Eight conversations at a time – handling live chats the smart way | Hacker News Reader

Eight conversations at a time – handling live chats the smart way

olark.com

47 pointsbcx16 comments

The great thing about Olark is it can be very humanizing if you let it. Its pretty powerful to tell a customer at 3am: "Hey, this is definitely a problem. I've marked it in our issue tracking software, but its 3am here and I am about to pass out. Is it okay if I email you tomorrow with a fix?". I wonder if that isn't more effective than just instantly fixing the problem at hand...

One really awesome thing we did at Zapier is add a custom Olark !info command that pulls up various stats of the user, like what plan they are on, how long they've had an account, links to their profile in the admin, etc... It has been crazy useful. Check out their awesome JS API [1].

Also, Olark is worth every penny. If it isn't installed on your site today, you are doing it wrong (especially if you are still figuring out your product).

[1] https://www.olark.com/documentation

You can also use Alfred (http://www.alfredapp.com/) to set up similar custom searches that you can access without being in the browser.

How many Chats do people actually handle at the same time?

I've handle roughly six or seven at a time. Don't think I've hit eight. It can definitely get challenging with that many chats running.

Depending on the nature of the chats, around a half dozen is my limit. If you've got 1-2 that are only responding to you every 10 minutes or so, or 1-2 have easy general questions, that number could probably push higher. But around 5 conversations that require legitimate investigation and troubleshooting is where I've found you can start to lose engagement.

I've found it's more about number of messages per minute, than number of chats at a time.

Where number of messages per minute is my real limit. (unless I am trying to trouble shoot a bunch of issues at the same time)

I find I can handle multiple chats at once easily using programs like TextExpander(Mac) or Breevy(Win).

That way, if someone needs a specific walkthrough, I can type something like oguide and it automatically pastes this link: https://www.olark.com/help/guide

Then if you model your support system around making the walkthroughs and guides for the most common user issues, it makes juggling chats much easier.

Is this a hosted service? If so, in light of the article[1] posted here yesterday, I think I'll pass. Not that I have any suspicion that these guys would abuse my data, but it'd be all-to-easy...

1. http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4907609

Although I understand the sentiment, I think it is in poor taste to compare Olark, a very reputable company with a solid track record, with whatever that fly-by-night company is doing.

I've never heard of them....and I'm far from a spring chicken. What guarantees can you give that they don't do something like that today -- other than anecdotal evidence as a complete outsider?

Regardless, my concern is still there and I will still refuse to use it. To each his own, I'm not trying to campaign against them, just sharing my opinion.

Just for what it's worth, and speaking as an Olark employee, we don't, and don't plan to. But I totally get your concerns, and healthy skepticism is valuable.

Thanks, and I truly mean no ill will. To play conspiracy theorist though, I doubt anyone -- save for a select few high-level execs -- would even have a clue if something shady like that was even happening. But that's just privacy paranoia talk...

Another point that I originally excluded, but which I think is relevant on a different front, is that y'all are limiting your customer base with your setup. I'm sure you're well aware, and perhaps it's something that you'd like to do eventually or perhaps you've investigated it and it's not economically viable, but there are likely many apps that could well use something like this, but can't.

For instance, the app that I work on for my day job is PCI & HIPAA compliant, and we've had to roll our own solutions for many features due to the fact that our app is intranet-hosted, aka. 100% insulated from the internet. Even if our app was internet-facing, trusting an outside vendor with sensitive data is non-starter, unless they are also PCI/HIPAA complaint, as is any solution that has the capacity for such data to leave our app.

But again, thanks for the reply and I wish you the best of luck!

agreed, our experience with Olark has been wonderful. Been using them with two different companies over the last 3 years.

Agreed with everyone else, Olark is awesome. Their trusted by tons of big names, and completely different from the article posted yesterday.

Good thing there's a photo of that guy having lunch.

Great Lakes Crossing Outlets, Auburn Hills, MI.

I believe I had a cheeseburger and fries, with a root beer float. 'murica!

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