It's that time of year again — when colleagues 'round the world gather in restaurant lounges, hotel bars, and tinseled-up conference rooms for that most eagerly-anticipated of events...the company holiday party!
In this post, Robert Brandl, owner of WebsiteToolTester, shares some creative ideas for using live chat to improve your online store and increase your sales.
As we scaled our startup, we knew we needed more than just a mission statement to focus our team, improve our hiring practices, and keep communications issues in the workplace at a minimum. In 2012 Olarkers began formulating a list of values to do just that.
Question: What do industries like auto, supply, and manufacturing have in common?
Answer: They’ve been around a heck of a lot longer than live chat.
While English once dominated the internet, it's now the preferred language of barely a quarter of the online population. As of December 2017, just 25.4 percent of internet users spoke English as their primary language; 19.3 percent spoke Chinese, 8.1 percent spoke Spanish, and 5.3 percent preferred Arabic.
A few years ago, a colleague turned me on to a pretty fun procrastination game — type a few English sentences into Google Translate, translate them into another language, translate the result back to English...and repeat. It only took a few cycles to end up with a hysterically garbled mess.
At Olark, we believe human connections are essential to business growth. But to really connect with someone, you need to understand their context. What problem are they trying to solve with your product? How did they hear about your company? Are they considering switching away from one of your competitors, and if so, why?
What is social selling?
You probably already know that your target customers hang out on social sites — whether it's a Facebook group for runners (who might buy your shorts!), a LinkedIn community for small business owners (who might buy your software!), or even a Quora thread about sticky IT issues (solution: your professional IT services). You may even have closed a sale by joining a group and weighing in on a question or two. But did you know there's a name for that?
Remote Work, Making Business Human, Olark Essentials
Olark Company Retreat 2018. Where are the Olarkers?
You’ve probably heard that Olark is a 100% remote company, and that we have some cool ways to connect virtually. Once a year, we get the whole crew (and families) together for an annual retreat. Retreat 2018 starts tomorrow, Saturday August 25.
Olark Essentials, Sales and Conversions, Chat Tips
New: Save customer insights — and put ‘em to work! — with Notes
Every time you interact with a lead or customer on chat, you learn something new about their goals, preferences, and priorities. From the seemingly minor (e.g., shipping preferences) to the sales and marketing “jackpot” (e.g., a detailed summary of a customer’s motivations for using your product), quick access to customer information can be a game-changer for growing your business…