’t logged, it didn’t happen. A complete trail in InOne CRM should include:
Conversation transcript with timestamps
Consent events (opt-in/out + source)
Template IDs and versions used
Actions taken (slot held, quote generated, payment link sent) with outcomes
Files & hashes for KYC, plus pass/fail reasons
Human hand-off details (queue, agent, SLA timers)
Final disposition (resolved, rescheduled, refunded)
This is the difference between “we think we’re compliant” and “we can prove it in 5 minutes.”
POPIA-aware by design
Data minimisation: collect only what’s necessary; keep sensitive details out of free text.
Purpose transparency: a short line in the first message explaining why data is requested.
Retention & access: role-based permissions for raw files; thumbnails + extracted fields for agents who don’t need full access.
Respectful re-engagement: templates that are utility-first, polite, and easy to opt out of.
What to measure (and improve weekly)
Track these in Reporting & Analytics:
Low-confidence rate → correct fallback chosen
Right-reason escalations (confidence, VIP, risk, policy)
Time-to-human and post-handoff FCR
Template approval & opt-out rates (by message purpose)
Audit completeness score (presence of consent, template ID, disposition)
When any metric slides, update the playbooks—not just prompts.
Implementation checklist
Add fallback intents and thresholds to each playbook (pricing, booking, returns, KYC).
Enforce an action whitelist and HITL gates in your AI WhatsApp Chatbots.
Centralise transcripts, templates, consents, and outcomes in InOne CRM.
Capture site context with WhatsApp Website Integration so the trail starts at the tap.
Review a weekly “exceptions report” and tune rules—continuous safety, continuous improvement.
A bot with fail-safes and audit trails is more trustworthy, more scalable, and far easier to defend in a compliance review. We handle the orchestration so your team focuses on customers—not the plumbing.
Visit: https://aiautomatedsolutions.co.za/
Contact us: https://aiautomatedsolutions.co.za/contact-us
