Now coming to HN... YC company ads are now auto-upvoted to be the top story?
Yes, Olark is neat for some applications, I use it on one of my sites. But I am surprised to see this as the #1 story today.
Olark launches "Targeted Chat"
41–50 of 65 posts
Re: Olark launches "Targeted Chat"
#42The surprise and delight that users express when they realize a human is on the other end of that chat window makes Olark worth every penny!
Does Olark do something different than other chat providers to indicate that a human is on the other end?
No. But if there are no humans available it will ask you to leave a message. I've used olark as a user several times and always been delighted - the person you talk to is usually one of the techies so you can get straight down to the issues.
At my current startup I insisted we use olark and have been very happy.
Re: Olark launches "Targeted Chat"
#43Or, build it yourself very easily (I did so in a weekend) using XMPP + Strophe.js:
Re: Olark launches "Targeted Chat"
#44Scaling is the issue I have with things like Olark. One-to-one chat is an expensive way to get customers. Does anyone have experiences on the effectiveness and cost of customer acquisition using something like Olark? [Let me say I love the concept of Olark. I'm just not sure how it plays out in practice.]
It depends on your business. I'm not an Olark user, but I've been running some back of the envelope calculations.
One year of the Bronze plan, at $180, is several orders of magnitude lower than my average customer lifetime value, so it's easily worth it, even if it only gains me 1 customer per year. Your mileage may vary.
But right now, most of my customers are coming through my email marketing, so I won't signup now. But I definitely will in a few months.
Re: Olark launches "Targeted Chat"
#45For some reason, Olark tabs really bug me as a user. They seem extremely intrusive and distracting sliding in on every page and invariably blocking content.
Isn't the look of Olark customizable? I guess it depends upon how much work you want to put into it.
Re: Olark launches "Targeted Chat"
#46For some reason, Olark tabs really bug me as a user. They seem extremely intrusive and distracting sliding in on every page and invariably blocking content.
You are not alone. I hate them with passion, just as those sticky sidebars.
When I need support then I'll go looking for it. For that case, please have a visible link somewhere in the header or footer. There is absolutely no need to stick your 200x400px "SUPPORT!!!"-link into my face permanently. Many of them even perform idiotic gymnastics during scrolling or accidental mouseovers, in order to maximize the distraction.
However, there's one thing even worse than that: Automatic chat popups (Hello Rackspace!).
If you're at the receiving end of such a popup and get some really nasty text from a stranger, then that's probably me.
Re: Olark launches "Targeted Chat"
#47[deleted]
Re: Olark launches "Targeted Chat"
#48The surprise and delight that users express when they realize a human is on the other end of that chat window makes Olark worth every penny!
Does Olark do something different than other chat providers to indicate that a human is on the other end?
Olark lets me use my normal chat client via Jabber or GTalk. It provides a !command interface. Most (all?) of the other systems require a special application.
Re: Olark launches "Targeted Chat"
#49Scaling is the issue I have with things like Olark. One-to-one chat is an expensive way to get customers. Does anyone have experiences on the effectiveness and cost of customer acquisition using something like Olark? [Let me say I love the concept of Olark. I'm just not sure how it plays out in practice.]
It depends on your business. I'm not an Olark user, but I've been running some back of the envelope calculations. One year of the Bronze plan, at $180, is several orders of magnitude lower than my average customer lifetime value, so it's easily worth it, even if it only gains me 1 customer per year. Your mileage may vary. But right now, most of my customers are coming through my email marketing, so I won't signup now…
You need to also count the cost of your time spent talking to prospects
Re: Olark launches "Targeted Chat"
#50For some reason, Olark tabs really bug me as a user. They seem extremely intrusive and distracting sliding in on every page and invariably blocking content.
Isn't the look of Olark customizable? I guess it depends upon how much work you want to put into it.
I started looking but didn't find much. And wasn't sure what was possible in the free tier.
I'm not a big fan really of any of the support tabs and am sorry they have gained so much traction (thanks UserVoice, I guess?). But thankfully they are not present on the more legit sites.