All-hands support is an Olark institution. We’ve been sharing responsibility for chat and email support across everyone on our team — everyone, including developers, designers, marketers, and our CEO — since our company was founded in 2009. It hasn’t always been easy, but it’s always been worth it. How have we made it work?

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!

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.

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.

Running a small business is just like running any other business, right?

Er, well, not always. We get it — Olark is a small, bootstrapped company, so we know that while working with a small team can be incredibly rewarding, it’s also quite challenging at times.

Self care is a critical component of mental health. Because it’s so important, we’ve put the value of Chill at the top of our list of values. The wonderful thing about caring for yourself is that you get to choose what works best for you!

If you work in sales or support, you know the importance of empathizing with your customers and leads. You may also be familiar with that fatigued feeling at the end of the day (or sometimes by 9am!) of expending all your empathy on others and having very little left for yourself. Building a simple kit based on the 5 senses will help you recover and prepare for the next interaction before you can calculate the cost of a 2 week trip to Bali.

Once your team has grown beyond one or two chat agents, you may want to start filtering chats and making sure they are routed to right person or team. Olark makes it easy!

Are remote teams doomed to failure? Is it possible to build a positive team culture when everyone is distributed?

Celebrating with candy is an Olark tradition. We call it Sweet Support. As part of our monthly newsletter, the support team chooses an Olarker (or two or three) who has gone above and beyond for our customers. They get a box of treats to enjoy as a fun way to show our appreciation. Anyone at Olark can receive a Sweet Support package in the mail.