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Using Web Widget (Classic) to embed customer service in your website

Jennifer Rowe
  • Edited
Zendesk Documentation Team

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Fastpath: Admin Center > Channels > Classic > Web Widget
Tip: Web Widget (Classic) settings are now in Admin Center, the new home for Support settings. See About Support settings in Admin Center.
With Web Widget (Classic), you can add customer support features from Zendesk Guide, Support, Talk, and Chat to your website or help center, so that your customers can get immediate help from a single interface, in whatever form they like best.

Here are the ways that your customers can get help from Web Widget (Classic):

  • Search help center articles for immediate self-service.
  • Submit a support request using a contact form.
  • Request a callback, or view a phone number that they can call instead.
  • Start a live chat with an agent.
This article includes these sections:

About Web Widget (Classic)

Web Widget (Classic) is a separate web application that you embed in a web page that gives customers access your help center and the agents in your other Zendesk support channels (Support, Talk, and Chat). It can encourage customers to self-serve, whenever possible, by using help center articles. It can also make it easier to get help from an agent by reducing the number of steps required to access a contact form, request a call back, and start a chat.

All of these things can be done from a single interface. The customer doesn't need to go from your home page to your help center, open their email application, or search your website to find a email address to contact you.

You can add the Web Widget (Classic) to your website or help center. It appears in the bottom corner by default.

You must be an administrator to set up and manage the Web Widget (Classic).

The first thing you need to do is configure the components you want in the widget (see Configuring the Components in your Web Widget (Classic)), and then you can add the widget code your website or help center (see Adding Web Widget (Classic) to your website or help center).

For a complete list of documentation about the Web Widget (Classic), see Web Widget (Classic) resources.

Browser requirements for Web Widget (Classic)

Web Widget (Classic) is supported on the following browsers.

Device type Browsers

Desktop computers
  • Google Chrome: latest two versions
  • Microsoft Internet Explorer: Internet Explorer 11 and Edge
    Note: Keep in mind that Internet Explorer 11 is susceptible to memory leaks, which may impact performance.
  • Mozilla Firefox: latest two versions
  • Apple Safari: latest version

Mobile devices
  • iOS Safari: latest two versions
  • Android browser: latest version
  • Chrome Mobile for Android and iOS: latest version

Understanding the end user experience

In Web Widget (Classic), you can enable components to combine knowledge base search, live chat, phone calls, and contact forms. The end user experience depends on what options are enabled and whether agents are online.

When multiple components are enabled in the Web Widget (Classic), components are presented to end users in a specific sequence, at different times, rather than all at once.

Components are presented in this order:

  1. Self service
  2. Live chat
  3. Phone calls
  4. Contact forms

For more information about how visitors can use these components, keep reading.

Self service

If the help center is enabled in the Web Widget (Classic), customers are presented with help center search first. When the Web Widget (Classic) opens, it includes both self-service and the contact button.

When you search, up to nine results appear, if matches are found. The customer can click an article in the list and it opens in Web Widget (Classic).

If Contextual Help is enabled in Web Widget (Classic), up to three suggested articles appear below the search box. The suggested articles are determined by the page URL from which the customer accessed the Web Widget (Classic), or it is chosen by the administrator using advanced customizations (see About Contextual Help for the Web Widget (Classic)).

Live chat

This is an overview about how live chat works in Web Widget (Classic) from a visitor’s perspective. It’s meant to give administrators and agents a general idea about how it works, but it doesn’t cover all scenarios—the exact appearance and behavior of live chat in Web Widget (Classic) depends on how it was configured by the administrator.

Visitors to your website can use live chat functions in Web Widget (Classic) from a desktop or mobile browser (see Customizing the Chat widget for mobile devices).

Your visitors can perform these chat-related activities from the Web Widget (Classic):

For more information, see Setting up Zendesk Chat in Web Widget (Classic).

Starting chats from Web Widget (Classic) launcher

When live chat is enabled in Web Widget (Classic), the appearance of the launcher to end users depends on which other contact options are enabled.

Launcher appearance Contact options and agent availability
If live chat is the only contact option enabled in Web Widget (Classic) and a Chat agent is online, the launcher includes the Chat icon and says Chat.
If live chat and the help center are enabled, when a chat agent is online, the launcher includes the Chat icon and says Help.

The chat badge is a special launcher that allows a customer to get support from a chat agent immediately. It's larger than the default Web Widget (Classic) launcher button and it doesn't include other contact options (see Customizing the Chat Badge section).

If the chat badge is enabled, chat is the only contact option enabled in the Web Widget (Classic), and a Chat agent is online, the chat badge appears on the page instead of the regular Web Widget (Classic) launcher.
  If Chat is the only contact option enabled and no agents are online, the launcher does not display.

Once the customer opens Web Widget (Classic), they see this:

When the customer clicks Live chat, what they see next depends on whether the pre-chat form is enabled.

If the pre-chat form is enabled, the customer fills in the form, then clicks Start Chat

If the pre-chat form is not enabled, the customer can start the chat right away.

If an agent is available when the customer clicks the launcher, but the then agent signs off before the chat begin, the customer sees a message indicating that the Chat agent is not available.

Receiving proactive chats

Agents can see who is the currently on your site and decide whether to proactively contact a visitor before they request a chat. For example, you might want to reach out to visitors who have items their shopping cart, but are taking too long to complete their purchases. For more information, see Browsing your site's visitors, Using Zendesk Chat, and Targeting key visitors with proactive chat.

Viewing conversation history

If visitor authentication is enabled in the Web Widget (Classic), authenticated visitors can see their past chats. For more information about visitor authentication, see Enabling authenticated visitors in the Web Widget (Classic) and Conversation history in Web Widget (Classic) for authenticated visitors.

Customize the avatar, name, and byline of the chat Concierge section

Before visitors connect with a support agent, they see the avatar, name, and byline of the chat Concierge. For more information, see Customizing the Chat widget concierge.

Sending and receiving attachments with chats

Visitors can send and receive attachments. Clicking the attachments icon () opens a standard file selection dialog box, but you can also drag and drop files into the Web Widget too. For more information about attachments, see Managing file sending options.

Adjusting sound, requesting transcripts, editing contact details, and ending chats

Visitors can use the expandable menu at the bottom () to turn sounds on and off, request a transcript of the chat, edit their contact details, or end the chat. For more information about transcripts, see Automatically send chat transcripts with email piping. For more information about editing contact details, see Editing Visitor Profile settings.

Translating chats

If Chat detects that the agent and visitor are using different languages, the Show translated link appears in the conversation. Visitors can click this link to translate the agent’s replies into their language. The translation is performed by Google Translate.

Ending and rating chats

When the visitor is ready, they can end the chat by clicking the end chat () icon. They can also end the chat from the expandable menu ().

Visitors can rate a chat as good or bad using the thumbs up () and thumbs down () icons at any time during the chat. After they rate the chat, the Leave a comment button appears, so they can add a comment, if desired.

If the visitor doesn’t rate the chat after a little while, the agent can prompt the visitor to rate the chat by making the Rate this chat button appear.

For more information about chat ratings, see Measuring visitor satisfaction with chat rating.

Popping out Web Widget (Classic) during chats

WhenChat is enabled in the Web Widget (Classic), visitors can click the pop-out icon () to pop-out the Web Widget (Classic) to it's own browser window.

The Web Widget (Classic) becomes separate from the website and receives a unique URL. It can be moved around and is no longer anchored to the website.

You can share the URL to the Web Widget (Classic) popout in a range of marketing communications, inviting the user to engage directly with you without having to be on your website.

Phone calls

When Talk is enabled in Web Widget (Classic), the appearance of the launcher to end users depends on which other contact options are enabled.

Launcher appearance Contact options and agent availability
If Talk is the only contact option enabled in Web Widget (Classic) and an agent is online, the launcher includes the Talk icon and says either Request a callback or Call us, depending on your configuration.
If Talk and the help center are enabled in Web Widget (Classic), and an agent is online, the button says Help.
If Talk, the help center, and Chat, or contact forms are enabled in Web Widget (Classic), and agents are online, the launcher includes a question icon and says Help.

When Web Widget (Classic) opens, the exact appearance of Talk in Web Widget (Classic) depends on the how it's configured by the administrator and the status of agents (see Configuring Zendesk Talk settings for Web Widget (Classic)). Depending on your configuration, customers can:

  • View a phone number that they can call
  • Request a callback
  • View the average wait time for a callback

The following examples show how Talk in Web Widget (Classic) might appear, depending on your configuration.

   

If Talk is the only option enabled in Web Widget (Classic) and it is configured to allow callback requests, and then you click the launcher, the callback form displays.

If Talk is the only contact option enabled and Talk is configured for Call Us only, your phone number displays.

If Talk and the help center are enabled, and other contact options are enabled (for example, Chat or contact form), after a help center search the customer can access Talk from the Contact us button.

If Talk and the help center are enabled, and Chat and contact form are disabled, after a help center search the Contact us button says Request a callback (or Call us) instead.

   

Contact forms

Your customers can submit a ticket from Web Widget (Classic) to receive an email reply to their inquiry. The contact form is enabled in Web Widget (Classic) by default.

By default, the contact form includes fields for the customer's name, email address, and a description of the problem. If the administrator enabled multiple ticket forms in Web Widget (Classic) (see Configuring the components in your Web Widget (Classic)), then the customer can choose from multiple ticket forms. If not, then only the default contact form appears.

Tickets submitted through Web Widget (Classic) contain the tag web_widget.

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228 Comments

  • Marc

    Thanks for the reply Brett, 

    Even if an organization is already registered with Zendesk it seems like the "organization" parameter of zE.identify() does nothing. The email the user needs to be registered in Zendesk in order to connect the dots.

    Am I supposed to be passing the Zendesk organization ID or the name?

    Thanks

    0
  • Brett Bowser
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hi Marc,

    I did some additional digging and it looks like the organization can only be set using zE.identify if that user does not already exist within Zendesk. Here's the conversation which I've linked for you: Setting organization without name or email

    Apologies for any confusion this has caused!

    0
  • Fiona

    Hi there

     

    I would like the customer to click on the 'help' button and be presented with the option to fill in a contact form or search the help center (currently they have to search the help center first, then they are presented with the contact us option. Is there a way to do that?

    Thanks!

    1
  • Devan - Community Manager
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hello Fiona,

    As our base program stands this would not be possible. You can disable the HC search widget entirely, but you are not able to change the order of appearance. 

    Best regards.

    0
  • Sarah Roberts

    Hi there,

    I'm trialling Zendesk and wanted to know if there was any way to host the javascript for the widget within our own environment. We do not currently use any third party code on our site for security.

     

    Many thanks,

    0
  • Dan Ross
    Community Moderator

    Hey Sarah, 

    The widget itself is hosted on Zendesk's servers, you can call it via a simple Javascript snippet. you can also specify specific domains you want whitelisted, so that the widget can't be installed on sites you don't own.

    If you were going to use Zendesk Chat, you could look at their Web SDK, which will let you host the widget code wherever you like. 

    To use the SDK, you will need to know web development skills or have access to developers that can help you build and maintain your custom widget.

     

    Hope that helps. 

    0
  • Aifa

    Can someone help me. I have enable all the components in the widget customisation setting. The help widget button is there, but, it only shows as attached image. Can anyone help what should I do to enable?

    Thanks!

    0
  • Dan Ross
    Community Moderator

    Hey Aifa,

     

    Make sure your articles aren't restricted to logged in users (or if they are, make sure you're logged in when you search) Articles only show when you start typing in a search query.

    0
  • Niraj Makwana

    We want to integrate the Zendesk widget into our browser, using JWT token. We are using Json web token and we are following these instructions seen in this URL:
    https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/222874768-Using-restricted-Help-Center-content-with-the-Web-Widget

    But when we try and build the application the error we receive is:

    TypeError: j.createHmac is not a function

    Please can you get in touch should you need any further clarification.

    Thank you

    0
  • Brett Bowser
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hey Niraj,

    It looks like you have a ticket open with our Customer Advocacy team related to this issue. Your ticket has been escalated to our Technical Support team and they will continue troubleshooting the issue with you.

    Cheers!

    0
  • 杨建波

    Can the work order system support customization?

    0
  • Chris Taylor

    Does/Can the widget send us the page the user is on when they raise a request?

    0
  • Ben Van Iten
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hi Chris,

    The ticket will inform you the URL that the ticket was submitted from:

    I hope this is helpful!

    3
  • Lila Kingsley

    Playing around with the configuration, I've noticed that when you have contact form + chat + help center + contextual help enabled the widget opens with the contact us button along with the search and "top suggestions"  from contextual help.  However, if you disable contextual help you just see a search box. 

    Is there a way to NOT immediately show the Contact Us button when the widget is opened if you have contextual help enabled?  We're interested in encouraging a search or at least clicking on the "top suggestions" from contextual help before showing the contact option.  

    0
  • Miranda Burford
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Lila,

    Thanks for getting in touch!

    Unfortunately, there isn't currently a way to hide the 'Contact us' button with contextual help enabled within the Web Widget.  It's definitely a valid use case though so appreciate you flagging it with us.  I've logged your request and contact details.  We'll reach out if there's any updates on this in the future.

    Thanks again,

    - Miranda.

    0
  • Azahar Ahmed

    Hello, I need a Ticket System for my website Sprintally to host on my own sub-domain. What should I do for that?

     

    Regards

    Azahar Ahmed

    (Team Sprintally)

    0
  • Brett Bowser
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hey Azahar,

    If you have Zendesk Support and you'd like user to be able to create tickets from your own website, I would recommend embedding the web-widget as mentioned above.

    Otherwise you can build a custom ticket form on your website using the Zendesk API. More information here: Building a custom ticket form with the Zendesk API

    I hope this helps!

    1
  • Will Brown

    Is there a way to change the order in which enabled Widget components are displayed to a user?

    I have the Help Center and the Contact Form enabled. At the very least, I would like to be able to make the Contact Us button more prominent and accessible; as is, users have to search for something in the Help Center in order to be presented with the “Contact Us” button.

    0
  • Miranda Burford
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Will Brown,

    Thanks for contacting us. 

    >At the very least, I would like to be able to make the Contact Us button more prominent and accessible; as >is, users have to search for something in the Help Center in order to be presented with the “Contact Us” button.

    Unfortunately, there isn't a way to make the 'Contact Us' button visible prior to searching within the Web Widget (when contextual help is enabled).  I'll log this as a feature request as it's something that customers have raised with us previously.  We'll reach out if there's any news.

    In terms of accessibility, we're planning to dedicate some time to improving it within the Web Widget later in the year.  I'll add the 'Contact Us' button to the list.  Thanks for flagging this with us!

    If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to get in touch.

    Thanks again,

    - Miranda.

     

    0
  • Will Brown
    • Edited

    Thanks for the note, Miranda. I'd be very interested that kind of control; staying subscribed to this thread in hopes we might see some changes soon. The existing option to enable certain components is a lot less attractive when the Help Desk is given priority over the Contact Form; that design presumes your customers are more interested in directing their users to a Help Center than a contact form. I can see scenarios where that might be true, but for high-touch companies with little Help Center content (like mine), it's adding friction and making it harder for our users to reach us.  

    0
  • Miranda Burford
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Thanks for the additional context, Will Brown.  That's helpful to know!

    - Miranda.

    0
  • Waseem Khan

    Hi Zendesk Team,

    I see some articles are coming by default in the 'Help' widget. How this appear, is it coming from the articles that have been added ?

    Regards,

    Waseem Khan

    0
  • Miranda Burford
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Waseem Khan,

    It sounds like you've turned on the Contextual help feature.  This does make use of your existing articles within your Help Center.  You can find more information about this feature here, https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/219796887.

    Hope this helps!

    - Miranda.

    0
  • Dan Allen
    • Edited

    Hi team. I'm getting a 400 error when attempting to load the Content Widget: https://ekr.zdassets.com/compose/xxxxxx 400

    Has anyone encountered this issue? 

    0
  • Dan Allen

    Miranda Burford, can you assist us with this implementation of the Content Widget? It feels like an easy fix, but I'm not sure why we're getting a 400. Here's my message from above:

    I'm getting a 400 error when attempting to load the Content Widget: https://ekr.zdassets.com/compose/xxxxxx 400

    Has anyone encountered this issue? 

    0
  • Miranda Burford
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Dan,

    The URL you provided seems to have the key in an incorrect format. The key should contain dashes so just wanted to make sure you're following that format.  Can you please take a look in your Web Widget admin (Channels > Widget) at your snippet code and check that the ID was copied over correctly (with dashes included)?

    Thanks,

    - Miranda.

    0
  • Dan Allen

    Hi Miranda Burford! Thanks for the quick response. I've trying to use the widget to access restricted content. I've used the shared secret in place of the key. But obviously that doesn't work. Where do I include the Shared Secret in the snippet?

    0
  • Miranda Burford
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Dan,

    No problem.  There are some some step by step instructions in the article below which walks you through how to generate a shared secret and use that with your snippet.

    https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/222874768-Using-restricted-Help-Center-content-with-the-Web-Widget

    Hope this helps!  Let me know how you go.

    - Miranda.

    0
  • Roman Chaban

    Hi. How I can get this window

     

    0
  • Bryan - Community Manager
    Zendesk Developer Support

    Hi @.... Use the Pre-chat form feature found in the Zendesk Chat administration area:

     

    In the example you showed, the user logged in through a social media option (for example, Google):

    0

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