Context capture
ZChat custom fields let you gather order numbers, account IDs, product selections, severity levels, and other business-specific details without bending your support process around a generic hosted form. Add text inputs, email fields, and dropdown selects to the pre-chat form, mark any of them required, and the answers stay attached to the conversation record.
Capture the data that tells your team what kind of problem or opportunity is about to enter the queue.
Use structured context to send visitors toward the operator or department that can help them fastest.
Custom inputs stay associated with the conversation so follow-up support is better informed.
Ask for the information your team cares about instead of forcing customers through a one-size-fits-all support form.
Present the right questions at the right stage so chat starts with useful context instead of repetitive clarification.
The default pre-chat form asks for a name, an email and a message. That is fine for a marketing site and useless for a support desk that needs an order number before it can help anyone.
Add short text, email or dropdown fields with your own options - order number, account ID, severity, product line. Mark each one required or optional. They render alongside the built-in controls without any front-end work.
Answers are stored with the conversation and shown to the agent who accepts it, so the first reply can be about the actual problem rather than three messages of gathering basics.
Every submission is re-checked against your definition. An undefined field is rejected, and a dropdown value you never offered is rejected. A crafted form post cannot inject fields you did not create.
Each conversation keeps a snapshot of the definition as it stood when the chat began. Edit or retire a question tomorrow and yesterday's transcripts still read correctly.
Short text, email, and dropdown selections with your own options. Each field can be marked required or optional, and they appear on the pre-chat form alongside the built-in name, email and department controls.
Yes. Answers are stored with the conversation and shown to the agent who takes it, so the person replying already has the order number or account ID before the first message.
The server re-validates every submission against its own field definition. A field that was never defined is rejected, and a dropdown value that was not among the options you offered is rejected too - the browser is never trusted to describe your own form.
No. Each conversation keeps a snapshot of the field definition as it was when that chat started, so editing or removing a question does not rewrite the history of conversations already captured.
With the session, in your own SQL Server database, and included in transcript exports.
ZChat gives you the installable server, web dashboard, website widget, and desktop agent tools in one self-hosted product you buy once and keep. Run it on infrastructure you trust and connect AI only if and how you want it.
Deployment
Install on Windows or Linux, behind IIS or Nginx, in a VM, or in Docker if that fits your stack.
Commercial model
One-time purchase, perpetual license, and no monthly per-agent bill attached to growth.
AI Flexibility
Use Ollama locally or connect OpenAI and Anthropic with your own provider accounts.