What Is Widget On A Website?

Widget is a small piece of code or application that can be embedded on a website.

Widgets are usually created with HTML, JavaScript, or other web-based technologies and provide users with additional features or interactive content on their websites. Common widgets include social media sharing buttons, weather forecast displays, live chat boxes, and even e-commerce functionality. By using widgets, website owners can create a more interactive and engaging experience for their users without having to manually code complex features into the website.

The most popular web widgets for small businesses and e-commerce websites offer access to customer support or customer success teams to help drive sales or answer common questions.

A website widget for customer service gives your users direct access to contact you or to quickly browse your knowledge base.

Support widgets make it easy for customers to get help on every web page of your site. No need to scroll to find an FAQ link. Or to search the site for a “contact us” form. This little bubble packs a big CX punch.

The goals of a support web widget are to:

Nudge customers to use self-service resources,

Allow visitors to easily message your team, and

Enable them to start a live chat conversation.

Adding a web widget increases support visibility, customer engagement, and just about every other aspect of the customer experience.

 

Web widget examples

Let’s take a look at a few different examples of Groove’s support widget out in the wild. Any business can benefit from a website widget. The examples below range from SaaS to e-commerce to education.

We’ll start by focusing on customization features of the widget. Align your widget design to look and feel similar to your website aesthetic.

Even the little widget icon or help bubble can make a big difference in customer engagement and user experience. Make sure it speaks to your overall brand.

Once you “pop” open the bubble, even more customizations allow you to adjust colors, logos, and text. Keep everything consistent so customers don’t feel disrupted at any point in their journey.

For those with a knowledge base, a web widget encourages visitors to check it out before emailing support.

Your customers will end up finding answers through self-service resources rather than needing to email you or reach out through social media and wait for a response. It’s a win for you both.

And—this is pretty cool—when visitors start typing their inquiry, the Groove widget automatically recommends certain knowledge base articles.

UX gets a nice bump with these kinds of features—they’re proactive and customer-centric. These little things add up to make a huge impact on customer experience.

For the things you can’t be proactive about or resolve via self-service, a web widget offers easy access to your customer service team (or to whoever is answering emails).

It eliminates any friction preventing customers from getting in touch with you. No need to scour your web page for a contact form. No need to compose a new email. They click one button and they’re done.

For those without a knowledge base, you can use your widget to simply offer direct access to support.

 

The Advantages of Using Widgets

Simpler Maintenance: most people don’t know how to read code, much less edit it. With a widget, they won’t have to. Depending on what tool they got the widget from, the steps to updating the widget could be as simple as toggling on a feature or choosing a color from a drop down option.

Reduced Development Costs: hiring someone to develop a code for your website will cost a lot more than hiring someone who has access to widgets. The reason being that a coder will develop a much more customized website feature for you, and customization takes extra time and effort.

More Interactive: the purpose of most widgets are to offer more interaction on your website. This is important for anyone who owns a website, since interactive elements engage your website visitors and keep them on your website for longer.

More Customized: just using the tools that a website builder gives you can make your website look similar to other businesses using the same website builder. If you have your own widgets, not only will you have a unique feature, but you will also stand out from you competition.