Question

What is the difference between the contact form and the offline form?

Answer

The contact form and the offline form have the same function. They capture a customer's request or message through the Web Widget. Because they have the same function, you cannot enable both at the same time.

Offline form

The offline form is a Chat feature that works well for Chat standalone accounts. It allows customers to send an offline message through the Chat widget. The offline message is then stored in your Chat history and a copy of the message is sent to the agent and administrator's email if the offline notification is enabled.

For more information about the offline message notification, see the articles: Editing your chat notification settings and Changing your email notification preferences

The offline form does not automatically create tickets. To configure ticket creation for your offline messages, see the article: Setting up Zendesk Chat in Zendesk Support.

Contact form

The contact form, on the other hand, is a Web Widget feature that allows customers to create tickets. This form is ideal for accounts that use Support. It has additional functionality and allows you to use your ticket forms and custom ticket fields in the Web Widget.

For more information on how to use your ticket forms in the Web Widget, see the article: Using custom ticket fields and ticket forms with the Web Widget.

Note: If the contact form and offline forms are both enabled, the pre-chat form will still display offline Chat departments in the drop-down field.