Olark Live Chat updates olark.com

Chatbox forms allow sites to add custom questions to their pre-chat survey and offline email form.

As well as the existing name, email and chat fields, you can now add a website field, custom text field (single line response) and text areas (multiple line response). You can change both the question label and placeholder prompt.

You can add up to three fields per page, and up to two pages per form. A second page is automatically created when you add more than three fields to a form.

Survey information appears in the visitor information provided at the start of a chat. It also appears in the visitor information in a chat transcript and via our JavaScript API.

• Pre-chat form settings
• Offline form settings

The Olark chatbox is now navigable by keyboard using a screen reader and will announce any visual changes, such as new messages, to the screen reader. These updates are part of our ongoing work toward meeting WCAG 2.0 guidelines.

Admins can now view today's agent activity. See when agents become available, are away or hit their chat limit.

Switch easily between a summary of all agents' chat data or their status activity using the toggle button.

Agents can now transfer a chat to another agent, using the updated !transfer command.

In the Olark chat console, type out the !transfer command as usual. To notify specific agents that you want to transfer the chat to them, use the @ key to bring up a list of logged-in agents. Hit the return key to select that agent. You can include several operators in the same request.

When notifying multiple agents, the first one to respond will be locked to the chat. Agents can be tagged anywhere in the message after the !transfer command.

For example:

!transfer I think @john or @jane would be best taking this chat.

If you are using a third party chat client, you can check your buddy list to see the username of other agents.

Visitors can now upload files to the chatbox which will be displayed to the agent in the chat console.

File Upload lets visitors attach images and PDFs during a conversation. For a full list of supported filetypes and security features, check out the File Upload documentation.

Enabled by default, the feature can be disabled in the File Upload settings.

We've released Operator Activity reports, providing insights about your team's performance and activity. Use the data to help staff your live chat efficiently by comparing to historical averages.

Operator Activity

Choose a date range, filter and sort to highlight the data relevant to you. The historical averages automatically update depending on whether you have selected a day, week or month.

• Compare chat volume, duration and ratings
• View operator availability, average response time, number of missed chats, total chats and average chat rating in a single table
• Filter and sort the data over your selected date range

Operator Timelines

When selecting a single day, you can view the operator timelines. See when they log in and out for the day and when they set themselves to away. You can easily see when operators are hitting their chat limit, a sign that more operators may need to be available at that time.

• Drill down to see operator timelines for single days
• See when operators are available, away and when they hit their chat limit
• Export data in CSV format

There is now a supported Olark WordPress Plugin!

Easily add Olark to your WordPress.org site in a few simple steps.

Operators can now search, sort and filter transcripts from the updated Transcripts page.

You can filter by operator, tags, custom date range, groups, chat quality and who initiated the chat.

Accounts with helpdesk and CRM integrations can also re-send any transcript that previously failed.

The chatbox now automatically detects links to images in messages from operators to visitors, and displays the image inline. This works even if the link is in the middle of a message.

If the entire message is a non-image URL, it will be styled as a clickable button.

Supported image types are JPEG, PNG and GIF.

Website owners can now choose from a small, medium or large widget to fit their website. Making the change is as simple as a single line of JavaScript:

olark.configure('system.hb_chatbox_size', 'sm'); // Small
olark.configure('system.hb_chatbox_size', 'md'); // Medium (default)
olark.configure('system.hb_chatbox_size', 'lg'); // Large

In addition, we've introduced an experimental drawer mode, which anchors the widget to the side of the web browser.

olark.configure('system.hb_chatbox_size', 'Dr'); // Drawer

Read more in our API documentation.