The Ask teammate step is a human-in-the-loop feature for procedures. It lets Fin pause part-way through an automated procedure and request input from a teammate before continuing. While Fin keeps control, a teammate can review context and provide input.
Before you begin
Ask teammate is a step you add inside an existing Fin procedure. If you're new to procedures, read Fin Procedures explained and Quick start: Create a Fin Procedure before continuing.
When to use Ask teammate
Ask teammate has two main uses:
Human oversight
For high-risk or high-value actions where you want a teammate to review and approve before Fin proceeds. Examples: refund or exception approvals, compliance-sensitive requests (e.g. account closures, data deletion), high-value customer escalations, goodwill gestures, or any situation where policy requires a human sign-off.
Procedure testing
Stand in for a data connector that isn't built yet. If a refund or cancellation connector is still in development, a teammate can perform that step manually, letting you test the full procedure flow before the integration is ready.
How 'Ask teammate' works
When Fin hits an Ask teammate step in a procedure:
Before the step runs, you can configure a message Fin sends to the customer.
An Ask teammate note appears in the inbox, showing the teammate everything they need to review and act on.
The conversation stays with Fin's inbox - it is not yet handed off to a human.
Fin waits and does not continue the procedure until a teammate acts or a timeout is reached.
Teammate reviews and responds
From the inbox or Slack, the teammate sees the Fin requires your decision card and can choose from 2 options:
Option 1: Submit a response (Fin continues): The teammate fills in any requested fields (for example, a decision or reason) and submits.
Their answer is recorded in the conversation.
Fin resumes the procedure. The teammate’s answers can be used in later steps and in the final message Fin sends to the customer.
Option 2: Take over the conversation (Fin stops): The teammate can take over if needed — the conversation is assigned to them and Fin stops responding.
Configuring an Ask teammate step
Type @ in the procedure editor and select Ask teammate from the menu.
Write the question or instruction Fin will show the teammate in the Ask teammate card. Write this as if you're briefing the teammate — tell them what you need them to decide or do.
For example: "Can I switch the customer's plan to yearly pro?" If a Call data connector step earlier in the procedure fetched customer data (such as their current plan, billing date, or account history), that data is displayed below your question in the card, giving the teammate the context they need to decide.
Configure the information the teammate must provide using the Response to Collect fields. Each field has a data type: use True/False for approval decisions (e.g., Approved: Yes/No) and Text for open-ended responses (e.g., Reason, Notes). If marked as required, the teammate cannot submit until all required fields are filled in.
Use the response in a later step. After the Ask teammate step, add a Read attribute step to access the teammate's answer. You can then use an IF/ELSE condition to branch the procedure based on their response — for example: if Approved is True, proceed with the action; if False, send the customer a message explaining the request was declined. Without the Read attribute step, Fin cannot reference the teammate's input in any subsequent steps.
Assign a reviewer. Choose a teammate who should review this step — they'll be mentioned in the note so accountability is clear. If you leave this blank, Fin uses the Default assignee configured in your Fin handover settings. Use Mark as priority to flag the conversation in the inbox, so your team can prioritize it.
Set the Wait Time — how long Fin should wait for a teammate response before escalating. You can set this in minutes or hours. You must also choose who should own the conversation if the timeout is reached, and add an escalation message Fin sends to the customer if no one responds in time (for example: "I haven't heard back from the teammate yet, so I'm passing this to the team."). A procedure cannot go live without both a timeout and an escalation message configured.
Important: You must include at least one Field to Collect to save an Ask teammate step. The procedure cannot be saved without it.
Notifying teammates via Slack
In the More channels tab of the Ask teammate step settings, you can connect a Slack channel so teammates are notified there when this step is reached.
Select the More channels tab in the step settings panel.
Under Slack, select the channel you want to notify from the dropdown. For help setting up your Slack workspace and adding @Intercom to channels, see Set up Slack notifications. When configuring the channel in Settings, set the Channel Purpose to Post Slack notifications only, this ensures notifications are posted to Slack without triggering separate Intercom conversations.
The Slack notification shows the procedure name, customer details, recent conversation messages, and the Ask teammate question, including any data pulled by earlier data connector steps. Teammates can click Respond to submit their answer directly from Slack, or View in Inbox to open the conversation in Intercom instead.
Once a teammate acts, the notification updates automatically:
✅ Resolved: the teammate’s submitted response is shown (e.g. approve: true), and Fin continues the procedure.
⏳ Expired: if the timeout passes with no response, the notification shows “No response received. Conversation has been escalated.”
If multiple teammates see the notification — across both Slack and the Inbox — the first response submitted wins. All other open notifications are automatically updated to 'Resolved.'
Using data from your other tools
You can combine Ask teammate steps with data from your own systems. For example:
A previous step in the procedure might pull in a customer's plan, spend, or risk score using a data connector.
That information can be shown directly in the Ask teammate card so teammates can make faster, better-informed decisions.
The same data can also appear in the escalation message to the customer if a timeout happens.
Timeouts & escalation for 'Ask teammate'
When you set a timeout on an Ask teammate step:
Fin will wait for a teammate response until the timeout expires.
If no teammate responds before the timeout, Fin sends the escalation message, removes itself from the conversation, and assigns it per your escalation settings.
Customer replies during the wait don't extend the timeout — Fin won't respond until the teammate acts.
Testing 'Ask teammate'
Click Test in the procedure editor to open the testing options. You can test the Ask teammate step using an interactive preview or by running a simulation.
Preview
Click Test in the procedure editor and enter a trigger phrase (e.g., "I want to change my billing cycle from monthly to yearly") to start the preview.
Customer view: Fin sends your pre-configured message (e.g., "I'll need to check with a teammate before switching your plan.") and pauses at the Ask teammate step.
Teammate review: In the preview window, click Review or the "Review as teammate from inbox" link. This opens the exact Ask teammate card your team will see in the Inbox.
Complete the action: Fill in the Fields to Collect (e.g., an Approve/Deny dropdown and a Reason text field) and click Submit.
Verify the result: Check that Fin resumes the procedure and sends the correct follow-up message based on your decision (e.g., "Great news! Your plan has been successfully changed to yearly billing. You’re now on the Pro Yearly plan at $470/year, saving you $118 annually.").
Use the **Preview** as user or lead setting to test how the procedure behaves for different customer segments.
Simulations
When a procedure includes Ask teammate steps, the simulation form shows a Teammate input available to Fin section. You need to edit the simulation and add the values before running the simulation, for example, "Approved: true".
Run the Simulation and when it reaches an Ask teammate step:
A note is created with the Ask teammate question, the same note teammates see in a real conversation.
All required values pre-filled: a "Response submitted to Fin" note is created and the procedure continues as if a teammate responded.
Any required values missing: the simulation treats it as a timeout: the escalation message is sent and the conversation escalates, the same as if a real teammate didn't respond in time.
Assignment and SLA behavior
How assignment, SLAs, and teammate inactivity behave during an Ask teammate step depends on whether the conversation started with Fin or a human teammate.
How assignments work
When Fin owns the conversation (bot inbox enabled)
Fin assigns the conversation to the reviewer team or teammate configured in the Ask teammate step.
The reviewer team's assignment rules apply as usual — round-robin, load-balanced, or manual.
The conversation is still treated as bot-managed, even though it's temporarily with a human. This affects SLA deferral and teammate inactivity behavior (see below).
When the teammate submits the Ask teammate form, the conversation returns to Fin's bot inbox and the procedure resumes.
When a teammate clicks 'Take over' during Ask teammate
The conversation is assigned to the teammate who clicked Take over.
The procedure stops — Fin doesn't resume.
When a human already owns the conversation (no bot inbox)
Fin records the current owner before assigning to the reviewer.
When the teammate submits the Ask teammate form, the conversation returns to the original assignee — not to Fin.
SLA behavior during Ask teammate
SLA behavior depends on two workspace settings: whether the bot inbox is enabled, and whether Defer SLAs for bot inbox is turned on.
Bot inbox on, SLAs deferred
This is the recommended setup if you want Fin to work without affecting your human SLAs.
SLAs stay deferred during Ask teammate. Temporarily assigning the conversation to a teammate doesn't start SLA timers — it's still treated as bot-managed.
SLAs start only on permanent exit. Timers begin when the conversation permanently leaves the bot inbox — for example, when Fin escalates, a teammate clicks Take over, or an Ask teammate step times out.
Manual reassignments during Ask teammate keep SLAs deferred. If teammates reassign the conversation to someone else while Ask teammate is active, SLAs remain deferred.
Timeout escalation starts the SLA clock. A timed-out Ask teammate step is a permanent exit from the bot inbox — deferred SLAs start at that point.
Bot inbox on, SLAs not deferred or conversations already assigned to a human teammate
In all of these scenarios, there's no deferral in play — SLA timers run from the moment they're applied.
SLA timers run from when the SLA is applied, same as any other conversation.
Ask teammate assignments don't change SLA behavior — they're treated like normal assignments for SLA purposes.
Tip: For the best experience with procedures and Ask teammate, we recommend enabling the bot inbox and turning on 'Exclude the time conversations spend in the bot inbox from SLA targets'. This lets Fin complete as much work as possible without consuming your human SLAs, while preserving your existing SLA behavior once a teammate takes over.
Teammate inactivity during Ask teammate
How ‘teammate has been unresponsive’ workflows behave depends on whether the conversation is Fin-managed or already assigned to a teammate when the Ask teammate step is reached.
Conversation assigned to Fin (bot inbox enabled)
Once the conversation is temporarily assigned to a teammate for review, ‘teammate has been unresponsive’ workflows won’t trigger — the conversation is still considered Fin-managed.
Inactivity workflows don't trigger during Ask teammate. The conversation is still considered bot-managed, so 'teammate unresponsive' rules don't fire.
Inactivity workflows resume after permanent exit. Once the conversation permanently leaves the bot inbox, inactivity behavior returns to normal.
Conversation already assigned to a teammate (no bot inbox)
When Ask teammate is reached, there’s no change in behavior — ‘teammate has been unresponsive’ workflows trigger as before.
Scenario-by-scenario summary
Here's how SLAs, teammate inactivity, and assignment behave across every Ask teammate outcome.
Scenario | SLA behavior | Teammate inactivity | Assignment after Ask teammate response |
Bot inbox on, SLAs deferred | Deferred — SLAs don't start | Suppressed during Ask teammate | Returns to Fin (bot inbox) |
Bot inbox on, SLAs not deferred | SLAs run as usual | Suppressed during Ask teammate | Returns to Fin (bot inbox) |
No bot inbox | SLAs run as usual | Triggered as usual | Returns to original human assignee |
Ask teammate timeout (any configuration) | SLAs start — permanent exit from Fin | Triggered as usual | Escalated per Ask teammate step escalation rules |
Teammate clicks 'Take over' | SLAs start — permanent exit from Fin | Triggered as usual | Assigned to teammate who took over |
Resolution states
Scenario | Resolution state | What happens next |
Teammate responds in time | Normal resolution | Fin continues executing the procedure from where it paused. |
Teammate takes over the conversation | Soft resolution | Fin stops. The conversation is assigned to the teammate and continues as a human conversation. |
No teammate response within timeout | Handoff | Fin stops. The escalation message is sent to the customer and the conversation is routed per your escalation settings. |
Ask teammate vs. a Procedure handoff to team
These two features look similar but work differently:
Handoff to team: Fin stops responding and a teammate takes over the entire conversation from that point on.
Ask teammate: Fin pauses, waits for a teammate's input or decision, and then resumes the procedure. The teammate contributes, they don't take over.
From the customer's perspective, Ask teammate is invisible — the conversation continues without interruption.
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