Barbara Maniar

Barbara Maniar
Barbara is part of the support team at Olark and she loves to chat. When she's not talking with all y'all she's chasing around her 2 kids, having mild success at craft projects and trying to schedule in a nap.

Recent Posts

What Would Barbara Do: Best practices in escalating an issue

Question: Help!  What should I do when I get an issue I can’t resolve in chat?

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What Would Barbara Do: 6 ways to stay cheerful while live chatting

Question: What are the best ways to keep cheerful when chatting?

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What Would Barbara Do: 7 things you could be doing now to support more users at once

Question: Wait a minute - you can talk to a bunch of customers at once with live chat?  How does that even work?

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What Would Barbara Do: Exiting a chat that's probably done

Question: How can I elegantly wrap up a chat when I need to leave my desk?

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What Would Barbara Do: Send a transcript!

Question: I’m concerned that the visitors I chat with won’t remember everything I’ve shared with them.  Help?

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What Would Barbara Do: How do I handle trolls?

Question: A really obnoxious visitor won't stop chatting with me! How can I make them go away!?!?

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What Would Barbara Do: What is the best way to reassure a vistor that you haven't forgotten about them?

Question: Sometimes when I'm chatting I get a visitor repeatedly checking to see that they haven't lost me. It makes me crazy! What's the best way and frequency to reassure them that I'm still working on their question?

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What Would Barbara Do: Does phrasing matter?

I like to end my chats with “Thanks for stopping by!” — but some of my colleagues use “It was a pleasure talking with you!” Is one better than the other? Or does it not matter?

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What Would Barbara Do: Humans make mistakes too

This story is part of our Making Business Human series. For more on the series and our mission, check out this post!

Q: I sometimes make typos or mistakes in chat - what’s the best way to recover?

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What Would Barbara Do: How can I answer the question 'How are you?' in a friendly way without taking the chat off topic?

This story is part of our Making Business Human series. For more on the series and our mission, check out this post!

I like to answer the question "how are you?" with "I'm excellent, thanks! Any Olark questions I can answer?"

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