Web widget that facilitates telephone calls with customer-support agents and other customer-support services

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by a computer cause the computer to perform a method for providing customer-support services to a user of a website through a web widget, the method comprising:

• when the user accesses a web page containing the web widget, automatically making a call from the web widget to a customer-support system;
• in response to the call, obtaining status information from the customer-support system, wherein the status information indicates whether customer-support agents are available to take telephone phone calls;
• if the status information indicates customer-support agents are available to take telephone calls, providing a call-related interface to the user through the web widget, wherein the call-related interface is configured to facilitate a telephone call with a customer-support agent;
• and
• if the status information indicates customer-support agents are not available to take telephone calls, providing a non-call-related interface to the user through the web widget, wherein the non-call-related interface is configured to facilitate an alternative channel of customer support that does not involve a telephone call.

A system that provides customer-support services to a user of a website through a web widget, comprising:

• at least one processor and at least one associated memory;
• and
• a customer-support system, which executes on the at least one processor, wherein during operation, the customer-support system:
• automatically makes a call from the web widget to a customer-support system when the user accesses a web page containing the web widget,
• in response to the call, obtains status information from the customer-support system, wherein the status information indicates whether customer-support agents are available to take telephone phone calls,
• if the status information indicates customer-support agents are available to take telephone calls, provides a call-related interface to the user through the web widget, wherein the call-related interface is configured to facilitate a telephone call with a customer-support agent, and
• if the status information indicates customer-support agents are not available to take telephone calls, provides a non-call-related interface to the user through the web widget, wherein the non-call-related interface is configured to facilitate an alternative channel of customer support that does not involve a telephone call.