Olark

WordPress

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HubSpot

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Salesforce

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Slack

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Zendesk

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Front

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Help Scout

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Desk

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SugarCRM

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Mailchimp

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Drupal

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Google Analytics

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WooCommerce

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BigCommerce

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ActiveCampaign

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Magento

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GreenRope

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Constant Contact

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Squarespace

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Zapier

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Pardot

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Shopify

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Google Meet

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Zoom

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Calendly

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Webhooks

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2023 Higher Education Marketing Report | Olark live chat

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:34:34 +0000

Adler University uses Olark live chat and Salesforce to boost masters and doctoral enrollment

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:34:34 +0000

AMA Higher Ed Marketers Want to know how live chat makes student engagement easy?

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Camp North Star uses Olark to lower barriers to a sale

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Chippewa Valley Technical College uses Olark to boost applications and streamline recruiting

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Command Alkon uses Olark to convert 100s of landing page visitors into valuable B2B leads

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Creative Bag uses Olark CoPilot to automate up to 80% of support responses

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:34:34 +0000

FeneTech reaches new ERP leads worth $100,000s with Olark on WordPress

Fri, 05 Jun 2026 09:34:34 +0000

Franklin University uses Olark’s CoPilot and Slate integration to answer admissions questions 24/7

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Fruition uses Olark and Salesforce to nurture quality enterprise leads

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Higher Ed Enrollment Website Chat Checklist

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How to Make More Sales with Website Chat

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How to Staff Live Chat for Higher Ed. Enrollment Teams

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IMG Academy qualified 71% of their live chat leads

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Keiphone uses Olark to convert up to 1000 new customers a month

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Live chat + Slate makes student engagement easy

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PJ Power closes $258K+ in ecommerce sales push with support of Olark live chat

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Sleeping Duck customers request their favorite agents on Olark

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Sterlitech uses Olark live chat and Salesforce to convert high-value B2B filtration customers

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The City of Vancouver fields 5,000+ service requests monthly with Olark live chat

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Tired of leads slipping through the net? Meet your sales targets stress-free with live chat for manufacturers

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Tired of leads slipping through the net? Seize every sales opportunity with live chat

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Zack Academy sees 4.5x more customer conversions from live chat than non-chat methods

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Introducing: AI Analyst

Fri, 13 Mar 2026 00:00:00 +0000

At Olark, we’re working on features that allow your team to get the most out of your customer interactions. We’re super excited to share the latest update: AI Analyst.

🤖 Aiden Setup in Minutes: No IT Team Required. 🤖

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Live Search is here, and now Aiden learns faster than ever. Copy, paste, and go! Add your URL to you your AI dashoard and forget about it. Aiden will take it from there!

Olark SMS and WhatsApp Integration: Reduce Friction, Win More Business

Wed, 03 Dec 2025 00:00:00 +0000

With Olark, customers can reach you on SMS or WhatsApp as naturally as texting a friend. Once they add your business to their contacts, you’re one tap away: no links, no website, no friction. And friction is the enemy of repeat business and new business. The easier it is to get in touch, the faster conversations turn into opportunities. Everything still comes straight into your Olark inbox, so you widen your reach without complicating your workflow.

Introducing GSAT: Goal Satisfaction Scores built into Olark

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

If you are on a customer facing team, we have a tool we think you’ll love! We are calling it GSAT (for Goal Satisfaction). With GSAT you can now see the inquiries your customers make, by inquiry topic, and whether your team was able to successfully satisfy them. It’s a nifty and powerful tool for your customer success toolbelt!

3DCart integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

3DCart is a shopping cart storefront used by many Olark customers. Putting Olark onto your 3DCart pages just couldn’t be easier using our quick guide.

Installation Steps:

In your 3dcart store manager page click on Settings > Design > Template Editor

Open up the page template you want to put the chat box on. You will want to do the following steps for each template that you are using on your site - for any pages that you would like the chat box to appear on (we recommend all of them).

Accessibility

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

What accessibility standards does Olark meet?

Olark’s chatbox widget meets WCAG 2.1 AA and Section 508 requirements

Many websites use live chat software. Some people who use live chat also use accessibility features. Accessibility features include screen readers, visual notifications, and high contrast browsing. This article reflects another digital accessibility feature which is plain language.

Olark strives to ensure that all website visitors have equal access to chat. We believe in and advocate for digital accessibility. Everyone benefits from it. It drives our work and product goals. Our commitment to accessibility lives within our organizational culture and values.

Accessing Visitor IP Addresses in Olark (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

Where can I find visitor IP addresses?

As of October 25th, 2019, you cannot see your visitor’s IP address in the chat console by default. You will need to click on the “Reveal IP address” link within the chat conversation’s “Additional info” panel.

ActiveCampaign integration guide (via Zapier)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

NOTE: This help article is intended for customers on our self-serve level of service. If you are an Olark Pro customer, your integration likely will work differently. Please reach out to pro@olark.com for help with setting up your integration.

With the Olark and ActiveCampaign integration, you can add new contacts or update existing contacts in ActiveCampaign with new Olark chat messages and transcripts.

This integration requires a Zapier account.

Setup Steps

To setup ActiveCampaign with Olark, you’ll first need to login to your Zapier account and click on the Make a Zap button in the upper left corner.
Under step one, choose Olark as the app and New Message as the event, and click the Continue button to setup the Webhook.
To setup the Webhook, copy the Webhook URL and login to your Olark dashboard. Head over to Integrations > Webhooks. Under Connect a Webhook , paste the Webhook URL into the URL to post to box. Make sure the first three checkboxes are checked to send transcripts automatically, send offline messages and all events. Click Save.
Next, setup your ActiveCampaign account in step two. Choose ActiveCampaign as the app and Create/Update Contact as the event. Choose the ActiveCampaign account you wish to sync with Olark messages. Customize the contact information to sync between Olark and ActiveCampaign. The email address is the only required field, but you can add additional fields like first and last name, phone number, etc., to create better customer profiles. Click Continue.
Now, you can click the Test & Continue button. As long as everything is working properly, you can now turn the Zap on.

Testing

To test the Zap yourself, head over to your website and start a chat. When a customer inputs their email address (or other information) into the pre-chat form, it will automatically add the new contact to your ActiveCampaign contact list.

ActiveDEMAND integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Using Olark & ActiveDEMAND together

This integration makes it easy to connect your Olark chat contacts and transcripts to ActiveDEMAND for your marketing automation. With a few quick steps outlined below, you’ll be able to connect your Olark and ActiveDEMAND accounts and provide a streamlined experience for your site visitors.

Make sure you have both the ActiveDEMAND and Olark scripts on your site.
Log in and copy your Olark embed code.
ActiveDEMAND will automatically detect Olark and scrape all conversations to insert them into the timeline. It will even detect email addresses embedded in the conversation and associate them with the visitor.
You can even use the !ad_info command to see the ActiveDEMAND link for the visitor during a chat.

Adding a Click-to-Chat Link

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Being able to make any image or link bring up the Olark chat box lets you highlight your live chat service anywhere on your site. As with all the examples below, we recommend choosing the “hidden by default” widget visibility option so that your chat box is hidden until someone clicks the link.

Note:You need to be on a paid account in order to enable** Hide the chatbox by default** setting.

Adding an Agent

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Here’s how to invite a new agent to your Olark account. You will need admin-level access on your Olark account to invite new agents.

Visit your Team page.
Select the blue Invite Agent button at the top-left section of the page. If the button displays no available seats, you will need to first adjust your billing details or deactivate a current agent on your team.

Enter the agent’s email address where the invitation will be sent. If your account uses agent groups for chat routing, select the group you’d like to categorize the agent under. You will also set the agent’s privileges to Admin or Agent when creating their invitation.

Adium setup guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

We recommend using Adium with Olark as it lets you log in using multiple screen names simultaneously, separating business and personal chats for example.

Setup Steps

Download and install Adium
Launch Adium and enter Preferences from the Adium menu options.
Select the Accounts tab.
Click on the + icon to add your Olark account. Depending on your version of Adium, choose either Jabber or XMPP from the drop down menu.
Fill in the Jabber ID field with your Olark username, including @olark.com. Enter your Olark agent password. Click OK. Do NOT click Register New Account.
Having issues connecting? Under the Options section, ensure that the Port is set to 5222 and type in ip-jabber.olark.com in the Connect Server section.
Select Available in the status menu to bring your Olark account online.

You’re all set to chat!

Admin-only accounts

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We offer two (2) seat types:

‍Admin Seats

Admin seats have access to all account settings (e.g., billing, Automation Rules, etc.) as well as all of the functionality of an Agent seat.

It’s not possible to have an Admin-only account purely for the purposes of supervising. Anyone needing to access the Olark account will need their own individual agent seat.

‍Agent Seats

Agent seats have access to only chat transcripts, as well as being able to edit their own profile and view their own chat ratings. Agents will not have access to important account components such as creating groups, adjusting or viewing billing information, or creating Automation Rules.

Advanced SalesForce Field Mapping

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Creating and sending custom fields

Just creating leads and cases from live chat is a great start, but if you’re comfortable getting just a little more technical, you can also use the Olark API to update custom Salesforce fields—which means you can store the kind of detailed information that really helps you connect to your customers when you have repeated interactions with them. Since custom fields are… well, custom, we need you to tell us where to store your data, and what data to store.

Agent Activity

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Agent Activity (Summary)

This view provides an overview of important agent metrics. You can see which agents are online in real-time, look at average response times, see the total number of chats and more.

Administrators can view information for all agents on their account, while agents can only view their own data.

Selecting a date range will update the averages summary boxes. Each average has a typical value to compare against. Depending on the date range chosen, the typical value will be for a particular weekday, week, month or custom date range.

Agent Commands (Olark classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Olark commands give your agents quick access to the most useful tools during a chat conversation for creating leads, transferring chats, and helping customers.

To use an Olark Command, just type in the command you wish to use into your active chat conversation, and our system will automatically detect it and do what you want it to do. Don’t worry - the visitor you ’re talking to won’t see anything.

Agent to agent chats (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Agent to agent chat is currently only available in Olark Classic.

How to chat with another agent

Agents can chat with each other right from their Agents list! View the Agents section of your chat console to see who is online.

In the Agents list, click on the name of the agent you want to chat with and send them a message like any other chat.

Attention Grabber (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

The attention grabber feature has been retired effective February 2021 with the release of our new chatbox design.

While it does not duplicate the feature exactly, there is an option to change your default chatbox bubble to a custom image. You can do so using a click to chat image. This does require the use of our self-serve API.

Automated email reports

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Admins on paid accounts can receive daily, weekly or monthly reports of chat activity directly to their email inbox with automated email reports.

Choose how often, what content, and which agent group the report should pertain to. Reports are delivered at 8am on the day specified (make sure you’ve got the correct timezone selected in your user settings.)

A report will not be sent if there is no activity during the specified time period.

Automatic replies for delayed chats

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

‍

Using the Olark api you can send your visitors a response if your agent does not reply to a message right away.

This script will automatically send a message to your visitor within 45 seconds of the agent not responding. Note that this script will only send a message to the visitor if the agent has never responded to them.

Important Notice: We’ll do our best to help with any questions you have. The API is intended to be self-serve for web developers, so we’re not able to write or debug your own code.

Automation Rules (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

**NOTE: This help article is intended for customers on our self-serve level of service. If you are an Olark Pro customer and have a chatbot, your automation rules may conflict with your chatbot. Please reach out to pro@olark.com for help with setting up any automations. **

Big Cartel integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Big Cartel is a simple shopping cart for clothing designers, bands, jewellers, crafters, and other artists. Integrate with Olark live chat in a few minutes.

Note: You need to be on a paid Big Cartel plan in order to edit the HTML and insert the Olark chat box. Sign up to Big Cartel now.

Installation steps

From your admin panel, choose Store and then Settings.
Enable Maintenance mode and Save.

BigCommerce Integration Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

It’s easier than ever to take advantage of Olark live chat in your Bigcommerce store. Use this quick guide to install Olark on your site. Do note, that Bigcommerce has a lot of different permissions levels. If you don’t see any of these options, please check that you have the appropriate rights.

There are two ways to install Olark on your page depending on what kind of bigcommerce theme you use. We will walk through both ways.

Billing errors

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Having trouble paying us? We recommend trying again with a different card or contacting your bank to determine the cause of the error.

Payment is declined

When a payment is declined, for reasons of privacy credit card companies don’t give the vendors (in this case, Olark) a reason for why a payment is declined. There are however two common reasons which solve most of these declined errors.

One is insufficient funds on the card. The second is that the card company flagged the payment as suspicious or potentially fraudulent. The way to solve that would be to contact the card company to get them authorize the transaction and then you can try again.

Block a Troublesome Chatter (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

Sometimes it’s useful to be able to block a certain visitor. Whether it be your development team and colleagues that have no need to chat with you or a persistent troll distracting your support team, we have you covered.

Block an IP Address (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

Sometimes it’s useful to be able to block a certain visitor. Whether it’s your development team and colleagues that have no need to chat with you or a persistent troll distracting your support team, we have you covered.

Blogger integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

‍Warning: Google can occasionally remove a blog for installing 3rd party Javascript it detects as being malicious. While Olark is not malicious code, we have no control over when this can happen.

Blogger is a free blog publishing tool from Google, for sharing your text, photos and video. You can integrate Olark with your blogger HTML template.

Steps to install the chatbox on Blogger

Go to your blogger dashboard and click on Layout

Browser extensions known to conflict with Olark

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

These browser extensions are known to cause issues with Olark. ‍

‍We do not recommend having these extensions enabled/active while using Olark.

Extension list:

‍

Adblock Plus
Avira Browser Safety
Cloudflare Rocket Loader
Covenant Eyes
Ghostery
Grammarly
Pop-up Blocker Pro

** Please note: This list is not all inclusive and other plugins or extensions can cause conflicts with Olark.**

Browser Support

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

The Olark chatbox widget that is installed on your website is tested to work with the following browsers:

Desktop

Chrome
Firefox
Microsoft Edge
Safari
Opera

Mobile

Chrome for Android 4.4 and up
Chrome for IOS
Safari for IOS 8 and up

Both Olark Classic agent chat (chat.olark.com) and the new chat interface (app.olark.com) work in modern versions of Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, and Safari.

Calendly Integration Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Setup

Find your permanent link in Calendly by pressing Account on the right-side of the top ribbon bar on your Calendly dashboard.
After pressing Account , select the menu option Share Your Link.
Copy your link as your final step within Calendly.

Go to Agent Tools in Olark.
Press the + Add Shortcut button.
Name the shortcut ‘calendly’ or even use an abbreviation like ‘cal’!

Chat Console Connection Issues (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

Even if you don’t notice your connection dropping, your computer and Olark may be unable to communicate with each other for a brief period.

Symptoms of this may include undelivered messages, being set to a “Disconnected” status, or an incorrect status being shown to visitors. This can be caused by a number of things and include the following items: browser, network (either yours or the network on your visitor’s end), and computer.

Chatbox language options

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

When you sign up for an Olark account, you’ll be prompted to choose your default language. If your language is not supported or you want to use multiple languages this article will show you how.

If you only need to support one language at a time, all of the chat text can be changed on the Chat Widget settings page of your Olark dashboard. Note that changing the language settings will undo any changes you’ve made in the text boxes, so make sure to select your language before making any customizations. Code based localization calls like olark.configure('system.localization', '...') will take precedence over changes you make in the admin settings.

Chatlio vs. Olark

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Chatlio Alternative: Embed Slack with advanced live chat features

Do you want to embed Slack into your website so you can talk to your team and your customers from one place? Are you looking for more than the basic live chat features?

Olark’s Slack integration allows your team the options to work in Slack, chat from our easy to use native chat console, or use a third-party app.

Chatlio relies on Zapier and Webhooks to share data with your CRM, CMS and other tools. Olark offers more than 20 integrations and plugins allowing you to connect your favorite sales and support software to chat.

Chatting Across Subdomains

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Do you have multiple subdomains on your website? For example, you might have payments.fancyflowervases.com and www.fancyflowervases.com.

Wildcard method

If you want Olark conversations to continue across all of your subdomains, go to the Chat Widget settings page and tell us your main domain in the Allowed Domains section. You can use an asterisk (*) to automatically include all the subdomains associated with your domain: * .fancyflowervases.com

Now visitors will be able to continue their chats when they go from one subdomain to another. Cool!

Consent for Recording Chat Messages

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Disclosure language

You may have noticed that Olark uses the following language on our chatbox relating to consent:

_" Olark keeps transcripts of our chats. If you would like more information, our _Privacy Policy is available here. “
‍

Reasoning

Why does Olark do this? We want it to be very clear to our customers and website users that we are recording the transcript of the chat. Please see more information on our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

Constant Contact integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Trying to get more out of your email marketing efforts with live chat? You can add Olark on your Constant Contact website in just a few simple steps!

Installation steps

Log into your Constant Contact account.
Click on the Website button on the top-right corner of your dashboard.
After clicking on the Manage Your Sites button, Find the site you want to add Olark live chat and click the Edit Site button
Click on the Settings icon at the top of the page, and then HTML Injection from there. Log into your Olark account, copy your Olark code snippet, and paste it into the Footer HTML section in Constant Contact
Be sure to click the blue Publish button at the top-right corner of your Constant Contact dashboard to see your chatbox on your site

Voila! Your visitors on your Constant Contact site will now be able to chat with you through Olark.

Content Security Policy (CSP) Support

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Some websites may have additional security protections using a technology called Content Security Policy (CSP). You can read more about CSP if you are curious.

CSP-friendly installation

Olark is CSP friendly. You can find your Olark installation snippet in your account dashboard. Make sure to include the Olark install snippet in its own .js file.

One of the following directives will be required for Olark to work with CSP:

default-src 'self' *.olark.com olark-file-uploads.s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com; style-src 'unsafe-inline'

Conversion tracking with Google Analytics

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Universal Analytics has been deprecated

Note: This article references Google’s Universal Analytics which has been deprecated as of July, 2023.

‍

If you’re using Olark for sales, then you’ll want to know if it’s actually worth the money you’re paying for it. In other words, does Olark live chat help convert more visitors and increase your revenue? And which of your chat agents are closing the most sales through Olark live chat?

CoreCommerce integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

CoreCommerce is an all-in-one hosted shopping cart for your online ecommerce store with FTP access and shared SSL. Integrate it with your Olark live chat.

Installation instructions

Log in to your Core Commerce Account.
Hover over the green Design Tab in the Menu bar. Select Advanced Options
Under Edit HTML/CSS, there is an option for drop down menus. Depending on where you want to install the widget it needs to be added to either the Footer.html or Header.html.

CS-Cart integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

This tutorial shows you how to install Olark on your CS-Cart shopping cart software site, helping you chat to visitors while they browse your site.

Installation steps

Navigate through your template files and open the index.tpl file in the template’s root.

Scroll down to the bottom of the index.tpl file. Above the tag, write these two tags:

Cubecart integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

CubeCart is free eCommerce shopping cart software which you can integrate with your Olark live chat.

Install Olark on CubeCart

In the Cubecart Admin panel click on Live Help.

Click on the Olark Logo.

Enter your Olark Site ID, make sure the check mark is green to enable the module, and then click Save.

Custom Integrations

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

NOTE: This help article is intended for customers on our self-serve level of service. If you are an Olark Pro customer, your integration likely will work differently. Please reach out to pro@olark.com for help with setting up your integration.

Out of the box, Olark offers many ways to integrate with other services. From CRMs and HelpDesks to Analytics Services and Shopping Carts.

If you are looking for an integration that matches your specific need, you can use one of our two custom integration strategies:

Debug Info for Olark Chat

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Occasionally, an Olark agent might ask you for debug information from your chat.olark.com session in order to better investigate an issue you’re having.

Enable debug mode in Olark Classic

To gather this information, hit the shortcut Shift + . or Shift + > in your browser while on the chat.olark.com page. Your cursor should not be in the text box when trying use the Shift + . or Shift + > shortcut.

Design

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Time to get creative! Check out the Design section of your Olark dashboard to customize the design of your chat widget.

Colors

The Color Options design tab will allow you to change both the primary and secondary colors of your chat widget. You can choose one of our pre-selected colors, enter in your own color hex code, or even use our drop down color picker to select a color!

On the right side of the screen, you’ll see an example showcase of what your selections will appear as for your visitors. You’ll see what the widget looks like for desktop or mobile users, minimized, expanded, offline, and online. You can even adjust the chat window between a light or dark theme!

Desk integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Retired

On August 31, 2019, Olark will be retiring our integration with Desk.

Unfortunately, we’ve received numerous reports of major issues with the Desk integration — you’ve likely noticed some of these problems yourself. After investigating, we’ve come to the difficult conclusion that we can’t reasonably expect to provide a good experience for Desk users. We’re bummed, but stability and quality are very important to us, and we’re not comfortable continuing to offer a feature that doesn’t work consistently.

Desktop Notifications (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

Google Chrome, Safari, Firefox and Microsoft Edge will each allow you to display desktop notifications when you receive a new chat. This is enabled through our Chat Console to better alert you when you have a new message! Once you’re inside the Chat Console, click on the gear icon near the top-left corner of the screen. Near the bottom of the Preferences window, you’ll be able to enable notifications.

Develop Command (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

The !develop command opens a built-in debugging tool for Olark on your website. This can help you mimic the behavior of different website visitors. You use the command from the Agent side. The debugging tools will show on the visitor’s end.

Disable visitor information (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

In the Olark settings panel, there is an option to “Disable Visitor Information”

Enabling this option will remove some of the information you see when a visitor initiates a chat. The information removed is shown with an arrow below:

Does Olark slow my page down?

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The Olark chat box loads asynchronously - meaning that it loads “in the background”, and should not block the loading of the rest of your site’s content.

There are cases where it may seem like Olark is slowing your site down. For reference, we have collected the most common questions we get about Olark and page speed like:

Why does Olark load so many resources, even after the chat box has finished loading?

Drupal integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Learn how to integrate Olark with Drupal, the free software that allows you to easily organize, manage and publish your content, with many customization options.

Drupal 8 & 9

From your Drupal admin panel, click on: Configuration > Text formats & editors > (+ Add text formats)
Create a new format and name it something like, “Unfiltered”. Make sure all filters are disabled and then save.
From the top of the page, navigate through: Manage > Structure > Block Layout > Custom block library > (+ Add custom block)

ekmPowershop integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Install our Olark live chat on ekmPowershop, an easy to use hosted ecommerce software solution that offers everything you need to sell your products online.

Installation steps

Log into your ekmpowershop administration area
Go to Design and click Change template

Choose " I wish to use a custom design for my online shop “

Click " I wish to modify an existing ekmpowershop template

Email a Transcript to a Visitor

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

The !send command allows you to forward a chat transcript via email during a chat conversation with a visitor.

Examples and Usage

In your chat conversation, type one of the following and hit return or enter.

!send - emails the transcript to the visitor’s email (if available).
!send test@olark.com - emails the transcript to test@olark.com.
!send test@olark.com, another.test@olark.com - emails the transcript to both email addresses.

Notes

Using the !send command on its own will send to the visitor’s email.
If the visitor doesn’t have an email, the agent will see an error returned in the chat.
The agent receives a notification that the email is sending. They’ll receive a notification if there is an error sending the transcript, but not if the email bounces at the visitor’s end. The agent also does not receive a notification that the email was delivered.
The visitor does not receive a notification in the chat that the email was sent.
There is not currently an option to automatically email transcripts to visitors.
Visitors cannot currently use the command themselves, however once the chat has ended the visitor will have the option to email themselves a transcript of the conversation.
The !send command will send the contents of the conversation up to that point. Any content after the !send command is used will be emailed later.
Transcript emails cannot currently be localized into different languages.
You can email a chat transcript after a chat has ended from the Transcripts page.

Emailed CSV reports

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You can have a CSV report emailed to you containing all known information about your chats over a designated time period. Here’s a breakdown of each of the field names you’ll see for each chat.

Please note, the timezone used in these reports is the timezone specified on the main admin agent account in Olark. You can edit those settings in your User Settings.

Report content and field descriptions

Chat Details

Emojis

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Part of our goal at Olark is making business human. What better way to humanize your business than to show your customers how you’re feeling? 🙂 Olark offers emoji support within the chat console (for agents) and chat widget (for visitors).

Using emoji in chat

To insert an emoji within a conversation, type the emoji code and surround it with colons. For example - :smile:

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List of emoji codes and corresponding emoji

The following codes will allow you (or your visitors) to add emojis within a conversation:

Ending a Chat (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

Sometimes you will want to signal to your visitor that the conversation has ended. You can use the !end command to end the chat.

The end chat command sends a predefined chat ended message to your visitor at the end of a conversation. You can use this predefined message to remind your visitors that the conversation has ended but that they can still chat to you or provide a link to where they may find more support options.

Enforcing offline hours

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There may be cases where you want to force Olark to display as unavailable even when you have available agents - for example, if you want to enforce particular off-hours in the evening.

Steps using our JavaScript API

Get the current time

Get the current time. The quickest way to do this is to get the visitor’s browser time:
var now = new Date();var hourOfDayInUTC = now.getUTCHours();

Be aware, however, that a visitor’s browser time may not be accurate. For a more robust solution, you may wish to use your server time or find an alternative method.

Free plan chat limit

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If you are using Olark’s free plan, you can have up to 20 chats per month. After your 20th chat, your chatbox will be set to offline mode.

What counts as a chat?

One-way interactions don’t count toward your chat limit: e.g., a visitor initiates a chat, but none of your agents respond, or you try to chat with a visitor, but they don’t respond.
Chats with the same visitor are counted separately if: the first chat ends (the visitor ends the chat or leaves the page, or the agent uses the !end command or closes the chat tab) and more than 5 minutes pass before the next chat starts.
Chats with the same visitor are counted as one chat if: the chat is continuous (neither party ends or closes the chat), or if non-continuous chats are separated by less than 5 minutes.
Offline emails don’t count toward your chat limit.

We’ll reset your chat count on the 1st day of every month. If you think you’ll need more chats, you may want to consider upgrading to a paid plan.

Freshdesk integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

You can link Olark with your Freshdesk CRM software. All you need to do is follow this quick guide to have your chat transcripts and offline messages sent to Freshdesk.

Supported Freshdesk plans

Important:
This integration works with the following Freshdesk plans: Sprout, Blossom, Garden and Estate.

Front integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

NOTE: This help article is intended for customers on our self-serve level of service. If you are an Olark Pro customer, your integration likely will work differently. Please reach out to pro@olark.com for help with setting up your integration.

Necessary accounts

In order to connect Olark and Front, you must first have an Olark account and a Front account. If you don’t already have an account with Olark, sign up here.

To set up your Front account, head over to Front’s website.

Get Feedback with Chat Ratings

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Chat Ratings let you send the visitor a post-chat survey to find out how they rated their chat experience while on your site.

Enabling Chat Ratings

Head to the Chat Widget setting page and check the box next to “Enable Chat Ratings.”

Requesting chat feedback

An agent can send a feedback request at any time during an ongoing conversation by using the !feedback command. The feedback survey will also be included if the agent uses the !end command.

Getting started with Google Analytics (GA4) integration

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

This article was updated to reflect the newest version of Google Analytics, GA4 , in June, 2023.

NOTE: If you use Google Tag Manager to load your gtag,follow the instructions in our GTM for GA4 article instead.

Olark’s Google Analytics integration provides its users with:

More visitor insights
Conversion tracking for chatting visitors
And much more!

Turning on the integration

In your dashboard, click on Integrations from the left menu bar. From the integrations list, type or find Google Analytics.
Click Configure on the Google Analytics integration page. Check both of the boxes that you see at the top of the page, and then click Save at the bottom.

Olark will automatically detect the GA4 gtag and associated ID that’s installed on your website and begin sending events to your GA4 account.

GoDaddy Website Builder Integration Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

You can use our standard HTML guide to install Olark on a GoDaddy site.

Conflicts

Important: Olark will not work with GoDaddy’s Website Builder in most cases. You will have issues with the way our widget floats and the positioning of our widget while using the GoDaddy Website Builder. We do not recommend using Olark with GoDaddy Website Builder.

GoDaddy has provided instructions on installing 3rd party scripts. This may be helpful if you want to proceed with using Olark with the GoDaddy Website Builder.

Google Meet Integration Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Creating a permanant Meet link

You will need a permanent Meet link for this integration. Google Meet doesn’t promote permanent Meet links, but there is a workaround.

Open Google Calendar and create a recurring event with no end date. Select the “Add Google Meet videoconferencing” button to generate a link. You can put it in its own sub-calendar, so you can hide it if you prefer.

The link created from the above action will only persist as long as the event continues in your calendar. Copy the link.

Add the URL to Olark

Go to the Agent Tools settings page in Olark and click +Add Shortcut
Input ‘meet’ into a new Shortcut. You can also choose a different name for the shortcut if you prefer.
Paste your Google Meet link into the expanded message field. We also recommend including a greeting like: Hop on a quick Google Meet call with me: meet.google.com/aaa-bbbb-ccc.
Whenever you want to call up this invitation, just type ;meet (or select the “meet” shortcut from the actions menu) into your chat conversation. You can then either press return or select the shortcut. Press return one more time to send the message once it has auto-populated in the chat conversation.
After sending the message, you will need to start the Google Meet using your recurring link. We hope you have a great video call with your chat visitor!

What Your Visitor Sees Using This Integration

They’ll see a seamless greeting and link when you send the message using the shortcut you created.

Google Tag Manager

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

WARNING:
We do not recommend using this installation method. Google Tag Manager can produce unexpected, undesired and/or unknown complications with your Olark chat widget. While we’re able to offer the installation, we are not able to troubleshoot errors caused by using Olark with Google Tag Manager. For best results, we recommend using our manual installation method.

If you would like to use Olark with Google Tag Manager you can follow the guide below. There is an assumption that you already have your site and container setup, if you don’t please follow this guide from google

GreenRope integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Set up steps

Follow these steps to integrate the GreenRope CRM with Olark. Doing so will forward transcript and visitor info to your GreenRope CRM system.

Log into your GreenRope account. In the top menu, under Communicate , select Chat.

Groups

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The Groups feature allows you to assign visitors to specific agent groups, so their chats go to the correct group of agents on your website. All Olark plans support Groups.

Creating and adding agents to a group

Navigate to the Team Management settings where you can create and manage groups.
Click + Create group
Enter a group name. The group name is for your team’s internal use, so is not public-facing.

HappyFox integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

HappyFox helps you manage all incoming customer support requests by converting them into easy to act on tickets. Follow these steps for integration into Olark.

Create your our own workflows, set service goals and learn from useful metrics. With live chat integration becoming a primary customer support channel, the HappyFox and Olark integration lets you improve customer intelligence by converting chat conversations into meaningful, actionable tickets.

Requirement: A HappyFox account. If you do not have one, create a HappyFox account here.

Help Scout integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

NOTE: This help article is intended for customers on our self-serve level of service. If you are an Olark Pro customer, your integration likely will work differently. Please reach out to pro@olark.com for help with setting up your integration.

Integration Setup

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Help Scout is a Help Desk that can be connected to Olark to help access all of your transcripts, offline messages, and customer data.

Follow these steps to connect Olark and Help Scout to begin sending chat transcripts and offline messages to your Help Desk software.

Hide the chatbox based on visitor location

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Depending on where you do business, you may not want all of your visitors to be able to chat with you. Automation Rules provide you with an easy way to hide the chatbox depending on where your visitors are located. Here are some examples of how you can use Automation rules to hide the chatbox based on location.

Show chat only to USA visitors

Let’s say for this example you only want to show the chatbox for your visitors located in the USA. You can use an automation rule to say IF Visitor’s Country is not United States THEN Hide the Olark chatbox.

Hiding chat box by region

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Using the API to hide by region

You may not always want to chat to people from every country. With Olark you can hide the chat box from visitors coming from a specific region.

This can be done with our Automation rules but this guide will focus on how to accomplish this with the Olark api.

Say for example, I am own a Maple Syrup company that can only ship to products to Canada. I’d use the getDetails API call to find out the visitor’s country. Then I would hide the chat box for any visitor not in Canada.

Highrise integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Integration Retired

On August 31, 2019, Olark retired our integration with Highrise.

Unfortunately, we’ve received numerous reports of major issues with the Highrise integration — you’ve likely noticed some of these problems yourself. After investigating, we’ve come to the difficult conclusion that we can’t reasonably expect to provide a good experience for Highrise users. We’re bummed, but stability and quality are very important to us, and we’re not comfortable continuing to offer a feature that doesn’t work consistently.

How do I install Olark on my page?

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

‍Log into your Olark account
- Click on the Chat Widget link in the navigation menu
- Scroll down to the Installation section.

Here you’ll find your installation code and unique site ID.

The Installation section

Standard or Manual Installation

Our standard installation method requires you to copy and paste your account’s unique javascript snippet immediately before your site’s closing tag. Make sure to copy the snippet from your own Olark account as it contains your unique site id. It should look like this:

HTML Allowed In the Chatbox

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

You can customize text for your chatbox using basic HTML in the following sections of the live chat widget.

Welcome Message
Pre-Chat Welcome Message

For security reasons, we only allow certain HTML tags and attributes to be used. Other HTML tags will be stripped from your text.

Block Elements

You can use the following block elements in your Olark text settings.

Inline Elements

You may also use these inline elements in order to style your text.

Hubspot integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

NOTE: This help article is intended for customers on our self-serve level of service. If you are an Olark Pro customer, your integration likely will work differently. Please reach out to pro@olark.com for help with setting up your integration.

There are two different ways to integrate Olark and HubSpot: You can put Olark’s chatbox on your HubSpot-hosted website, or send Olark chat transcript info to HubSpot’s contacts on their timeline.

To send transcript info to HubSpot:

I Stopped Receiving Offline Messages

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Things to check

If you have stopped receiving offline messages to your email inbox, there are a few things to check first:

Check that your offline messages are being forwarded to the appropriate place. You can verify this setting on your Behavior settings page.
Check your spam folder or filter for any emails where the subject line contains the phrase “wrote you a note”.

Bounce List

If checking your spam and settings does not solve your issue, please contact us to find out if your email address has been placed onto our bounced email list.

Improved Olark Chat Box

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

We’ve improved the look and behavior of the Olark chat box! So, what’s new?

Most noticeably, the chat box and button now have a more modern look. Agent feedback is now an interactive experience

Questions you might have:

Is the updated chatbox accessible?

The chatbox conforms with Level A and Level AA of the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) version 2.0. We will continue to perform accessibility testing, including live-user testing, on a regular scheduled basis to ensure we remain compliant.

Intercom vs. Olark

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Intercom pricing and feature comparison

Looking for an Intercom alternative? Let’s take a look at the difference between Intercom vs. Olark, and what makes Olark the best Intercom alternative for live chat.

Simple pricing — Unlimited contacts

With Intercom you have to pay by number of contacts, making it hard to predict cost. What happens if you get an unexpected traffic spike? You could get stuck with an unexpectedly high bill.

JIRA Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Important Notice

Olark previously offered JIRA Software integration. Unfortunately, the integration is no longer available to Olark customers setting up a new integration.

If you have already connected JIRA to Olark, you can still use the functionality described below and continue to use the integration as expected.

The JIRA integration can be used to help access all of your transcripts, offline messages, and customer data.

Configuring Your Integration

You can adjust the settings for this integration on the JIRA integration page. You can choose to have transcripts automatically sent to JIRA, send offline messages, and choose the project and issue type.

Joomla integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

This guide will go through how to add Olark to your Joomla 3 site.

Requirements

Joomla version 3 (with Magic Quotes turned off)
Custom HTML Advanced module
Your Olark install code

Guide

Log in to your Joomla Administration site. Choose Extensions from the menu bar, then Extension Manager from the dropdown menu.

On the Extension Manager Install page, click Choose file and find the Custom HTML Advanced module Zip folder that you downloaded. If this file is located on a server, install from URL instead. Click Upload & Install.

Joomla integration guide (pre v3)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Joomla! is the mobile-ready and user-friendly way to build your own website. Choose from thousands of features and designs. Joomla! is free and open source.

Versions

This tutorial contains guides for the following Joomla versions:

Version 2.5
Version 1.6
Version 1.5

We also have a separate tutorial for Joomla 3.

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Joomla 2.5

Log into your Joomla administration area.
If you are using a text editor, such as TinyMCE, set it to “none”.
Install the custom HTML advanced module on your Joomla account.
Continue following the below instructions for Joomla 1.6.

Joomla 1.6

Let visitors see you! Add a Profile Picture

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How to add an agent picture

From the admin interface, click on the kebab menu in the lower left corner and choose User Settings
Under Agent Photo, click on Choose Image and pick the saved image from your computer.
Hit save, and that is it!

What about the avatars visitors have?

Good question! You may notice that some visitors have avatars. Those are loaded automatically for visitors who have Gravatar accounts. It is not possible to change or update avatars for visitors because Gravatar is a third-party service.

Limiting Chats Per Agent

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

You can limit the number of chats an agent can receive at any one time with our “chat is assigned to the next agent in line” routing setting. This feature can help prevent your agents from getting overwhelmed with too many concurrent chats.

Limiting Chats Per Agent

Choose “chat is assigned to the next agent in line " in the Assigning New Chats section of the Behavior settings page
Enter a value in the Chat limit per agent field, and click on Save changes.

Agents that are at their limit will not have new chats routed to them until one of their existing conversations end. They will see the message “At Chat Limit” in the status indicator of chat.olark.com and/or app.olark.com

Linking Visitors to Groups with the Pre-chat Form

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Important Note: Customers have unique setups and work under different constraints. The following example should be taken only as an example and is not guaranteed to accomodate everyone’s specific requirements. This guide is a starting point for figuring out how to write your personalized code with the Olark API.

Step 1: Set up Groups

Before you can route any chats to groups, you need to make sure you’ve actually created some groups. This can be done here. In the following example, we’ll create a “Sales” group and a “Tech Support” group.

Live Chat Translation PowerUp

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

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NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Classic chat users will need the translation powerup to access live chat translation.

Live Chat Translation PowerUp allows agents using Olark Classic to chat with visitors from around the world.

Contact our support team if you’d like to add the Translation Powerup to your account.

How to Use the Live Chat Translation PowerUp

After purchasing this PowerUp, you will see two dropdown menus in each new conversation window in your chat console.

LiveChat Inc vs. Olark

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Pricing and feature comparison

If you want to close sales and provide great customer service, you need a full range of features; LiveChat Inc only offers the basics. Olark’s plans include advanced features like detailed reporting, admin settings, and we put helpful tools like text auto-completion and customer information right at your team’s fingertips so they can offer the best customer support and increase sales.

Olark also has over 20 integrations and plugins to easily connect Olark with other sales and support software including Salesforce, Wordpress, Helpscout, MailChimp, Hubspot, and many other CMS and CRM products.

Magento integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Magento is an eCommerce software and platform used by many of the internet’s leading brands.

Magento 1 setup steps

If you’re using Magento 1, here’s how to integrate your site with Olark live chat:

Log into your Magento store administration account.
From your store’s Admin Panel home screen, click Content.
Select Design
Click Configuration
In the Design Editor , scroll down to the Footer section and locate the Miscellaneous HTML text area. Log in to Olark, copy your Olark embed code from the Chat Widget settings, and paste it into the text area.
Be sure to click Save Config , then go to your Magento store front to check out your new Olark chat box.

Magento 2 setup steps

Using Magento 2? You can also use the manual installation process to embed your Olark chat widget in the same way:

Mailchimp Integration Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Your email list is the most important marketing tool to spread the word, make sales, and grow your business. Send your Olark chat participants to a designated Mailchimp list using our Olark to Mailchimp integration.

Prerequisites

In order to connect Olark and Mailchimp, you must first have an Olark account and a Mailchimp account. If you don’t already have an account with Olark, sign up here.

Setup Steps

To add Olark visitors to your Mailchimp mailing lists by typing a command in chat, follow these simple steps:

Masking sensitive information during chat

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Use this configuration to tell Olark to mask any sequence of numbers that looks like it might be a credit card. This prevents your transcripts from receiving sensitive information, so that you should never need to redact a transcript from your history.

Adding the snippet to your website code

Add a configuration call at the bottom of your existing Olark install code. Look for this line:

/* custom configuration goes here (www.olark.com/documentation) */

Immediately below this line, insert:

Mismatched names in Adium

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

By default, Adium enables the option to show recent messages when you receive a new chat. This can cause problems when using Adium with Olark.

It could result in the Adium chat window title showing one name, but the chat messages showing another name. This is because Olark uses placeholder buddies for your chats, replacing the name with each new visitor.

How to fix it

Open Adium. From the menubar, choose Preferences.

Mobile Apps

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Choose from a range of mobile apps to answer chats on your smartphone or tablet with Olark. You’ll find setup instructions for several linked below.

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NOTE: We have deprecated the Olark Mobile beta.

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Use a 3rd party app to answer chats from your phone:

Setup guides for 3rd Party mobile apps

Trillian for iOS, Android (⭑ Popular for iOS)
Xabber for Android (⭑ Popular for Android)
Monal for iOS
Slack integration guide

MODx integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

MODX is an open source Content Management System (CMS) that dominates SEO and supports all modern web standards. This guide will show you how to Integrate MODX with your Olark live chat.

Most MODX Sites use BaseTemplate or a Homepage or Index template for the majority of the site, this is where you want to add Olark.

Sign into your MODX manager panel:
Access the elements section.

Moodle Integration Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Olark supports Moodle, an open-source PHP application for internet-based educational courses. Follow this guide to get Olark Live Chat running on your Moodle site.

Setup Steps

Log into your administrator account in Moodle. In the Admin settings on the left side of the page, click on Edit Settings

Then, expand the Appearance section.

Next, in the Appearance section, click on Additional HTML

My chat box does not display

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Working with websites can be a frustrating experience at the best of times. Start here for a list of things you can check when your Olark chatbox is not showing.

Troubleshooting Guide

Copying and pasting code incorrectly
Sometimes your text editor will accidentally reformat your code. Especially watch out for rich text editors (ones that have options like bold or underline). Try copying and pasting the code again to make sure everything worked correctly.
Viewing in a mobile browser
If you can’t see the chatbox, and you are using Safari, check that it is not in private mode. Olark requires cookies to work, and they must be enabled.
Accidentally having your Olark box hide when you ’re offline
In our Chat Widget settings page you can have Olark hide when you’re away or logged out of your chat client. This causes the window to hide when you are away or offline, so you might want to double check to make sure you don’t have this setting turned on.
Could it be your network?
Sometimes, some firewalls and anti-virus programs can stop the Olark chatbox showing. To test this theory, try looking at your site on a different internet connection, like a coffee shop. If you have the mobile chatbox enabled, you could try looking at your site over your mobile network. If the chatbox shows on a different network, you might need to take your IT department a coffee and ask them to see what might be causing the issue.
Not seeing a chatbox on someone ’s site?
Sometimes, using an adblock program can stop you seeing an Olark chatbox on a website. Try disabling your adblock extension or software.
Check your browser settings
It is possible that your browser settings are preventing Olark showing. If you use Safari, make sure that it is not in private mode - Olark does not work in Safari private mode. The same applies to Chrome. Check this setting in your Chrome preferences; content settings: under “Cookies” - “Block third-party cookies and site data”. If that is enabled, it will also block Olark.

My chatbox looks strange

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Sometimes there can be a CSS conflict between styling on your site and the Olark chatbox.

Usually this is caused if there is a CSS rule that mis-targets and accidentally touches the rules of the Olark chatbox.

Troubleshooting

To check if a CSS conflict is causing the chatbox to look strange you can test Olark on a blank HTML page. Try putting your Olark install code on a plain HTML page like the following:

New Agent Training Guide (Olark classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

Share this guide with your team to start chatting with your website’s visitors in minutes.

The guide is broken into four parts.

Using the Chat Console
Your Olark dashboard
Your organization’s Olark settings
Pre-chat checklist

We recommend reading through this guide fully at least once. You can also bookmark it for quick reference when you’re chatting with visitors in the future. New agents can also find some helpful videos on our Product Tour page.

New visitor notifications

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You might want to enable notifications for your agents whenever a new visitor lands on your website. Using an Automation rule, you can do that:

Go to the Automation page.
Create a new rule titled “Notify agents when a new visitor lands on the site” (for example).
Use the following logic to set up the rule, click Save and close, then make sure the rule is toggled ON

Nutshell integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Connect Olark with Nutshell to save all your chat transcripts as activities.

If you view a chat in Nutshell’s web or mobile apps, you’ll see a full transcript of the conversation. You can then use Nutshell’s activity reports to track your team’s productivity in chat, email, and phone calls, all in one place.

Watch Nutshell’s realtime dashboard feed and you’ll see your team’s completed Olark chats inline with the rest of your company’s activity.

Offline chatbox options

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

A chatbox is offline when all of the agents are either away or offline and a bot is not set to answer.

Olark offers you three different offline modes for our widget when no one is around to chat.

All of the settings we will cover in this guide can be altered on the Chat Widget settings page.

Hide the chatbox

This option will hide the chat widget altogether. You can select this option by checking the radio button for Hide the chatbox.

Olark and the GDPR Legislation

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Are you looking for Olark’s Data Processing Agreement (DPA)?

Please email gdpr@olark.com with the name and email address of the member of your organization authorized to sign, and we will send you our standard agreement.

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Here at Olark, we believe that strong privacy practices are good for both your customers and your business. We are committed to supporting your compliance with applicable data and privacy regulations, and to providing you with relevant, accurate information about Olark’s data and privacy practices. To that end, we have provided responses to several common data and privacy questions below.

Olark Features and Security Information (RFI/RFP)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

You’ve reached the Olark RFO (Request for Olark) page. It’s like an RFI or an RFP but more Olarky.

At Olark, we strive to make our software as accessible as possible to businesses of all sizes. In service of that goal, in addition to offering competitive pricing and easy installation, we keep our sales process fairly lightweight. While our team is always delighted to answer questions and provide guidance to new and prospective customers, we don’t have a large sales staff dedicated to preparing RFI/RFP responses.

Olark for Mobile

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Your visitors can chat with you from their mobile devices with the Olark chatbox. This article will go through a few common questions we get about the chatbox on mobile.

FAQ about Olark for Mobile

How can I disable/enable the mobile chatbox?

You can choose to display or hide the chatbox on mobile by visiting the Chat Widget settings and setting the Widget Visibility.

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What browsers do we support for mobile?

Check out our Browser Support Page to see what browsers we support for mobile and desktop.

Olark Training

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

We know that it can be a bit overwhelming sometimes to learn new software, which is why we offer paid trainings for teams on our premium self-serve plans. Our expert Olarkers are here to help you become an Olark power user!

Training Topics

Olark premium trainings cover the following pieces of information.

Navigating Olark from the agent, admin, and website visitor perspective.
New agent training which includes a dashboard walkthrough, chat console features and commands, activity/report discussions, and transcripts.
New admin training which includes understanding how to set up major features and account-level settings like adding groups, agents, and Automation Rules.
Reporting breakdown including understanding what data and information is available and learning what each reporting piece means.

How Does It Work?

Olark paid training is a fixed rate of $250 per training session. Our expert Olarkers will connect with you or your team via Zoom video conference. We recommend downloading Zoom before the video call. If you do not, you’ll still be able to connect to the call, but you may be prompted to install the software as you’re joining the training session.

Only allow chats from logged in visitors

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

If you only want to show the Olark chat box to visitors who are logged in, you can use this guide to set it up.

Setup Steps

First you’ll need your own server-side script to detect when a visitor is logged in. Create a conditional statement for logged in visitors, which you can then insert the below code into.
Go to the Chat Widget settings page and enable the Hidden the by default option under Widget Visibility. Remember to save your changes!
Use the Javascript API to show the chat box if a visitor is logged in. Here is an example:

// You need your own method of detecting whether a visitor is logged in// if ($logged_in) {olark('api.box.show');}

OpenCart integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

OpenCart is a free shopping cart system. Integrate your Olark live chat with this open source PHP-based online e-commerce solution in a few quick steps.

Setup Steps

Log into the site where your OpenCart site is hosted using either a standard FTP client or the Cpanel File manager. (Many hosting companies provide File Manager access inside of Cpanel)
Navigate to the ROOT directory of OpenCart. (This will often be “WWW” or “Public_html”)
Go to catalog > view > theme folder.

osCommerce integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Integrate Olark live chat with osCommerce, a free online shop program featuring order history, shopping carts, full search capability, product reviews, secure transactions and more.

Log into your osCommerce Store Administration account
From your Store Administration home screen, click on Tools in the left hand column

Select File Manager from the drop down list
Double Click on Includes in the File Manager Window

Select by clicking on the php file which corresponds to the area of your Oscommerce store you would like your Olark Live Chat function to display. We’ve chosen footer.php:

Pardot Integration Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

NOTE: This help article is intended for customers on our self-serve level of service. If you are an Olark Pro customer, your integration likely will work differently. Please reach out to pro@olark.com for help with setting up your integration.

Pardot has developed an integration with Olark to aid marketing automation. Using these two tools together helps gain insight into ROI and increase marketing accountability.

Pardot’s integration with Olark lets you do two things:

Password recovery

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Lost your password? It happens to the best of us.

Reset Instructions

It’s really easy to reset your password with Olark, just go to app.olark.com/login/forgot-password and enter your email address.

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**NOTE: if your account uses SSO (like Google or Microsoft) to log in, you ’ll need to reset your password through that service. **

Notes

Using non-standard latin characters (for example ö, å, ä) to create a password is initially accepted but results in an incorrect password error when actually logging in. We recommend that you avoid those characters. If you used them, please use the reset link above to reset your password.

Pidgin auto-away

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Pidgin has a feature called auto-away which will automatically set your chat status to away if your computer hasn’t been active in a certain time.

How to disable auto-away

Open your Pidgin preferences from the Tools menubar

Click on the Status/Idle tab

Change or disable the settings to your preference
Adjust the settings to find out what works best for you. Always remember to set your status to available to cancel the auto-away.

Pidgin setup guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

If you’re a Windows user, we recommend using Olark with Pidgin, a free instant messenger program. You can get set up in minutes with ease.

Download Pidgin for free and install
Launch Pidgin
Click ‘Accounts’ > ‘Manage Accounts’
Click ‘add’
Choose the ‘XMPP’ (Jabber) protocol.
Enter your Olark credentials
- Fill in the field ‘Screen Name:’ with your Olark username: ex: bill_t,
- The ‘Domain:’ field with ‘olark.com’,
- The ‘Password’ field with your Olark password.
- Resource = Pidgin

Click Save when you are done

Pidgin spell checker

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Pidgin supports spell checking, but only offers the option to enable it during install. Follow this handy guide to help you get spell checking enabled.

Steps to enable spell check

First, Download the pidgin installer from pidgin.im

Next, execute the installer. Click Next when it pops up.

Click on Next on the license agreement page.

On the Choose Components page, scroll down until you see “Spellchecking Support” and click on the plus next to it.

Pinnacle Cart integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

It is easy to add Olark live chat to your Pinnacle cart shopping system, and start chatting with your customers while on your site.

Setup steps

Log into your Pinnacle Cart Administrative Area.
Click on Marketing

Select Google Tools

Select the Analytics Tracking Tab

Log in and copy your Olark embed code.
Activate the Google Analytics Tracking option, and paste your Olark code below it.

Pre-chat Survey

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

The Pre-chat Survey allows you to ask visitors for their name, email, phone number and more before starting a chat. This is a great tool to gather information about your visitors before they start chatting. You can modify the settings so that the pre-chat form is completely optional, required, or only require certain fields such as email.

Enable the Pre-Chat survey in settings

Visit the Chat Widget settings page
Scroll down to the Surveys section
Under Before the chat starts select “collect these fields "
Choose Optional, Required, or Do Not Collect for the Name, Email and Phone fields

Enable the Pre-Chat Survey on a single page

If you’d like to only use the Pre-Chat Survey on only specific pages of your website, you can do so by using the Olark API.

Prestashop integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Following this guide will show you how to install Olark on Prestashop (versions 1.5 and above) and start chatting right away with your customers!

Installation steps

Use your preferred FTP client, and log into the domain where you are hosting your Prestashop installation.
Navigate to the root folder of your website (Usually WWW or public_html), and then navigate to Presto/Themes/X, where X is the name of your active theme.
Select the footer.tpl file in the theme folder. Download the footer.tpl file to your computer and open it in a text editor of your choice. Then, change the name of the the file on your webserver to footer.bak, in case any errors are introduced when you make your edits.
With the footer.tpl file open, copy your Olark install code here and paste it in the file, just above the tag.
Log in to copy your Olark embed code.
With the file still open, insert a {literal} tag above the body of the Olark code, and a {/literal} below the body of the Olark code, as detailed in the image below.

Prestashop integration guide (pre v1.5)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Following this easy guide will show you how to install Olark on Prestashop, versions 1.4.9 and below, and start chatting right away with your customers!

Log into the site where your PrestaShop site is hosted using either a standard FTP client or the Cpanel File manager. (Many hosting companies provide File Manager access inside of Cpanel)
Navigate to the ROOT directory of PrestaShop. (This will often be WWW or Public_html)

Prevent timeouts on single page apps

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

If you have an single page app, or site that is entirely built using AJAX calls, it is possible that a visitor’s connection to Olark could eventually time out. This is because Olark would not be seeing activity from the visitor, such as sent messages or page URL changes.

Add a configure call

To prevent that happening, look for this line in your existing Olark embed code:

/* custom configuration goes here (www.olark.com/documentation) */

Immediately below that, paste this line:

Price Changes FAQ

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Why has my Olark price changed?

As we continue to improve Olark and introduce new product features, our plans and prices may change. We also may adjust plans and pricing to respond to local market changes, such as changes to local taxes or inflation. When we change plans or prices, we’re always working to improve your Olark experience and invest in continued product innovation. Here are answers to a few common questions about price changes:

Qualaroo integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Qualaroo, which provides analytics insights and A/B testing, lets you start an Olark chat based on how a visitor answers a question.

More information

Take a look at the Qualaroo integration guide.

Refunds

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Everyone changes their mind from time to time. If you forgot to cancel or tried Olark and decided against it, we’ll be sorry to lose you but happy to assist!

If your situation is not covered by the FAQs, feel free to chat with us or send us an email. The Refunds section of our Terms of Service is also an excellent reference. Be sure to read the Mutual Beveraging section.

How do I request a refund?

It’s a straightforward process.

Removal, Cancellation & Deletion

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Remove an agent

You can remove an agent from your account by going to the Team Management page. Click the gear icon next to an agent’s name and set the agent status to “inactive.” While inactive, the agent’s username will move to the Inactive tab, in case you’d like to reactivate the account in the future.

When you deactivate an agent, the agent’s transcripts remain on the Transcripts page under their display name, and the chat data will appear in the exported reports. After removal of your agent(s), please be sure to refer to yourBilling pageto ensure that you aren ’t paying for more agent seats than you have filled.

Remove the Olark branding

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Love Olark, but prefer not to have our name on your chatbox? That’s cool — we understand!

Non-branded Chatbox Powerup

You can remove the Olark branding from your chatbox by purchasing the non-branded chatbox powerup. After you purchase the powerup, the “Powered by Olark” link will no longer appear in your chatbox footer.

To purchase, send a request to support@olark.com

Reporting insights from Google Analytics

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Note: This article references Google Universal Analytics which was sunset in June, 2023.

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Olark’s Google Analytics integration provides additional reporting insights for managers. Here are just a few of the many questions that Google Analytics can help you answer:

How busy is chat right now?
What % of visitors chat with us?
Where (on which pages) do visitors start chatting with us?
What types of visitors chat with us?

How busy is chat right now?

If your organization has multiple agents chatting at the same time, Google Analytics can tell you how many chat conversations are going on in real-time.

Right-To-Left Text Language Support

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Adding support for Olark to be localized into a right-to-left (RTL) language, such as Hebrew, is as simple as changing a setting on your Design page. Under the Under the “Advanced Appearance” section of Design page, choose the option “Use right-to-left language."

If you need to make the change on a per page basis rather than sitewide, for example if you have both English and Hebrew on your site, you can paste the following code onto any right-to-left language pages beneath your existing Olark code:

Safari Notifications (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

If you are using a modern version of Safari, it is possible that the auto-play of sounds and video are disabled for you including the audible notifications for the Olark chatbox widget. You can fix this by following the steps below.

Enable browser sound notifications

In Safari, navigate to chat.olark.com.
Click on the website settings icon in the address bar (to the left of the website address)
Click on “Auto-Play” in the General section.
Change it from “Stop Media with Sound” to “Allow all auto play.”

Salesforce Integration Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

NOTE: This help article is intended for customers on our self-serve level of service. If you are an Olark Pro customer, your integration likely will work differently. Please reach out to pro@olark.com for help with setting up your integration.

Creating leads and cases

You can create leads or cases in your Salesforce CRM simply by using the !salesforce lead or !salesforce case command while chatting with a visitor via Olark or configure your settings to have all chats sent automatically. Typing !salesforce by itself will create either a lead or a case based on your settings for default behavior set on your Saleforce integration page.

Seasonal Chatbox Themes

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

It’s important to be dressed for the season at hand, and that goes for your chatbox, too! We’ve included five festive seasonal themes in our latest chatbox release. Here’s how to get them:

How to add seasonal themes to your chatbox

Log in to your Olark account.
From your dashboard, select Settings, then Design from the left-hand menu.
If this is your first time adding a seasonal theme, click the red Disabled button inside the light grey box to enable themes.
Select each theme to see a preview and pick your favorite!
Once you’ve chosen your theme, be sure to click Save.
You did it! Your chatbox is now oh so seasonal.

How to turn off seasonal chatbox themes

We made it easy to switch themes, too.

Security at Olark

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

We at Olark want all our customers to feel secure. In the interests of self-improvement and customer security, this page has our latest full-disclosure policy.

If you are a current customer

If you feel your account might have been compromised, or if there is an unexplained charge from us, absolutely do not hesitate to contact us through our chat box.

We will work with you to get the problem solved as quickly as possible, and get you back to making your customers happy!

Send a message to visitors based on a marketing campaign

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

This guide will walk you through using our Olark API to send a message to your visitors based on the page they’re on.

You can include a simple link in your marketing emails that will trigger a chat rule to proactively engage your site’s visitors.

Using the Javascript API

Include a custom url in your email blast or tweet for your customer to click. Something like http://example.com/#who-wears-short-shorts
Insert the following code below your existing Olark embed code:

<script  type="text/javascript">
if (location.hash === "#who-wears-short-shorts") {
    // expand olark chat box
    olark('api.box.expand');
    olark('api.chat.sendMessageToVisitor', {
      body: "Hey! I hear you are interested in short shorts. Me too!"
    });
}
</script>

This example expands the chatbox if a visitor arrives on the url http://example.com/#who-wears-short-shorts and sends them the message “Hey! I hear you are interested in short shorts. Me too!”

Send a transcript to a CRM directly from chat (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Since it is possible to have multiple integrations with Olark, users can connect their chats to all of their favorite services simultaneously. However, every chat is unique and each may benefit from being sent to a specific service over another.

Using an integration command

Here is where our ![integration-name] command comes in handy!

Send chat information to a specific integration by typing ! before the name of your integration, e.g. !zendesk. This way your chat information only goes to the integration you want.

Send Automated Messages To a Visitor After a Specified Amount of Time

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

With Automation Rules, you can easily engage with your visitors and make sure they know your team is there to help. You can also check out this article for more information about Automation Rules.

Send a Message to a Visitor on a Specific Page After X Seconds

In this example, we will send a message to your visitor after they have spent a certain number of seconds on your sales page. The rule is IF Seconds spent on current page is Is More Than 10 seconds and the Current URL contains sales THEN Send this message to your visitor.

Send Messages Faster with Shortcuts

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Shortcuts save you time as an agent, but we suggest using them in moderation to keep a balance between efficiency and your company’s tone. From our experience, visitors respond best when they feel they’re having a conversation rather than receiving generic responses.

We recommend visiting your own website and having one of your agents use Shortcuts. We encourage you to consider whether the messages still feel like a personal live chat experience and match the voice of your company.

Setting up the GA4 integration with Google Tag Manager

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

If you’re using Google Tag Manager (GTM) to load your GA4 tag, you’ll need to do some additional setup to track Olark events in GA4.

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This article assumes you’ve already:

set up your GTM container
installed GTM on your website
are using GTM to load your GA4 script on your website

Getting started

Sharing sensitive information on chat

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

The short explanation

You really shouldn’t share sensitive or personal information on chat.

The longer explanation

While the chat widget is installed on your website, the chat takes place in several locations; your website, your agent’s computer, our servers, and the visitor’s browser. There are several steps to take to ensure security along the message path, but some are out of our (and your) control.

You’ve likely taken steps to use the latest encryption technology, kept up on security patches, and do a regular audit of your features and plugins. For your employees’ computers, you also keep security patches up-to-date, use good password management practices, and train employees on social hacking.

Shopify integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Install steps

Log into your Shopify Store Administration account at http://www.shopify.com/login/
Click on Online Store in the left hand menu

Click on Themes

From your Theme on the right, click on Actions , and then choose Edit Code

Under Layout on the left, click on your theme file

Scroll to the bottom of the editor panel and paste the Olark embed code before the ending tag. (Log into your Olark account to copy and pasteyour Olark embed code.)
Be sure to click Save.

Extended features

Tip: To show custom information, like the number of items somebody has in their shopping cart, check out our Update Visitor Status API here: /api/api_chat_updatevisitorstatus/

Show the chatbox on a specific page

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

This guide shows how can you hide or show the chat widget on specific pages using Automation Rules.

In this example, we’re hiding the widget on any URL on your website that correctly matches the word “blog”. You can use the contains clause whenever you want to match just part of the URL, or use the is clause when you want to match a URL exactly.

Showing the Chatbox on a Single Page

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

The Olark chatbox widget will display on all pages of your website by default after you install the code snippet. If you would like to show the chatbox on one page of your website (or specific pages), please follow the steps listed below.

Using the API

Hide the chatbox on every page except for the one(s) where you want the chatbox to display. You can add the following JavaScript API after the Olark install code on these pages.

Slack Integration Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Connecting Olark and Slack

Log into Olark and go to the Slack integration page. Click Add to Slack.

You’ll be redirected to Slack where you’ll need to login if you’re not already authenticated.

Important Note: You’ll need to login as the Slack Workspace Owner for the connection to be set up correctly.

Once logged in, click Allow to grant Olark the ability to send messages to Slack.

You’ll be redirected back to the Slack integration page with the integration listed as connected. You can configure the rest of the options to your liking, and you’ll be all set! Happy chatting.

Spark IM Setup Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Spark IM is an open source and configurable IM client that is available for a variety of platforms.

Connect Spark IM with Olark

Download Spark from the Spark IM Website.
Install and launch Spark on your computer.
Enter your Olark Username in the top field, your password in the middle field, and “olark.com” for the domain.

Press enter, and then you will have logged into Spark IM!

Squarespace Integration Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Install Olark on a Squarespace site

Click on Settings on the left-side column.

Click on Advanced which is also on the left-side column.

Click on Code Injection which is also on the left-side column.

Add your Olark Javascript install code into the Header section.

Click Save which is in the top-left corner of the Header section.

SugarCRM integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

NOTE: This help article is intended for customers on our self-serve level of service. If you are an Olark Pro customer, your integration likely will work differently. Please reach out to pro@olark.com for help with setting up your integration.

Connect Olark with SugarCRM, a customer relationship management (CRM) system that features sales automation, marketing campaigns, customer support, collaboration, Mobile CRM, Social CRM and reporting.

Setup steps

Go to the Integrations settings page and click the key Icon next to SugarCRM.

Template integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Pre-installed Olark

When you use a Content Management System (CMS), such as Wordpress for example, some themes may come with a built in Olark chatbox. The theme developer will have chosen to add it to the template.

Configure and use the chatbox

If you would like to use that chatbox, you will need to follow a couple of easy steps to configure it.

Find out where the code for the chatbox is located in your CMS. (If you are not sure which platform your site is built with, you can use this website to find out)
Sign up for an Olark account and locate your Site ID
Back in your CMS, replace the existing Site ID in the Olark code with your own Site ID. We have a range of guides for different CMS platforms. Your chatbox is now linked to your own Olark account.
olark.identify(‘YOUR_SITE_ID_GOES_HERE’);
You are now ready to start chatting with your site’s visitors.

Template Monster is one company which provides templates including Olark. They have a set of tutorials to help you configure or remove Olark.

The best ways to proactively engage with visitors

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

A great use of Olark is proactively reaching out to your visitors. There are two ways to proactively reach out to your visitors and include sending a message from an agent or using our Automation Rules!

The Chatbox Is Not Showing On Mobile

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Troubleshooting Mobile Issues

There are a few steps you can take to debug why the chatbox is not appearing on your mobile site.

Check that Mobile is enabled

We enable mobile by default for all accounts. Check that the Widget Visibility setting on the Chat Widget settings page isn’t set to hide or desktop only.

Check Your Automation Rules

Do you have an Automation Rule that is hiding the chatbox for mobile operating systems? You can see if you have a conflicting rule from your Automation page.

The Complete Guide to Connecting Technolutions Slate and Olark Live Chat

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Why Connect Olark to Slate?

There are many reasons why you should integrate Slate and Olark. Here are the highlights:

Measuring effectiveness. With Slate and Olark working together, you can measure the effectiveness of Olark and gain insights that will help you increase student engagement and service.
Saving your team time and providing better service. Avoid extra clicks and automate repetitive tasks. Out of the box, Olark passes along a link to Slate student records for existing students in Slate, and your Olark account manager can help you unlock additional capabilities: route based on the content of the conversations, automate FAQs, and make sure students questions are routed to their admissions counselor when they are available.
Better lead capture and lead scoring. Data from Olark can both help increase the lead score of highly engaged students and help add prospective students that are asking questions to the top of your funnel.

A successful integration will help your team be more effective, provide tactical tools to help you increase enrollment yield, and give you strategic information to make long-term decisions around maximizing yield with chat.

The Different Ways You Can Route Chat (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

There are two options for routing chats to your team. This setting can be modified from the Setup page.

All Agents

By default, all available agents will see each incoming chat requests. The agent that sends a reply first will be assigned the chat. This option may be best for small teams, where whoever is free can engage with the customer.

Transcripts

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Accessing transcripts

If you are on a paid Olark plan, you can read and search through all of your conversations through the Transcripts page.

While you’re chatting, you can find a link to a transcript of your current conversation in the chat console sidebar, under the Behavior dropdown menu. You can also generate the transcript link within conversation by using the !transcript command (only viewable to the chat operator). Anyone on your Olark account can use this link to view the transcript of your current conversation.

Transferring a Chat

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Open Transfers

Use the !transfer command to make a chat available to all other agents currently logged into chat. You can also include an optional message to provide some context about the chat.

For example, in the chat console you would type the following.

!transfer Is anyone in sales available to give this visitor a demo of our lead capture features?

Direct Transfers

Use the !transfer command, followed by a space and then @agent-name, to transfer the chat to a specific agent.

Trillian setup guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

You can use Trillian on your mobile device to chat with your Olark visitors while on the go.

Setup

Download Trillian

First, download Trillian on the App Store or the Google Play Store.

In order to use Trillian, you must first create a Trillian username to log into their service. You can either do this on the Trillian website, or by tapping the Sign up button on the app’s login screen.

Trillian setup guide (Desktop Client)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Trillian is a free instant messenger program that works with your Olark on Windows, as well as MacOS X, Android, iPhone, and the web.

Set up Trillian as a chat client for desktop

Download the Trillian chat console for Windows or Mac from the Trillian website and install on your computer.
Launch Trillian. You will need to have a Trillian account. Either create a new one, or sign in to your existing Trillian account.

Troubleshooting Google Analytics

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

NOTE: This guide references Google ’s Universal Analytics which was sunset in June, 2023.

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In this guide we’re going to go over common Google Analytics (GA) issues and how you can troubleshoot GA issues yourself. If you’re looking for how to integrate GA with Olark you should head on over here.

Please note, it takes 48 hours after the first time you initalize the Google Analytics feature in Olark, for Google to start sending data about Olark to your Google Analytics

Troubleshooting with the mmenu plugin

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

The jQuery mmenu plugin is used on many sites and used in lots of templates and themes, but removes the Olark chat box from pages by default.

Install the Olark wrapper

If you update your mmenu plugin to version 5.4.1 , you can use the new Olark wrapper to prevent the chat box being removed from your pages.

In your HTML document, include the mmenu plugin as usual (make sure you have updated to version 5.4.1). Underneath, include a link to the Olark wrapper, which you can download from the mmenu plugin homepage. Your HTML should look something like this:

Ubercart integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

(Tutorial based on Drupal 6:Ubercart 2.2 )

Setup steps

Follow these steps and you’ll be communicating with customers in no time.

Log into your Ubercart administration pages
Go to Administer > Site building. Click on " Blocks"

Add a new block

Log in to copy your Olark embed code.
Paste your code into the block and make sure the input type is set to “Full HTML”

Uploading Files (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

Visitors can upload files from the chatbox, which will be displayed to an agent. File Upload is enabled by default, and the feature can be disabled in the Setup section of your dashboard.

User Types

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About

We offer different seat types within the Olark account: Account Owner , Admin or Agent.

All user types, whether account owner, administrator or agent, have the ability to chat and therefore count towards your total seat amount. While we don’t offer a monitoring-only type of user/seat, there are specific features and unique privileges assigned to various user types! Below, you’ll see which seats have access to which features:

User permissions

Agent

Chat Transcripts
Reporting & Activity: Self Only
Chat Ratings: Self Only
Manage/Edit Users & Groups: Self Only
Manage Shortcuts: Self Only

Admin & Account Owner

Chat Transcripts
Reporting & Activity
Chat Ratings
Manage/Edit Users & Groups
Manage Shortcuts
Create/Manage Automation Rules
Emailed Reports
Transcript Metadata CSV Export
Manage Billing/Payment Info
Manage Integrations
Enable Ai Assistants

Using Multiple Domains

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You can place your Olark chat widget on as many of your websites/webpages as you’d like - no need for multiple accounts! If you’re placing Olark on a new/different domain, you’ll want to use the standard embed process.

Appearance

By default, your chat widget will look the same and follow the same rules/behaviors that you have set up from your account settings across all pages.

Customizing per site or page

You can use our API to make specific modification to widgets between different websites. For example, this API guide shows how you can change the primary color for one of your chat widgets: /api#system_hb_primary_color.

Using multiple Google Analytics tracking IDs

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NOTE: This article pertains to Google ’s Universal Analytics which was sunset in June, 2023. Please see this article for information on using GA4 with Olark.

Settings

If you use more than one Google Analytics IDs on your site, you’ll need to tell Olark which ID to use for tracking events on that page.

Olark can only send events to one Google Analytics account per page.

Go to your Google Analytics integration page and turn on tracking of Olark Events.
Under Advanced Options turn on Custom Tracking and hit save.
On your website’s install code, look for this line:
/* custom configuration goes here (www.olark.com/documentation) */
Add this line directly below:
olark.configure(“GoogleAnalytics.custom_tracking_id”, “UA-XXXXXX-XX”)
Be sure to replace UA-XXXXXX-XX with your own Google Analytics tracking ID.

Using Olark with AdWords

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If you use Google AdWords, Olark can help you do better conversion tracking. By using our Javascript API, you can track conversions when a chat begins, when an agent sends a response, and many other events!

Example: Track AdWords conversions when a customer starts a chat

Let’s say you want to track a conversion only when a customer starts chatting with you. The first step is creating a helper that lets you track those AdWords conversions. Here’s a Javascript function to do that:

Using Olark with jquery.prettyPhoto

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Known issues

When using Olark with the jQuery prettyPhoto plugin, your visitors may be unable to type in the chat box. This is due to an issue where all keyboard input is captured by prettyPhoto.

Workaround

To work around this, you can just add this to your prettyPhoto configuration:

$(document).ready(function() {
  $("a\[rel^='prettyPhoto'\]").prettyPhoto({
    **changepicturecallback: function() {
      $pp\_pic\_holder.is = function() {};
        }**
    });
});

This will make sure that prettyPhoto lets those keyboard inputs go free!

Using Olark with Segment

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Segment is the single hub to collect, manage and route your customer analytics data. Segment will also host your Olark code, and load the chatbox on the page.

If you are an existing Olark customer, and want to connect to Olark through Segment, we recommend that you remove the existing Olark code from your site before using the steps below.

Connecting Olark to Segment

Step 1

Note: Before connecting Olark to Segment, make sure you have signed up for an Olark account and are are logged into it.

Using Pidgin from behind a firewall

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Getting Pidgin through your company’s firewall can be a chore that only the IT folks can help with, but here’s something to try first yourself.

Configure the server and port

Find your account inside Pidgin, click modify, and then the Advanced tab. You can set the connect server to “port80.olark.com” and the port to “80” and then it should get through the firewall.

Using Tags (Olark classic)

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You can use tags to add category and topic labels to your chats such as feature-request or followup. Tagging chats makes it easier to analyze chat traffic and helps you search and filter your transcript archive.

Add a Tag To a Chat

During a conversation, type !tag followed by a space then whatever word or short phrase you’d like, for example !tag sales or !tag refund.

Using the Chatbox for Offline Messages

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Enabling the offline message form

‍

When your agents are away from chat or offline, you can turn the chatbox into an offline email form. This can be done from the Chat Widget settings page.

In the Surveys section, set the “When no humans or bots are available to chat " setting to “Collect these fields and take a message.”

You can choose to collect Name, Email, and/or Phone and if each field is required or optional. A message field will populate automatically.

Using the Chatbox Inline

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Inline Chatbox Instructions

You can set Olark inline by pasting a little extra JavaScript into your Olark code snippet.

Find the following in the Olark install code on your website:

/custom configuration goes here (www.olark.com/documentation) /

Paste the following code immediately afterward.

olark.configure('box.inline', true);

Add a DIV container where you want the chatbox to appear on your website. Give the DIV an id of “olark-box-container”

‍

Olark will search your page for the DIV container and insert the chatbox there in place of having it float on the left or right bottom corner of your page.

Viewing receipts

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You can access all your current and past receipts on the Receipts Page.

VirtueMart integration guide

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(Tutorial based on VirtueMart 1.1 Store [Joomla! 1.5] )

Log into your VirtueMart administration area.
Click on the “Template Manager " in Extensions»Template Manager

Click your current theme:

Click on “Edit HTML "

Scroll to the bottom of the editor panel and paste your Olark code snippet above the tag.

Click save.

Celebrate!

Visitor Cobrowsing PowerUp (Olark Classic)

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The Visitor Cobrowsing PowerUp gives chat agents the ability to view their visitors’ screens.

How to Start a Cobrowsing Session in Olark Classic

You can follow the directions listed below to begin a Cobrowsing session.

Select the Launch Cobrowsing button within the visitor information panel for the chat conversation. The button is located at the bottom of the visitor information panel. The visitor information panel is on the right-hand side of the chat console.

Visitor geolocation

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How does Olark know where my visitors are located, or what company they are affiliated with?

Olark uses a third party service called MaxMind to display the geolocation and organization affiliation, when it is known. This is based off of the visitor’s IP address that we see. The IP address can sometimes be associated with an ISP (Internet Service Provider) or VPN (Virtual Private Network) that is very different from the visitor’s actual location or organization.

Visitor Insights PowerUps (Olark Classic)

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**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console.

The Visitor Insights PowerUps provide chat agents extra details about the visitors they’re chatting with.

These PowerUps use a third-party data service to find and organize information about the visitor that’s available on the web. The name of the third-party data service supplying the information is FullContact. The data could be coming from public social profiles or corporate websites. FullContact uses the visitor’s email address in the process, so you’ll need to collect visitor emails. We recommend obtaining your visitor’s email with a pre-chat survey.

Visitor Profiles (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console.

Visitor Profiles allow you to store helpful information about your visitors making it viewable to any agent who chats with that visitor in the future. Every Visitor Profile includes default fields for name, email, and phone. If you’re on a paid plan, you can also create up to 100 custom fields for each visitor.

Note: Custom profile fields are only available on a paid plan. Free Olark users can add and edit values for name, email, and phone.

Volusion integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Install steps

Log into your Volusion administration area.
Go to Design > Template > My templates tab. Click on the name of your current theme.

Go to Design > LiveEdit File Editor and select your current theme Files.

Log in to copy your Olark code snippet.
Scroll to the bottom of the editor panel, and paste the Olark install code just before the tag. Click Save.

W9 Form

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Are you looking for a signed W9 form, our tax ID number, TIN, or EIN?

Tax ID

Olark’s tax ID number is 27-0303727. This same number is also our TIN and EIN.

W9 download

You can download a copy of our signed w9 form here

‍

If you have issues accessing the linked PDF, please email us at support@olark.com and request a copy as an email attachment.

Webflow integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

You can set up Olark with one of the most customizable site builders on the market. Add Olark to your Webflow site by following the simple steps below.

Note: You must have a paid Webflow account to use this integration.

Install steps

First, log in to Olark. Go to Settings > Chat Widget. Copy your Olark installation code.

Next, sign in to your Webflow dashboard. Click on the desired website project. Then, click in the upper left corner on Project Settings.

Webhooks integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Using a webhook is a simple way to take the content of an Olark chat transcript and process it for use on your own server. For example, you could add it to your own custom CRM, push it into your marketing automation platform or even perform additional analytics on every conversation.

Setting up a webhook integration

Create a webhook endpoint. A webhook endpoint is a URL on your server that will receive each transcript when a conversation completes, e.g. http://www.yourhost.com/olark_endpoint.php
When you finish a live chat, Olark makes HTTP POST to the endpoint you specified. The POST has a single data field containing the JSON-encoded transcript.

‍

Weebly Integration Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Weebly has an easy, drag and drop interface to create your own professional website, ideal for those who want to get up and running quickly.

Installation steps

Log in to your Weebly account and click Edit Website near the top-right corner of the page, for the site you want to add Olark to:

From the main tab bar at the top of the page, click on Settings :

What Kind of Reporting Olark Offers

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Olark offers a variety of reporting options including:

Chat Ratings
Email Reports
Agent activity reports
Integrating with Google Analytics

Chat Ratings

Chat Ratings lets you send the visitor a post-chat survey to find out how they rated their chat experience while on your site. You can read more about Chat Ratings here.

In addition to providing chat ratings feedback, your reports page also contains information about the number of chats you had and other useful data such as how many chats happened within a particular date range.

What website builder tools do not work with Olark?

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Known to be incompatible

Unfortunately, the following website builders are known to conflict with Olark and the way the widget functions. This list may not be all inclusive.

We do not recommend using Olark with these tools.

Which cookies does Olark set?

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Due to EU privacy laws EU web sites are required by law to disclose the type of cookies that are created from their site.

What follows is a description of Olark cookies which we believe to be in compliance with the “only necessary” aspect of setting cookies outlined in the EU rules for Internet privacy.

Cookies and their purpose

hblid a visitor identifier that we use only on your site to remember this visitor between visits
wcsid a session identifier that we use only on your site to keep track of a single chat session
olfsk storage identifier that we use to maintain chat state across pages (e.g. message history)
_okdetect used for detecting when storage contexts have changed due to things like ssl or host transitions (helps maintain your chat across pages)
_okbk extra state information (e.g. chat box being open/closed)
_ok most recent Olark site ID (security measure)
_oklv the Olark loader version (for improved caching)
_okla used for caching purposes (loaded from CDN vs. loaded from our infrastructure)
_okgid group id the visitor is locked to
_okac used for caching by setting a hash for assets to determine if they have changed and if they need to be refreshed
_okck used to test whether the visitor’s browser allows cookies to be stored

WHMCS integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

WHMCS is an all-in-one CMS/CRM system that helps you sell to and track your online customers. Follow this guide to quickly install Olark on WHMCS.

Installation steps

Connect to your webserver via the FTP program of your choice, and navigate to whmcs/template/X, where X is the name of the theme that you are using in WHMCS.
Download the footer.tpl file from your webserver to your local computer. While still connected via FTP, rename the footer.tpl file to “footer.bak”, in case you introduce an error in the footer file when you re-upload it.
On your local computer, open up the footer.tpl file that you have downloaded inside, of a text editor of your choice.
Log in to Olark and visit settings > Chat Widget to copy your Olark code snippet.
Above the tag in the footer.tpl file, paste in the Olark install code.

Why am I being forced away?

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

The main cause of being forced away is that you were online and didn’t respond to a messages.

Olark Force Away

You will receive a notification from Olark saying that you are being forced away when you have received a message from a visitor but have not responded.

If you do not respond to the initial inbound chat within 5 minutes and no other messages are sent to other visitors, Olark will automatically force you away so you will not miss any more new visitor chats.

Why does Google Analytics real-time show more visitors? (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For new chat console documentation, click here.

Google’s Real-time Analytics uses a different method of detecting how many people are on your website, which is why Olark shows different numbers of visitors.

How Olark counts visitors

When a visitor enters your website, Olark starts pinging its servers every couple of seconds to see what they are doing on any given page. We know to within a second when your visitors enter and leave a website.

Why does Magento show incorrect user information?

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

We have identified an issue with customers using Olark’s Cartsaver feature with Magento Enterprise edition. This appears to be a known issue. There is a workaround that works for some customers by making changes to your Magento settings.

What is the issue?

The reported issue is that visitor information in Magento can appear to show data from a previous visitor to your site, including their shopping cart contents (if using the CartSaver function) in the chat console. The incorrect information can sometimes show a few moments after the chat starts.

Why does my chatbox look giant?

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Missing doctype declaration

The most common reason that the chatbox will look much larger than usual is a missing doctype declaration.

For your chatbox to display correctly when it needs a doctype declaration, it should look like this.

‍

If you have a strict doctype, it should also display correctly.

The problem usually occurs when you either:

Have no doctype
Are using a transitional doctype

Try changing your doctype to the one above and you should be right as rain in no time!

Why does Olark not work with Google Hangouts (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

XMPP

Google Hangouts does not support XMPP chat protocol. Unfortunately, this means Olark cannot currently work with Hangouts.

‍

Olark works with these supported chat clients or you can also use the Olark chat console.

Why is my visitor list empty? (Olark Classic)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

Show only chatting visitors

If you have a very active website and your visitor list doesn’t show all visitors, it may be that you were automatically switched to showing only chatting visitors.

We automatically switch the visitor list over to show only chatting for high traffic sites. We don’t want to overwhelm your visitor list when you have multiple visitors landing every second. Once this threshold is crossed, your site is flagged as a high traffic site.

Why Olark Isn't HIPAA Compliant

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HIPAA (the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) created guidelines for protecting the confidentiality and security of healthcare information and patient records in the US.

It is also worth noting that HIPAA covers Protected Health Information (PHI) communications. PHI is communication between a doctor and a patient. It is a medical record created by a doctor, nurse, or healthcare provider. It can also include a medical billing record created by a healthcare provider. You must comply with HIPAA if the communication is created by a healthcare provider. HIPAA-compliance also applies if it is a conversation between a healthcare provider and a patient.

Wix HTML5 Integration Guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Olark is currently not supported and cannot be used for Wix sites.

Unsupported

With Wix, you typically do not have access to the HTML and full code of your site’s pages. This can be limiting when you want to add third-party code to your site like the Olark code snippet.

Using an HTML element, you can sometimes overcome these limitations by adding raw HTML to your page. However, the HTML element in Wix creates a sandboxed environment (an iframe) that does not have direct access to the other elements on your page. Olark’s code snippet cannot be embedded via iframe.

WooCommerce integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

With a WooCommerce integration and our Cart Saver feature, you’ll be able to see what’s in someone’s shopping cart as they chat with you!

Set up WooCommerce

To setup WooCommerce with Olark, you’ll first need to log into your WordPress dashboard as an Admin. Then, click on Plugins > Add New and search for the WooCommerce plugin within your dashboard. You’ll need to click on the Install Now button to install the plugin, and Activate the plugin.
Next, install the Olark plugin through the same Plugins > Add New section, by searching for Olark. You’ll want to install and active the Olark plugin.

The Cart Saver feature will display your visitor’s items and pricing within our Olark Classic Chat Console when you’re ready to start chatting with your websites visitors!

WordPress Integration Guide (Manual Install)

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Wordpress account type

You can set up Olark with the most popular blogging platform in the world by following the instructions listed below. WordPress.com accounts may need to upgrade to a Business or eCommerce paid plan before installing Olark on their page.

Plugin

Check it out: Olark has a WordPress plugin available! Learn more about Olark Live Chat for WordPress or get instructions for installing the plugin as an alternative to using the manual steps listed below. We strongly recommend using the WordPress plugin installation method.

WordPress Integration Guide (Plugin Install)

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

You can set up Olark with the most popular blogging platform in the world. Add Olark to your WordPress site by following the steps listed below.

Free WordPress.com accounts may need to upgrade to a paid plan before installing Olark on their page.

Plugin Install

Sign in to your WordPress admin panel.
Using the left-side menu in WordPress navigate to Plugins and select Add New.

Write a note

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Note Command

The !note command allows you to quickly add comments to a conversation.

Usage

In your chat conversation, type one of the following and hit return:

!note [this is the title of a note] this is the body of a note
!note this note does not have a title

About notes

All notes are hidden from visitors. When you add a note it appears inline in the conversation in the agent chat console. When chatting with a visitor you will see your added notes. All past notes about that visitor under the Activity tab on the right hand side.
Notes can be deleted while a conversation is still active by the agent who wrote them under the Activity tab.
The text of all saved notes is searchable on the transcripts page.
Notes are visible by all agents on the account.
Notes do not currently send to integrations at this time.

X-Cart integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Adding Olark to X-Cart is a simple process. Follow this guide to get Olark on your site fast, and start talking to visitors immediately!

Quick install steps

Navigate to the x-cart Olark module for the instructions, but to save you time, here are the highlights!

Open Extensions > Marketplace in the Admin area of your store.
Find the Olark module by searching for Livechat - Olark
Tick the checkbox Install next to the module name and press Install modules button.

Once you have done that, Olark will appear on your X-Cart pages once you refresh and pull the new changes in your browser.

Xabber Setup

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Xabber is a free mobile chat application for the Android operating system in the Google Play Store. Follow this walkthrough to get it connected with your Olark account!

Download Xabber from the Google Play store
If you’re a new Xabber user, you’ll need to make a Xabber-specific account (login)

Once you create your Xabber account, you’ll be able to add your Olark account into the Xabber account by clicking on Add Account

XMPP setup guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

You can connect Olark to almost any app that supports the Jabber or XMPP protocol, whether for your PC or Mac computer, tablet or mobile.

There is a full list of available XMPP apps for all Operating Systems at xmpp.org/xmpp-software/clients/

Start your instant message program and locate the menu where you can add a new Jabber or XMPP account (usually in preferences or settings).
Fill in the following as requested. Not all of these will be needed.

Yaxim setup guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

YAXIM stands for Yet Another XMPP Instant Messenger, a Jabber client for Android devices. This guide shows you how to set up Olark with YAXIM.

Download and install Yaxim from the Google Play Store.
Enter your Olark username, with @olark.com at the end. For example, if you log in to Olark with the username joe.w, you would enter joe.w@olark.com. You do NOT enter your own email address.

Zapier integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

NOTE: This help article is intended for customers on our self-serve level of service. If you are an Olark Pro customer, your integration likely will work differently. Please reach out to pro@olark.com for help with setting up your integration.

With the Olark and Zapier integration, you can create a workflow called a “zap” that takes information from Olark and automatically transfers it to one of over 2,000 apps. A few examples:

Zen Cart integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Follow our guide to help get Olark live chat on your Zen Cart online store management system, and start selling to visitors on your site.

Setup steps

You will first need access to Zen Cart’s core files via your web hosting C-Panel or an FTP client.
Locate the includes directory.

Locate and open the template directory and then the common directory

Open tpl_footer.php with your favorite text editor.

Zendesk integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

NOTE: This help article is intended for customers on our self-serve level of service. If you are an Olark Pro customer, your integration likely will work differently. Please reach out to pro@olark.com for help with setting up your integration.

You can create a ticket in Zendesk simply by using the !zendesk command while chatting with a visitor via Olark, or have all chats sent automatically.

Olark will associate a Ticket with existing information, as long as the email address for the visitor in Olark matches their email address in Zendesk. You can use our Pre-Chat Survey to collect visitor information before they start chatting, our !email command, or you can push known data about your visitor to Olark automatically via our API.

Zoom integration guide

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 06:35:43 +0000

Personal Meeting Link

‍

Find your personal Zoom meeting ID. Click on Meetings > My Personal Meeting ID > Show Meeting Invitation. Then, copy the link.

Setting up the Olark Shortcut

In Olark, click your avatar picture and choose User Settings
Click +add Shortcut under User Shortcuts
‍ Input ‘zoom’ into a new Shortcut, then paste your personal Zoom meeting room into the link section. We also recommend including some text like: Hop on a quick Zoom call with me: https://us04web.zoom.us/j/8899993909
When you want to call up this text, just type ;zoom into your chat, hit send, and watch it automatically populate with your greeting
Your visitor will see your invitation as soon as you send

Olark - Book a meeting with Olark

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 15:29:29 -0700

Olark - Book a meeting with Olark

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 15:29:29 -0700

Olark - Book a meeting with Olark

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 15:29:29 -0700

How The Office of Disability Services at Rutgers University Uses Olark’s Accessible Chat

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Carlie from the Office Disability Services at Rutgers explains how Dlark has made life easier for her staff and students. Students have a way to reach someone on her team quickly from any device. For her team, chat allows us to answer easy questions quickly, and gives us more time for in-depth questions over the phone or email.

How Icetro America Uses Olark To Make Life Easier For Field Technicians

Fri, 06 Jun 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Icetro America is a leading manufacturer of commercial foodservice equipment, specializing in ice machines, soft serve ice cream machines, slush machines, and ice/water dispensers. The following conversation is with Trey Hoffman the VP of Marketing and VP of Operations for Icetro America.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month - Interview with Stephen Framil

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CEO, Ben Congleton, and Stephen Framil, Corporate Global Head of Accessibility at Merck, talk about improving access to good jobs for all.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month - Interview with Kelsey Hall

Tue, 26 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CEO, Ben Congleton, talks with Kelsey Hall, Senior Director of User Experience and Head of Accessibility at ADP, to talk about improving access to good jobs for all.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month - Interview with Mike Shebanek

Wed, 20 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CEO, Ben Congleton, talks with Mike Shebanek, Head of Accessibility at Facebook, to talk about improving access to good jobs for all.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month - Interview with Cat Noone

Tue, 19 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CEO, Ben Congleton, sits down with Cat Noone, CEO and Co-Founder of Stark, to talk about improving access to good jobs for all.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month - Interview with Eve Hill

Thu, 07 Nov 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CEO, Ben Congleton, and Eve Hill, Partner at Brown, Goldstein & Levy LLP, talk about improving access to good jobs for all.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month - Interview with Øystein Moseng

Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CEO, Ben Congleton, and Øystein Moseng, CPO at Highcharts, discuss improving access to good jobs for all.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month - Interview with Regina Kline

Tue, 29 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CEO, Ben Congleton, and Regina Kline, Founder and Managing Partner of Enable Ventures, talk about improving access to good jobs for all.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month - Interview with Jennison Asuncion

Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CEO, Ben Congleton, talks with Jennison Asuncion, Head of Accessibility at A11y and Engineering Evangelism at LinkedIn, about improving access to good jobs for all.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month - Interview with Andrew Chung

Tue, 22 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CEO, Ben Congleton, chats with David Dame, Chief Product Officer at Level Access, about improving access to good jobs for all.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month - Interview with David Dame

Wed, 16 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CEO, Ben Congleton, discusses improving access to good jobs for all with David Dame, a senior director of accessibility at Microsoft.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month - Interview with Jason Meddaugh

Fri, 11 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CEO, Ben Congleton, chats with Jason Meddaugh, Owner of A.T. Guys, about improving access to good jobs for all.

National Disability Employment Awareness Month - Interview with Sagar Barbhaya

Thu, 10 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CEO, Ben Congleton, talks with Sagar Barbhaya, Head of Global Accessibility at TikTok about improving access to good jobs for all.

Is Live Chat Worth It? One Director from Disability Services Responds to Common Blockers to Adoption

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

If you’re wondering whether live chat would be helpful to your office of disability services but still have some concerns, this one’s for you!

National Disability Employment Awareness Month - Interview with Jonathan Thurston

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CEO, Ben Congleton, sits down with Johnathan Thurston of Infinite Access to discuss improving access to good jobs for all.

Olark Joins Companies Nationwide in Observing National Disability Employment Awareness Month

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Today we announced that we’re joining the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM). The campaign, which takes place every October, seeks to educate and celebrate.

Toward Accessible AI Chatbots: Olark’s Annual Report for GAAD (Year 3!)

Mon, 13 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Our third annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day reflection and commitment write-up.

Olark's Q1 2024 Accessibility Progress Report

Fri, 29 Mar 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Howdy! We just got home from an amazing week at the CSUN Assistive Technology Conference. Even though the quarter isn’t quite over, we’re feeling so energized from hanging out and learning with the accessibility community that we decided to make the update a little early.

Operation Sweet Support

Fri, 02 Feb 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Here at Olark, we’re always looking for new ways to surprise and delight our customers! We value making business human, and that includes recognizing the people making the business happen.

Olark’s Q4 2023 Accessibility Progress Report

Thu, 25 Jan 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Happy New Year! We just returned from our winter break and are excited to share the accessibility work we completed in the past couple months.

Leadership Lessons from Biking with Kids

Sun, 14 Jan 2024 22:06:04 +0000

My kids are some of my best teachers. One Sunday in October, we set out on what we thought was a 7 mile bike ride to meet mommy at a park near our house.

Olark's Q3 2023 Accessibility Progress Report

Thu, 02 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

As we enter the new quarter, we’re excited to share Olark’s first quarterly accessibility update. This is part of our commitment to both accessibility and working in the open as we try to make our products more accessible for everyone.

Olark’s Accessibility Journey: Annual Report for GAAD + the Messy Middle

Tue, 16 May 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) is this week! As part of this important celebration, we’re sharing our yearly progress and lessons in accessibility. This is a blogging tradition we started in 2021 (plus a deep dive on how we got started) and we continued the practice last year. Come along with us as we reflect!

How to add visitor information to the chat console (Olark Classic)

Mon, 01 May 2023 20:08:42 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console.

This guide will walk through a few ways you can use the Olark API to get information about your site’s visitors displayed in realtime to the chat console.

By default the chatbox will grab data from your visitors such as geolocation, ip address, and email, if you have the prechat survey enabled.

However, you may want to add additional information about your visitors to help your agents provide better sales and support.

Trillian setup guide

Mon, 01 May 2023 20:08:42 +0000

Trillian is a free instant messenger program that works with your Olark on Windows, as well as MacOS X, Android, iPhone, BlackBerry and the web.

This guide will talk you through how to set up Trillian as a chat client for desktop.

Download the Trillian chat console for Windows or Mac from the Trillian website and install on your computer.
Launch Trillian. You will need to have a Trillian account. Either create a new one, or sign in to your existing Trillian account.

Increase Chats With Proactive Messages

Mon, 01 May 2023 20:08:41 +0000

Sending targeted proactive messages to your visitors is a great way of increasing the number of chats.

The most effective way of sending proactive messages to your visitors is by using Automation Rules to tailor specific messages to certain types of visitors. The key components for success are reaching the right audience at the right time with the right message. Automation Rules can be created and edited at https://www.olark.com/automation.

Keyboard Shortcuts in the Chat Console (Olark Classic)

Mon, 01 May 2023 20:08:41 +0000

**NOTE: This help article was written for our Olark Classic chat console. Some things may not apply, may have moved, or may look different. For up to date chat console documentation, click here.

Some people need or prefer using keyboard shortcuts when they are browsing the web or completing work tasks. Olark is committed to digital accessibility. We have the following keyboard shortcuts available for anyone to use while accessing the Olark chat console.

Show the chatbox on a specific page

Mon, 01 May 2023 20:08:41 +0000

This guide shows how can you hide or show the chat widget on specific pages using Automation Rules.

amoCRM integration guide

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 20:07:03 +0000

amoCRM have created a simple extension to send your Olark chat transcripts and offline messages to aid your lead generation. Here’s how to install it with Olark.

Log in to amoCRM and click the Accounts tab.
Select Widgets from the sidebar menu.
Choose Olark, then select and copy Webhook URL provided.
Go to your Olark integrations page. Choose Webhooks and paste your Webhook URL into the input field. Scroll down and save.
After you have saved, click Send a test. This will send a test lead to your amoCRM. Go back to your amoCRM dashboard and refresh the page to view your new lead.

That’s all you need to connect Olark to your amoCRM account. For any questions on how to use amoCRM, head over to the amoCRM support section.

Uploading files

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 20:07:02 +0000

Visitors can upload files from the chatbox, which will be displayed to an agent. File Upload is enabled by default.

The File Upload button only appears when both the agent and the visitor have sent a message to one another.
A visitor can click the File Upload icon to select a file from their desktop, tablet, or mobile device. Files are shown as a preview before sending. Visitors can optionally include a message when sending a file.

Books for Moms in Higher Education Administration and Leadership

Tue, 15 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Leading up to Mother’s Day, we’re celebrating all the amazing moms in higher education who are assisting students administratively, often while raising up young minds at home. If you’re on that path, we know it’s a balancing act. We hope some of these books can help energize and inform you as you grow your career in higher education.

Salesforce and Olark Live Chat Integration: Tips & Use Cases

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A lot of organizations tell us that their Salesforce CRM is their source of truth. “If it’s not in Salesforce, it didn’t happen.” Unfortunately, some organizations don’t have a Salesforce integration with their live chat platform, so not all of the truth actually gets back into their system. If you have a customer or prospect conversation in chat, you likely want an easy way to send a record of it to your CRM, so other staff who may talk to that individual can progress a situation smoothly. You may also want a way to quickly pull up their Salesforce history in the middle of a chat, hopefully without adding more work to your schedule.

Leadership Resources for Women in Higher Education Administration

Sat, 25 Jun 2022 00:00:00 +0000

See some of our favorite professional networks and articles for women leaders in higher ed administration!

Today marks an exciting date on the calendar — Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)!

Thu, 19 May 2022 17:02:28 +0000

Today marks an exciting date on the calendar — Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)! Each year, technologists join a11ys and activists in the disability community to educate people about how to make digital experiences that are friendly to people with disabilities and anyone

Olark’s Accessibility Journey: Annual Report from GAAD

Thu, 19 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

The Top Higher Ed KPIs To Track in Live Chat

Thu, 21 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

What higher ed key performance indicators (KPIs) are most valuable to track in live chat, and how might your team go about it? Here are our top tips!

Admissions Questions to Prepare For Your Live Chat Team

Thu, 14 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Is your admissions department getting started with live chat? Here are a few common inquiries from prospective students that you can start preparing for.

How to handle customer complaints effectively

Fri, 08 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Alex Ivanovs explains how customer support operators should talk to customers who aren

Top Books & Podcasts for Higher Ed Enrollment Leaders

Tue, 05 Apr 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Changing the primary operator (owner)

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 09:23:40 +0000

To switch account ownership or change the Primary Operator (i.e., the owner) of the Olark account over to someone else, visit the Team page. You’ll know who the account owner is based on the color of the word Deactivate next to their name. If Deactivate is in grey, that user is the Primary Operator.

The Primary Operator seat cannot be deactivated or deleted because someone needs to be the owner of the account. Instead, you’ll need to edit who is in the seat. Click on the word Edit next to the Primary Operator’s name so that you can assign a new person to the Owner’s seat.

How 6 Industrial Service Businesses Grow with Live Chat

Tue, 15 Feb 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Manufacturing and industrial service businesses are boosting their sales and strengthening their customer relationships with live chat. See six use cases.

8 Unexpected Ways to Combine Live Chat and eCommerce

Thu, 27 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A good live chat experience can mean the difference between a frustrated visitor and a loyal customer. Below are some of the best strategies for using live chat to create a positive, personalized experience on your website.

Scheduling Times with Customers and Prospects - Made Easy with Olark

Wed, 26 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

“Set up a time with your customers in seconds using the Calendly Olark integration.

Why Live Chat for Higher Ed?

Fri, 14 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Live chat is growing more common amongst higher ed institutions. It can lead to more student conversions and greater satisfaction, as these examples show.

Olark’s Accessibility Journey: how our people and our values pushed us to build better products for all

Wed, 19 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

May 20th is Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)! To celebrate, we are sharing Olark’s story: how we went from finding a couple of accessibility issues in our bug tracker to developing a WCAG 2.0 AA compliant chatbox and fostering a team committed to doing more to make Olark accessible (with a lot of work ahead of us).

Live Chat Accessibility: How We Got Here

Fri, 30 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

How do you make live chat accessible? At Olark, we turned to Accessible360. Learn more about our audit process and tips here!

7 Winning Examples of Olark Live Chat on Drupal Websites

Sat, 03 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

See how 7 businesses, from B2B to higher ed, are using live chat on Drupal to score more leads, boost customer satisfaction, and make the sale.

Canned responses for live chat: An overview of Olark Shortcuts

Mon, 01 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Shortcuts are canned responses for live chat customer service, which make talking to customers is more efficient. Here are some canned responses examples.

Olark Live Chat to Zoom Video Call, Stat!

Fri, 29 Jan 2021 00:00:00 +0000

No more fiddling with videoconference links when you

8 Businesses Thriving with Live Chat on WordPress

Thu, 17 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Eight businesses (from B2B and B2C to nonprofit) share how they use live chat on WordPress to improve service, convert more leads, and boost sales.

WooCommerce and Live Chat: 6 Exciting Ecommerce Success Stories

Wed, 21 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

See success stories from 6 real ecommerce businesses using WooCommerce and live chat to increase their sales conversions and customer satisfaction.

6 Ways to Inspire Your Remote Team’s Creativity

Tue, 13 Oct 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Inspiring a remote team

How to combine PPC ads and Olark Live Chat to increase conversions

Wed, 02 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Jacob Baadsgaard, CEO of Disruptive Advertising, explains how to combine UTM parameters and proactive live chat prompts to customize customer conversations.

How we skipped our trip to Vegas and ran a remote engineering retreat during a pandemic

Mon, 24 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

How Olark ran a remote engineering retreat - successfully and virtually - during a pandemic.

Statement of Solidarity and Action for Black Lives Matter

Tue, 18 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Olark

How to start matching your employees' donations in 10 minutes or less

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 15:16:24 +0000

Many years ago Olark put our donation matching program in place. This program was spearheaded by a member of our DevOps team back when we were a tiny company.

How to start matching your employees

Thu, 04 Jun 2020 00:00:00 +0000

My goal is to help you realize how simple it is to administer a donation matching program for a startup or small business and have you running in minutes.

Creating remote watercooler moments

Thu, 26 Mar 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The most common arguments against remote working is remote teams miss opportunities to have ‘watercooler moments’. The Olark team shows it is possible to create space for casual conversation and support as a remote team!

Announcing a new, simpler pricing plan

Fri, 24 Jan 2020 00:00:00 +0000

More flexibility, and easier to use. We

When my blindspots almost cost me my career

Tue, 17 Dec 2019 18:52:33 +0000

Do you know the positive and negative impacts you have on your coworkers? “Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” ― Dolly Parton Many years ago I failed to mediate a conflict between two of my teammates.

From 0 to 10: Making the “right” decisions

Wed, 11 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This post is the fourth in our 10 year anniversary series. Want to catch up? Read the series intro, Olark’s origin story, and our road to a co-created culture.

Small business at the holidays: 5 tips to prep for the holiday customer service load

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The most wonderful time of the year can also be one of the most stressful. Here

Small Business at the Holidays: How to Rock Multiple Customer Service Channels

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Phone, email, chat — today’s holiday shopper wants to reach you in multiple ways. Here

Small business at the holidays: 4 ways to boost your online sales this season

Mon, 18 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

You don

Holiday shopping, PowerUps, and you

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Feeling the creep of holiday stress? Olark is here to help! You

Why you (yes, you, the CEO) should be talking directly to customers

Thu, 07 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In 2013, four years after co-founding Olark, I was waiting for some friends to order at a Starbucks in Mumbai when a woman approached me and commented on my Virginia Tech t-shirt. I was jet-lagged, but energized — being in a new place always gives me energy — and eager to connect with people. So, even though I was just barely finding my footing after only 8 hours in a city that couldn’t have been more different from Palo Alto, I struck up a conversation.

Starting remote employees on the right foot

Thu, 03 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

I’ll never forget the second day of my first remote job. The first day was the usual — signing all the things, attending all the things, logging into all the things. But when the second day arrived, I had no idea what to do.

From 0 to 10: Our bumpy (but worth it!) road to a co-created culture

Wed, 28 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This post is the third in our 10 year anniversary series. Want to catch up? Read the series intro and Olark’s origin story.

Dos and don’ts for building a remote team: Lessons from a hiring manager

Wed, 14 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Most of us have had at least one bad hiring experience — a recruiter who got too aggressive (or, conversely, ghosted), an interviewer who showed up unprepared, or even an unpleasant post-hire moment when we realized the job wasn’t what we’d been led to believe. But as someone who’s been part of this process for more than a decade, I’m still shocked by some of my friends’ and colleagues’ hiring horror stories. Who are these people, I wonder, who are so blasé about hiring? Do they not understand the stakes?

From 0 to 10: How we built an unconventional Silicon Valley startup

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This month, Olark turns 10! It’s hard to believe that a business we started as a post-college side project has grown into a 30+ person company. We’ve served tens of thousands of customers, generated tens of millions in revenue, and experienced our fair share of failures amidst a full decade of sustainable innovation and growth.

From 0 to 10: Starting a business by solving our own problems

Wed, 07 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

This post is the second in our “From 0 to 10” anniversary series. You can read the series introduction here.

Beyond CSAT: Choosing (and using) the right metrics for your customer service team

Thu, 25 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

About two years ago, a member of Olark’s customer service team decided to run an experiment. Sarah Betts spent three months responding to chats under three different names and avatars — first as “Samuel”, featuring a male profile photo, then as “Sam”, featuring a bit of androgynous clipart, and finally as herself, Sarah, with the same photo she’d used as a live chat agent for the past several years.

How a 5-stage design thinking framework helps our small team solve customer problems

Fri, 12 Jul 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Remember the Great Comcast Scandal of 2014? I’ll sum it up to spare you an unpleasant trip through the news archives: customer calls Comcast to cancel, and ends up on the phone for 30+ minutes with a representative who essentially refuses to accommodate their request.

50+ Ways Olark can help you level up sales and support

Fri, 21 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Olark is here to help you level up your sales and support using the powers of our real time chat box widget. Save time and delight your customers all year long.

Should you use machine translation to talk to your customers ?

Thu, 02 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Machine translation has improved dramatically in a very short period of time, and that means that it

All Hands Support

Wed, 01 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Learn how to talk to your customers and have a great time doing it! What is All Hands Support? How do you do All Hands Support on a remote team? The Olark team has refined the practice over 10 years.

Top benefits of live chat vs. other online communication

Wed, 01 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

What is the best way for your customers to contact you? In a world of so many options, it can be hard to decide. Check out our guide to the top benefits of live chat.

We're tidying up your Olark dashboard navigation

Wed, 01 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

We’ve updated the Olark dashboard! Product Designer Taylor LeCroy talks about the decisions behind the new look.

4 Tips for Selling to Multilingual Customers

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

As of December 2017, barely a quarter of internet users spoke English as their primary language — which is to say that if you

5 benefits of using a simple CRM

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Learn how these 5 benefits of CRM can help you collect and easily keep track of customer data to help you improve your sales process.

Step-by-Step Guide to Outsourcing Live Chat Customer Service Agents

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Complete guide to hiring outsourced live chat customer service agents — Where to find them, how to interview them, and how to onboard them.

Kick Your Small Business Website

Thu, 03 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Using tools like live chat and video to create a more human presence on your website will make customers feel comfortable buying from you. Here

Make December 31st a day of Reflection and Intention

Mon, 31 Dec 2018 19:58:21 +0000

I don’t often take time to reflect and reset. And yet, I’ve found that every time I sit down and reflect it helps me recenter, gives me a sense of peace, and makes my path forward more clear.

How we define Customer Service: The sweet spot between sales and support

Wed, 26 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In summer 2017, the Olark team decided to focus our brand and product development on a new use case: live chat for sales.

Build Your Own Support Survival Kit

Wed, 19 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

If you work in sales or support, you know the importance of empathizing with your customers and leads. You may also be familiar with that fatigued feeling at the end of the day (or sometimes by 9am!) of expending all your empathy on others and having very little left for yourself. Building a simple kit based on the 5 senses will help you recover and prepare for the next interaction before you can calculate the cost of a 2 week trip to Bali.

(Video) How we bootstrapped a 10,000 customer business

Wed, 12 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

In this video, our founders talk about starting a bootstrapped business and the challenges they faced.

Ultimate Guide to Remote Office Parties

Wed, 21 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Make the most of your content marketing with content-specific chat prompts

Tue, 20 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Jake Baadsgaard of Disruptive Advertising explains how his firm uses Olark Live Chat to increase conversions from their content marketing.

How Olark Defined Our Company Values

Thu, 15 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

What are company values? Olark took a big leap in 2012. The team collaborated at a company retreat to write our now famous values, CHAMPS. An interview with Ben Congleton explores how we made a values statement everyone could support.

6 Popup Strategies That Will Help You Boost Ecommerce Conversions

Wed, 14 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

How can you increase conversions on your eCommerce website? Greg d

Our top 7 live chat tips for small businesses

Tue, 13 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Manage live web chat for your small business with simple tips from the experts at Olark

The ABCs of CRMs: Organize yourself for better relationships

Tue, 13 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

How a live chat solution can integrate with a CRM to provide more personalized customer interactions.

How to Build Trust with your Customers

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Trust is an essential component of a good customer relationship - these tips will teach you how to build customer trust to increase sales and ensure loyalty.

Chat targeting tips and tricks: How to hit the bullseye with automated live chat rules

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Get tips and tricks for using automated chat rules to engage visitors, reduce bounce rates, and target sales campaigns with Olark Live Chat.

Five quick tips on how to say no to customers

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Saying no to a customer is one of the toughest parts of any sales or support job. Here are five quick tips on how to say no to customers clearly, positively, and constructively.

Seven quick tips to help you breeze through chats

Tue, 06 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

One of the primary benefits of live chat over other methods of sales or support is the ability to help multiple people quickly and efficiently. Here are seven tips to help make chatting a quick and pleasnat experience for you and your customers!

Customer Service Trends in Germany

Tue, 09 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

How are digital customer service trends such as chatbots and live chat driving innovation for the Mittelstand in Germany? Caroline Klein of Bynder explains.

Customer Service Trends in the Netherlands

Tue, 09 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Customer service trends in the Netherlands are changing. Read how Dutch companies are using WhatsApp, chatbots, and social media to connect with consumers.

UK Customer Service Trends

Tue, 09 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Jack Saville of Bynder shares what trends are affecting customer service in the UK, including Brexit, self-service, and the rise of live chat.

How an ISO Certified Company Uses Live Chat

Thu, 04 Oct 2018 00:00:00 +0000

How live chat helps maintain an ISO 9001:2015 Certification.

How to make live chat part of your social selling strategy

Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Connecting with customers through social media, forums, and other socially-minded sites is an increasingly common sales approach that

New: Visitor Information Panel & Custom Profile Fields

Mon, 24 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

To really connect with someone, you need to understand their context. What problem are they trying to solve with your product? How did they hear about your company? Are they considering switching away from one of your competitors, and if so, why?

How does a fully remote team work through tricksy support situations?

Wed, 05 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Dealing with complex support issues can be challenging when you work remotely and your team is entirely distributed. Here

Olark Company Retreat 2018. Where are the Olarkers?

Fri, 24 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

How to Combine Effective Writing, Great Design, and Live Chat for the Perfect Content Marketing Strategy

Mon, 06 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

For a small business owner, taking the first steps toward implementing a content marketing strategy can be daunting. From keyword optimization, to SEO, for structured data, there

New: Save customer insights — and put ‘em to work! — with Notes

Tue, 31 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Notes are a new Olark Live Chat feature to help you capture the insights you gain on chat, share them with your team, and use them to nurture leads and upsell returning customers. Here

Increase sales on your Shopify store for Christmas

Mon, 25 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Protheroe of Veeqo explains how a few simple updates can better prepare a Shopify store for holiday sales.

Case Study: Using automated messages to boost ecommerce conversion rates

Wed, 13 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Earlier this year, we made a simple change to the automated messages we send to greet visitors on our website — one that ended up tripling our chat engagement rates and improving our understanding of our customers

From support to full stack engineer

Mon, 04 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Alicia spills the beans about how she moved from Customer Service at Olark to being a Fullstack Engineer.

Managing a successful customer service team: When it all goes wrong

Fri, 01 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Managing a customer service team is a challenge - and surprisingly similar to farming! No, seriously.

From GDP-argh to GDP-aah: Olark is ready for GDPR

Wed, 30 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Any new legislation can cause anxiety for small businesses, and the GDPR is causing many folks a lot of stress. Fortunately, the team at Olark has produced a whole new suite of tools to help you manage the data you collect and store on our platform.

Where does live chat fit in the sales funnel?

Wed, 30 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Is live chat part of your sales funnel? In this article we share how creating Olark Shortcuts will help your team better answer broad pre-sale questions.

New! Capture leads and sales from around the world with the Live Chat Translation PowerUp.

Wed, 23 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Don

How Olarkers #Chill

Thu, 17 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Taking time to care for yourself is important. The Olark team lives the value of Chill in many inspiring ways.

Myth-busting: If I am working from home, I am slacking

Mon, 14 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Does working from home mean you are slacking? The Olark myth-busters investigate.

Managing a successful customer service team: Help is your friend

Thu, 10 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Managing a customer service team is a challenge - and surprisingly similar to farming! No, seriously.

Managing a successful customer service team: How to prioritize like a farmer

Thu, 10 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Managing a customer service team is a challenge - and surprisingly similar to farming! No, seriously.

Making Live Chat Human: Optimization vs. Sentiment Analysis

Tue, 08 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

How does artificial intelligence help businesses understand how their customers are feeling? Michael Housman of RapportBoost.AI explains live chat optimization.

Nominate your service team for a Sweet Support prize!

Fri, 04 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Olark wants to celebrate support wins. Share your support story and win candy for the team.

How Reno Assistance uses Olark Live Chat to turn prospects into actual customers

Thu, 03 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Reno Assistance uses a chat widget to qualify 25% more leads than phone or email. Read how this Canadian company is growing its business using Olark Live Chat on its website.

A guide to choosing the perfect WordPress theme

Wed, 02 May 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Here are the key things to consider to make sure you install the right theme for your needs, whether you’re choosing a WordPress theme for your own business, or helping a friend or client set up a new WordPress site.

6 Tips for Chat Routing and Filtering

Wed, 25 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Filter chats and automatically assign them to the team or agent best equipped to help, using Olark

Improve your customer experience with the new Visitor Cobrowsing PowerUp

Thu, 19 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

“Get on the same page as your site visitors with our latest PowerUp, Visitor Cobrowsing. Solve problems faster and provide an exceptional experience to your customers.

A public apology to our otherworldly customers

Wed, 18 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A public apology to our otherworldly customers

Managing a successful customer service team: Tips from a farmer, part one

Tue, 03 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Managing a customer service team is a challenge - and surprisingly similar to farming! No, seriously.

Emerging Trends in UK Customer Service [Interviews]

Fri, 30 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

10 UK-based small businesses discuss emerging trends in customer service, including a growing preference for online live chat, Brexit, and personalization.

The Future of Customer Service in the UK

Fri, 30 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Small businesses in the United Kingdom share what Customer Service trends they

[Video] Live chat for Slack — Meet the Olark Slack App

Tue, 27 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Want to chat with your customers directly from Slack? The Olark Live Chat Slack App makes that possible! You can also share conversations with teammates in Slack, ask for help when things get busy, and celebrate together when one of your team members gets a 5-star customer rating.

5 ways to know if remote work is right for you

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Thinking about looking for remote work? Consider these five questions to learn whether working remotely is a good fit for you.

How to find a remote job in 6 steps

Thu, 22 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Do you want to find a remote job, and don

Best practices for getting started with live chat

Wed, 21 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

An overview on the steps every new Olark Live Chat user should take to get started.

Guru's Guide to Live Chat: How do I control how many chats I get?

Wed, 21 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

What if I get too many chats? Bill Thompson of Olark Live Chat explains how users can control the number of chats they receive and prevent being overwhelmed by customers.

What Would Barbara Do: Best practices in escalating an issue

Thu, 15 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

You can

Implicit gender bias in customer service: What the data tells us

Tue, 13 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Does gender bias impact customer service interactions? Sarah Betts of Olark discusses results from her gender equality experiment on live chat.

New Visitor Insights PowerUps — doing your live chat sales homework since 2018

Mon, 12 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Selling online with live chat? Get quick and easy access to information about your prospects, including their job titles, interests, and social profile links.

What Would Barbara Do: 6 ways to stay cheerful while live chatting

Fri, 09 Mar 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Most chats are improved when you can stay cheerful while chatting. Barbara shares her tips for keeping yourself in good spirits.

What Would Barbara Do: 7 things you could be doing now to support more users at once

Thu, 15 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Want to handle more concurrent chats? Barbara

Lighting of the Redwood: A remote celebration

Thu, 08 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Olark

Newlarkers: How we train new members of Olark

Thu, 08 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Being a remote-first company means hiring and training new additions to our team remotely, too. Check out how we train new members of our support team!

Olarkers unleashed: The benefits of remote working

Thu, 08 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Wondering about the benefits of remote working? Want to have a peek inside some Olarker lives? Come on in…

What Would Barbara Do: How do I handle trolls?

Thu, 08 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

How should you handle inappropriate or obnoxious chatters? Barbara shares what she likes to do!

What Would Barbara Do: Exiting a chat that

Thu, 01 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

What should you do if you need to leave a chat? Barbara has some advice….

Behind the Olark: Cram Fighter

Fri, 26 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

When scaling a popular mobile app, it

What Would Barbara Do: Send a transcript!

Thu, 25 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

How should you make sure your visitors remember the info you

What I've learned from talking about my bipolar disorder at work

Tue, 23 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

“Olark’s Director of Service talks about the challenge of being vulnerable as a leader, and about how her own struggles have inspired her to support her team.

What Would Barbara Do: What is the best way to reassure a vistor that you haven

Thu, 11 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

What Would Barbara Do: Does phrasing matter?

Thu, 04 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

I like to end my chats with “Thanks for stopping by!” but some of my colleagues use “It was a pleasure talking with you!” Is one better than the other?

9 Low effort ways to kickstart your new working year

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

When it comes to getting back to work, you are not alone if you have a head full of cotton balls, and are wondering if a quick nap at 11am is permitted.

What Would Barbara Do: How can I answer the question

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

How can you be friendly on chat AND stay on topic? Barbara returns to tell you what she would do!

What Would Barbara Do: Humans make mistakes too

Wed, 03 Jan 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Everyone makes mistakes on chat. Here

[Podcast] How one SaaS company provides Customer Happiness

Thu, 28 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Kendall of Acuity Scheduling explains what Customer Happiness is and how her remote team works together to amaze their customers on a daily basis.

Olark 2017 Year in Review

Thu, 21 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Happy Holidays! Here

Making Business Human: Join the Conversation

Thu, 14 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Learn about Olark

Introducing, “What Would Barbara Do?”

Tue, 12 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

What’s the best way to greet a visitor when they start a chat? Our longest serving agent, Barbara is here to help with her trademarked, Barbara

Networking Like A Human

Tue, 12 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Does the very word “Networking” make you cringe? It doesn

Making Business Human: Bennett Awards + Recognize Someone

Tue, 05 Dec 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Bob Bennett and his team came up with a simple concept—a website where anyone could submit a nomination for an “everyday hero” who deserved recognition.

Make Your Business Human: Shared Intimacy

Sat, 18 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Nathan Kontny, CEO of Highrise, shares a story about macarons and why sending emails about what he did over the weekend is helping him connect with customers.

What being a Mom has taught me about customer service

Fri, 17 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

What can raising two kids teach a customer service pro of 20+ years about how to handle customers, complaints, and live chat effectively? Actually…a lot!

How to manage Customer Service during the holidays

Fri, 10 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Peggy of Timesheets.com explains how to staff customer service during the holidays so your team isn

Behind the Olark: Managing Addiction Treatment Processes with Live Chat

Wed, 08 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Rivermend Health shares how it uses Olark live chat software on its website to help those seeking treatment for addiction and mental health issues.

8 Awesome Examples of Olark Live Chat on Squarespace

Thu, 02 Nov 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Want to add live chat to your Squarespace website? You can install Olark Live Chat on Squarespace in minutes, and customize it to match your theme.

How to reach Olark during our annual company retreat

Mon, 30 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Once a year, the team at Olark takes a retreat to reflect and plan for the future of live chat. While we

How to handle customer complaints effectively: USING CAPS IN CHAT

Thu, 26 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Helpful tips on how to handle customer complaints effectively when customers are using all caps in live chat on your website.

Service Standards: The challenge of making them human

Thu, 26 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In this article, Rhoda Meek offers the history of customer service standards at Olark and explains why we choose to share our standards with the world.

Visual canned response examples to make your chats more human

Tue, 24 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A sample of visual live chat canned response examples that are available using the Shortcuts feature in Olark. Send emojis and annotated screenshots.

Behind the Olark: Kit Out My Office

Wed, 18 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

"Half our offline orders orginate on chat." Read how Kit Out My Office grew its ecommerce sales using Olark live chat software on its website.

How to organize sales leads from live chat

Tue, 17 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

When the top of your sales funnel is full, a simple CRM can organize sales leads from live chat. Alessandra of GreenRope provides tips on how to stay organized.

3 types of personalized eCommerce emails you should be sending your customers

Wed, 11 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In this how-to article, Daniel Kohn of SmartMail.io shares three ways to personalize automated emails, measure their efficacy, and improve conversion.

How three Ecommerce businesses use live chat to boost sales

Wed, 04 Oct 2017 00:00:00 +0000

As the holiday shopping season approaches, we look at three Olark customers using live chat software on their websites to increase sales and conversions.

Creating Webhooks Integrations for Olark

Sun, 24 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

How to connect live chat and CRMs using Webhooks.

Effective Olark API Use: Grabbing WordPress data

Sun, 24 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Learn how to use the Olark API to grab customer data from customers logged into Wordpress.

Introducing the Olark Live Chat and MailChimp integration

Sun, 24 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

With Olark Live Chat software for your website and MailChimp for your email newsletters, you can improve sales, conversions, and marketing efforts. Here

Now available for Olark: Front, the inbox for teams

Sun, 24 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Collaborating with your sales and support teams on customer communication just got a whole lot easier with the Olark Live Chat and Front app integration.

How to integrate Salesforce and Olark Live Chat

Thu, 21 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In this article, we explain how the Olark live chat Salesforce integration can help your business uncover more leads and close more sales.

Introducing the JIRA-Olark Live Chat Integration: A triumph of efficiency in customer service!

Wed, 20 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

It’s now possible to create detailed JIRA tickets straight from the Olark Live Chat chat console! Learn how our support engineers use the JIRA integration.

Why a simple CRM and live chat can help small businesses

Wed, 20 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Olark co-founder Zach Steindler explains why linking website live chat software to a simple CRM is vital for small business success.

Behind the Olark: How Collage.com uses live chat to hone their customer service and product positioning

Thu, 14 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Collage.com has been using Olark Live Chat to inform marketing and help customers since 2014. Read their reflections and tips in the Olark blog!

eCommerce Performance Optimization: Is Your Store Ready For Black Friday And Cyber Monday?

Wed, 13 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The holiday season is almost here, but is your eCommerce store performance optimized to offer the best experience as traffic goes through the roof?

How we migrated 500K+ customer cases to Help Scout

Thu, 07 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In June 2017, the Olark Customer Service team successfully moved all customer records, workflows, and accounts to a new help desk. Here

Live chat data from the Olark Research Corner

Wed, 06 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Olark data guru Ben Schultz shares 3 live chat data points: median response times, success rate of proactive chat, and account size/response time correlation.

How to use transcripts to increase conversion rates and profits

Tue, 05 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Giles Adam Thomas provides a system for reviewing live chat transcripts and using commonly used keywords to improve conversion rates on marketing landing pages.

It’s a phone! It’s a chat! It’s a mobile live chat! How to use Olark to chat on mobile

Tue, 05 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Learn to use Olark mobile chat to capture sales leads, increase conversions, and provide support. Chat with mobile visitors, or from your mobile device.

Behind the Olark: Upper 90 Soccer

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

By adding one additional customer service agent on Olark live chat, Ben Jata and the team at Upper 90 converted $40,000 in sales in six months. Here

12 unique and effective uses of website pop ups in eCommerce

Thu, 31 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Grant Thomas, Marketing Manager for JustUno, shares 12 creative (and effective) ways to use pop ups to increase conversions.

Why Support Should be Part of Your Startup Marketing Plan

Thu, 31 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

If you

Make Your Business Human: Relatable Writing

Wed, 30 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Brad Shorr of Straight North explains how to make your business stand out: make your marketing and sales copy more human. Keep it simple and show some emotion!

10 things you want to know about Olark Live Chat

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

10 of the most frequently asked questions about Olark Live Chat.

A day in the life of a live chat salesperson

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

18 months and 17,000 conversations on Olark Live Chat. John Dubock of BuildTools.com shares what a day in the life of a salesperson on chat is really like.

All Hands Support: Zapier and SurveyGizmo

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

How Zapier and SurveyGizmo provide great customer service through live chat.

How to onboard new live chat operators

Thu, 24 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Best practices from Olark and other customer-centric companies on how to onboard new live chat operators in advance of Cyber Monday.

Using live chat to improve lead generation and increase conversions

Mon, 24 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This article explains how CMOs can use live chat to increase conversions and sales outside of business hours.

It's 2017 and Mental Health is still an issue in the workplace.

Thu, 06 Jul 2017 15:54:17 +0000

Last week a personal email I wrote was retweeted over 7,000 times, and liked by almost 30k people. I had friends reaching out to me stating that I was “Blowing up on their twitter feed.

Our world is no longer flat

Thu, 06 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Co-founder Matt Pizzimenti talks about how the remote team behind Olark live chat software abandoned its flat structure and overhauled how it communicates.

How clever automated live chat messages increase conversion rates

Wed, 05 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

How to increase conversions using clever live chat Greeters.

A history of customer service

Tue, 20 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

A brief history of customer service since the dawn of man.

How a SaaS company evolves its front-end tech stack

Mon, 19 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Olark engineer Phillip Whisenhunt explains how Olark continues to refine its front-end tech stack with JavaScript and Flux by trying new technologies slowly.

How not to suck at hiring in 4 steps

Mon, 19 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Kara Silverman of acast podcasts offers four easy steps to improve hiring and onboarding new employees.

Olark - The first three years

Mon, 19 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Olark co-founder Zach Steindler recalls the first three years of Olark live chat software and the unexpected benefits of raising its prices.

Stretching holiday revenue into the new year

Mon, 19 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Angelica Valentine of Wiser offers ways in which retailers and eCommerce sites can stretch revenue and sales past the holiday shopping season.

Why we do All Hands Support at Olark

Mon, 19 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Olark co-founder Ben Congleton explains how All Hands Support started and why it

How to handle customer complaints effectively - Avoid escalation

Sat, 17 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Handling customer complaints effectively often means not escalating a problem through multiple customer support departments, but owning it from start to finish.

Why All Hands Support is beneficial for public relations (Updated)

Sat, 17 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

If you work in public relations or media relations, spend time on customer support to understand the story from your customer

3 tips for onboarding new employees [Podcast]

Tue, 13 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

When onboarding new employees, Kimberly Bringas of Olark says there are 3 things to keep in mind to ensure a successful process to help new hires succeed.

How not to get frustrated on customer support [Podcast]

Tue, 13 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Customer Happiness Consultant Brooke Gosden offers tips for avoiding frustration on customer support, particularly when having a bad day…

How Jane Clayton makes bespoke ordering easy with live chat

Fri, 02 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

How a UK-based bespoke design company uses live chat to close international sales.

How TRULY takes a data driven approach to live chat

Fri, 02 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Olark customer TRULY explains how they increased live chat volume and sales.

Retail lessons for 2016

Fri, 02 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Olark customers share lessons learned during the holiday retail season - how to staff, how to load balance customer support, and being data driven.

Wed, 24 May 2017 16:03:34 -0700

Olark features: Custom Forms

Wed, 24 May 2017 16:03:34 -0700

Olark PowerUps: Live Chat Translation

Wed, 24 May 2017 16:03:34 -0700

Olark PowerUps: Non Branded Chatbox

Wed, 24 May 2017 16:03:34 -0700

Olark PowerUps: Visitor Cobrowsing

Wed, 24 May 2017 16:03:34 -0700

Olark PowerUps: Visitor Insights

Wed, 24 May 2017 16:03:34 -0700

How ClickMechanic uses Olark Live Chat to take Guesswork Out of Auto Repairs

Thu, 18 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

How the CX team at ClickMechanic in the UK uses Olark Live Chat website software to answer customer

5 Affordable DIY Digital Business Solutions

Wed, 17 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Ashley Dull of CardRates.com shares 5 tools that small businesses can use to boost lead gen, fill the sales funnel, and improve customer experience.

What we learned at ConversionXL Live

Wed, 19 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Live Chat team just got back from ConversionXL Live where we talked to some of the top CRO experts in the field. Here

Introducing the Olark and HubSpot integration

Thu, 13 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The Olark Live Chat and HubSpot integration is in HubSpot Connect. Help your sales and support teams work smarter with this marketing software for your website.

What happens at SupConf...gets posted on the Olark blog

Fri, 07 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Sarah Betts of Olark Live Chat shares her experience at SupConf Seattle, produced by Support Driven.

Why ongoing education is vital to a customer support team

Tue, 04 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Live Chat is partnering with Support Driven to present Support Driven Exposition (SDX) 2017. Learn how to advance your customer support career!

How SupConf went from an idea to a customer support conference

Mon, 03 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Kimberly Bringas interviews Scott Tran, founder of Support Driven and organizer of SupConf, to share what this customer support conference is all about.

Why you should consider regulatory and brand compliance in live chat

Fri, 31 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Should you be reviewing live chat transcripts for regulatory and brand compliance? Good question. Olark and PerformLine share 5 reasons why you should.

What is the Olark retreat?

Wed, 29 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

An overview of how Olark Live Chat arranges its annual company retreat for its remote team.

5 ways to increase conversions in online retail

Tue, 21 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Jess Mizerak of Antavo explains why being human and personal is key for online retailers that want to increase conversions.

Olark Live Chat named a 2017 Gold Stevie Award winner

Mon, 13 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Live Chat wins a 2017 Gold Stevie Award for Customer Service Department of the Year. Thank you to all our customers who use Olark for sales and support!

Olark + Nutshell: How a CRM will help your team close sales

Wed, 08 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

The Olark Live Chat and Nutshell CRM integration enables users to pass chat transcripts to a CRM database for a unified view of customer communications.

Why Churn is killing your SaaS business

Wed, 08 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Sunir Shah of Olark Live Chat explains why churn is more important to your SaaS business than generating new prospects.

Are chatbots useful? A narrative of adventures in the seas of eCommerce

Tue, 07 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In Part 2 of

Are chatbots useful? An eCommerce quest to buy pants

Tue, 07 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Ted Carmichael tries (and fails) to buy a pair of pants using automated, ecommerce bots. He shares his trials and tribulations here on the Olark blog.

Updated Olark features (November 2015)

Tue, 07 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Olark co-founder and product guru, Roland Osborne, explains the new features that were added in October.

Why we created Olark Live Chat

Wed, 01 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Live Chat CEO Ben Congleton explains why he created a startup and tips that entrepreneurs should follow to do what they love.

5 Tips for integrating chat into your customer support

Tue, 28 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Mat Patterson of Help Scout offers 5 ways to roll out live chat for your website so your customer support team is set up for success.

3 Big Ideas from the NRF Big Show for Small Retail Success

Tue, 14 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Following the National Retail Federation Big Show, Tim Parry shares eCommerce lessons that small businesses can learn from big retailers.

The power of love: How to turn Valentine’s Day customers into lifelong customers

Fri, 10 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

Building long term customer relationships can start with Valentine’s Day, read more tips from BigCommerce and Olark Live Chat.

Does live chat work? How to measure success analytically

Wed, 11 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

OnePageCRM explains how they determined if live chat was a successful use of their company

The history of CRM software: How did we get here and where are we headed?

Tue, 03 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

What

5 Marketing Tools That Will Get You More Sales Meetings (Hint: They Are All Free To Start)

Thu, 22 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

With the myriad of martech tools available, Alex Lopes of Sharebird gives his recommendations for 5 platforms that will increase your number of sales meetings.

How to reach Olark during the 2016 holidays

Thu, 22 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Olark co-founder and CEO Ben Congleton recaps major feature updates from the past year, and how to reach Olark Customer Support during the last week of 2016.

Make customer service more human by combining Olark and Help Scout

Wed, 07 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Refreshed and even better, our updated Help Scout partnership brings even more support tools to your CS team.

[Video] Omnichannel retailer Homage shares customer support tips for holiday shopping season

Wed, 23 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Jordan Vidra talks about how the Customer Support All-Stars at Homage provide an omnichannel customer experience that forges strong customer relationships.

[Video] 8 things retailers should know before the holiday shopping season

Tue, 22 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The holiday shopping season is here! Learn what top retailers and eCommerce businesses are doing to improve the customer experience to increase sales.

Case Study: Smart Pension uses live chat data for partnerships

Wed, 26 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Chatting your customers gives you a wealth of actionable data. Smart Pension explains how they relized they could use their chat data to forge better partnerships for their customers.

3 quick fixes to improve conversion rates on your website

Wed, 05 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Brandon Liebowitz, founder of SEO Optimizers, explains how three quick fixes on your website and landing pages can help increase conversions.

Create a revenue report for live chat in Google Analytics

Fri, 30 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Did you know you can measure how many sales you close via live chat? Here

Get more from Olark with Groove help desk

Fri, 16 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

The redesigned integration for Groove Help Desk and Olark Live Chat helps businesses bring all customer support channels together in one place.

Olark Live Chat and Google Analytics integration documentation

Thu, 08 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Alicia Suttie of Olark Live Chat explains why she got Google Analytics certified and what

[Whitepaper] Olark + Google Analytics: Live chat business intelligence

Thu, 11 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Do you really know if live chat is meeting your business goals? David Kutcher of Confluent Forms explains how to use Google Analytics to know for sure.

What is Customer Experience?

Wed, 10 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

What comprises the Customer Experience, and what trends are driving it? We share insight and an infographic that answer both questions.

[Podcast] What is the Olark parental leave plan?

Wed, 03 Aug 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Olark HR and Culture Enthusiast Kimberly Bringas explains the Olark parental leave policy, how we created it and what it was like for new dad, Nick Crohn.

[Case Study] How Upsie uses Olark to instill customer confidence at checkout

Thu, 21 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Clarence Bethea of Upsie explains how his team uses Olark Live Chat to instill confidence in customers who need a warranty for their personal electronics.

Introducing Olark Hummingbird our new mobile experience

Tue, 12 Jul 2016 16:54:55 +0000

We launched Olark Hummingbird today, a complete rewrite of our mobile experience. I could not be more proud of our team.

[Case Study] Footwear meets philanthropy at Bombas

Tue, 07 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Olark customer Bombas is an excellent example of a company that is active in the community and doing more than just selling socks (although they do that too!)

Is the SMB SaaS market too tough?

Sun, 05 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Is the small business (SMB) SaaS market too tough? In the year 2016, what are the biggest challenges and distribution opportunities we are facing.

What to know about Elevate Summit

Sun, 05 Jun 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Nick O. talks with Sarah Hatter, founder of Elevate Summit, about what the conference entails and what attendees can expect to learn.

Effective Olark API Use: See visitor details in a live chat

Wed, 25 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CTO Matt Pizzimenti explains how to use the Olark API to view visitor data during a live chat.

Olark - Book a Check In meeting with Olark

Sun, 15 May 2016 15:29:29 -0700

Olark - Book a meeting with Olark

Sun, 15 May 2016 15:29:29 -0700

Olark - Book a meeting with Olark

Sun, 15 May 2016 15:29:29 -0700

Olark - Book a meeting with Olark

Sun, 15 May 2016 15:29:29 -0700

Olark - Book a meeting with Olark

Sun, 15 May 2016 15:29:29 -0700

Olark - Book a meeting with Olark

Sun, 15 May 2016 15:29:29 -0700

Olark - Book a Pro Agent Training with Olark

Sun, 15 May 2016 15:29:29 -0700

Olark - Book Pro Admin Training with Olark

Sun, 15 May 2016 15:29:29 -0700

Why customers will spend more if you start with a smile

Tue, 10 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Richard Shapiro, author of The Endangered Customer, explains why a smile instills hope in customers, and why hope is key in customer service.

[Case Study] How The Black Tux does live chat customer support

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Customer Service is driving growth for The Black Tux, and I got a firsthand look at what makes their Service team so effective.

13 things to know about building a website

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Chris Pontine of creating a website today examines 13 points to consider when building an online store, including SEO, security, and pricing.

Are you hiring customer support champs?

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Learn how the CHAMPS system can help you assemble the best possible customer support team.

Case Study: Turning customer problems into customer success stories

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Tinfoil Security CTO and co-founder Michael Borohovski shares how his company got started with Olark live chat, how they

Effective Olark API Use: Explainer videos, diagnostic checks, and more...

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

How to use the Olark API to launch explainer videos and run system diagnostic tests.

Effective Olark API Use: Getting started with the Olark API

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Helpful tips for getting started with the Olark Live Chat API.

Effective Olark API Use: Guarding against social engineering attacks

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Matt Harris, founder of sendwithus, explains how using the Olark API will minimize the chances of a social engineering attack over live chat.

Effective Olark API Use: How StitchLabs uses our API

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

An Olark Customer shares a real world example of how they use the Olark API.

Effective Olark API Use: Sending messages via operator commands

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

How to use the Olark API to send custom made, clickable URLs in a live chat.

How a startup uses live chat to onboard new users and get product feedback

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Ty Magnin describes how the Appcues team uses Olark to onboard new users faster and help them achieve success on the platform sooner.

How Nosh Detox is using live chat for sales

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Olark customer Nosh Detox shows how they close sales on live chat.

Lessons from improving our API documentation

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Olark provides helpful tips for writing effective API documentation.

Olark Live Chat Introduces Chat Ratings

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A news release about the Olark Live Chat feature Chat Ratings.

Olark Live Chat Launches All Hands Support Month

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Olark launches All Hands Support Month for the month of April 2014, emphasizing great customer service and customer happiness.

Olark Live Chat Offers New Sounds for Operator Notifications

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Customer service operators using Olark Live Chat now have a choice of sounds to indicate a new chat has started.

Olark Live Chat Surpasses 10,000 Paying Subscribers

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Live Chat now has more than 10,000 paying customers.

pagerdutyduty - generating PagerDuty schedules

Thu, 05 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

A helpful hack using the PagerDuty API to make a responsive support schedule.

Retail lessons for 2015

Tue, 08 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Learn how to prepare for the holiday shopping rush and what steps other retailers are taking to provide great service and close more sales.

3 Predictions for 2016: Technology Meets Customer Experience

Sun, 06 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Brent Summers of Segment tells Olark Live Chat why marketing technology, brands becoming publishers, and data getting a seat in the C-Suite are three trends driving change in customer experience in 2016.

What new Olark users should learn first (Don

Thu, 18 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Olark

Why Shopify store owners should focus on personalization in 2016

Thu, 04 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Shopify Masters podcast host, Felix Thea, explains why online retailers should focus on personalization this year to improve the customer experience.

[Podcast] How customer support benefits sales, and vice versa

Thu, 14 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Can sales tactics benefit your customer support team? Can doing customer support bolster your sales prowess? Yes, and Nick Oliverio of Olark Live Chat explains how.

3 Predictions for 2016: Why More Small Businesses Will Adopt Sales and Marketing Software

Tue, 12 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

Brian Kelly of Nutshell explains how small businesses can adopt email marketing, customer intelligence, and CRM tools to be more effective in 2016.

How to reach Olark during the 2015 holidays

Tue, 22 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

From December 24 through January 4 customers can reach Olark support by emailing support@olark.com. This article outlines our holiday hours and how to reach Olark for support, as well as useful self-help articles.

[Podcast] On email support, a no good, very bad day...

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Recently, the Olark support team had to handle a higher than usual volume of customer emails. In this article and audio interview, Rhoda Meek explains how the customer support team was able to quickly resolve auto-replies while providing a human response to actual replies.

[Podcast] What is customer support like on Cyber Monday?

Thu, 17 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Cyber Monday can be busy - very busy. Two Cyber Monday veterans, Adam Covalt of Bonobos and James Stillian of Man Crates, explain what customer support is like on the busiest online shopping day of the year.

[Podcast] What to do when things get busy on live chat

Thu, 17 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Ryan LaBarge, Olark Technical Support Samurai, shares his insight on what it

IT Security tips for startups, founders and entrepreneurs

Wed, 02 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

For startups, IT Security is a series of calculated risks and iterative decisions that start on

Create canned responses for faster live chat replies

Mon, 30 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Creating canned responses in Olark Live Chat will enable you to help customers faster. Here

The history of Cyber Monday

Thu, 19 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Where did Cyber Monday come from and what are sales and customer interactions like when the day arrives? Olark live chat explains it all.

Sell more on live chat this holiday shopping season

Mon, 19 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Sunir Shah of Olark explains how customer support plays a key role in sales over live chat.

Engineering All Hands Support

Tue, 13 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark

How Olark customers build their own creative company retreats

Thu, 08 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Learn how other small businesses host creative company retreats to help teammates bond.

LightningJS: safe, fast, and asynchronous third-party Javascript

Thu, 08 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CTO Matt Pizzimenti explains why Javascript and LighteningJS are safe, fast and asynchronous options.

All Hands Support brings your team closer to your customers

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Sunir Shah shares tips on All Hands Support for great customer service.

All Hands Support: Clearfit and Freshbooks

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

How Freshbooks and Clearfit provide great customer service over live chat.

All Hands Support: ZenPayroll, Wildbit, and Chrometa

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

ZenPayroll, Wildbit and Chrometa shares their best practices for getting everyone involved with customer support.

Don't break the Internet with your Javascript

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CTO Matt Pizzimenti explains how Olark Javascript reads live chat messages and returns data.

Guest Post: Improving conversions with live chat

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

How to increase conversions using live chat and messaging.

How we created the Olark tweet your logo form

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

How Olark created a social media marketing campaign around a

The Guru's Guide To Happiness: All Hands Support

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The benefits of having engineers, marketing and even the CEO help with customer support.

The Guru’s Guide to Happiness: How to keep a remote team united

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

How Olark keeps a remote team of 30 and more team members around the world connected and collaborating on a daily basis.

Why are we offering everyone free unlimited Olark operators for a month?

Thu, 01 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

In April 2014, Olark offered its customers the chance to add as many operators as they wanted for an entire month. Olark CMO Sunir Shah explains why.

(Video) Customer Support: A Game of Seconds

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Jordan Munson of Wistia explains how support can get faster with the right tools.

(Video) How All Hands Support began at Olark

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The Olark founders explain how and why All Hands Support became a cornerstone of culture at Olark.

Case Study: How CommitChange.com uses Olark for proactive chat

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark customer CommitChange explains how they use live chat for proactive chats.

Case Study: How SynapsePay is scaling with customer feedback

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark customer Synapsepay explains how live chat is helping them launch their new platform.

Don’t just sit there! Start using live chat to increase sales

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Using Olark Targeted Chat for proactive chats can help increase sales and customer happiness.

Happiness Hacking: Samuel Hulick of User Onboard

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Samuel Hulick of User Onboarding explains best practices for getting your customers started.

Happiness Hacking: Samuel Hulick of User Onboarding (part 2)

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Samuel Hulick of User Onboarding explains best practices for getting new customers started.

How Conspire used Olark after a big TechCrunch article

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark customer Conspire explains how they use live chat to make database updates quickly.

How CoPromote uses transcripts for site updates and onboarding

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

CoPromote explains how they review live chat transcripts to improve onboarding and self-service.

How good customer service can multiply sales

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark co-founder Ben Congleton explains how a help first, sell second approach to support can lead to increased sales.

How Small Businesses benefit from chat

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Learn how to increase sales through live chat – be human.

How to master SXSW in 7 steps

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Sunir Shah offers his tips on getting the most out of tradeshows and conferences like South by Southwest (SXSW).

How two stars of online retail relate & elate with customers

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Casper Sleep and BarkBox share tips on great customer support.

Learn how to sell by doing support

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark CMO Sunir Shah explains why helping with customer support can actually make you a better salesperson.

Moving B2B software customers from free trial to a paid plan

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Zapstitch shares how they help customers convert from a free trial to a paid plan.

So Long Summer, Hello Holiday Shopping Season

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The Olark Customer Support team shares its tips for remaining calm and providing great customer service.

Take out your Earplugs! Building better product with All Hands Support

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Co-founder and Master of Customer Experience Roland Osborne talks about how it

Tips to improve Shopify conversions

Wed, 30 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Learn new tactics that you can use to improve sales and conversions in your shopify ecommerce site.

How to increase conversions - What I learned at ConversionXL Live

Mon, 28 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

A recap of the 2015 ConversionXL Live conference and how to increase conversions and leads.

(Video) The Five Whys by Simon Ouderkirk at Customers FTW!

Wed, 23 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Simon Ouderkirk of Automattic explains what questions you should ask to optimize product production.

Engineering customer service at WordPress.com

Wed, 23 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Learn how Automattic organizes its remote team and engineers customer happiness across with a team 100 people.

How Staff Squared doubled app sign-ups using Olark live chat

Wed, 23 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark customer Staff Squared explains how they increased app sign-ups using live chat.

Olark hits the road for UserConf

Wed, 23 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

The Olark customer support team drove from San Francisco to Portland to attend the UserConf conference.

Creative and Unexpected Ways to Olark

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

How Olark customers use live chat to make customers happy.

Customer success starts with being there when they need you

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark live chat offers tips on why investing in your existing customers can be even better for your business than trying to acquire new customers.

Femgineer: one woman transforming ideas into software

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

An interview with Poornima Vijayashanker, software engineer, serial entrepreneur and the founder of Femgineer.

Guest Post: Why Offer Chat in Your Web Tools

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

How a startup can add live chat slowly to its customer support system as it prepares to leave its beta phase and launch to new customers.

Happiness Hacking: Lincoln Murphy

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Lincoln Murphy explains why customer success is vital the growth of a company and its customers.

Happy Holidays, around the world with Olark

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Happy Holidays to all Olark customers everywhere!

How Camp Cody uses the Olark Attention Grabber to get more chats

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Tips for creating a custom Olark Attention Grabber.

How Grasshopper created a culture of service

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Taylor Aldredge, the ambassador of buzz for Grasshopper, shares how his company has put a

How Man Crates uses All Hands Support to handle PR hits

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Man Crates uses live chat to handle customer conversations during holidays and traffic spikes.

How Rickshaw Bagworks delivers service online

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Rickshaw Bagworks shares how they provide great customer service and custom-made bags to San Francisco.

How Spinlister creates a culture of service

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Andrew Batey, CMO, Spinlister, explains how his company provides great service by putting the customer above all else.

How They Olark: Tips from Moonclerk and TicketDefenseLaw

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Tips from Moonclerk and TicketDefenseLaw.com on how to use live chat to talk to customers.

How to add Olark Live Chat to a video

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

You can use HapYak to insert an Olark live chat tab in a video. Here

New Feature: Chat Ratings for customer feedback on live chat

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Chat ratings are the newest feature from Olark live chat for support operators and CS teams.

Ninja MySQL Backups: Your Silent Guardians Against Interweb Oni

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Aaron Wilson of Olark discusses MySQL, security, Percona, and binary logs.

Relate + Elate: How to talk to your customers

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Sophie Monroe of WePay, Kevin Hale of Y Combinator, and Olark co-founder Matt Pizzimenti discuss best practices for helping customers.

Sometimes, the Browser is Magic!

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Browser encoding can change from one request to the next. When you set content-type, be sure to also specify a charset.

The Guru

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark

When Pidgin goes offline and sets live chat to idle

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Tips on integrating Olark and Pidgin and best practices for using the two platforms.

Win a PrestaShop or OpenCart theme for your eCommerce shop

Wed, 16 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

“Online retailers listen up - you have 104 days until Cyber Monday.

(Video) How to set up team features on Olark

Tue, 15 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

In this video, Joe Ellis explains how to organize your live chat team using Team Features in Olark.

Experiment to grow and gain value

Tue, 15 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark customers offer tips on how to support customers and use their feedback through live chat to grow your business.

How CustomMade.com uses the !push command in Olark Live Chat

Tue, 15 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

Olark customer CustomMade.com describes how they use Olark Live Chat commands.

404 Not Found

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Accessing Visitor IP Addresses in Olark

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Where can I find visitor IP addresses?

As of October 25th, 2019, you cannot see your visitor’s IP address in the chat console by default. You will need to click on the “Copy IP address” action within your chat console in order to copy the IP address to your clipboard.

Additionally, IP addresses are not:

Stored in chat transcripts
Included in reports
Transmitted via integrations

If I can’t see the IP address by default, how do I block trolls?

We know that trolls are a pain. We’ve included the ability to copy an IP address in order to set up an automation rule. Copy the IP address in the chat console, and follow these instructions.

Add a custom prechat survey

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Dynamically add questions to your prechat survey with ‘system.custom_prechat’. Pass an array of the questions you’d like to add using the format below:

olark.configure('system.custom_prechat', [
  {
    type: "textarea",
    is_required: false,
    label: 'What can we help with today?',
    placeholder_text: "I need help with..."
  }
]);

The type property refers to the type of question you would like to ask your visitors and is used in form styling and validation. Options include:

Agent Commands

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark commands give agents quick access to useful functions during a chat conversation.

To use a command, type an exclamation point followed by command name, and hit enter. Our system will automatically detect it and do what you want it to do. Don’t worry - the visitor you ’re talking to won’t see anything.

These commands can be used in the chat console or in the Olark mobile app for iOS and Android.

Ai Assistants

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Ai Assistants (also know as Aiden or bots) turn your knowledge base into an automated agents that instantly answer your visitors’ questions, 24/7!

Accessing Ai Assistants

Click the Ai Assistants link in Olark admin
Choose an Assistant from the dropdown menu at the top of the page

Knowledge Sources

Ai Assistants master chat the same way new hires do: by reading documents, practicing replies, and responding to feedback.

Adding Knowledge Sources

Click the Import Source button

Allowed domains

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Set which domains the chatbox will be displayed on. If your website spans multiple domains’ subdomains, you can choose which subdomains will work.

Note that chats cannot continue across top-level domains. In order for chats to go from a top-level domain to a subdomain, the top-level domain cannot be a naked domain (i.e. the URL should be http://www.example.com, not http://example.com).

Use * as a wildcard. Separate multiple domains with commas, e.g. *.yourdomain.com,*.yourotherdomain.com.

Attention Grabber animation

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Enables the Attention Grabber slide-out animation.

Animate Attention Grabber on checkout page

If you’d like to reach out to people on your checkout page to ensure you make the sale, or offer a discount, you might wish to animate the Attention Grabber on that page only, to give it extra prominence.

// Check if the page URL contains 'checkout'
if(window.location.href.indexOf("checkout") >= 0){

    // Enable the Attention Grabber
    olark.configure('CalloutBubble.slide', true );

}

When the Attention Grabber slides out, it looks like this:

Attention Grabber image height

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Set the Attention Grabber image height in pixels.

For example:

olark.configure('CalloutBubble.bubble_height', 25 );

Results in an attention grabber with a height of 25px.

This only works if you either, have the Attention Grabber switched on in the Attention Grabber settings, or are using the API call to Enable the Attention Grabber.

Attention Grabber image width

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Set the Attention Grabber image width in pixels.

For example:

olark.configure('CalloutBubble.bubble_width', 100 );

Results in an attention grabber with a width of 100px.

This only works if you either, have the Attention Grabber switched on in the Attention Grabber settings, or are using the API call to Enable the Attention Grabber.

Automation Rules

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

NOTE: This help article is intended for customers on our self-serve level of service. If you are an Olark Pro customer and have a chatbot, your automation rules may conflict with your chatbot. Please reach out to pro@olark.com for help with setting up any automations.

Automation Rules help automate decisions about how and when to interact with your website visitors! With Automation Rules, you can:

As an alternative to chatbots, our Automation Rules use different actions based upon the logic that you define in a rule. Rules are written as If-then statements , so as you create them, try reading them out as sentences to ensure they make sense. For example, "WHEN any agent is available to chat,IF one of these conditions match and the number of visits to my site is more than 1,THEN send “Welcome back!”

Block a Troublesome Chatter

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This guide will show you how to block a visitor temporarily using the !block command or a more permanent block using their IP address.

Temporarily Block a Chatter Using the !Block Command

Use the !block command to prevent a troublesome visitor from messaging you. A block lasts for 24 hours or until the visitor clears their browser cookies. After 24 hours, the visitor can message you again. The visitor will NOT receive any indication that they’ve been blocked or that the block has cleared when you use the !block command. The chat console will inform you that the chatter has been blocked, and you’ll no longer see messages coming in from them.

Block an IP Address

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Temporary block using the visitor’s IP address

Creating this Automation Rule will hide the chat box from the blocked website visitor.

You will first need to copy your visitors IP address while in a live chat with them.

Case Study: ASU Prep Digital

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Case Study: FeneTech

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Case Study: Florida SouthWestern State College

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Case Study: HBA Learning Centres

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Case Study: Kennolyn Camps

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Case Study: Landmark Properties

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Case Study: Lush Cosmetics UK

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Case Study: Remedy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Case Study: Seabury Academy

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Case Study: Sphera Solutions

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Case Study: The Career Center at UVA

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Case Study: University of Montana

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Case Study: VPS Underfloor Heating

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Case Study: Yoga Ed

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Change Chatbox Position

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Change the position of the chatbox. This can also be changed site wide from the Theme Settings Page.

Change Chatbox Size

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Change the size of the chatbox. The chatbox can be configured to appear in one of three different sizes: small, medium, or large. By default, it uses the medium size. Changing the size of the chatbox will also modify the size of the chat button.

This configure call will only accept a string value indicating the size you would like to use. For example

olark.configure('system.hb_chatbox_size', 'sm'); // Small

Change Font Family

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Choose what font you’d like the chatbox to have. Use this call with an Array of valid loaded fonts. Note that the fonts must be loaded on your site for the chatbox to be able to use them.

olark.configure('system.hb_custom_style', {
  general: {
    fonts: ['Bitter', 'serif'],
    corners: '',
    secondaryColor: ''
  }
});

Change operator group

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Note: This method requires a plan that supports the Groups feature.

Locks the visitor to a specific group of operators. All messages from the visitor will now go to that group of operators instead of all operators. See the operator configuration page to find the Group ID.

Choose operator group by button click

When the visitor clicks the Talk to our Sales Team button, lock to the Sales Group specifically.

<script>
    document.getElementById('talk-to-sales').onclick = function() {

        olark('api.chat.setOperatorGroup', {
            group: 'abcdef123456'
        });

        olark('api.box.expand');

    }
</script>

This example assumes that the Sales Group ID is ‘abcdef123456’. You can find the Group ID on the operator configuration page.

Change Text Position

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Change the text position for right to left language support. This can also be changed site wide from the Theme Settings Page.

Change the Border Radius

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

We have two options that allow you to have ‘soft’ or ‘hard’ corners for the chatbox. By default the chatbox will have soft corners.

olark.configure('system.hb_custom_style', {
  general: {
    fonts: [''],
    corners: 'hard',
    secondaryColor: ''
  }
});

Change the Color of Visitor Messages

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Change the color of your visitor messages. This configuration key will only accept hex values.

olark.configure('system.hb_custom_style', {
  general: {
    fonts: [''],
    corners: '',
    secondaryColor: '#ffe6ff'
  }
});

Chat Console Connection Issues

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Lost connections

Even if you don’t notice your connection dropping, your computer and Olark may be unable to communicate with each other for a brief period.

Chat Routing Options

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

There are two options for assigning chats to your team. This setting can be modified from the Behavior settings page.

Chat is claimed by the first agent to respond

Once an agent has replied to the message all other available agents will see who has taken the chat. Agents not engaged in the chat can close the chat tab with the notification.

Configure the default language

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

You can change the language of the chatbox per page by using the following configuration call. If you want to change the language of the chatbox site wide you can do so from your Text & Forms settings. We support the following languages.

olark.configure("system.localization", "en-US"); // English (United States)
olark.configure("system.localization", "de-DE"); // Deutsch (Deutschland)
olark.configure("system.localization", "es-ES"); // Spanish (Spain)
olark.configure("system.localization", "fr-FR"); // Français (France)
olark.configure("system.localization", "it-IT"); // Italian (Italy)
olark.configure("system.localization", "nl-NL"); // Dutch (Netherlands)
olark.configure("system.localization", "pt-BR"); // Portuguese (Brazilian)
olark.configure("system.localization", "ru-RU"); // Russian (Russia)
olark.configure("system.localization", "sv-SE"); // Swedish (Sweden)
olark.configure("system.localization", "tr-TR"); // Turkish (Turkey)
olark.configure("system.localization", "zh-CN"); // Simplified Chinese (China)

Note that by using the system.localization call our default localization strings will be used. If you’d like more granular control over chatbox strings check out our article on Changing the chatbox language. Here are all the strings you can configure:

Define Targeted Chat rules

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Note: You can create Targeted Chat rules without any coding on the Targeted Chat settings page.

Create Targeted Chat rules that help you automate decisions about how and when to interact with visitors and operators. You can create rules to perform actions such as:

Initiating chat with a visitor who has been browsing for more than 30 seconds
Notifying an operator when a visitor lands on the page from a Google AdWords campaign
Highlighting important visitors in your buddy list

Be sure to check out the getDetails API call to learn how to access detailed customer information for making creative rules.

Desktop Notifications and Sounds

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Enabling notifications and sounds

app.olark.com (and legacy chat.olark.com) requires the use of desktop notifications to ensure agents receive incoming messages. The first time you log in you’ll see a banner asking you to enable desktop notifications in your browser.

If you are having issues with desktop notifications or sounds, it’s likely that browser permissions have been denied. To check, use the guide below based on the browser you are using.

Develop Command

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The !develop command overlays a modal box at the bottom of your website with 3 options.

Pretend to be a brand new visitor.
Pretend this is a new visit to the site.
Pretend to change pages.

Disable Browser Tab Sleeping

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Browsers will sleep tabs they deem inactive to improve computer performance. This can cause agents to be disconnected from the chat interface. To prevent this, add Olark to the “do not sleep this site” setting in your browser.

Browser Specific Instructions

Microsoft Edge

Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the browser ‍
Choose “settings " from the dropdown menu
Choose “System and Performance " in the left navigation
Click on the “Performance " section
Click the “add site " button next to Never put these sites to sleep
Add both app.olark.com and chat.olark.com ‍
If your version of Edge has the Automatically put tabs to sleep setting (in the Memory section,) toggle that to OFF.

Chrome

Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the browser ‍
Choose “settings " from the dropdown menu
Choose “performance " in the left navigation
Click the “add " button next to Always keep these sites active ‍
Add both app.olark.com and chat.olark.com

‍

Disable the Mobile Chatbox

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Disable the mobile chatbox. This can also be changed site wide from the Theme Settings Page.

Dynamically change the chatbox language

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

You can dynamically change the chatbox language after the page has loaded. By using this call the default localization strings provided by Olark will be used and will override any text you have set in the Text & Forms dashboard. This call, however, will not override any language configuration calls like olark.configure('locale.welcome_title', 'Foo'), the string provided by that call always takes highest priority.

You can see a list of languages we support here.

Enable Attention Grabber

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

You can enable the Attention Grabber on a page by page basis using this API call.

Show Attention Grabber on checkout page

If you’d like to reach out to people on your checkout page to ensure you make the sale, or offer a discount, you might wish to show the Attention Grabber on that page only.

// Check if the page URL contains 'checkout'
if(window.location.href.indexOf("checkout") >= 0){

    // Enable the Attention Grabber
    olark.configure('features.attention_grabber', true );

}
else {

    // Otherwise disable the Attention Grabber
    olark.configure('features.attention_grabber', false );

}

Enable Automatic Translation

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Toggle on the automatic translation setting

‍

1. Log in to app.olark.com

2. Click on the kebab menu in the lower left corner

3. Click “User Settings”

4. Click the “Automatically Translate Messages” toggle to enable.

Select your preferred default language

5. Click into the default language dropdown.

6. Select your preferred language.

‍

Enable Chat Ratings

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Enable the post-chat survey on a specific page. You can also enable this on the Chat Ratings settings page.

Enable Google Analytics

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use this API call to enable the Google Analytics integration on a single page.

You can also enable this in your Google Analytics Extension settings.

Enable Greeter

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Enable the Greeter on a specific page.

You can also enable this on the Greeter extension page.

Enable JavaScript to Chat

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Enable JavaScript to chat

Greetings, Internet Traveler!

Good news: The website you were just looking at uses Olark Live Chat to communicate with customers.

That means there’s a friendly live human ready to answer your questions about their product or service.

But…You need JavaScript enabled in your browser to chat, and it looks like it’s been switched off!

Fortunately, there’s an easy fix. Check out our guide to enabling JavaScript in your browser, and you’ll be up and running in no time.

Enable Pre-chat Survey

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

You can enable the Pre-chat Survey feature on a specific page. This can also be done on your Text & Forms settings page.

You can read more about using the Pre-chat Survey in our help section.

Ending a Chat

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sometimes you will want to signal to your visitor that the conversation has ended.

Agents can use the !end agent command to end the chat.

Expand chatbox on load

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Expand the chatbox by default when the page loads.

Note that when the chatbox is expanded, Attention Grabber images are hidden. Also, sending a message will automatically expand the chatbox in all cases by default.

Expand the chatbox

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Expands the chatbox to its fully expanded height. It will also show the chatbox if not already visible, in the same way as api.box.show.

Using this API call overrides any existing Targeted Chat rules that may hide the chatbox.

Click to chat link

A classic use of the Javascript API is to make your own click-to-chat button. Clicking this button will show the Olark chatbox and expand it to its maximum height.

Floating Chatbox

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Normally, the chatbox is anchored to the bottom of the webpage. This detaches the chatbox from the bottom of the page, allowing it to float near the bottom instead.

olark.configure('system.hb_detached', true);

Get visitor details

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gets the email address, full name, geolocation, and other details for this visitor. The value will be returned to the specified returnCallback.

The name, email and phone number fields are the last-known visitor information, either from your pre-chat survey, a completed offline message form, or previously updated via the API.

Geolocation information is provided to the best of our knowledge, based on the visitor’s IP.

Note: As part of our effort to remove personally identifiable information from our API, this call no longer provides access to the visitor’s IP address. Please visit olark.com/help/ipaddresses to learn more.

Getting Started

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

GSAT - Goal Satisfaction

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

What is GSAT (Goal Satisfaction)?

GSAT you can now see the inquiries your customers make, by inquiry topic, and whether your team was able to successfully satisfy them. It’s a nifty and powerful tool for your customer success toolbelt!

How to try it out

GSAT is available on your account today! Just log into your new dashboard. You’ll notice the a new GSAT (Goal Satisfaction) report right on the Home page.

Hello! Welcome to Olark, let's get started.

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hello! Welcome to Olark, you did it!

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hide the chatbox

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hides the chatbox. This box will make the chatbox disappear on the page, but operators will still be able to see visitors in their visitor list.

Hide the chatbox if not logged in

You might want Olark to be loaded in the background on a particular page, but not show immediately. Here’s how that might look in PHP:

<?php
// Check to see if the user is logged in
if (!$user_logged_in)
{
    // Hide the chat box
    olark('api.box.hide');
}
?>

You can also use our Targeted Chat tool to hide the widget, without altering the code of your website.

Hide the minimize button

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Normally the chatbox shows an icon in the top right corner that, when clicked, allows the user to minimize it. This configuration option allows you to remove that button so that, once the chatbox has been expanded, the user can not manually minimize it. However, the chatbox can still be minimized and expanded with api calls.

Historical Olark

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

How to Add a Payment Method

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Add a payment card to your account

‍

From the Admin interface:

Click “Billing”
Click “Add payment method”
Enter your card information in the form
Click “Add” to save your card details to your account.

‍

How to Enable JavaScript

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

How to Enable Javascript

JavaScript is a very popular programming language that’s most often used to create interactive elements on web pages. Way back in 2009, Olark Live Chat was one of the first companies to create a JavaScript chat widget that could be embedded on any website to power the ultimate interactive experience — a conversation!

Today, almost all live chat providers use a similar widget based on JavaScript. To chat on a website that has embedded Olark or another live chat widget, you’ll need to enable JavaScript in your browser.

How to Test and Train Ai Assistants: A Guide to Getting the Best Results

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Testing your Ai Assistant in the previewer is one of the best ways you can see Aiden in action. This allows you to test how well Aiden is learning from your knowledge sources (like web pages, articles, or PDFs). But there’s more to it than just asking questions—you can provide feedback to help Aiden improve! The more specific your feedback, the better Aiden can get at correcting answers and making future responses spot-on.

Installation

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Installation

Articles:

3DCart integration guide

Big Cartel integration guide

BigCommerce Integration Guide

Blogger integration guide

Constant Contact integration guide

CS-Cart integration guide

Cubecart integration guide

Drupal integration guide

ekmPowershop integration guide

GoDaddy Website Builder Integration Guide

Google Tag Manager

Joomla integration guide

Joomla integration guide (pre v3)

Magento integration guide

Moodle Integration Guide

OpenCart integration guide

osCommerce integration guide

Pinnacle Cart integration guide

Prestashop integration guide

Prestashop integration guide (pre v1.5)

Shopify integration guide

Squarespace Integration Guide

Template integration guide

Ubercart integration guide

VirtueMart integration guide

Volusion integration guide

Weebly Integration Guide

What website builder tools do not work with Olark?

WHMCS integration guide

WordPress Integration Guide (Manual Install)

WordPress Integration Guide (Plugin Install)

X-Cart integration guide

Zen Cart integration guide

Integrations

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Integrations

Articles:

ActiveCampaign integration guide (via Zapier)

ActiveDEMAND integration guide

Advanced SalesForce Field Mapping

Calendly Integration Guide

Conversion tracking with Google Analytics

Custom Integrations

Freshdesk integration guide

Getting started with Google Analytics (GA4) integration

Google Meet Integration Guide

GreenRope integration guide

Help Scout integration guide

Hubspot integration guide

Mailchimp Integration Guide

Nutshell integration guide

Pardot Integration Guide

Qualaroo integration guide

Reporting insights from Google Analytics

Salesforce Integration Guide

Setting up the GA4 integration with Google Tag Manager

Slack Integration Guide

SugarCRM integration guide

The Complete Guide to Connecting Technolutions Slate and Olark Live Chat

Troubleshooting Google Analytics

Using multiple Google Analytics tracking IDs

Webflow integration guide

Webhooks integration guide

Why does Magento show incorrect user information?

WooCommerce integration guide

Zapier integration guide

Zendesk integration guide

Zoom integration guide

Keyboard shortcuts

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Full List of Keyboard Shortcut Functions

Next Conversation CTRL + ]
Previous Conversation CTRL + [
Available/Unavailable CTRL + SHIFT + U
Help SHIFT + ?

Detailed Descriptions

Next Conversation
CTRL + ] Opens the conversation in the tab to the right of the current conversation.

Load chatbox in DOM element

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Instead of having the Olark chat window fixed to the bottom corner of your page, Olark will instead search your page for an element with the ID olark-box-container and load the chatbox there instead.

For example, you might have a <div> in your sidebar that displays the chatbox.

<div id="olark-box-container"></div>

You can find our complete instructions to embed the Olark widget on your website here

This rudimentary example shows the chatbox inside a wrapper, with a header.

Minimize the chatbox

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Minimizes the chatbox. Opposite of api.box.expand.

Click-to-minimize button

If you have your own click to chat button, you might also want to make click to minimize button:

<a href="javascript:void(0);" onclick="olark('api.box.shrink')">
    Minimize chat
</a>

New Olark

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

New Olark

Just updated?
‍
Check out this article for quick tips: Updating to the New Olark - FAQ

New Olark Agent Training Guide

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Share this guide with your team to start chatting with your website’s visitors in minutes.

Using the updated chat interface

chat interface

‍

Pro Tip: Open the chat interface in a new browser tab, so you can follow along as we explain section by section.

Changing Your Status

When you log in you will be set to “Do Not Disturb.”

Notify operators of first-time visitors

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

If the Greeter function is enabled, you can use this call to enable/disable the advanced notification per page.

You can also enable this on the Greeter extension page.

Offline Attention Grabber image

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sets the Attention Grabber image while all your operators are set to away or offline.

Like the other Attention Grabber calls, this works on a page by page basis. You can choose an offline Attention Grabber for use across the entire site in the Attention Grabber settings

This call would be useful if you wanted a different image on a particular page, such as the contact page, or if you only wanted the Attention Grabber to appear on one page.

Offline message sent

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

When an offline message is sent to the operator, this will call the given callback with an event object

Track visitors who send you an offline message

Use your favorite analytics software to keep track of visitors who have sent an offline message to an operator (since they might be more valuable):

<script>
olark('api.chat.onOfflineMessageToOperator', function(event) {

    // Example code
    yourAnalytics.track("sent_an_offline_message");

});
</script>

Or, you could send a message back explaining that no-one is around, and point the visitor to your help center

Olark Chatbox version 1

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Chatbox version 2

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Classic

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Classic

Articles:

Accessing Visitor IP Addresses in Olark (Olark Classic)

Agent Commands (Olark classic)

Agent to agent chats (Olark Classic)

Block an IP Address (Olark Classic)

Block a Troublesome Chatter (Olark Classic)

Chat Console Connection Issues (Olark Classic)

Debug Info for Olark Chat

Desktop Notifications (Olark Classic)

Develop Command (Olark Classic)

Emojis

Ending a Chat (Olark Classic)

How to add visitor information to the chat console (Olark Classic)

Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard Shortcuts in the Chat Console (Olark Classic)

Live Chat Translation PowerUp

New Agent Training Guide (Olark classic)

Pre-chat Survey

Safari Notifications (Olark Classic)

Send a transcript to a CRM directly from chat (Olark Classic)

Send Messages Faster with Shortcuts

The best ways to proactively engage with visitors

Using Tags (Olark classic)

Visitor Cobrowsing PowerUp (Olark Classic)

Visitor Insights PowerUps (Olark Classic)

Visitor Profiles (Olark Classic)

Why does Google Analytics real-time show more visitors? (Olark Classic)

Why does Olark not work with Google Hangouts (Olark Classic)

Why is my visitor list empty? (Olark Classic)

Olark Desktop App

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Now you can install Olark as an application and answer chats without opening a browser tab!

Desktop Olark can be installed from Chrome or Microsoft Edge and works on both Windows and Mac operating systems. Once installed, you can pin the Olark app to your taskbar or application tray so it’s always handy. You can even configure it to launch automatically when you log on to your computer.

Install Desktop Olark via Chrome

Open app.olark.com in a Chrome browser tab.
Click on the download icon on the right side of your address bar
‍

Olark Employee Handbook: Async Flexible Work & No Meeting Wednesdays

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Handbook

Async Flexible Work & No Meeting Wednesdays

What Are our Approaches?

Olark is a fully remote company, spread across several time zones in the US and Canada. (And we’ve been remote since the very beginning. Awesome, no?) We work asynchronously with shared processes whenever possible to #make great things happen and collaborate with our amazing teammates. We’ve also built in No Meeting Wednesdays every week.

Olark Employee Handbook: B Corp Values - Why Did We Become a B Corp?

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Handbook

B Corp Values - Why Did We Become a B Corp?

We’d love to tell you.

Olark Employee Handbook: Charitable Donation Matching & Day of Volunteering

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Handbook

Charitable Donation Matching & Day of Volunteering

What’s the Deal?

Excited to help your community and give to causes you believe in? We thought you might be. You’re in luck, because Olark offers Charitable Donation Matching and an Annual Day of Volunteering!

Olark Employee Handbook: Coworking/Co-living Support

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Handbook

Coworking/Co-living Support

What’s our Policy?

We offer a stipend up to $500 a month for Olarkers to use towards a coworking space or a co-living program. Part of the joy of working remotely can be working from new places. No need to stay in your home office the whole year (unless you want to, in which case we’re in full support!).

Olark Employee Handbook: Departures - Mutual Exit

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Handbook

Departures - Mutual Exit

What’s our Approach?

Leaving your job seems to be a taboo topic for many organizations internally. More often than not, it’s not in your best interest to disclose that you are ready to move on to another adventure. Some organizations would make your work more difficult. We don’t believe in that kind of process.

Olark Employee Handbook: Flexible Time Off

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Handbook

Flexible Time Off

What’s Flexible Time Off (FTO)?

FTO is Olark’s version of paid time off, and can be used for your vacation or personal days. The cool part: It’s flexible, so with approval from your manager, you can step away for other needs (or fun) in life!

Olark Employee Handbook: Gifting Olarkers - Gnome Program

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Handbook

Gifting Olarkers - Gnome Program

What’s the Gnome Program?

We have secret Gnomes (or Gnomies) in our team who send out treats from time to time. These can be in the form of sweet or salty treats, gift certificates, donations to charities, or other presents.

Olark Employee Handbook: Parental Leave - USA

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Handbook

Parental Leave - USA

What’s our Policy?

Olark offers up to 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave for birth, bonding, and adoption.

Olark Employee Handbook: Professional Development & Wellness Budget

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Handbook

Professional Development & Wellness Budget

What’s our Policy?

To help spark professional growth and encourage self-care, every Olarker has $2,000 to spend each year on professional development and/or wellness needs.

Olark Employee Handbook: Take a Break - Breather Week & Holiday Break

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Handbook

Take a Break - Breather Week & Holiday Break

What’s a Breather Week?

The first week of every quarter, Olark takes a “Breather Week.” (We work in quarterly sprints, so we structure our time in quarters.) We work less during Breather Week—or not at all—taking a literal breather to reset, get organized, or dive into a passion project! There are no team-wide meetings and each Olarker gets to choose how to spend it.

Olark Employee Handbook: Vacation Bonus

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Handbook

Vacation Bonus

What is the Policy?

Every year, as long as you take at least 5 consecutive days off work to unplug from Olark, you get a $1,000 bonus!

Olark Home

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

A quick look at some of the reporting features on our home page and their calculation details.

What should I do next?

This section shows customized hints and next steps for getting the most out of your Olark account.

Charts and Graphs

Volume

Volume is the total number of conversations where a visitor sent at least one message (we intentionally exclude conversations that only contain messages from agents, bots, and/or automations.)

Olark Live Chat Mobile App for Android

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Live Chat Mobile App for iOS and Apple Devices

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark live chat: Make Your Business Human

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Live Chat: Make Your Business Human

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Live Chat: Make Your Business Human

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Visitors on your website need to talk to you — make it easy with Olark.

Explore Olark for free

Olark's live chat and data analysis tools will help you grow your business.

Automation

Set easy automated message recipes and routing rules using triggers based on — visitor behavior, referral URL (including ad links), geographic location, and more.

Analytics

Learn how your site is performing, and identify sales opportunities — with tagging, searchable transcripts, customer feedback surveys, and detailed traffic reports.

Chat tools

Our easy to view agent dashboard, and handy chat tools make the life of your multi-tasking team easier — with desktop notifications, page tracking, and canned messages

Customization

Every business is unique, so we believe every chatbox should be too — offer a seamless visitor experience on your website with a chatbox that matches your brand.

Priced per agent. No contracts required. All features included.

With Olark, you have access to the same features, regardless of team size. We keep our pricing simple, so that teams big and small can enjoy all the benefits of our communication and analytic tools — without having to worry about being locked into a contract, or meet plan size minimums.

Learn more about pricing and discounts on subscription plans →

$29

per agent
per month

cancel anytime

Explore Olark for free

Easily connect Olark with the tools you already use.

Automatically send information to CRM profiles, attach chats to help tickets, add customer lists directly from Olark, and much more. Along with our built-in integrations, Olark integrates with over 2,000 apps with Zapier, or use webhooks to make your own!

Learn more about Olark's integrations →

"Live chat made it easy for our customers to reach a member of our customer experience team and significantly cut down on our email and phone cases."

Jordan Vidra, Customer Experience Team Member, Homage

Customers are on your website — talk to them.

Start 2-week trial

Olark Mobile App Beta Download

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Pro

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Pro

Check out the help topics below, or reach out to your Account Manager directly.

Olark Pro

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark Product Demo

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

On chatbox expand

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Whenever the chatbox is expanded, the given callback function will be triggered.

Watch for visitors clicking the chatbox

A visitor to your site might expand the chatbox, but not initiate a conversation. You can check to see if a conversation has started and if not, send the visitor a message after 3 seconds.

<script>
// Triggers when the chat box has been expanded
olark('api.box.onExpand', function() {

    // Use getDetails to grab visitor information
    olark('api.visitor.getDetails', function(details){

        // isConversing tells you if any messages has been exchanged
        // between the visitor and the operator
        if (!details.isConversing) {

            // Wait 3 seconds (3000 milliseconds)
            setTimeout(function(){

                // Use the API to send the visitor a message
                olark('api.chat.sendMessageToVisitor', {
                    body: "Let me know if you have any questions."
                });

            }, 3000);

        }

    });

});
</script>

If you are trying to track when visitors interact with the Olark widget, to perhaps test out different methods of presenting the widget, you can use this following example to do so.

On chatbox hide

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Whenever the chatbox is hidden, the given callback function will be triggered.

Notify an operator when a visitor closes the chat box

You can notify your operator that the visitor has closed the chatbox if you have already started chatting:

<script>
// Checks to see if the coversation has started
olark('api.chat.onBeginConversation', function(){

    // Triggers when the chat box has been hidden
    olark('api.box.onHide', function() {

        // Notifies the operator. The visitor does not see this.
        olark('api.chat.sendNotificationToOperator', {body: "Visitor hid the chatbox"})

    });

});
</script>

You could just as easily replace the onHide call, to be onShrink if you wanted to report to the operator when the visitors minimizes the chat widget.

On chatbox load

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use this API call to detect when the Olark chatbox has loaded. You can create your own callback function once the onReady event fires.

For example, you would use onReady if you need to manipulate elements on your page only when you know for sure that Olark has loaded. You might be doing an A/B test for live chat, and want to send an event to your analytics when Olark has loaded on a page.

On chatbox minimize

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Whenever the chatbox becomes minimized, the given callback function will be triggered.

If you are trying to track when visitors shrink the Olark widget, to perhaps track via analytics the efficacy of different auto-messaging rules, you can use this following example to do so.

<script>
olark('api.box.onShrink', function(event) {

    // Example code
     yourAnalytics.track("visitor_minimized_olark");

});
</script>

Notify an operator when a visitor minimizes the chat box

You can notify your operator that the visitor has minimized the widget if you have already started chatting:

On chatbox show

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Whenever the chatbox is shown (unhidden), the given callback function will be triggered.

Update visitor status when chat box visible

If you have chosen to have your chatbox hidden by default, you can indicate in your buddy list that a visitor can now see the chatbox. This means they might be about to send a message:

olark('api.box.onShow', function() {
    olark('api.chat.updateVisitorNickname', {
    	snippet: "is visible"
    });
});

On conversation start

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Whenever a visitor or operator sends the first message, the given callback function will be triggered.

Show premium users in visitor list

Olark already sends some nice information to the operator when the chat first begins, but you can send your own information too. Here’s how you might highlight that a visitor to your site is a premium customer:

<script>
// Triggers when the first message has been sent
// Including automated messages from the Greeter or Targeted Chat rules
olark('api.chat.onBeginConversation', function() {

    // Get the data from your own server as to whether the visitor is a premium account
    if (currentVisitorIsPremium) {

        // Notifies the operator - the visitor does not see this
        olark('api.chat.sendNotificationToOperator', {
            body: "This is a premium customer"
        });

    }

});
</script>

Send an automatic response if an operator does not answer within X seconds

While we encourage you to be as human as possible during your interactions, and avoiding as much canned copy as you can, we do recognize the fact that sometimes something comes up and you cannot answer a visitor’s chat right away. This example will send a response to a visitor after 60 seconds if the operator does not reply:

On message to operator

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Whenever a message is sent to the operator, this will call the given callback with an event object.

Track messages to operators

Use your favorite analytics system to keep track of visitors who have sent a message to an operator (since they might be more valuable):

<script>
olark('api.chat.onMessageToOperator', function(event) {
    yourAnalytics.track("chatted_with_operator");
});
</script>

Track positive reactions

Maybe you want to keep track of positive vs. negative reactions. You could watch when people send you smileys, indicating that they are happy:

On message to visitor

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Whenever a message is sent to the visitor, this will call the given callback with an event object.

Track operator response times

Use your favorite analytics system to keep track of how long it takes an operator to respond to a visitor:

<script>
olark('api.chat.onMessageToOperator', function(event) {

    // Get the timestamp for when the visitor sends a message
    var visitorSentAt = +new Date;

    olark('api.chat.onMessageToVisitor', function(event) {


        // Get the timestamp for when the operator sends a message
        var operatorSentAt = +new Date;

        // Calculate the difference between the two times and track the event
        // Check your anayltics software API to see how to push an event
        yourAnalytics.track("operator_response_time", operatorSentAt - visitorSentAt);

    });

});
</script>

If these statistics sounds cool to you, you should probably try enabling our Google Analytics for a more in-depth integration with Google Analytics.

On operator command

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Whenever a command is sent from the visitor, e.g. !track this is a lead, this will call the given callback with an event object.

Commands must begin with an exclamation point ! and come at the start of a message. You can also see a list of the default operator commands in our help section. To see these while chatting, type !help into a chat at any time to see the list of commands you can perform. Your visitors will not see the command unless specified.

On operators available

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Whenever any operator comes online, the given callback will be triggered.

Indicate you have operators available

Show a green icon whenever you have operators available to chat, or a red one when you are away:

<!-- HTML element to show chatbox status -->
<div id="chat-indicator">Live chat</div>

<style type="text/css">

    /* Operators available */
    .green-icon {
        background-color: green;
    }

    /* Operators offline */
    .red-icon {
        background-color: red;
    }

</style>

<script>
olark('api.chat.onOperatorsAvailable', function() {

    // Identify the element, and give it a class name
    document.getElementById('chat-indicator').className = 'green-icon';

});
olark('api.chat.onOperatorsAway', function() {

    // Identify the element, and give it a class name
    document.getElementById('chat-indicator').className = 'red-icon';

});
</script>

Here is an example of what it might look like with a little styling. In this example, we also added selectors to change the text as well as the color.

On operators unavailable

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Whenever all operators are offline, the given callback will be triggered.

Indicate your operators are offline

Show a red icon whenever you have operators available to chat:

<!-- HTML element to show chatbox status -->
<div id="chat-indicator">Live chat</div>

<style type="text/css">

    /* Operators available */
    .green-icon {
        background-color: green;
    }

    /* Operators offline */
    .red-icon {
        background-color: red;
    }

</style>

<script>
olark('api.chat.onOperatorsAvailable', function() {

    // Identify the element, and give it a class name
    document.getElementById('chat-indicator').className = 'green-icon';

});
olark('api.chat.onOperatorsAway', function() {

    // Identify the element, and give it a class name
    document.getElementById('chat-indicator').className = 'red-icon';

});
</script>

Here is an example of what it might look like with a little styling. In this example, we also added selectors to change the text as well as the color.

Online Attention Grabber image

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Sets the Attention Grabber image while your operators are set to available.

Like the other Attention Grabber calls, this works on a page by page basis. You can choose an online Attention Grabber for use across the entire site in the Attention Grabber settings

This call would be useful if you wanted a different image on a particular page, such as the contact page, or if you only wanted the Attention Grabber to appear on one page.

Page change notifications

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Gives notifications about what page the visitor is on. By default, each time a visitor navigates to a new URL while on your site, this will be sent as a notification to your operator. Set to false to disable this behavior.

Pre-chat visitor notifications

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This will turn off all of the initial pre-chat notifications that give you visitor context - including location, current URL and number of previous conversations - allowing you to show just your own custom pre-chat information instead.

Prevent non-local URL wrapping

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

If you have a link in your chatbox that goes to a non-local URL, for example a page on another domain, Olark will by default wrap the new page. This means that the chatbox will still appear on the new page, even if it’s not your website.

However, increasingly websites are not allowing cross-domain access, meaning that the wrapped content may not work correctly. You can choose to disable this wrapping behavior by setting this API call to true.

Require email

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Require visitors fill out their email address in the pre-chat survey before chatting. This requires the pre-chat survey to be enabled first.

This setting can also be enabled on the pre-chat survey section of the Text & Forms settings page.

You can read more about using the pre-chat survey in our Help Center.

Even if the pre-chat survey is enabled in your settings, you would need to enable the plugin using this line to use the system.ask_for_email API call:

Require name

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Require visitors fill out their name in the pre-chat survey before chatting. This requires the pre-chat survey to be enabled first.

This setting can also be enabled on the pre-chat survey section of the Text & Forms settings page.

You can read more about using the pre-chat survey in our Help Center.

Even if the pre-chat survey is enabled in your settings, you would need to enable the plugin using this line to use the system.ask_for_name API call:

Require phone number

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Require visitors fill out their phone number in the pre-chat survey before chatting. This requires the pre-chat survey to be enabled first.

This setting can also be enabled on the pre-chat survey section of the Text & Forms settings page.

You can read more about using the pre-chat survey in our Help Center.

Even if the pre-chat survey is enabled in your settings, you would need to enable the plugin using this line to use the system.ask_for_phone API call:

Safari Notifications

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

If you are using a modern version of Safari, it is possible that the auto-play of sounds and video are disabled for you including the audible notifications for the Olark chatbox widget.

Enable browser sound notifications

In Safari, navigate to app.olark.com
Click on the website settings icon in the address bar (to the left of the website address)
Click on “Auto-Play” in the General section
Change it from “Stop Media with Sound” to “Allow all auto play.”

Send a transcript to a CRM directly from chat

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Manually trigger a specific integration

Here is where our ![integration-name] command comes in handy!

Send chat information to a specific integration by typing ! before the name of your integration, e.g. !zendesk. This way your chat information only goes to the integration you want.

Send message to visitor

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Send a message to the visitor. It will appear as if the message came from an operator.

Trigger an automated message

Send a welcome message whenever a visitor clicks on a help me button:

<!-- HTML button -->
<a id="help-me" href="#">Live chat help</a>

<script>
document.getElementById('help-me').onclick = function() {

    olark('api.chat.sendMessageToVisitor', {
        body: "Let me know if you have any questions."
    });

    // Stops the link reloading the page
    return false;

}
</script>

Send messages Faster with Shortcuts

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Want a faster way to type out your most common phrases? Shortcuts allow you to create commands that expand to pre-defined greetings, messages, or links.

Please Note:
Shortcuts is a paid feature. Free users must upgrade their account to have access. Shortcuts work in the Olark chat console as well as the mobile app.

Send operator notification

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Send a notification message to the operator. The operator will see [info] to indicate that this message was not sent from the visitor.

Notify operator on landing pages

You can send your operator a notification when the visitor lands on a particular page, such as a landing page:

<script>
// Checks if the current URL contains 'landing'
if (document.location.href.indexOf('landing') != -1) {

    olark('api.chat.sendNotificationToOperator',
    {

        // Send a custom notification
        body: 'visitor landed on the billing page'

    });

}
</script>

Notify operators on landing pages after one minute

Perhaps you want to notify an operator when a visitor is hesitating on a page for more than 60 seconds, so you can choose to initiate a chat with them:

Send visitor notification

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Send a notification message to the visitor. The message will look like a notification, and will not show up as coming from a particular operator.

Notify a visitor if no immediate response

Assure a visitor that the operator will be back later if there is no response from an operator in 60 seconds:

<script>
// Set a timer variable
var lastMessageTimeout;

// Wait for a message to the visitor
olark('api.chat.onMessageToVisitor', function(){

    // If a message is sent, reset the timer
    clearTimeout(lastMessageTimeout);

    // Start the timer
    lastMessageTimeout = setTimeout(function(){

        // Send a custom notification to the visitor
        olark('api.chat.sendNotificationToVisitor',
        {
            body: "the operator just stepped out for a moment"
        })

    // Set timer to one minute (60,000 milliseconds)
    }, 60000);

});
</script>

Set Dark Theme

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Choose a light or dark theme for the chatbox. This can also be changed site wide from the Theme Settings Page.

You can enable a dark theme on a specific page. You can also do this for your entire site from the Theme Settings Page.

Set Google Analytics ID

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Set the Google Analytics ID for your account on a specific page.

For example, you might have separate domains using the same Olark account, but different Google Analytics IDs.

<?php

// Get the current domain
$host = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];

if ($host == "example.com") {
   olark.configure('system.google_analytics_id', 'YOUR-GA-ID' );
}
elseif ($host == "test.org") {
    olark.configure('system.google_analytics_id', 'OTHER-GA-ID' );
}

?>

Check out our related help guide for this here. You can also view advanced troubleshooting help for Google Analytics + Olark here.

Set Greeter delay in seconds

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Set the time after which the Greeter message will be sent to first-time visitors on your site.

You can also enable this on the Greeter extension page.

Set Greeter Welcome Messages

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Set the welcome messages to send to the visitors when the Greeter function activates. If you have more than 1 message enabled in the call, we will choose a random one to send to the visitor when they meet the greeter criteria.

You can also enable this on the Greeter extension page.

Set operator group

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Set the group before the chatbox loads. You can get the ID for each group by clicking on it from the Operator settings page.

This differs from the setOperatorGroup API call in that it can only be done before the chatbox loads. To set the operator group after the chatbox has loaded, use setOperatorGroup instead.

Set Theme Color

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Set the primary color of the chatbox. This can also be changed site wide from the Theme Settings Page.

This configure call will only accept a hex string. For example

olark.configure('system.hb_primary_color', '#744da8');

Setup

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Setup

Articles:

Admin-only accounts

Agent Activity

Ai Assistants

Automatic replies for delayed chats

Browser extensions known to conflict with Olark

Browser Support

Chatbox language options

Chatting Across Subdomains

Content Security Policy (CSP) Support

CoreCommerce integration guide

Disable Browser Tab Sleeping

Does Olark slow my page down?

Enforcing offline hours

Free plan chat limit

Groups

Hide the chatbox based on visitor location

Hiding chat box by region

How to Test and Train Ai Assistants: A Guide to Getting the Best Results

HTML Allowed In the Chatbox

I Stopped Receiving Offline Messages

Let visitors see you! Add a Profile Picture

Masking sensitive information during chat

Mobile Apps

My chatbox looks strange

Olark and the GDPR Legislation

Olark Features and Security Information (RFI/RFP)

Olark for Mobile

Only allow chats from logged in visitors

Prevent timeouts on single page apps

Remove the Olark branding

Security at Olark

Send a message to visitors based on a marketing campaign

Send Automated Messages To a Visitor After a Specified Amount of Time

Sharing sensitive information on chat

Showing the Chatbox on a Single Page

Show the chatbox on a specific page

Submit a Support Ticket

The Chatbox Is Not Showing On Mobile

User Settings

User Types

Using the Chatbox Inline

Visitor geolocation

Which cookies does Olark set?

Why am I being forced away?

Why Olark Isn't HIPAA Compliant

Write a note

Show as Tab

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Show the chatbox as a tab. This can also be changed site wide from the Theme Settings Page.

Show Button Text

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Show the button text on the chatbox icon. This can also be changed site wide from the Theme Settings Page.

Show the chatbox

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Shows the chatbox. Showing the chatbox will make it appear on the page. This will override settings such as Invisible Olark.

Should you wish to show the widget on specific pages, you can also create these rules using our Targeted Chat tool, instead of updating the code on your page.

Show the chatbox on error

If a visitor runs into an error, you might want to make sure that the chatbox is displayed:

Single page applications

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Olark uses polling to check your visitor’s status while on your site. Visitors who leave your site, or have been idle for a long time without changing page, will eventually stop sending polling requests. If you have a single page application where the visitor does not change pages, they may incorrectly be detected as being idle.

You can prevent this by setting is_single_page_application to true.

Speak — Full archive

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Start chatbox hidden

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Suppose you usually show the chatbox, but wish to hide it on specific pages. You can do so using the following Javascript API function. You can enable this option on your Setup page as Hide the chatbox by default.

The api.box.hide function is useful for when the chatbox has already loaded on a site and you wish to hide it again. For example, when the visitor clicks a particular button.

You would use box.start_hidden when you don’t want the chatbox to show at all when the page loads. If you used api.box.hide to hide the chatbox when the page loads, a visitor might see the chatbox appear briefly, before the API call was read.

Switch on the Greeter

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Use this call to switch the Greeter on. You can then use the calls below to control how the Greeter behaves.

You can also enable this on the Greeter extension page.

Take the Advocate Pledge for Global Accessibility Awareness Day with Olark

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Attend a GAAD Event:
GAAD has sourced some pretty awesome programming across all levels of accessibility awareness. Take a look at their schedule and pick a topic you’d love to learn more about.
...Or host your own:
Do you have accessibility expertise to share? Or maybe just want to create an accountability group with others? Host your own event this GAAD or start working on your talk for 2022.
Spread the word:
There are so many people who touch the web who don’t have accessibility in mind. Post to your team's slack or use your favorite social network to promote GAAD and recruit your friends and colleagues to join.
Test a webpage using WAVE:
WebAIM offers a public tool that’s free and takes less than 5 minutes to set up. Run it on a site you love, take a screenshot, and ask the organization behind it to commit to fixing any issues it flags.
Learn the basics:
Find a course to educate you more about inclusive design and web accessibility. Lots of universities have remote classes, or you can find low-cost options on Udemy, Coursera, or other edtech platforms.
Tap into the community:
GAAD’s website and The a11y project are great spots for finding resources, experts, and myth-busting to support your accessibility mission.

Take the Customer Experience Pro Pledge for Global Accessibility Awareness Day with Olark

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Contact customer service using a screen reader

Without an accessible website, people with disabilities may have trouble getting in touch. Use a screen reader tool to simulate their experience and test common support actions. You might find out quickly why accessibility bugs are under-reported.

Organize accessibility complaints

Your team probably has a folder or helpdesk tagging system for keeping track of important customer issues. Do you have a plan for how you can classify and easily share previous conversations involving accessibility?

Take the Designer Pledge for Global Accessibility Awareness Day with Olark

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Audit your site images for critical text

Images that embed key text in a .jpg/.png or PDF are invisible to people who rely on screen readers. You can fix these and train your fellow designers to avoid this problem.

Yale's guidance to making images accessible

Be the first to call for change

Designers may be one of the most important players in web accessibility because so many projects kick off in your hands. Design with disabled users in mind from the start, and call on your teammates to do the same.

Take the Developer Pledge for Global Accessibility Awareness Day with Olark

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Add accessibility to your next sprint

In < 5 minutes, you can run W.A.V.E. (or similar) for free and catch the most common accessibility issues and request time to fix those flags in an upcoming sprint.

Fix your W.A.V.E. flags - WebAIM's Chrome Extension

Install some handy a11y tools

There are tons of free, open-source tools available to help you identify and coorrect accessibility issues before they get shipped. The A11y Project gathered them in one place, along with an active developer forum for troubleshooting.

Take the Founder/Executive Pledge for Global Accessibility Awareness Day with Olark

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Hire an expert

Getting usability feedback from people with disabilities is the best way to make things they can actually use. In 2021, support your team’s accessibility goals by hiring experts who can find blockers on your site.

Find Accessibility Partners

Take the pledge & invite your team

Take the GAAD pledge with us by filling out the form below. When you’re done, email or slack your team and encourage them to find ways they can improve your company's accessibility in 2021. Don't forget to fund their projects.

Take the Investor Pledge for Global Accessibility Awareness Day with Olark

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Call on your portfolio companies

Use your capital influence to drive change. Ask your portfolio companies what support they need to make their tech more accessible and call on them to take the pledge with you by sharing this page.

Find Accessibility Partners

Do your accessibility diligence

As you’re evaluating startups to invest in, add an accessibility audit or free W.A.V.E. screening into your diligence process. Investing in accessible startups delivers many perks (like better SEO!) and mitigates future legal and financial liabilities.

Take the Marketer Pledge for Global Accessibility Awareness Day with Olark

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Add captions to your videos

Captions are essential for hard-of-hearing viewers. YouTube and Instagram will allow you to turn captions on by default. If you have a podcast or other audio files, make transcripts available for users who are hard-of-hearing.

YouTube caption settings New: Captions for Instagram Stories

Check your CTAs

Are your button and text colors high contrast? Are they readable by people who have color vision deficiency? Do your buttons and links tell users specifically what they’ll see if they follow them? Accessible CTAs make life easier for diverse brains and people who use screen readers, and they convert better.

Thank you for your commitment to Global Accessibility Awareness Day with Olark

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Transferring a Chat

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Open Transfers

Use the !transfer command to make a chat available to all other agents currently logged into chat. You can also include an optional message to provide some context about the chat.

For example, in the chat console you would type the following.

!transfer Is anyone in sales available to give this visitor a demo of our lead capture features?

Direct Transfers

Use the !transfer command, followed by a space and then @agent-name , to transfer the chat to a specific agent.

Update CRM custom fields

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

If you have custom data that you want to keep track of for a visitor, such as an internal customer ID or some internal data, you can give it to Olark using this API.

Note: Custom fields are not sent automatically to CRM integrations. Custom fields will, however, be sent with Webhooks by default. Once set up, Custom fields are sent to the CRM only, they do not appear in the chat console. For full information on creating custom fields, check out our blog post here!

Update visitor email

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Keep track of an email address for this visitor, to link it with your CRM cases and display in the visitor list.

Update the visitor’s email address

You can grab information from your registered users and send it to Olark.

<script>
olark('api.visitor.updateEmailAddress', {
    emailAddress: 'johndoe@olark.com'
});
</script>

Update visitor name

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Keep track of a full name for this visitor, to link it with your CRM cases and display in the buddy list.

Update the visitor’s name

You can grab information from your registered users and send it to Olark.

<script>
olark('api.visitor.updateFullName', {
    fullName: 'John Doe'
});
</script>

For example, if you were using PHP and pulled the visitor’s name from your own database, you might write:

Update visitor nickname

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Important Note:
updateVisitorNickname is best used to display visitor information other than name and email in the buddy list. To display a name and/or email in the buddy list use api.visitor.updateFullName and api.visitor.updateEmailAddress respectively.

Add information to the visitor’s nickname in the operator’s buddy list. You can only set a ‘snippet’ of the nickname, since other extensions may be trying to update the nickname at the same time.

Highlight AdWords referrals in your visitors list

Let’s say you want to highlight valuable visitors in your buddy list. For example you have already paid money for a visitor to click on your AdWords campaign, or when they search for the term “buying widgets”:

Update visitor phone

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Keep track of a phone number for this visitor, to link it with your transcripts and display in the visitor list.

Update a visitor’s phone number

You can grab information from your registered users and send it to Olark.

<script>
    olark('api.visitor.updatePhoneNumber', {
        phoneNumber: '(123) 456-7890'
    });
</script>

Update visitor status

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Add information to the visitor’s status in the operator’s buddy list. You can only set a ‘snippet’ of the status, since other extensions may be trying to update the status at the same time.

Display number of items in a shopping cart

To show custom information, like the number of items somebody has in their shopping cart:

<script>
    olark('api.chat.updateVisitorStatus', {
    	snippet: 'has 10 items in cart'
    });
</script>

Updating to the New Olark - FAQ

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Welcome to the next generation of Olark! We understand you may have some questions about the new experience so we’ve created this handy FAQ to help.

FAQ

Will the new version cost me anything additional?

No! There is no additional cost.

Do I need to make any settings or chatbox changes?

Nope. Your current chatbox, routing, integrations, and other settings will remain the same.

What’s Different?

The new experience has a few differences. Here’s a quick overview:

User Settings

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Want to edit your individual agent settings? The User Settings page is probably what you’re looking for.

Accessing User Settings

Click your agent avatar and display name in the lower left corner
Choose User Settings from the menu

Profile Section

Update your profile information here, including:

Display name: the name visitors see in the chatbox when chatting with you
Email
Timezone
Agent Avatar Photo: the image visitors see in the chatbox when chatting with you

Alert Sounds

Set your:

Using Olark Tags

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Add a Tag To a Chat

During a conversation, type !tag followed by a space then whatever word or short phrase you’d like, for example !tag tech-support or !tag help.

Visitor Cobrowsing PowerUp

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The Visitor Cobrowsing PowerUp gives chat agents the ability to view their visitors’ screens. Contact support if you would like to add Cobrowsing to your subscription. It will be an extra cost on top of your Olark subscription fee.

How to Start a Cobrowsing Session

Select the Actions button in your chat console, and select “Start cobrowsing session” or you can use the !cobrowse command directly in the text box.
An agent notification will appear with a link that opens the session in a new tab. Click the link.

WhatsApp Pro Integration

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

1. Pick a phone number

Your account manager will discuss phone number options with you. Things to consider (none are guaranteed options but we can attempt):

Do you want a specific area code
Do you want to find a number that spells something
Do you want a specific series of numbers

2. Connect Olark to WhatsApp

You’ll need to register for a WhatsApp Business Account (WABA) in order to connect WhatsApp and Olark. Here’s what you’ll need to get started:

Why am I not getting notifications?

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

It’s incredibly frustrating when notifications aren’t notifying! Taking these actions nearly always resolves the issue.

Allowing notifications in browser & desktop app settings

Open app.olark.com in your browser and visit the settings. Confirm that Notifications, Pop-ups and redirects, and Sound are all set to enabled. This article will walk you through how to do so: [/help/desktop-notification

](</help/desktop-notification>)

Allowing notifications in system settings

Next, you’ll want to make sure your operating system is set to allow desktop notifications from Chrome and that DND and/or focus mode aren’t blocking them.

Zapier Integration for Olark Pro

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

This guide is intended for Olark Pro customers using the Pro Zapier integration. To learn more about Pro and the features included click here.

‍

Important Notes

Olark customers must purchase their own Zapier account that fits their needs for the integration that will be used. Click here to see more information on Zapier Plans and pricing
The behavior of a Zapier integration is determined by the third-party organization that builds the integration. For example, a Salesforce Zapier integration may behave differently than a Hubspot Zapier integration. Please work with your account manager to determine if a Zapier integration will match your organization’s goals.
Zapier and Olark
If you are an Olark Tier II customer, you are responsible for building your own Zapier integration.
If you are an Olark Tier III customer, you can invite your Olark Sales Engineer to your Zapier team account for integration build support and consultation.

Introduction: What Zapier does

Zapier is an automatic workflow platform that allows users to integrate more than 5000 applications. Olark is included in the apps that Zapier integrates with, and your preferred CRM, ordering system, or database might be too.