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Olark

Olark

Overview

What is Olark?

Olark 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.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

Olark is a versatile live chat software that is widely used by customer service teams to provide immediate support to customers during the …
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Olark is worthwhile!

9 out of 10
April 25, 2021
Incentivized
Olark is an incredibly useful resource in our organization as it allows us a quick bridge access to our customers through our website.
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Olark is Okay...

8 out of 10
May 08, 2019
Incentivized
Olark is used in two instances for our team. One I can speak to more than the other. In the first instance, our sales teams use olark to …
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Olark for Customers

8 out of 10
January 31, 2019
Incentivized
We use Olark to interact with our online visitors. It is used by our Guest Experience team and it has really helped elevate our guest …
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Olark gets it done.

7 out of 10
August 16, 2017
Incentivized
We practice all-hands support so Olark is currently being used by the entire team. We use it to talk to prospective customers and answer …
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Olark is great!

10 out of 10
June 10, 2016
Olark is used by the customer success team at TrackMaven for communicating with customers while they are in our application. We use it …
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Try Olark On a Lark

9 out of 10
August 13, 2014
Olark is primarily used in the customer service department of our company. Olark allows us to directly connect with and support our …
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Pricing

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Self Service

$19.00

Cloud
Per Agent Per Month

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Starting price (does not include set up fee)

  • $15 per month
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Product Details

What is Olark?

Olark Video

Olark Demo

Olark Technical Details

Deployment TypesSoftware as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsUnspecified
Mobile ApplicationNo

Frequently Asked Questions

Olark 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.

Olark starts at $15.

SnapEngage, LivePerson Conversation Cloud (LiveEngage), and ClickDesk are common alternatives for Olark.

The most common users of Olark are from Small Businesses (1-50 employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(36)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

Olark is a versatile live chat software that is widely used by customer service teams to provide immediate support to customers during the checkout process. By utilizing the chat widget on their website, customer service staff can engage with potential clients and address any questions or concerns they may have. The software also offers the option for screen sharing, which proves to be particularly useful when clients struggle to describe their issues. Additionally, Olark's chat archives are highly regarded for their convenience, allowing customer service representatives to reference past conversations and follow up with customers effectively.

Furthermore, Olark is praised for its ease of use and reliability, making it a popular choice among businesses of all sizes. The software offers a range of customizable features such as initiating conversations based on specific customer behaviors and storing chat transcripts. It also integrates seamlessly with popular platforms like Salesforce, Desk.com, and Zendesk, further enhancing its functionality and versatility. While some users have noted that stronger analytics capabilities would be beneficial, Olark has proven to be effective for companies with up to 15 employees actively engaged in chat support. Overall, Olark not only improves customer support but also helps businesses capture more leads and increase sales opportunities.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-5 of 5)
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Julieanne Faas | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I have used Olark in my past two companies' customer service departments (which I managed) to interact with customers in real time.

Pros: Olark is very reliable, has many well thought out features and has very helpful customer service (via chat of course) when you need them. Its very customizable, intuitive and quick and easy to set up and maintain. Olark's features include - starting conversations when customers preform specific behaviors, storing transcripts, noticing when a customer is back for a 2nd visit, and acts as a "contact us" box when your chat agents are offline. You can have multiple employees on chat at the same time - though you do have to pay by user. They also integrate into a number of other platforms such as Salesforce, Desk.com and Zendesk. Though these integrations are rather limited.

Cons: I would love to see them get a bit stronger on analytics - they don't offer much in that department but you can include them in Google Analytics which gets you most of what you need to know. It'd be great if their integrations were a bit stronger (or if you could use more than one at a time). It can also be tricky to use if you have more than 15 employees that will be on chat.

All in all I highly recommend Olark and have enjoyed working with them over the past years!
  • Customizations - It's easy to get it to do what you want it to.
  • Intuitive features to get your customers to interact
  • Customer Service - they are there when you need 'em!
  • Nice clean design
  • Analytic - They don't give you much, but you can tie it into Google Analytics
  • Integrations are basic
  • Difficult to use with > 15 employees
Olark is well suited for companies that have a lot of customers coming to their website and want to be available to them in real time. It's designed for smaller companies and may not work for a very large corporation.
  • Faster lead conversion
  • Stronger, faster customer service
  • Happier customers - with more trust in our product
  • Faster response to bugs
I have moved on to a new position but both companies are still happily using Olark, and I would be quick to use them again in a future company that needs live chat.
August 13, 2014

Try Olark On a Lark

Lindsay Bytof | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Olark is primarily used in the customer service department of our company. Olark allows us to directly connect with and support our customers. As our website performs a variety of functions, we have a wide array of issues that arise that Olark allows us to resolve quickly and efficiently. There is nothing more frustrating for a customer than to want to use a tool, but unable to due to either lack of know how or technical difficulties. Additionally, as we are directly connected to the entertainment industry, much of what we do is extremely time sensitive. The immediacy of Olark allows to put out small fires quickly rather than wait for them to turn into full blown five alarm nightmares. The screen share option has proven to be particularly helpful - especially with those clients who are not used to describing, in detail, the issue they're having - obviously compounded by frustration. The archives of all chats prove to be helpful as well when referencing past conversations for following up.
  • Screen share is an invaluable tool for offering that support to customers who are not completely computer savvy and require some special TLC.
  • Provides a user-friendly chat window - easy to read, and navigate.
  • Also, Olark customer service whenever I've had an Olark question proves very helpful.
  • Doesn't easily allow you to email a transcript of the chat you've had to a customer.
  • Copy and pasting of chat information is difficult.
  • Screen share sometimes does not work.
All of my current colleagues use Olark - within my department. If I met someone who was in the same line of work as me who was not currently using Olark - I would highly recommend it for customer service. It's much less taxing than answering live phone lines - but just as direct and immediate. Obviously, the thing I dislike about it most is all of the 11 year old children who decide it's a good idea to 'be an actor' and want advice without their parents' knowledge - that does take up a considerable fraction of our time that you would not encounter over the phone, but it also protects you from dealing directly with stressful customers.
  • I believe our customers are much happier as a result of us being able to directly address any issues they have - cancellations, technical difficulties, profile assistance, etc. This fosters return customers.
  • Negative impact would be that we spend time speaking with people who could not possibly be converted into sales leads - minors - who are on the internet to pass time.
  • zopim
I have not used zopim extensively, but my company has been looking into converting to ZenDesk. The one positive difference I did notice with zopim was the ability to easily email a transcript of a chat - and the user has the option to request it independently of the operator.
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.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We utilize Olark to provide customer support to visitors on our website. It's a positive asset because it allows us to answer questions online rather than on the phone in our offices, and it occasionally will funnel customers directly toward someone that can walk them through the sales process. Some of our best leads come through Olark chats. We don't have specific departments here, but it is used for sales and customer support.
  • I think Olark does an excellent job of making an easy to use product that anyone can pick up in a matter of minutes.
  • Olark's overall site design and layout is clean, tasteful and playfully their own. It's easy to find exactly what you need.
  • This doesn't have much to do with the actual use of the product, but Olark has built an enduring brand that I find incredibly charming, relatable, and fun. I love their updates on their retreat and the way that they enthusiastically talk about their identity.
  • I hate the fact that I can't create the username I want. Olark only has one server and I have a common name. I'm the only Jacob in our office, but because Olark has one central server, I have to be Jacob10 because one of their other clients has that username.
  • I wish I could see more information about previous conversations with returning customers. Simply saying "this is a returning customer" doesn't do me much good.
I think this is well suited for companies that sell products online or are involved in technology and need to offer technical support. I don't think this is best for high touch industries where customers are onsite a lot, but its perfect to help customers make purchases and offer occasional support.
  • Certainly better customer service. I know we have a bad site, but I've had customers say we have a great site many times before. I know Olark has something to do with this.
I haven't personally evaluated other sites. Olark is the only one I've used and I like it quite a bit. To this point price and ease of use has given me reason to stay and I don't see that changing.
Olark just works. Its got iPhone like ease of use and I love the fact that I don't have to be trained on how to use it. There are a few things I wish it offered (I would love an option that alerts me when someone is on site, not just when they send something in) but overall this thing gets the job done incredibly well. I have absolutely no reason to leave.
Allison Carlson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I used Olark in my role as Support Manager at Zozi back in 2012-2013. I liked the level of ease it brought to allowing our customers to contact my team for support, but I was really displeased with the lack of a queue - we often had 8-10 people chatting us at once, and with a super small team of only 3 support agents, this made it difficult to multi-task (we also offered phone support, and often had to juggle both at once).

Other than that, Olark was a comprehensive product with excellent user support. If they've implemented a queue feature, then more power to them! I'd certainly recommend them as an option if my current company ever decides to go the chat support route.
  • Ease of contact - customers don't have to call
  • Easy to understand - click and chat, anyone can understand that
  • Good support for users - if something goes wrong the Olark team is on it
  • Excellent chat logs
  • Queue for customers - instead of piling several customers on a chat agent at once, queue the users for singular service, which actually results in a BETTER overall customer experience
It's easy, it's inexpensive, and it integrates nicely into a website's UI. I think the biggest question to ask is whether or not a chat service is needed - though I am personally always pro chat, as I look for it as a consumer on any website. If I don't have to pick up the phone, I'm a happy camper.
  • Primarily, it was simply another channel on which our customers could reach us, which increased customer trust.
The main reason was that we had a really hard time integrating the Zendesk chat function into our UI, and once we discovered that Olark would not only integrate seamlessly with our website, but also automatically produce Zendesk support tickets, we were sold.
Currently, I'm not at a company that is considering using a chat function, but if we ever decided to, or I switched to a company that was considering it, I'd certainly revisit Olark as a recommended service.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Olark has been specifically used by my organization as a tool to interact extensively with customers - answering questions about our website, services we offer, job opportunities, recruiting a larger customer base, and helping folks navigate our website. Olark is typically only used by a few individuals in the organization itself, although most office employees have a working knowledge of the program. As for business problems, Olark manages to provide instant gratification for those with internet access and burning questions or concerns.
  • The program itself entails an incredibly easy set up with user-friendly features. It is also possible for multiple Operators to speak with customers/visitors at once - this particular feature can be useful if there is a large surge in visitor traffic.
  • When logged into the LiveChat feature, Operators are able to see the visitor's location in the world, what pages they're looking at on your site, as well as previous pages browsed and lapsed time exploring your site.
  • Olark also offers a great deal of custom features - it's a bit difficult to explain thoroughly, but for example, one may choose to customize the site's chat feature by creating a pop-up chat widget, or a "click to chat" feature image.
  • 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.
I do believe that many customers enjoy the fact that using Olark's Live Chat feature is a way of (more or less) instantly gaining access or insight to questions and further information. In today's overtly connected world, for some individuals, it's much easier to log onto their desktop, laptop, or some other mobile device and seek the help they need - and it seems that many individuals would rather do this than dial a phone number. For example, if a customer asks a very difficult question to answer on the phone, there could possibly be that awkward silence on the other end while you struggle to answer their question or concern. However, with Olark's Live Chat, that lapsed time isn't necessarily an awkward silence, but instead allows you a bit of time to think and respond appropriately.

With regard to well-suited or less appropriate scenarios, I think the most important thing is to know your customer base and traffic flow to your specific site - what exactly do they prefer? What would they like to see in the future? What can you do to help them? How can you provide better customer service, and via what medium?
  • Better customer service by far - we are able to speak to multiple customers simultaneously and address various questions and concerns through one software program.
  • In many ways, it seems that we have an edge over our competition - several similar companies don't offer this sort of service and haven't even considered offering such a service.
  • Employee efficiency has also improved greatly - many employees are able to multitask and accomplish other tasks or assignments while operating the Olark Live Chat.
I actually haven't tried out any similar products at this time, unfortunately.
I think it's a great feature to be more in touch with a customer base - it saves time, money, and is often extremely effective in terms of answering customer questions and addressing concerns. Although the subject of product renew is not necessarily in my hands, I strongly advocate for the program's future use.
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