Step by step guide to integrating Olark live chat with Salesforce CRM

If you’re running customer support or sales and using Salesforce, you probably want website chat transcripts and leads to land in your CRM without any copy/paste nonsense. This guide is for admins, support leads, and marketers who want to connect Olark live chat with Salesforce — and want it to actually work.

Below, I’ll walk you through each step: what you really need, what’s optional, and what’ll just waste your time. You’ll end up with chat data flowing into Salesforce, without breaking anything else along the way.

Why bother integrating Olark with Salesforce?

Let’s keep it real: having live chat is great, but if the data stays stuck in your chat dashboard, your team wastes time and misses leads. The integration sends Olark chats and leads straight into Salesforce, so you can:

  • Create contacts or leads automatically from chats
  • Attach chat transcripts to existing records
  • Track which reps are chatting and how it affects deals
  • Avoid “Where did this customer come from?” headaches

But—just having the integration doesn’t magically fix your workflow. Don’t expect Salesforce to suddenly become pleasant to use, or Olark to fill in every field perfectly. This guide gets you 90% of the way there, and you can tweak from there.

What you need before you start

Don’t skip this. If you don’t have these, you’ll hit a wall halfway through:

  • An Olark account on a paid plan (the Salesforce integration isn’t included in free tiers).
  • A Salesforce account (Enterprise, Unlimited, or Professional with API access).
  • Admin access on both Olark and Salesforce.
  • A spare hour (if this is your first time).
  • Patience. (Seriously, Salesforce permissions can be a pain.)

Optional, but useful:

  • A test Salesforce user, so you don’t junk up your real CRM.
  • A backup of your Salesforce setup, just in case.
  • Some idea of which fields you actually want filled in from chat (name, email, etc).

Step 1: Enable Olark’s Salesforce integration

  1. Log in to Olark. Go to Settings > Integrations.
  2. Find Salesforce in the list and click Connect.
  3. When prompted, sign in with your Salesforce admin credentials.
  4. Authorize Olark to access Salesforce. (If you get a permissions error, you need to sort that out in Salesforce first. Don’t try to work around it — it’ll only cause headaches later.)

Pro tip: If your Salesforce instance uses custom domains or SSO, you might need to “Log in with a different account” and paste in your domain. If you’re stuck, Olark’s support is actually pretty responsive.

Step 2: Configure how chats map to Salesforce records

This is where most people get tripped up. Olark can create either:

  • A new Lead
  • A new Contact
  • Attach a chat to an existing record (if it finds a match by email)

Decide what fits your workflow:

  • If your sales team works leads first, stick with Leads.
  • If you’re mostly supporting existing customers, go with Contacts.
  • If you want to avoid duplicates, set up matching rules (by email is easiest).

How to set this up:

  1. In Olark’s Salesforce integration settings, look for “Map chats to” options.
  2. Pick Lead, Contact, or Case — whatever suits your team.
  3. Choose how Olark matches visitors to records (usually by email address).
  4. Decide if you want Olark to always create a new record, or only when it can’t find a match.

Don’t overthink custom field mapping here. Start basic. You can always add more mapped fields later.

Step 3: Map Olark chat fields to Salesforce fields

You want info like name, email, company, and chat transcript to end up in the right Salesforce fields.

  1. In Olark integration settings, look for Field Mapping.
  2. Match Olark’s visitor fields (“Name”, “Email”, “Chat Transcript”) to Salesforce Lead or Contact fields.
  3. Keep it simple. Map only what you need. The more fields you add, the more things can break.
  4. If you have custom fields in Salesforce (like “Source” or “Chat Topic”), you can map those too. Just double-check field types—text to text, picklists to picklists, etc.

Heads up: Olark won’t magically guess your custom fields. Copy the exact API name from Salesforce (e.g., Custom_Field__c), not the label.

Step 4: Set up transcript attachments (optional, but recommended)

This step attaches the full chat transcript to the record in Salesforce. Super handy for sales and support teams.

  1. In Olark’s Salesforce settings, find the toggle for Attach chat transcript.
  2. Decide if you want the transcript attached as:
  3. A Note (easiest to view, but limited formatting)
  4. An Activity (shows up in the activity timeline)
  5. Or as a custom object (skip this unless you know what you’re doing)
  6. Save your settings.

Real talk: Sometimes, formatting gets weird. Expect basic text—don’t count on preserved line breaks or pretty links.

Step 5: Test the integration (don’t skip this!)

Before you go live, run a test:

  1. Open your site in an incognito window.
  2. Start a chat as a visitor; enter a test name and email.
  3. End the chat.
  4. Check Salesforce: did the Lead or Contact show up? Is the transcript attached? Are fields mapped correctly?
  5. If something’s missing, double-check your field mappings and try again.

If nothing shows up:
- Check your Salesforce API limits. If you’re on a crowded org, you might have hit the daily cap. - Make sure the Olark integration user still has API permissions. - Check for typos in custom field API names.

Step 6: Roll it out to your team

Once your test works, you can turn it on for everyone:

  • Tell your team how it works (and what’ll show up in Salesforce).
  • Remind them to always ask visitors for an email address (otherwise, you’ll get duplicates or missed matches).
  • If your chat team uses canned responses or pre-chat surveys, make sure those fields are mapped to Salesforce, too.

Reality check: Not every chat will have perfect info. Sometimes people type “asdf” as their name. Don’t expect magic; you’ll still need to clean up data now and then.

What not to bother with (for now)

  • Don’t try to sync every Olark field. Start with name, email, and transcript. Add more only if you really need them.
  • Don’t expect chat routing or Salesforce assignment rules to work perfectly out of the box. This integration is about getting chat data into Salesforce, not running your whole support process.
  • Don’t spend hours on custom Salesforce automation until the basics are working. Get the core integration running, then build on top.

Troubleshooting common issues

Chats not showing up in Salesforce? - Check API permissions and limits. - Make sure the integration user isn’t deactivated. - Double-check field mappings for typos.

Duplicates everywhere? - Tighten your matching rules (matching by email is safest). - Set Olark to only create new records if it can’t find a match.

Transcripts missing or unreadable? - Try switching between Note and Activity attachments. - Check if your Salesforce org has file size or attachment restrictions.

Still stuck?
Both Olark and Salesforce support are helpful, but be patient and bring screenshots.

Keep it simple — and iterate

That’s it. You’ve got Olark sending chats into Salesforce. Don’t overcomplicate it on day one. Once it’s running, ask your team what’s actually useful — then tweak your mappings or workflow. Keep things simple, fix what breaks, and you’ll get more out of both tools.

If you trip over something weird, you’re not alone — Salesforce integrations are rarely “set it and forget it.” But once it’s working, you’ll never want to go back to copy-and-paste.

Good luck!