Skip to main content


         This documentation site is for previous versions. Visit our new documentation site for current releases.      
 

Creating a self-service application

Updated on March 4, 2021

The CS Self-Service application (CSI Self-Service for the insurance industry) provides a consolidated platform for the creation and configuration of multiple self-service channels, such as Web Chatbot and Unified Messaging in a single application. If you want to use chatbots to automatically handle your initial customer interaction by providing the contextual, bot-driven guidance to customers, you must create your customer self-service application on top of the CS Self-Service application and your implementation layer of the Pega Customer Service application. Your self-service application leverages the service cases from your Pega Customer Service and the self-service capabilities such as bot configurations, conversational flows, and chat window configurations from the CS Self-Service application. The CS Self-Service application focuses on helping your customer by providing the correct information and guiding them to take appropriate action. This approach reduces the number of escalations to live agents and if an escalation happens, it will be more focused. You can deploy the Pega Intelligent Virtual Assistant on your website or messaging channels.

Pega Customer Service Implementation Guide Pega Customer Service Implementation Guide Pega Customer Service Implementation Guide Pega Customer Service Implementation Guide Pega Customer Service Implementation Guide

The following figure shows the application stack of your self-service application. It inherits features from each layer.

CS Self-Service application stack
CS Self-Service application stack
ApplicationUsersDescriptionComponents
Your Pega Customer Service applicationContact center users such as CSRs and customer service managersYour contact center users such as the CSRs and the contact center managers process the service cases and get role-based access to various features in the interaction portal, which is a part of your Pega Customer Service application.
  • Case type rules using best practices for the stages
  • Parallel flows for the chat and messaging channels
  • Flows including flow action assignments
  • Flow sections
Your CS Self-Service applicationEnd-users who interact with the chatbot on your website End users process the service cases from the self-service application using a conversational UI (question and answers) in the web chatbot. Both the interaction portal in your Pega Customer Service application and your self-service application can support the same service cases with a difference in presentation. Self-service application supports a slimmed down UI with only question and answers.
  • Web chatbot channel configuration
  • Flows using only the conversational shapes
  • Trimmed down version of the Flow sections

Ensure that you add the appropriate access group to your administrator operator record.

ApplicationAccess group
All Pega Customer Service applications except Pega Customer Service for Insurance
  • For the CustomerService 8.5 application stack: CSSelfService:Admin
  • For the CustomerService 8 application stack: CSSelfService
Pega Customer Service for Insurance
  • For the CustomerServiceForInsurance 8.5 application stack: CustomerServiceForIns:CSISelfServiceAdmin
  • For the CustomerServiceForInsurance 8 application stack: CSISelfServiceAdmin
Pega Customer Service for Financial Services
  • For the CustomerServiceForFS 8.5 application stack: CustomerServiceForFS:PegaCSFSSelfService
  • For the CustomerServiceForFS 8 application stack: PegaCSFSSelfService

For more information about adding an access group, see the Configuring access groups section in Creating access groups for self-service applications.

Creating a new ruleset for the self-service application

Create a custom ruleset for the Pega Customer Service self-service application to customize your self-service application to meet your business needs.

To create the Self-Service application on top of the Customer Service Self-Service application, perform the following steps:
  1. Log in to your Pega Customer Service application with administrator credentials.
  2. To create a new ruleset for the self-service application, complete the following steps:
    1. In the navigation pane of Dev Studio, click Records > SysAdmin > RuleSet.
    2. Click Create.
    3. 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, which you can edit if necessary.
    4. Click Create and open.
    5. Click Save.

Building a self-service application

Build a self-service application on top of the Customer Service self-service application, if you want chatbots to automatically handle initial customer interaction with contextual, bot-driven guidance.

The Self-Service application focuses on helping your customer by providing the

After you create a new ruleset for your customer self-service application, you then build the self-service application on the top of your Pega Customer Service implementation.
  1. In the header of Dev Studio, click the Application menu, and then click Switch ApplicationCS Self-Service.
  2. In the navigation pane of Dev Studio, click Records > Application Definition > Application.
  3. Search for and select the CSSelfService 8 application.
  4. On the Edit Application: CS Self-Service page, click Save as.
  5. On the Create Application form, enter values in the following fields:
    • In the Label field, enter a name for the self-service application that you want to create.
    • In the Version field, enter a version number for your self-service application.
  6. Click Create and open.
    Result: The Edit Application page opens for you to customize the Self-Service application.
  7. On the Edit Application page, on the Definition tab, in the Built-on applications section, replace the name in the CustomerService row with the name of your Customer Service implementation application.
    1. On the Definition tab, in the Application rulesets section, click the Add ruleset link, and then enter the ruleset name that you create for the self-service application.
      Result: Your self-service application is successfully created.

Creating access groups for self-service applications

When you build a self-service application, you need to create an access group for the self-service application.

Note: To access App Studio from the Self-Service application, do the following:
  • In the CSSelfService or CSSelfServiceAdmin access groups, enable a non-workspace portal (Back Office Portal or B2C portal) and App Studio (pxExpress).
  • For the operator, in the Self-Service application, select CSSelfService or CSSelfServiceAdmin access groups as the default access group.
  • For the access group, select App Studio (pxExpress) as the default portal.

When you create a new access group for a self-service user operator, ensure that you copy the access roles from appropriate CSSelfServiceUser access group:

ApplicationAccess group
All Pega Customer Service applications except Pega Customer Service for Insurance
  • For the CustomerService 8.5 application stack: CSSelfService:User
  • For the CustomerService 8 application stack: CSSelfServiceUser
Pega Customer Service for Insurance
  • For the CustomerServiceForInsurance 8.5 application stack: CustomerServiceForIns:CSISelfServiceUser
  • For the CustomerServiceForInsurance 8 application stack: CSISelfServiceUser
Pega Customer Service for Financial Services
  • For the CustomerServiceForFS 8.5 application stack: CustomerServiceForFS:FSSelfServiceUser
  • For the CustomerServiceForFS 8 application stack: PegaCSFSSelfServiceUser

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.

Note: Misconfiguration of the Pega Chat access group portal could lead to unintended data exposure! Pega Chat provides a blank or empty portal definition in the CSSelfServiceUser access group. If your organization has changed or customized the access group portal, ensure that the activated portal is also blank (that is, ensure that the activated portal contains no harness or section definitions). For more information, see Pega Security Advisory – B21.
  1. Log in to your Pega Customer Service application with administrator credentials.
  2. To create an access group for the Self-Service application, complete the following steps:
    1. In the new self-service application, search for and click the access group that you will copy, as specified in the table above.
    2. On the Edit Access Group: Access Group for CS Self Service Application page, click Save as.
    3. On the Save Access Group As form, complete the following fields:
      • In the Access Group Name field, enter a name for your self-service application access group.
      • In the Short description field, enter a description for your self-service application access group.
    4. Click Create and open.
    5. On the Definition tab, in the Application section, do the following:
      • In the Name field, enter the name of the self-service application that you create.
      • In the Version field, specify a version for the self-service application.
  3. Click Save.

Adding case types and work pools

Create a self-service application with required access groups, case types, and work pools to build a consolidated platform for creating and configuring multiple self-service channels, such as Web Chatbot and Unified Messaging in a single application.

Before you begin: Copy the implementation class and work pool 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 the ChatWithAgent case type from your Customer Service implementation application by performing the following steps:
    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 that are in your Customer Service implementation application, for example, Work, -Work-Interaction, and -Work-QualityReview by performing the following steps:
    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.

Have a question? Get answers now.

Visit the Support Center to ask questions, engage in discussions, share ideas, and help others.

Did you find this content helpful?

Want to help us improve this content?

We'd prefer it if you saw us at our best.

Pega.com is not optimized for Internet Explorer. For the optimal experience, please use:

Close Deprecation Notice
Contact us