Olark
verifiedOlark’s simple and functional live chat features are used by thousands of businesses worldwide. Founded in 2009 and based in Wilmington, Delaware, Olark is run by a fully remote team around the world and has honed both its product capabilities and service standards to secure high satisfaction among customers. In fact, the company won the Gold Stevie Customer Service Department of the Year Award in 2017.
The Good
- Pricing
- Volume and Organization
- Automation Engagement
- Customer Service Guarantee
Pricing
Olark users have two plan options. The completely-free plan supports one agent and 20 chats per month, and the premium plan includes:
- Unlimited chats
- Transcripts
- Reporting on chat volume, agent amounts, and customer ratings regarding each chat
- Editable shortcuts for common replies
- Integrations with helpdesks, CRMs, issue trackers, Google Analytics, and more
- Pre-Chat Survey
You can do a free two-week trial for Olark Premium. After that, premium pricing costs are as follows:
- $17/agent per month billed monthly
- $15/agent per month billed yearly
- $12/agent per month billed every two years
Volume and Organization
You can add Olark to an unlimited number of domains and subdomains, but Olark keeps the chats organized by routing them to one account. You can also send your chats to specific teams, such as sales, support, and product specialists.
Automation Engagement
For premium plan users, Olark automates simple live chat messages that are triggered by customer behaviors such as location information, referring URL, and browsing behavior.
Customer Service Guarantee
Overall, Olark is committed to communicating regularly, following up as promised, admitting to mistakes, and promptly correcting them. In fact, if you are unsatisfied during your paid subscription, you can get a credit for your subscription back for that day if you email the team within 30 days of the problem.
The Olark team promises to answer chats in 12 seconds or less and to respond to emails within three hours during Pacific time working hours. In addition, the company will completely resolve cases referred to the support team within four business days.
The Bad
- No Custom CSS
No Custom CSS
Olark does not offer custom CSS. However, the customization tools provided do give you control over chatbox size, shape, location, text, and colors. Olark also offers advanced control of your chatbox behavior and appearance with Javascript API.
The Bottom Line
Olark offers all of the features we look for in live chat software at an affordable price and even for free for very small businesses. Furthermore, the company’s commitment to customer satisfaction is impressive, as evidenced by the guaranteed reimbursement credit.
As a side note, the company’s sense of humor is amusing. Olark’s Terms and Conditions include a “Mutual Beveraging” clause wherein you, as the customer, are entitled to a beverage when visiting an Olark office — as long as you return the favor if an Olark employee visits your office!
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