The chat functionality in Pega Customer Service 8.2 or later offers self-service capabilities where all new customer interactions pass through a web chatbot as the first resolution path. To support the Web Chatbot channel, you need to build a self-service application in Pega Customer Service. One single self-service application supports all the self-service channels, such as Facebook Messenger bot. Pega Customer Service includes a CS Self-Service application that consists of of several self-service application components. Create your self-service as a multiple built-on application on top of CS Self-Service and your Pega Customer Service implementation layer.

With the multiple built-on approach, you create a thin customer self-service application that uses the core framework, such as service cases and work pools from the customer service implementation, and the self-service channel functionality from CS Self-Service.

Before you begin

• Ensure that you add the CSSelfService access group to your operator record.
• Ensure that you have configured your organization's chat and messaging settings. See Step 4: Configuring the chat and messaging settings.

Procedure

To create a self-service application, complete the following tasks:

1. Creating a new ruleset for the self-service application
2. Building the self-service application on top of customer service implementation
3. Creating access groups for the self-service application
4. Adding necessary case type, work pools

Step 1 Creating a new ruleset for the self-service application

1. Log in to your Customer Service implementation application.
2. In the navigation panel of Dev Studio, click Records > SysAdmin > RuleSet.
3. Click the Create button.
4. In the Create Ruleset Version page, enter an appropriate ruleset name in the Ruleset Name field. The Version and Description fields are auto-populated with default values. Edit them if necessary.
5. Click Create and open.
6. Click Save.

Step 2: Building the self-service application

1. In the header of Dev Studio, click Switch Application > CS Self-Service.
2. In the navigation panel of Dev Studio, click Records > Application Definition > Application.
3. Search for and select the CSSelfService 8.2 application.
4. In the Edit Application: CS Self-Service page, click Save as.
5. Enter values for the following fields in the Create Application form:
   • Label: Enter the name of your self-service application that you want to create.
   • Version: Enter the version number for your self-service application.
6. Click Create and open.
7. On the Definition tab, go to the Built-on applications section, and then replace the Customer Service row with the name of your Customer Service implementation application.
8. In the Definition tab, go to the Application rulesets section. Click the Add ruleset link, and then enter the ruleset name that you have created for the self-service application.

Your self-service application is successfully created.

Step 3: Adding the CSSelfServiceAdmin and CSSelfServiceUser access groups to the newly created self-service application

If you create a new access group for the self-service user operator, ensure that you copy the access roles from the CSSelfServiceUser access group to it. Specifically, you need to include the PegaCS:SelfServiceUser role to support escalations from the chatbot to a live agent. In addition, do not reduce the access to the ChannelServices- and System-Message-QueueProcessor classes more than what is included in the PegaCS:SelfServiceUser access role.

1. In the new self-service application, search for and open the CSSelfServiceAdmin access group. Update the access group to point to your newly created self-service application. For more information, see Building the self-service application.
2. Repeat the same steps to update the application name for the CSSelfServiceUser group.

Step 4: Adding the ChatWithAgent case type and workpools

After creating the self-service application and the access group, you need to perform the following tasks:

• Add the ChatWithAgent case type to the self-service application.
• Add the following work pools of your Customer Service implementation application to the access group of the self-service application:
  • Work
  • Work-Interaction
  • Work-QualityReview

The implementation class of the case type and the work pools should be a replica of your customer service application implementation. You must copy these values from the implementation layer of your Customer Service implementation application and paste them in the corresponding fields in your self-service application.

1. Add theChatWithAgent case type from your Customer Service implementation application:
   1. Click the Cases & data tab.
   2. In the Case types section, update the Name, Work ID, and Implementation class columns with the ChatWithAgent case type values that you copied from your Customer Service application.
   3. Click Save.
2. Add the same work pools of your Customer Service implementation application, such as Work, -Work-Interaction, -Work-QualityReview:
   1. Open the access group of your self-service application, and then click the Advanced tab.
   2. Replace the existing work pools with the work pool values of your Customer Service application access group.
   3. Click Save.

What to do next

Configure and deploy the web chatbot in your website. See Step 6: Configuring and deploying the web chatbot.