Managing a successful customer service team: Help is your friend

This is the third post in Rhoda’s Tips from a Farmer series. Read her first post on working smarter, not harder, and her second on Prioritizing like a farmer.

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Managing a successful customer service team: How to prioritize like a farmer

This is the second post in Rhoda’s Tips from a Farmer series. Read her first post on working smarter, not harder.

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5 ways to know if remote work is right for you

At Olark, we love the benefits of remote work, but we also know that working remotely isn’t for everyone. Transitioning from an onsite role to a remote role can be a big adjustment. Here are five questions to ask yourself if you’re thinking about taking the #remotelife plunge.

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Managing a successful customer service team: Tips from a farmer, part one

In addition to my role as Olark’s Director of Customer Service, I am a farmer — well, more of a smallholder, and a fledgling one at that. When I’m not in meetings or talking to customers, I can usually be found in a padded boiler suit, up to my ears in muck and surrounded by animals and vegetables.

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Creating remote watercooler moments

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

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Newlarkers: How we train new members of Olark's support team remotely

Last year, Olark became a remote-first company. We said goodbye to our headquarters in San Francisco and now our 40-person team works from across the US, South America and Europe. We love the benefits of working remotely so much, we’re trying to help others find a remote job too!

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How to find a remote job in 6 steps

I remember when I was first starting my search for a remote job. It was intimidating! Limited resources. Lack of support. Difficult to maneuver through jobs that were fully remote vs. those that allowed “some” work from home. I eventually found the perfect fit at Olark and it’s been amazing for my family, my life, and my sanity.

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How does a fully remote team work through tricksy support situations?

The vast majority of questions we get at Olark are pretty simple, or at least quick for our talented team to resolve. A few times a day we get questions that are mind-boggling, unusual, new, or just plain hard to figure out. We have some unique and not-so unique strategies to unravel tough problems and reduce the wait time for our customers, all while thriving as a remote team. Let’s follow the path of one of these questions to see what happens!

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Olarkers unleashed: The benefits of remote working

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

Olark has always been a remote-friendly company, but earlier this year we decided to say goodbye to our headquarters in San Francisco and fully embrace the remote life. Our team loves working remotely for reasons as unique as Olarkers are! We thought we’d share a few of these reasons with you in our own words to start a discussion about the benefits of remote work.

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Lighting of the Redwood: A remote celebration

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

….Think Morgan Freeman’s voice as you’re reading this….

Long ago in a land called Palo Alto, four founders embarked on a journey to change online chatting. They lived and worked together in a house with a garden. In the garden grew a  faithful redwood tree, Dory.

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