Common phrases
The common phrases feature, which customer service representatives (CSRs) can use to insert pre-configured messages in email and messaging channels, now makes it easier for CSRs to:
- Perform character-based common phrase searches
- Search within the text of common phrases
- Report on the usage of common phrases
Customer service representative experience
Previously, CSRs would search for common phrase categories and titles via the Phrases button in chat and email. Because they could only search by name or category, it wasn't easy to find relevant phrases with which they were not already familiar. Now, the search functionality extends to searching within the text of phrases, allowing CSRs to enter keywords into the search bar and find relevant phrases without knowing the category or phrase names.
CSRs can also now insert common phrases into the text box without ever clicking out of the box. In App Studio, a setting to enable character-based quick navigation of phrases through a dropdown based on the initial characters is now available. After configuration of a launch character in App Studio, when a CSR enters the character followed by a number or a letter in the text box of the live chat pop-up window, the system initiates a search for common phrase categories, titles, and the text within the phrases. The system performs this search against the user input and then displays matching results. In this way, CSRs can quickly use common phrases without ever taking their hands off the keyboard.
Common phrases reporting
Customer Service Managers can now gather data and report on the usage of common phrases. A check box in App Studio enables the collection of data on common phrase usage. Pega Customer Service now ships with two reports with drilldowns on common phrase usage. CSR Managers can use these reports to identify the need for coaching of CSRs if they never use certain phrases, and evaluate which phrases or categories are valid or could use improvement based on their frequency of use.
For more information, see Chat and messaging reports.
Common phrase search configuration
Enhance the customer service representative experience of finding and using common phrases during a CSR-customer interaction by enabling the common phrase settings in App Studio.
The common phrase search configuration section explains how to perform the following tasks:
- Enabling common phrase settings
- Searching the text of common phrases
- Performing character-based common phrase search
Enabling common phrase settings
Enable the common phrase settings to launch a character-based quick search, search within the text of the phrases, and collect phrase usage data for reporting.
To configure common phrase settings, refer to the figure below and perform the following steps:
- In the navigation pane of App Studio, click .
- In the Settings: Chat and messaging section, click the Common phrases tab(1).
- In the Common phrases section, do the following:
- To enable a character-based common phrase search, select the Enable character-based quick navigation check box(2). The Launch character(s) list(3) then displays a list of special characters.
- From the Launch character(s) list, select a
launch character to trigger a list of categories and common phrases in
the Interaction Portal.
- To collect common phrase usage data for reporting purposes, select the
Enable data collection on phrases for reporting check box (4). When the CSR Manager selects the Enable data collection on phrases for reporting checkbox, the system enables the data collection. The system collects the data until the CSR Manager unchecks the checkbox.
The following figure shows enabling of character-based quick navigation (2), selecting the launch character (3), and enabling data collection on phrases for reporting in the Common phrases section (4):Enabling common phrase settings 
- To save the changes, click Save.
Searching the text of common phrases
The new search functionality enables CSRs to enter keywords into the common phrases search bar, in email, or in chat in the live chat pop-up, and find relevant phrases without already having any knowledge about categories or phrase names.
- Log in to the Interaction Portal with CSR Manager or CSR credentials.
- To start a live chat session, accept an incoming chat request from a customer. Messages from the customer appear in the Live chat window.
- In the Live chat pop-up window, click Phrases(1), scroll to the bottom of the list, and then click Search phrases(2).
- In the Search phrases box(3), enter the first letter of
the keyword to produce a list of categories and phrases (4).
Performing text-based common phrase search 
- To select a phrase, press the down arrow to scroll through the list, and then
press Enter on the phrase that you want to use.
- The text of the chosen phrase appears in the text entry area in the Live chat pop-up window for the CSR to send to the customer.
Performing character-based common phrase search
CSRs perform character-based common phrase searches by entering launch characters in the text entry area of the live chat pop-up window. The system then initiates a search for common phrase categories, titles, and searches within the phrase's text.
- Log in to the Interaction Portal with CSR Manager or CSR credentials.
- To start a live chat session, accept an incoming chat request from a customer. Message from the customer appears in the Live chat pop-up window.
- In the text entry area, enter the launch character that you configure in App
Studio followed by a letter or a number. Result: The system displays a list of categories along with phrases and the text of the phrase, as shown below:
Performing launch character-based search 
- To select a phrase, press the down arrow, and then press Enter.
- The text of the chosen phrase appears in the text entry area in the Live chat pop-up window for the CSR to send to the customer.
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