Automation#23: Automate Guided Conversations in Zoho Desk with Business Hours

Automation#23: Automate Guided Conversations in Zoho Desk with Business Hours


Hello Everyone, 
This week's edition introduces a custom function designed to automate Guided Conversations in Zoho Desk, based on your business hours. With this feature, you can align the bot's behavior with your business schedule, ensuring a smooth and professional customer experience.

Self-service platforms are now a cornerstone of effective customer service, improving productivity for both customers and support agents. With the evolving nature of customer support, self-
service has become indispensable. It saves time and provides quick access to solutions, empowering customers to address their concerns efficiently.

Zoho Desk's Guided Conversations serves as a robust self-service tool, offering Tier-1 solutions to customers through an intuitive interface. For more complex or escalated queries, the bot seamlessly connects customers to a live agent, ensuring both self-service and human assistance for effective issue resolution.
However, businesses often have non-working hours, such as weekends or holidays, when agents are unavailable. In such cases, configuring your Guided Conversations based on your business hours is essential. During non-working hours, the bot can:
  1. Notify customers that your business is currently closed, along with your operating hours.
  2. Provide an option for customers to submit a ticket, ensuring their query is addressed promptly during working hours.Configure your Guided Conversations today and streamline your customer support process!

How to incorporate this custom function within your GC flow?
1. Go to Setup (S) >> Self-Service >> Guided Conversation. 
2. Choose the Department and click on Create Flow. 
(If you would like to add this to your existing flow, click on the ellipsis icon under Published Flows and click on the Edit button.)
3. Select the channels, give a Name and Description, and click Next. 
4. Click on the + icon, add the Webhook block, under Perform Actions. 
5. Enter the Block name as Business Hours, Choose Get under Method. 
NotesNote: In the Business Hours URL, replace .com with .in/.eu/.ca/.sa based on your DC

How to fetch the Business Hour Id? 
6.1 To fetch the Business Id, Go to Setup (S) >> Organization >> Business Hours.  
6.2 Click on the Business Hours configured within your Zoho Desk Account. Go to the URL of the specific Business Hours, and you can fetch the business Id from the URL.
https://zylker.com/agent/learningminds/learningminds/setup#setup/general/businesshours/edit/1380***********062 


7. After entering the URL, do not make changes to the Query Params and Headers. 
8. Under Connections, click on Add. 
To Create a connection
      8.1 Click Create Connection.
      8.2 Select Zoho Desk under Default Services.
      8.3 Give a connection name (let's say configureBusiness Hours).
      8.4 Disable the toggle for User Credentials of Login User.
      8.5 Under Scope, choose the below scope values:
               Desk.settings.READ
      8.6 Click Create and Connect.
      8.7 Click Connect and click Accept.
Connection is created successfully.


 9. After creating the connection, click on Refresh and then click on the drop down arrow and select the connection (configureBusiness Hours) created.
10. Click on the gear icon in the Formatter option and paste the below code in the Deluge window: 
  1. dayMAp = {"SUNDAY","MONDAY","TUESDAY","WEDNESDAY","THURSDAY","FRIDAY","SATURDAY"};
  2. businessTimes = response.get("businessTimes");
  3. timez = response.get("timeZone").get("id");
  4. response = Collection();
  5. createdTime = zoho.currenttime.toString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss",timez).toDateTime();
  6. createdDay = createdTime.getDay();
  7. //get this from above created time
  8. createdHour = createdTime.getHour();
  9. //get this from above created time
  10. createdMinute = createdTime.getMinutes();
  11. //get this from above created time
  12. createdWeekDay = createdTime.getDayOfWeek();
  13. //get this from above created time
  14. createdWeekDay = dayMAp.get(createdWeekDay - 1);
  15. for each  businessTime in businessTimes
  16. {

  17. if(businessTime.get("day") == createdWeekDay)

  18. {

  19. businessTimeStartHour = businessTime.get("startTime").getPrefix(":").toLong();

  20. businessTimeEndHour = businessTime.get("endTime").getPrefix(":").toLong();

  21. businessTimeStartMinute = businessTime.get("startTime").getSuffix(":").toLong();

  22. businessTimeEndMinute = businessTime.get("endTime").getSuffix(":").toLong();

  23. if((createdHour > businessTimeStartHour || createdHour == businessTimeStartHour && createdMinute >= businessTimeStartMinute) && (createdHour < businessTimeEndHour || createdHour == businessTimeEndHour && createdMinute <= businessTimeEndMinute))

  24. {

  25. response.insert({"status":"true"});

  26. }

  27. else

  28. {

  29. response.insert({"status":"false"});

  30. }

  31. }
  32. }
  33. return response.get(0).get("status");

11. Click Save after pasting the code. 
12. Click on the gear icon in the Response icon. 
12.1 Click on the gear icon on the Status Code. 
12.2 Give Status Code as 200, Flow Variables as status, Response Value as /. 
12.3 Let the Type be single element and the Data Type be String. Click Save. Click Save for the Response List with the updated status. 
13. Disable the toggle for the Multi Path. 
14. Choose a Request timeout if required. This sets a response waiting time from the server. 
15. Set the Error message if required to display in case waiting time exceeds the response time. 
16. Click Save. 

This is the configuration for setting the business hours through a custom function. 

17. After the Webhook, click on the + icon and add the Fork block under the Perform Actions. 



18. Give the Block Name  as Check, Enter Path list : name it as Check. 
Under Criteria 1, click on the drop-down arrow, and enter choose Status under Block variables, from the drop-down menu.  Choose operation: contains and give the value : True. 

19. Do not add an else path. 
20. Click Save. 

In the Fork block, under Check, you can add the Transfer to agent block from the Zoho Desk Blocks. Under Else, you can add a text icon/ info card stating you are out of business hours. 
Notes
Note: This custom function does not include the Holiday Lists configured within Zoho Desk. 
You can seamlessly integrate this Guided Conversation flow into your self-service platform to ensure you never miss a customer, even during non-working hours. Keep your customer support running smoothly!

See you next week!
Regards,
Lydia | Zoho Desk

    • Sticky Posts

    • Register for Zoho Desk Beta Community

      With the start of the year, we have decided to take a small step in making the life of our customers a little easier. We now have easy access to all our upcoming features and a faster way to request for beta access. We open betas for some of our features

    • Share your Zoho Desk story with us!

      Tell us how you use Zoho Desk for your business and inspire others with your story. Be it a simple workflow rule that helps you navigate complex processes or a macro that saves your team a lot of time; share it here and help the community learn and grow with shared knowledge. 

    • Tip #1: Learn to pick the right channels

      Mail, live chat, telephony, social media, web forms—there are so many support channels out there. Trying to pick the right channels to offer your customers can get pretty confusing. Emails are most useful when the customer wants to put things on record. However, escalated or complicated issues should not be resolved over email because it's slow and impersonal.  When you need immediate responses, live chat is more suitable. It's also quick and convenient, so it's the go-to channel for small issues. 

    • Welcome to Zoho Desk Community - Say hello here!

      Hello everyone! Though we have been here for a while, it’s time to formally establish the Zoho Desk Community; we’re really happy to have you all here! This can be the place where you take a moment to introduce yourself to the rest of the community. We’d love to hear all about you, what you do, what company or industry you work for, how you use Zoho Desk and anything else that you will like to share! Here’s a little about me. I am Chinmayee. I have been associated with Zoho since 2014. I joined here

    • Webinar 1: Blueprint for Customer Service

      With the launch of a host of new features in Zoho Desk, we thought it’ll be great to have a few webinars to help our customers make the most of them. We’re starting off with our most talked about feature, Blueprint in Zoho Desk. You can register for the Blueprint webinar here: The webinar will be delivered by our in-house product experts. This is a good opportunity to ask questions to our experts and understand how Blueprint can help you automate your service processes. We look forward to seeing

    • Recent Topics

    • Checking if Creator has Change History

      Like zForms - whenever an entry was updated there's an option to attached change history to email notif. Trigger -> Successful form submission

    • how to use validation rules in subform

      Is it possible to use validation rules for subforms? I tried the following code: entityMap = crmAPIRequest.toMap().get("record"); sum = 0; direct_billing = entityMap.get("direct_billing_details"); response = Map(); for each i in direct_billing { if(i.get("type")

    • Adding contact role to a specific deal js sdk malfunctioning

      i was trying to add the contact role to a specific deal contact but repeatedly i am getting this error: { "code": "SUCCESS", "details": { "statusMessage": { "code": "INVALID_DATA", "details": { "expected_data_type": "jsonobject" }, "message": "body",

    • Q3 Updates from Bigin!

      Hey Biginners, Hope you’re doing great! As we approach the end of 2025, we truly hope Bigin has been a part of helping you build your dream business this year! We've been busy working behind the scenes to bring you features that make running your business

    • Client Script | Update - Introducing Subform Events and Actions

      Are you making the most of your subforms in Zoho CRM? Do you wish you could automate subform interactions and enhance user experience effortlessly? What if you had Client APIs and events specifically designed for subforms? We are thrilled to introduce

    • {"errors":[{"id":"500","title":"Servlet execution threw an exception"}]}

      Here's the call to move a file to trash. The resource_id is accurate and the file is present. header = Map(); header.put("Accept","application/vnd.api+json"); data = Map(); data_param1 = Map(); att_param1 = Map(); att_param1.put("status",51); data_param1.put("attributes",att_param1);

    • Converting Sales Order to Invoice via API; Problem with decimal places tax

      We are having problems converting a Sales Order to an Invoice via API Call. The cause of the issue is, that the Tax value in a Sales Order is sometimes calculated with up to 16 decimal places (e.g. 0.8730000000000001). The max decimal places allowed in

    • Zoho Canvas - Custom templates for related lists

      Hi, I see that the example pages load always one of our related lists in a custom template, but I dont know how to work with that:  1) How can i make my own custom templates for related lists?  2) Where and how can i check out existing custom templates?

    • Kaizen #147 - Frequently Asked Questions on Zoho CRM Widgets

      Heya! It's Kaizen time again, folks! This week, we aim to address common queries about Zoho CRM Widgets through frequently asked questions from our developer forum. Take a quick glance at these FAQs and learn from your peers' inquiries. 1. Where can I

    • open word file in zoho writer desktop version

      "How can I open a Microsoft Word (.doc or .docx) file in Zoho Writer if I only have the file saved on my computer and Zoho Writer doesn't appear as an option when I try 'Open with'? Is there a way to directly open the .doc file in Zoho Writer?"

    • Zoho PDF editor has a lot of issues.

      Zoho PDF editor needs a lot of work. It hangs and glitches a lot. Deletes annotations and clearings randomly.

    • Syncing contacts on Android

      I'm using the Zoho mail app on Android and although I can see my contacts from within the app, they're not synced to my native contact list and so I can't access them from within the native dialer. Is there any way that I can sync my contacts into my native address book? Regards, Martin

    • Zohom mail

      Plz resolve the problem . I hope u understand .

    • Zoho sheet desktop version

      Hi Zoho team Where can I access desktop version of zoho sheets? It is important as web version is slow and requires one to be online all the time to do even basic work. If it is available, please guide me to the same.

    • ZOHO SHEETS

      Where can I access desktop version of zoho sheets? It is important to do basic work If it is available, please guide me to the same

    • Using Zoho Flow to create sales orders from won deal in Zoho CRM

      Hi there, We are using Zoho Flow to create sales orders automatically when a deal is won in Zoho CRM. However, the sales order requires "Product Details" to be passed in "jsonobject", and is resulting in this error: Zoho CRM says "Invalid input for invalid

    • Is Zoho Sheet available for Linux ?

      Is Zoho Sheet available for Linux ?

    • Bharat

      a

    • how to disable staff selection Zoho Booking integrated to SalesIQ?

      currently there is only one Consultant in my Zoho Bookings like this I integrate Zoho Bookings into Zoho SalesIQ to create a chatbot. Unfortunately, even though I only have one consultant for a consultation, the user have to pick the consultant. It will

    • Zoho Bookings No Sync with Outlook

      Zoho Bookings appointments are showing on my Outlook Calendar but Outlook events are not showing on Zoho Bookings. How do I fix this?

    • End Date in Zoho Bookings

      When I give my appointments a 30 minutes time I would expect the software not to even show the End Time.  But it actually makes the user pick an End Time.  Did I just miss a setting?  

    • Custom confirmation message

      How can I change the message that users see after they submit the booking form? I have to confirm some details before their appointment is officially "confirmed", so I want to change it where it doesn't say their appointment is "confirmed" but rather

    • Issue showing too many consultations in my workspace link.

      Hi Team, I’ve set up two Workspaces to track meetings from different sources. So far, this has been working well, and the two Workspaces are differentiated without any issues. However, when I navigate to Consultations and share the link to my personal

    • Deluge sendmail in Zoho Desk schedule can't send email from a verified email address

      I am trying to add a scheduled action with ZDesk using a Deluge function that sends a weekly email to specific ticket client contacts I've already verified the email address for use in ZDesk, but sendmail won't allow it in its "from:" clause. I've attached

    • unblock e-mail

      please unblock my e-mails info@meatnews.gr and myrtokaterini@meatnews.gr

    • Changing Corporate Structure - How Best to Adapt Current and Future Zoho Instances

      My current company is Company A LLC with a dba ("doing business as" - essentially an alias) Product Name B. Basically, Company A is the legal entity and Product Name B is what customers see, but it's all one business right now. We currently have a Zoho

    • How to Install Zoho Workdrive Desktop Sync for Ubuntu?

      Hi. I am newbie to Linux / Ubuntu. I downloaded a tar.gz file from Workdrive for installing the Workdrive Desktop Sync tool. Can someone give me step by step guide on how to install this on Ubuntu? I am using Ubuntu 19.04. Regards Senthil

    • How to upload own video?

      How can you upload your own video on your zoho website? I do not want to use another host, but i want to insert my own files. how can i do this?

    • Support new line in CRM Multiline text field display in Zoho Deluge

      Hi brainstrust, We have a Zoho CRM field which is a Muti Line (Small) field. It has data in it that has a carriage return after each line: When I pull that data in via Deluge, it displays as: I'm hoping a way I can change it from: Freehand : ENABLED Chenille

    • Announcing new features in Trident for Windows (v.1.32.5.0)

      Hello Community! Trident for Windows just got better! This update includes new features designed to improve and simplify email and calendar management—and it includes a feature you’ve been waiting for. Let’s dive into what’s new! Save emails in EML or

    • How to render either thumbnail_url or preview_url or preview_data_url

      I get 401 Unauthorised when using these urls in the <img> tag src attribute. Guide me on how to use them!

    • Zoho CRM Calendar | Custom Buttons

      I'm working with my sales team to make our scheduling process easier for our team. We primary rely on Zoho CRM calendar to organize our events for our sales team. I was wondering if there is a way to add custom button in the Calendar view on events/meeting

    • Create Lead Button in Zoho CRM Dashboard

      Right now to create Leads in the CRM our team is going into the Lead module, selecting the "Create Lead" button, then building out the lead. Is there anyway to add the "Create Lead" button or some sort of short cut to the Zoho CRM Dashboard to cut out

    • Searching customer field

      Hello, When entering a receipt, we select customer information. The customer information is synced with Zoho CRM. However, we can't find the customer information because it searches for words that begin with the entered value. It needs to search for words

    • Introducing Version-3 APIs - Explore New APIs & Enhancements

      Happy to announce the release of Version 3 (V3) APIs with an easy to use interface, new APIs, and more examples to help you understand and access the APIs better. V3 APIs can be accessed through our new link, where you can explore our complete documentation,

    • Outgoing blocked: Unusual activity detected.

      Hello i can't send email from g.morris@adm-part.com mail, can you please help me.

    • Zoho CRM Tracking Google Enhanced Conversions

      Can anyone @Zoho, consultants, or users help me understand if Zoho CRM is going to support Google's Enhanced Conversions? I included some information from Google below about it. We use Google Adwords for our pay per click advertising for lead generation,

    • Billing Management: #5 Usage Billing

      After understanding the nuances of Advance Billing and Retainers, we will explore one of the booming billing models. Long ago, villagers drew water from a shared well in a small village. The well was a lifeline for the entire community. Ravi, the well

    • Function #10: Update item prices automatically based on the last transaction created

      In businesses, item prices are not always fixed and can fluctuate due to various factors. If you find yourself manually adjusting the item rates every time they change, we have the ideal time-saving solution for you. In today's post, we bring you custom

    • Inventory Adjustments

      Hi, How to transfer the material from one head to another ? Like materials purchased for manufacturing the laptop need to transfer from consumption inventory (Quantity of raw materials reduced) to destination inventory ( Quantity of Laptop increased)

    • Next Page