Configuring Web Widget components

Jess Bezos
Jess Bezos

Before you add the Web Widget to your website or Help Center, you need to decide which components you want to include in the Web Widget and then turn them on. For some components, you might need to go a step further and configure additional settings. You must be an administrator to configure components in Web Widget.

You can configure the Web Widget to include any combination of these components:

  • Help Center search and suggested articles
  • Zendesk Chat for live chat with an agent
  • Zendesk Talk for requesting a callback from an agent or viewing a phone number to call
  • Contact forms for filing a ticket

Configuring the Web Widget

The Web Widget includes multiple components that you can turn on or off, or customize. For example, you can add help, talk, and chat features, and contact forms. You can configure security settings, change the color of buttons and text, edit user interface text, and reposition Web Widget. If you have an Enterprise account, you can remove the Zendesk logo.

For detailed information about the components you can configure, see Configurable Web Widget components (below).

To configure the Web Widget

  1. Click the Admin icon (Manage icon) in the sidebar and then navigate to Channels > Widget.

    If you are setting up the Web Widget for the first time, a wizard guides you through the process. Follow the on-screen prompts. After you complete the wizard, you can view and change your options, if you want, by proceeding to the next step.

    If this isn’t your first time setting up the Web Widget, skip this step. The wizard doesn’t appear for you.

  2. From the Customization tab, configure your Web Widget components (see Configurable Web Widget components below).

  3. When you’re done configuring components, click Save.

    Allow 10 minutes for changes to the Web Widget to propagate and appear in the Web Widget.

    Once you’re done with this procedure, you’re ready to complete the steps described in Adding the Web Widget to your website or Help Center, if you haven’t already.

Configurable Web Widget components

This table lists the Web Widget components that you can configure from Support.

If you want to customize the Web Widget further, it’s possible to do that using the Web Widget API, but you might need the help of a website developer. For more information, see Advanced customization of the Web Widget.

  • To allow customers to submit tickets from the Web Widget, leave the toggle on. This option is on by default. If you don’t want customers to be able to submit tickets from the Web Widget, turn the toggle off. Tickets submitted through the Web Widget contain the tag “web_widget.”

    You can use these options to control the name field in the default contact form and ticket forms that appear in the Web Widget.

    • Show name field - Causes the name field to appear in the forms in the Web Widget. To remove the name field from forms in the Web Widget, clear this check box. By default, this option is on when the Contact form toggle is turned on.
    • Required - Makes the name field a required field that users must complete before they can submit the default contact form through the Web Widget. To make the name field a required field, select this check box. Otherwise, the name field is labelled as optional. By default, this option is off when the Contact form toggle is turned on.

    Contact us

    Keep in mind that if the Ticket forms toggle is on, ticket forms replace the default contact form in the Web Widget.

  • To include multiple ticket forms in the Web Widget, turn the toggle on. This option only appears if the Contact form toggle is turned on.

    Multiple ticket forms are available on the Support Enterprise plan, or as a Professional add-on feature.

    This option enables the end user to select any of your active ticket forms, instead of seeing only the default ticket form, and allows you to customize which ticket forms are available based on the page the user’s on.

    If you need to set up ticket forms, click the Settings link. For more information, see Using custom ticket fields and ticket forms with the Web Widget.

  • To select custom ticket fields that you want to include in the Web Widget contact form, use the drop-down list.

    This option only appears if you enable the contact form or if you don’t have custom ticket fields that are visible and editable to end-users. To make a custom field available for the Web Widget, select For end-users: Visible and For end-users: Editable in the custom fields settings (see Adding a custom ticket field).

    If you need to set up custom ticket fields, click the Settings link. For more information, see Using custom ticket fields and ticket forms with the Web Widget.

  • To include Chat features in the Web Widget, turn the Chat toggle on.

    You must have a Chat account to add Chat functions to the Web Widget. If you don’t have a Chat account, turning this toggle on has no effect.

    You can click the Settings link to open the Chat dashboard (the Zendesk Chat product interface), or open Chat from a browser. From there, you will configure specific Chat features for use with the Web Widget (see Setting up Zendesk Chat in the Web Widget).

    If you have multiple brands, it doesn’t matter which Chat > Settings link you use. They all open Chat in exactly the same manner. If you have multiple brands, the brand name is added as a chat tag. For more information, see Step 2, add the Web Widget to your brands in Zendesk in the Multibrand setup article.

    You cannot add third-party chat applications to the Web Widget.

  • You must have a Guide account to add Help Center search to the Web Widget. If you don’t have a Guide account, turning on this toggle has no effect.

    To add Help Center search to the Web Widget, turn the toggle on.

    To configure Help Center search settings, click the Settings link. Guide will open and you’ll configure settings from there.

    If Help Center search is enabled in the Web Widget, you can filter metrics for article views and searches that originate from the Web Widget.

    Including restricted articles in Help Center search results

    If you want to include restricted Help Center content in your Web Widget results, you need to configure some other settings as well.

  • To include Contextual Help in the Web Widget, turn the toggle on.

    This option only appears when the Help Center toggle is turned on.

    Contextual Help suggests articles to the end-user that may be relevant to them, based on the page from which they accessed the Web Widget.

  • To restrict Help Center search results in the Web Widget to authenticated users on your website, click the Configure button and then follow the on-screen instructions.

  • To include Talk in the Web Widget, turn the toggle on.

    To configure Talk settings, click the Settings link. For more information, see Configuring Zendesk Talk settings for the Web Widget.

    You must have Talk Team, Professional, or Enterprise to add Talk functions to the Web Widget. If you have Talk Lite, this option is not available.

  • To remove the Zendesk logo in the Web Widget, turn the toggle off.

    This option appears only on Enterprise accounts.

  • To specify a custom color for the Web Widget, use the color picker. After you choose the color, you can close the color picker by clicking away, on any other part of the interface.

  • To specify a custom color for the text in the launcher, contact button, and header, use the color picker. After you choose the color, you can close the color picker by clicking away, on any other part of the interface.

    Elements

    If you select the Use default color based on theme check box, the Web Widget automatically chooses the text color for you based on the theme color and using an algorithm to guarantee a minimum contrast ratio as specified by the WCAG guidelines.

  • To choose a position for the Web Widget, select a position from the drop-down list. If you want the Web Widget to appear in the bottom-right corner of the page, choose Right. If you want it to appear in the lower-left corner, choose Left instead.

  • To specify the text on the Web Widget button, choose one of the options from the drop-down list.

  • To specify the text on the button that launches the contact form, choose one of the options from the drop-down list.

    Widget message button

  • To add Answer Bot to your Web Widget, turn the toggle on.

    This option only appears when the Help Center toggle is turned on.

    Answer Bot is a Guide Professional and Enterprise add-on feature.

    For more information, see Enabling and using Answer Bot in the Web Widget.

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