Vendor:
Founded:
Headquarters:
Olark
2009
Ann Arbor, MI
Customers:
Deployment Model:
Free Trial:
40,000+
Cloud
Yes
Olark At A Glance
Product Overview
The Olark live chat software enables companies to provide exceptional and quick support to their customers. Users can deploy a chatbox on their website that captures a visitor’s information in real time and then routes the visitor to the right agent. They can also analyze agent responsiveness and other metrics in order to improve customer service.
Olark has many benefits, including:
- Quicker alternative in responding to customers compared to phone or email
- Chatbox availability even when agents are offline
- Ability to manage chatbox on multiple websites from one account
- Integration with customer relationship management (CRM) software and other third-party applications
- All-inclusive pricing plan that’s based on a per agent, per month strategy
Features
Here are some of Olark’s key features.
Customization – Olark has customizable chatbox options, such as color, shape (button or tab), position and appearance (rounded or sharp corners). It supports an unlimited number of domains, so users can place a chatbox on multiple websites. They can also attach their company logo to the chatbox, and agents can upload their headshots as gravatars.
The software has a drag-and-drop custom form builder where users can add questions, messages and call-to-action links. The form asks for a visitor’s information before a chat is initiated, and those responses can be saved in a transcript or sent via email.
Automated live chat messages – Users can create automated live chat messages that are based on triggers, such as visitor location, referring URL or browsing behavior. They can also set up canned responses for frequently asked questions.
Analytics – The software provides real-time reports and analytics on metrics including chat volume, agent activity and customer satisfaction. Users can sort and filter chats by conversational tags or satisfaction ratings. They can also receive summary reports by email daily, weekly or monthly, and they can export data to Google Analytics for further analysis.
Live chat transcripts – A live chat transcript stores the data on each visitor (e.g., name, email, location and page they landed on), their chat rating and the entire conversation. Users can search, sort and filter the transcripts in different ways, such as by tags, keywords and dates.
Other chat tools – Agents can share files (e.g., PDF, JPEG, GIF) via the chatbox, transfer chats and receive new message notifications. Supervisors can create groups for routing chats by department or specialty. In addition, Olark has two chat routing types: “round robin” (new chat assigned to the next available agent) and “all agents” (chat stays open until an agent answers it). Supervisors can also monitor the agent activity and chat volume in real time and limit the number of chats per agent.
PowerUps – Olark offers four add-on features called PowerUps. The Visitor Cobrowsing feature lets visitors share their screens with the agent, so the agent can provide personalized guidance. And with the Visitor Insights feature, users can collect real-time visitor data from public social media profiles and company websites.
The Live Chat Translation feature automatically detects the visitor’s language and translate both the visitor’s and agent’s chats in real time. Finally, with the last add-on feature, users can opt to have a non-branded chatbox that removes the Olark link.
Target Market
Olark targets companies of all sizes and industries. We’ve listed 10 of its clients below.
- BlueSpot Furniture Systems
- ClickMechanic
- Collage.com
- Cram Fighter
- The Gear Centre
- Mobility Scooters Direct
- Reno Assistance
- RiverMend
- Tinfoil Security
- Upper 90 Soccer
Implementation/Integration
Users can sign up for a 14-day free trial. After the trial ends, they can opt for a subscription plan or downgrade to a free account that has limited features, accommodates a single agent and has a maximum of 20 chats per month.
Olark integrates with CRM software (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot, SugarCRM), BigCommerce, MailChimp, Google Analytics and WordPress. Clients can also integrate Olark with their own systems via Webhooks or Javascript API.
Customer Service & Support
Users can access the help center to browse setup guides and other articles, open a ticket or contact tech support via chat, email or Twitter.
Pricing
Companies can choose to pay for a monthly, annual or biannual subscription plan. The monthly subscription starts at $19 per agent, per month and users can cancel at any time. The annual subscription is $15 per agent, per month and the biannual subscription is $12 per agent, per month.
The subscription plans cover Olark’s core features. The prices for each PowerUp feature are: Visitor Cobrowsing ($99 per month), Visitor Insights (ranges from $59 per month to $99 per month), Live Chat Translation ($29 per month) and Non-Branded Chatbox ($59 per month).
Shortcomings
Olark doesn’t have a native mobile app, but it does integrate with other third-party apps.
Screenshots
About
Olark’s mission is to help businesses achieve sustainable long-term growth by connecting with their customers at the right time. It adheres by certain standards, such as responding to customers’ chats or emails as quickly as possible, understanding how a company’s problem is impacting its business and following up regularly on a support case. Olark also engages in an All Hands Support practice, where each employee, regardless of their role, takes regular chat support shifts. This gives all employees an opportunity to connect with their customers.
Olark has earned recognition in recent years, including the 2017 Stevie Gold Winner for Sales & Customer Support, and it has over 40,000 customers in 170 countries. While Olark was originally founded in Palo Alto, CA, it’s a fully remote company of employees spanning three continents.
