As the next installment in our series of articles about customer communication tools, today we will talk about Olark live chat.
In this article, we'll cover:
What Is Olark?
Olark is a cloud-based live chat software currently used by more than 10 thousand businesses globally. It is a great tool that might be leveraged by the support teams that use chat as a primary way of communication with their customers.
It is perfect for growing companies that need a simple solution for reaching their customer base. Olark reviews say it is one of the cleanest and easiest customer chat solutions.
Olark.com Reviews — Main Features
Live Chat
41% of customers prefer live chat over any other tool of communication with businesses. 79% say it is due to the possibility of getting their answers almost instantly. 51% of customers say they are willing to stay with the brand if it offers live chat support.
Olark includes the following features:
- The possibility to attach photos and screenshots to messages.
- Chat routing.
- Message tagging.
- Canned messages.
They help customer support teams provide the quickest, most optimal customer experience.
Chat Widget
Today, 41% of customers expect to see a live chat widget on a website. Olark chat window is easy-to-use, fully customizable to the customers’ preferences and gives users the possibility to send chat transcripts to their email once the dialogue is over.
Olark reviews point out that the widget is not as modern-looking as some of its alternatives.
Chat Rating
According to a BrightLocal study, 68% of customers will leave a service review and rating if asked. This makes the Olark rating feature so invaluable.
Olark reviews from businesses point out how easy the analysis process becomes with the system. It lets businesses provide the highest quality of chat communication and continuously improve their customer communication.
Dashboard and Transcripts
Olark dashboard provides support teams with the overview of the conversation. It includes:
- Chat transcripts
- Activity of the consultants
- Customers’ feedback
- Tags used
Combined with the transcripts of any conversation, stored in the Olark database, these metrics gain value when conducting a QA process.
Integrations
Olark has over 25 different official integrations. The list is so vast, it is worth looking at some of them separately.
Olark Review — What Are Core Olark Integrations?
Olark WordPress Integration
Olark-WordPress connection works like clockwork. When creating a site using WordPress, no console or plugin is needed to install an Olark chat window. Olark has the ability to integrate with WordPress built in.
This feature is highly commended by olark.com reviews from users who have created their website using WordPress.
Salesforce
By typing ‘!salesforce’ command right in the Olark chat window, a support agent can create a support case within the Salesforce system, given that this integration is installed.
By making sure the entire case-related information is stored and managed in a single system as efficient and ticket-oriented as Salesforce, support teams can optimize their processes and never waste another minute risking missing a customer ticket.
Slack
Almost 640 thousand businesses around the world use Slack as a primary way of in-team communication. It was also one of the first live chat apps to enable two-way support communication with customers right inside the app.
Appropriate in-team communication tools can increase productivity by 30%. 37% of professionals note the importance of teamwork, which is impossible if the right tools are not available. Slack merges efficient teamwork with instant customer communication, which could speed up the resolution process and increase customer satisfaction.
Zendesk
Olark chat integration can be used to either create a new customer ticket within the Zendesk system or add information into the existing one. This enables a support team to quickly and efficiently interact with the customers and provide them with support they need almost on the spot.
Google Analytics
Integration with Olark allows Google Analytics to get even more data. Creating reports and generally staying on top of your business’ performance and communication with visitors — these are the core tasks pointed out with Olark reviews.
Olark Pricing
Free Plan
Free Olark plan is quite limiting and can be suitable only for small businesses with next-to-no customer communication. There is no payment per agent per month (obviously), but there are only up to 20 chat conversations per month.
- ✅ Chat console
- ✅ Visitor file upload
- ✅ Mobile chat
- ✅ No domain limit
- ✅ API
- ✅ Attention grabber feature
- ✅ Offline messaging
- ✅ SSL Security
Standard Plan
This subscription costs $17 per agent per month. It broadens the support team’s possibilities and opens up a lot of options missing from the Free Plan.
- ✅ Chat console
- ✅ Visitor file upload
- ✅ Mobile chat
- ✅ No domain limit
- ✅ API
- ✅ Attention grabber feature
- ✅ Offline messaging
- ✅ SSL Security
- ✅ Unlimited chats
- ✅ Visitor list
- ✅ Shortcuts
- ✅ Automated messages
- ✅ Agent groups
- ✅ Reporting
- ✅ Conversation transcripts
- ✅ Integrations
Pro Plan
Pro Plan is more suitable for medium businesses. It provides Olark clients with an account manager and a vaster integrations list.
- ✅ Chat console
- ✅ Visitor file upload
- ✅ Mobile chat
- ✅ No domain limit
- ✅ API
- ✅ Attention grabber feature
- ✅ Offline messaging
- ✅ SSL Security
- ✅ Unlimited chats
- ✅ Visitor list
- ✅ Shortcuts
- ✅ Automated messages
- ✅ Agent groups
- ✅ Reporting
- ✅ Conversation transcripts
- ✅ Integrations
- ✅ Personal account manager
- ✅ Various compliances
- ✅ Priority support
Unlike its competitors, Olark does not have a lot of payment packages and cannot be deemed flexible enough for the teams that might require fast scaling or projects that experience fast or seasonal growth.
Olark Competitors
Freshdesk
Olark reviews say that Freshdesk is slower and more expensive than Olark, which is only fair, given its package of possibilities — it also supports email and phone conversations.
Zendesk
Zendesk might seem like a better solution, but it is more expensive, which makes achieving ROI that much harder.
Salesforce
Unlike www.olark.com, Salesforce is much better for big enterprises with complicated products or services. Salesforce can cover a lot of needs and is practically fully customizable. This makes it more expensive and more complicated for small teams, which can reflect on the overall productivity.
QCRM
SupportYourApp’s QCRM is used by 51% of our clients. An intuitive design of QCRM’s online chat solution, QUIDGET, is very easy to set up and navigate, which is handy when working with a big inflow of customer tickets. If in doubt about using Olark, QUIDGET is a perfect solution for a business.
Olark.com — Pros and Cons
| ✅ | ❌ |
| Transcripts are easy to search and navigate | Doesn’t provide the possibility to launch email campaigns or have pop-ups |
| Paid plans have very few differences | Free plan is very limited in functionality |
| Detailed chat rating system | No AI/ML or chatbot option |
| Vast list of integrations | Automation is very limited |
| Perfect for small to medium businesses | Does not suit large or growing teams |
Olark reviews point out its limited abilities along with its easy setup and interface. It is a very good solution for small to medium businesses that do not have a lot of requirements and do not run a complicated product.
Bigger businesses with complicated requests need to look towards a better and more feature-rich customer communication solution.
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Having been one of the core parts of SupportYourApp, Nick helped to support 50+ products before realizing his vocation of building support processes and integrating all the necessary tools. During the last 5 years he worked with various companies from all around the world, helping them launch their service with SupportYourApp.
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