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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Olark

    Score10 out of 10
    N/AOlark is a website live chat tool for engaging website visitors while they browse. It can be used to to track leads, drive sales, provide support.

    $15

    per month

    Socialcast (discontinued)

    Score10 out of 10
    N/ASocialcast was an enterprise social networking and collaboration platform acquired by VMware in 2011. The platform allowed an organization's employees to share information and documents with co-workers in real time through a Facebook- or Twitter-like news feed. VMware announced its end of availability (EOA) effective May 2018.

    $250

    per month

    Pricing
    OlarkSocialcast (discontinued)
    Editions & Modules
    Self Service
    $19.00
    Per Agent Per Month
    No answers on this topic
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    OlarkSocialcast (discontinued)
    Free Trial
    YesYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoYes
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Features
    OlarkSocialcast (discontinued)
    Chat Analytics and Reports
    Comparison of Chat Analytics and Reports features of Olark and Socialcast (discontinued)
    Feature
    Olark
    10.0
    1 Ratings
    14% above category average
    Socialcast (discontinued)
    -
    Ratings
    Chat history and transcripts10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Chat reporting10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Chat and web analytics10.01 Ratings00 Ratings
    Project Management
    Comparison of Project Management features of Olark and Socialcast (discontinued)
    Feature
    Olark
    -
    Ratings
    Socialcast (discontinued)
    6.3
    4 Ratings
    20% below category average
    Task Management00 Ratings7.74 Ratings
    Gantt Charts00 Ratings7.01 Ratings
    Scheduling00 Ratings6.33 Ratings
    Workflow Automation00 Ratings8.02 Ratings
    Mobile Access00 Ratings3.83 Ratings
    Search00 Ratings8.04 Ratings
    Visual planning tools00 Ratings3.43 Ratings
    Communication
    Comparison of Communication features of Olark and Socialcast (discontinued)
    Feature
    Olark
    -
    Ratings
    Socialcast (discontinued)
    7.5
    4 Ratings
    6% below category average
    Chat00 Ratings8.74 Ratings
    Notifications00 Ratings8.24 Ratings
    Discussions00 Ratings8.14 Ratings
    Surveys00 Ratings8.73 Ratings
    Internal knowledgebase00 Ratings6.14 Ratings
    Integrates with GoToMeeting00 Ratings5.01 Ratings
    Integrates with Gmail and Google Hangouts00 Ratings7.02 Ratings
    Integrates with Outlook00 Ratings7.92 Ratings
    File Sharing & Management
    Comparison of File Sharing & Management features of Olark and Socialcast (discontinued)
    Feature
    Olark
    -
    Ratings
    Socialcast (discontinued)
    5.7
    4 Ratings
    34% below category average
    Versioning00 Ratings2.12 Ratings
    Video files00 Ratings7.23 Ratings
    Audio files00 Ratings7.23 Ratings
    Document collaboration00 Ratings6.74 Ratings
    Access control00 Ratings7.23 Ratings
    Advanced security features00 Ratings5.83 Ratings
    Integrates with Google Drive00 Ratings5.02 Ratings
    Device sync00 Ratings4.02 Ratings
    Best Alternatives
    OlarkSocialcast (discontinued)
    Small Businesses
    Gist
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Flock
    Score9.5 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Zoho SalesIQ
    Score9.7 out of 10
    Troop Messenger
    Score9.8 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Genesys DX (discontinued)
    Score10 out of 10
    Cisco Business Edition 7000 (discontinued)
    Score9 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    OlarkSocialcast (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    10.0
    (18 ratings)
    7.7
    (6 ratings)
    Likelihood to Renew
    8.6
    (5 ratings)
    9.1
    (2 ratings)
    Usability
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    9.8
    (2 ratings)
    9.0
    (1 ratings)
    Product Scalability
    8.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    OlarkSocialcast (discontinued)
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Olark
    Olark chat is easy to set up and use. You can have more than one user logged in to monitor the chat on different computers. This makes a fast response time more likely. Although you have to be sure to keep your volume up on the computer so you hear the sound letting you know there's a chat waiting. I like that you can see the customers path through the website and you can put clickable links while you are in a chat to guide the customer to a product or a help page. Plus you can see if they actually went there. This makes it easier to upsell
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Socialcast has been a great tool for FactSet. I would recommend it to any firm looking for an easy-to-use tool to centralize communication and collaborate on a global scale.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Olark
    • Olark is user friendly for both sides of the CHAT conversation. If you are initiating the chat, or the one receiving the chat, it is extremely easy to follow and use. There are many different levels of computer use comprehension and Olark is for every level.
    • Olark has reporting features to allow you to check the quality of your employees chat abilities as well as their productivity. It provides feedback for the employee themselves to also see how they are doing and take any suggestions the customer may leave for them regarding their chat experience.
    • Olark is very affordable and offers you the option, at a low cost, to look bigger and more professional that you even are. We were a smaller company and has the chat option with Olark and now have grown tremendously and STILL have the Olark chat option. Olark allowed us to grow and provide professionalism to our customers .
    • The Olark program allows you to set up quick responses to keep your customer from waiting, and to allow your employees to not have to retype the same response over and over. It is a great program that the employees really enjoy as well. It reminds you if you forgot to log out when you left your desk and provides your customer a quick note giving them the option to send the chat as an email inquiry instead, so you don't miss a thing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Socialcast has an exceptional user experience. With very few idiosyncrasies, it works well on every platform I've tried.
    • The platform has such a high level of ease of use, it becomes somewhat addicting.
    • Social analytics are superb.
    • The platform is highly intuitive and requires zero training or coaching in order for network members to become productive with it.
    • It's extremely reliable. Only once in 4 years, was the product not available, and that was only for about a half-hour. In that half-hour, we realized how dependent we were on it. (Very.)
    • The multi-device and deployment options are excellent. On-premise, Private Cloud, and Multi-tenant SaaS all available.
    • The mobile apps for iPhone, tablets, and Android render well with a beautiful UI/UX. The desktop AIR app is equally highly usable.
    Read full review
    Cons
    Olark
    • Not really an area of improvement for Olark specifically, but I will offer that it is incredibly important to keep in mind your company's "shopping hours" or peak traffic times (there is a Reports feature on the software that allows you to analyze peak traffic times).
    • Transcript history can be a little tricky - if you're searching for a specific past conversation, sometimes you may get multiple search results and have to sift through them until you find exactly what you're looking for.
    • I'd also offer that you will occasionally come across folks that are on your site to cyberbully or say nonsensical things. While there isn't an absolute fullproof way to deal with this, Olark does offer a nice "block" feature to disregard any unwanted conversations.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • The software is a little bit pricey because it is charged by user/month and depending on the deployment method.
    • For companies with a lot of workers the price can increase significantly.
    • The mobile app usability and notifications are poor. Need to be improved.
    • If there were more administrative features available the product would be improved
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Likelihood to Renew
    Olark
    To be honest, renewal decisions are not currently within my power. Hypothetically speaking, I'm very comfortable with the platform, have used it daily for nearly a year, and would see no reason to switch to anything else. The small criticisms I had are not significant enough to deter me from using Olark. It's a user friendly, effective tool for our department.
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Beyond the value FactSet derives from using the platform, Socialcast (the firm) has been a good partner to FactSet. We've experienced very little downtime with the service and they have been responsive and fair with enhancement requests and questions
    Read full review
    Usability
    Olark
    It is simply easy and customizable to be exactly what you need it to be
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    The UX is its best feature
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Olark
    Our organization does not have any complaints about Olark's Support. Anytime we reached out to them for assistance, we received a prompt, helpful reply! As mentioned previously, we used Olark fairly basically so we didn't have too much need to work with their support team other than a few general questions here and there. They were always pleasant to work with.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Excellent support; of course not perfect. :-)
    Read full review
    Implementation Rating
    Olark
    No answers on this topic
    Discontinued Products
    Not applicable, as it is a SaaS platform with minimal implementation
    Read full review
    Alternatives Considered
    Olark
    Olark has an easier implementation process and has better functionality such as the ability to send commands through the platform to either create a ticket in your CRM or push an opportunity to salesforce; you're even able to 'push' the end user to a web page. Implementing their SDK is a snap as well.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    Socialcast is great for collaboration & light project management, but anything complex doesn't work well.

    Using it as an email notification curator works nice for us.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Olark
    • Olark allows my customer support team to respond to inquiries much faster than before.
    • We have seen an uptick in sales as we are able to address more questions from website visitors.
    • We have changed the design of our website based on chat feedback and questions obtained through Olark.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Discontinued Products
    • Definitely more organized project management and team collaboration.
    • Efficiency in carrying out tasks.
    • Creates a spirit of collaboration and friendliness among colleagues.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    ScreenShots