

Eight conversations at a time – handling live chats the smart way - bcx
http://www.olark.com/blog/2012/8-conversations-at-a-time-handling-live-chats-the-smart-way/

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bryanh
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>

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

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

~~~
mdbennett
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.

~~~
bcx
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)

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k3n
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>

~~~
bryanh
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.

~~~
k3n
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.

~~~
amw
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.

~~~
k3n
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!

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

~~~
helipad
Great Lakes Crossing Outlets, Auburn Hills, MI.

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

