Self-service has become an essential part of the modern customer journey, but often, these tools (from chatbots to virtual assistants) sit apart from the main contact centre.
The result? Fragmented data, inconsistent customer experiences, and missed opportunities for improvement.
When self-service channels operate in isolation, they create silos that limit visibility and make it difficult to manage quality across all customer interactions.
To find out more, we asked Shaun McCurdy, Virtual Agent Product Manager at Enghouse, to explain why the solution is to bring self-service into the same ecosystem as your contact centre, so it is managed, measured, and improved using the same tools and processes.
Video: Get Self-Service Right: Manage Your Human and Virtual Workforce With the Same Tools
Watch the video below to hear Shaun explain what contact centres can do to get self-service right and why you should manage your human and virtual workforce with the same tools:
With thanks to Shaun McCurdy, Virtual Agent Product Manager at Enghouse, for contributing to this video.
This video was originally published in our article ‘How to Create a “Win-Win” Self-Service Strategy’
How to Build Connected Self-Service
When self-service is built into the contact centre rather than bolted on, it eliminates data silos and improves collaboration.
Contact centre leaders gain full visibility, customers enjoy consistent experiences, and agents are supported by technology that works in harmony and not in isolation.
To get you started, here are three ways to build connected self-service in your contact centre:
1. Make Self-Service Native, Not Separate
Instead of existing as standalone systems, the most effective self-service solutions function as virtual agents within your contact centre, as Shaun explains:
“Are your automated customer service solutions creating data silos? Many solutions operate separately from your main contact centre, fragmenting your operation and your data.
What if you could have a unified view? What if your automated customer service solutions weren’t separate and instead was a virtual agent in your contact centre?
The best solutions are engineered to be native to your contact centre, functioning just like a standard agent. This simple change has a massive impact.”
By integrating directly with your core platform, these systems can be managed alongside human agents, giving supervisors full oversight without switching between tools or dashboards, which makes self-service a true extension of your operation rather than an isolated channel.
2. Apply Consistent Quality Standards
Quality shouldn’t depend on who – or what – handles the customer, and when self-service sits within your contact centre, supervisors can use the same QA scorecards to evaluate both human and virtual interactions.
“Your supervisors can manage both their human and virtual workforce using the same tools and workflows they use every day.
They can leverage your existing quality assurance platforms to monitor and score the virtual agent interactions with the same scorecards being used for the human agents. This delivers a consistent standard of quality for every customer interaction, no matter who handles it.”
This consistency ensures that every customer receives the same level of care and professionalism, while also making it easier to spot where self-service can be improved or when a conversation should escalate to a live agent.
3. Gain a Unified View of Performance
With data from self-service and human channels flowing into the same dashboards, you can see how the entire operation is performing in real time. Shaun concluded:
“All performance metrics, from the virtual agent’s resolution rates to the human agent handle times, are fed into the same real-time dashboards.
The result – eliminating data silos and gaining a holistic understanding of your entire operation.
You can finally manage your automated channel with the same rigour and insight as your human team, enhancing your quality process rather than fragmenting it.”
Metrics like virtual resolution rates and agent handle times can be compared side by side, providing a complete picture of customer behaviour and operational efficiency.
This visibility helps you refine processes, reduce friction, and continuously improve both self-service and live support.
Author: Robyn Coppell
Published On: 6th Mar 2026
Read more about - Video, Customer Experience (CX), Employee Experience (EX), Enghouse Interactive, Performance Management, Quality, Self Service, Shaun McCurdy, Videos
