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Enabling Answer Bot in Web Widget (Classic)

Aimee Spanier
  • Edited
Zendesk Documentation Team

Suite all

You can add Answer Bot's self-service capabilities wherever you've implemented Web Widget (Classic). For Zendesk Chat customers, this also allows for a fluid and consistent self-service experience prior to a chat escalation, freeing up your Chat and Support agents to focus on the customer service issues that require human touch.
Note: Answer Bot functionality is different for Zendesk messaging users. See About Answer Bot for Zendesk messaging.

This article discusses the following topics:

Related articles:

Understanding the end user experience

When Answer Bot is enabled for the Web Widget (Classic), your end user's experience with the widget changes. This section describes the workflow an end user may experience with Answer Bot for the Web Widget (Classic).

When an end user clicks on the Web Widget (Classic) launcher, instead of the standard text entry search box, they'll see a chat window, and a greeting from the bot:

The bot uses the current brand's name in its initial greeting.

After the initial greeting, the workflow depends on the action taken by the end user.

If the end user enters a question (within 10 seconds)

  1. The end user enters their question in the text box. They can use conversational language, as if they were chatting with a live agent, or use keywords.
  2. Answer Bot responds with Article Recommendations, a list of up to three articles that may be helpful, based on your Answer Bot settings:

  3. From here, the end user's path can go in a few directions:
    • If the end user clicks on any of the suggested article links, that help center article opens in the chat window. After three seconds, a feedback notification appears at the bottom of the window:

      • Yes closes the feedback notification, and the article remains on the screen. This action creates a Support ticket that is automatically solved..

        The end user can return to the Answer Bot conversation by clicking the Back arrow at the top of the chat window.

      • No, I need help, opens a second feedback notification, asking for further information.

        After selecting an answer, the end user is returned to the Answer Bot conversation, and presented with a list of contact channels, and the option to enter another question.

        The contact channels offered depend on how your Web Widget (Classic) components are configured. The end user can click on one of the channel options to open that channel in the widget.

    • If the end user does not click on any of the suggested article links within five seconds, they are returned to the Answer Bot conversation, and presented with a list of contact channels, and the option to enter another question.

      The contact channels offered depend on how your Web Widget (Classic) components are configured. The end user can click on one of the channel options to open that channel in the widget.

If the end user remains idle
  1. After the initial greeting, if the end user does not interact with Answer Bot within 10 seconds, Answer Bot suggests a list of contact channels. The contact channels offered depend on how your Web Widget (Classic) components are configured.

  2. The end user can click on one of the channel options to open that channel in the widget, or can enter a question, which launches the workflow described above.

Enabling Answer Bot in Web Widget (Classic)

Enabling Answer Bot for the Web Widget (Classic) requires changing Web Widget (Classic) admin settings.

To enable Answer Bot for the Web Widget (Classic)

  1. In Admin Center, click the Channels icon () in the sidebar, then select Classic > Web Widget.
  2. Click the Customization tab. If you have multiple brands, select the widget for the brand you want to use with Answer Bot, then click Customization.
  3. Make sure the Help Center option is toggled On, to display the Answer Bot toggle.
  4. Click the Answer Bot toggle to On. If you have Contextual Help enabled for the widget, it will be disabled.

  5. At the bottom of the widget settings, click Save.
  6. Repeat steps 2-5 for each brand you want to use with Answer Bot.

After you complete these steps, Answer Bot appears in the Web Widget in your help center. If needed, you can now configure some Answer Bot functionality via the API (see Configuring Answer Bot for Web Widget (Classic)).

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30 Comments

  • Dawn Anderson

    Hi

    When clicking on the last hyperlink, I am being taken to the below page:

    https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/360001633887

    Can you direct me to the article that shows how to set up the answer bot for within the widget please?

    Thanks

    Dawn

    0
  • Ed Soria

     https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360024278914

     

    0
  • Zac

    Hi all,

    When the user first types in a question to Answer Bot, it does not appear to actually open a ticket as indicated by this phrase:

    • The end user enters their question in the text box. They can use conversational language, as if they were chatting with a live agent, or use keywords. This action creates a support ticket.

    I can't find tickets that are created using an Answer Bot query in the Web Widget in my Support instance.

    0
  • Brett Bowser
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hey Zac,

    I double checked with our Product Managers and they informed me that a ticket will only get created when the conversation has been marked as solved. 

    I'll flag this article to get the above information updated. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!

    0
  • Zac

    Hi Brett,

    Thanks a bunch! I also submitted some other feedback about Answer Bot over the Product Feedback section... would be glad to know if someone was able to take a look at it!

    -Z

    0
  • Brett Bowser
    Zendesk Community Team

    I appreciate you sharing your feedback Zac :)

    I'll pass it along to the appropriate team for you!

    0
  • Fever (Owner)

    Hello, 

     

    Does the bot supports multiple languages? Our HelpCenter page has 4 languages available, will the bot "speak" to the user depending on what language they are looking at in the HelpCenter? 

    0
  • Nicole Saunders
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hi Fever -

    I see that this is your first post. Welcome to the Zendesk Community!

    According to this article: What languages are supported for Answer Bot

    "Answer Bot on email and ticket forms supports these languages: English, Spanish, French, Dutch, German and Portuguese. For the Web Widget, Answer Bot also uses Help Center search functionality as a fallback to show articles besides the ones in the supported language."

    Let us know if you have any additional questions.

    0
  • Valo Solutions
    • Edited

    When you add Widget to another website (not Guide) Answer Bot cannot find any articles. Is this even possible?

    And if it is how can it be done?

    2
  • Delina Garcia

    We're experiencing the same as Valo Solutions. Our Help Centre has 8 languages. We've enabled Answer Bot on the Web Widget, yet the results are subpar. Mostly in anything but English and French. How can we improve this? 

    0
  • Kevin Miodek

    Hello Aimee Spanier

     

    We use another phone support channel for our customers to contact us. It's called Snapcall and is integrated with Zendesk. Is this something we could technically show up in the list of channels?

     

    Also depending on what the customer writes down or the articles that are shown up, could we show some channels and hidee others?

    0
  • Shiyu Zhu
    Zendesk Product Manager

    Hi Kevin, 

    My name is Shiyu and I am a Product Manager from the Answer Bot team.

    There are no immediate plans for us to integrate Answer Bot with the Snapcall integration. I have noted down your feedback for future considerations. 

    In terms of restricting article suggestions by channel, this is not something we support today. Would you please be able to help us to understand the use case you are trying to satisfy here by hiding certain articles? 

    Cheers 

    Shiyu

    0
  • Kevin Miodek

    Hi Shiyu,

    Thank you for taking Snapcall into consideration.
    About channels and articles it's actually the other way around.

    We sometimes need information from customers in a written way. For example if they'd like to amend details of their order we'd need this written and therefore we're thinking if it would make sense to not prompt phone support for those customers when they type "amend my order details" in chatbot and get related articles.

    0
  • Lila Kingsley

    I have a question about whether the answer bot interaction is passed on in the ticket in any way if the interaction did not solve the question...i.e. it suggested no articles, or the end user indicated they were not useful/relevant and they then went on to contact support.

    It would be helpful for our agents to know a) that the customer interacted with the answer bot, and b) what happened in that interaction--specifically what articles were suggested/rejected.  Apologies if I missed this!

    2
  • Ali Demir

    Is there anyway to change the greetings message? 

    1
  • Erika Camille Sundian
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hello Ali Demir,

    I can confirm that the Answer-bot greeting message is not yet editable at this time. Sorry about that. I'd like to encourage you to post about this in our Product Feedback where our Product Management team and other Zendesk users discuss possible new features and suggest workarounds. Thanks!

    0
  • Natali Nacinovic

    Hello,

    I was wondering if it's possible to apply styles to the articles opened in the answerbot? 

    Also, there are some CSS classes that are present in the article when opening in desktop but not in the bot. IS it possible to do something about it?

     

    Thanks! 

    0
  • Elissa
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hello Natali Nacinovic

    Just a quick clarification, Answer Bot itself only offers articles, then the customer can choose to open them either in the Web Widget or in a window or tab of their browser. 

    I expect the issue you are running into is that often when articles are displayed in the Web Widget (rather than on a full webpage) any extra CSS or other custom formatting is stripped from them.

    We do recommend checking any content where you've added custom formatting by opening it in the Web Widget yourself to make sure it's works in a stripped down fashion as well. You can then make some edits to the content so it looks good in both places. Of course, customers will always still have the ability to pop-out the article from the widget into a full window/tab to see the fully formatted version as well.

    I hope that helps! 

    0
  • Natali Nacinovic
    • Edited

    Thank you for the answer!

    I am a bit unclear on how to test the articles locally in the web widget view?

    And where would I do this "You can then make some edits to the content so it looks good in both places."? Because from what I can see the classes added to the elements are removed. Also some embeds/iframe are not "transported" to the widget but it just shows empty.

     

    Thanks & regards,

    Natali

    0
  • Elissa
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hello again Natali Nacinovic

    Great questions! To test the content in your Web Widget you can simply head to a webpage you have the Web Widget embedded on and search for that article and open it in the widget. For example, here I searched for the article "configuring answer bot for the web widget" and opened it in the widget:

    To "make some edits to the content" I simply meant go back into your guide article editor and add headers or basic formatting to make it look nice even if your CSS is not applied. Here is what I mean by the article editor and basic formatting options: 

    Let me know if you have further questions!

    0
  • Natali Nacinovic

    Ok, got it.

    I was just wondering if there is a way to preview the articles in the web widget mode, similar to how you would preview it if it was open in desktop (source: https://support.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115012793547-Previewing-theme-changes-locally-Guide-Professional-and-Enterprise-)

    And I am not sure if something can be done about embeds, iframes and scripts not being present in the article when viewing them in the web widget.

     

    Thank you very much for your help Elissa.

     

    0
  • Elissa
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hello Natali Nacinovic

    Unfortunately there is not currently a way to do a Web Widget specific preview although this, and the rest of this conversation, is a great candidate for product feedback! I would highly recommend you write a post in our product feedback section discussing articles, formatting, and the Web Widget and what challenges you are facing with this product limitation. Here is the feedback section in case that is helpful: Feedback on Guide.

    In terms of embeds, iframes and scripts, again I'm not sure anything can be done. The Web Widget does strip all CSS and other more complicated content. That being said, I will definitely leave this open in case any community members have found custom code work arounds or other solutions! I expect you might get responses on your product feedback post as well if anyone has custom solutions for that.

    I'm sorry for the current limitations and challenges that causes! I do hope you get a chance to post that feedback. I've already passed this issue on to others for visibility as well but getting it from the customer directly is very helpful!

    0
  • Azhar

    Hi,

    Just wanted to know regarding Answer Bot in KB guide article whether it is expected behavior or not.

    When I go to any Knowledge base article, I find answer bot's Notes 'Was this article helpful?' with two buttons 'Yes' & 'No'. When I click 'No, only counter increases by 1 (i.e. 0 out of 1) and nothing else happens where we were expecting to open a ticket form for allowing user to submit a ticket. So, wanted to know what is the expected behavior.

     

    Screen-shot below :

     

     

    0
  • Natali Nacinovic

    Just making a follow-up to see if any of the members found a workaround so that the web widget doesnt remove the CSS but mostly the more complex content (script, iframes) ? 

    0
  • カミジョウ タカヒコ

    Hello
    I saw "To enable Answer Bot for the Web Widget" to enable Answer Bot.
    However, I don't see the Answer Bot toggle in my account.
    The Answer Bot item will also not be displayed for another account.
    You should have an add-on, but is there something missing?
    Even if I contact Japanese support, I am in trouble because there is no reply.

    0
  • Elissa
    Zendesk Community Team

    Hello カミジョウ タカヒコ,

     

    I'm sorry you had trouble with the Answer Bot for Web Widget. I did check your support ticket and I see that you were able to get help in that ticket after posting here. 
    If you have anymore trouble let us know!

    0
  • TN
    • Edited

    Hello Aimee Spanier 

    I am setting up answer bot, I have a question please. 

    The answer bot does not close or refresh after the customer responds to the customer satisfaction survey. Even refreshing the browser doesn't help and the answer bot stops responding.  

    Thanks

    0
  • Cheeny Aban
    • Edited
    Zendesk Customer Advocate

    Hi Tn,

    I'm sorry to hear that your Answerbot is behaving differently. Have you tried to clear cache and cookies, and use an incognito browser to see if the issue will persist?

    All the best!

     

    0
  • Toni Ikar

    Hi Zendesk Team,

    is it possible to use the answer-bot outside our working hours and deactivate him while we have live support ?

    1
  • Jon Simone

    I prefer this behavior from Answerbot currently (the classic non-flow builder version that is) as it pays attention to business hours, availability and allows for different channels.

    It seems like this is enabled by going to Channels > Web Widget (Classic) > and then turning on "Article Recommendations".

    My questions is what prevents the flow builder mode from becoming active?

    Right now it appears as though I have messaging enabled and I see flow builder appears to be active which we do not want yet until more features are added such as the ability to allow users to select different channels, pays attention to agent availability and business hours. 

    0

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