Finding My Zen with Zoho Desk

In the world of customer experience there is no more important tool for data analytics than your case management system. Over the years there has been so many changes in the space that many have just stuck with what they have known rather than risking something new. Full transparency that was me till earlier this year when I found Zoho Desk.

Before we talk about Zoho Desk let’s do a quick history lesson. Having grown up in the Call Center Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) industry as a second gen has provided me a front row seat to back office technology. I have used technologies like Wilke and Astute to Right Now Technology and NetSuite all trying to be the best tool possible. Each of these companies brought a new unique opportunity to businesses and customers. Then in the majority of cases bought or merged into other technologies and became a lesser version of themselves. Then from these companies came a solution that I was a HUGE fan of for a long time, ZenDesk. 

ZenDesk became my chosen replacement for Right Now Technology when they were destroyed by their acquisition by Oracle. I helped countless companies get set-up on ZenDesk with success for their CX team. The problem we quickly discovered through was with cross data comparison for customer success mapping. The solution ZenDesk provided early on was through their partnerships with Sugar and SalesForce, but that just led to massive cost issues. That final piece is what put me on the hunt for something new, and this little tool on the Zoho Desk website is where I found my solution.

The world of customer experience is a hard place to demand budget. Most businesses still, incorrectly, view customer service as a pure cost center of their business and do everything possible to cut costs. That is why many of us CX executives have learned quickly to always look to find the best tools we can at the best price. I think the image above speaks for its self on why I had to look at Zoho Desk for my team.

Beyond cost savings Zoho was quick to push to me their standard list of things they do better which I have shared above. But, for me though this was great the real win came from a creative question we asked that changed the way our whole company operates. The question I asked was, “how do you guys use Desk internally?”

I learned long ago when you can find out how a software company eats their own dog food you can find the key to use the software to the full potential. Zoho did not let me down when the sales engineer shared with me that they use it for both internal and internal support tickets through department separation. 

Now I know this may not mean much to most of you, but the ability for internal team members to put in tickets on a customer that can be tracked and managed separate from external tickets is a HUGE opportunity to become “PROACTIVE”! A term that is very rare in the CX world as most of CS is reactionary. 

We can get proactive in CX through internal ticketing as many times most issues are discovered prior to a customer even knowing they exist. The problem is most businesses do not have an easy way for internal staff to enter these issues and route them to the people who can fix them quickly and effectively. On top of all that most case management systems expose the full history to companies whereby exposing a company’s dirty laundry when most of us would prefer to handle that without anyone seeing it. Plus, the ability to tie all this back natively into my CRM for a full customer record allows for Business Intelligence data like never before.

Yes, I know you can do all this with ZenDesk but where my issue came in was the cost and time to integrate is all. When I take the costs of ZenDesk at $149 ($89 for basic) plus Salesforce $150 ($30 or $75 for basic) I am not at $300 /user and not even gotten into my agent’s telephony needs. In the end I was looking at a price tag closer to $400 per agent vs. $35 per agent with Zoho One. Let’s just be real there was no discussion I could have in the world that would get my executive team to not go Zoho.

​If you would like to see any of what I am speaking about above in person message or comment as I would be happy to show you. Zoho One has changed the way my customers and I do business and I want to help others see it.

To Your Success & Prosperity,

Michael McMillan 

• Topic Participants

• mmcmillan

• Sticky Posts

• How to reach the official Zoho Support channels and avoid fake ones.

  Dear Customers, Thanks a lot for choosing Zoho! Our applications are built to help achieve your day-to-day business goals. We are committed to engaging with you, to understand and develop solutions that enhance your productivity.  We are happy and ready to help you use our services effectively. Understanding and avoiding fake support Just like using popular bank names and financial applications for phishing purposes, using Zoho and claiming to be providing Zoho Support or services with false numbers

• Function #35: Close all tasks associated with a lead and create a new task.

  Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to close all tasks of a deal depending upon the deal stage. This week, let's look at a custom function that lets you close all of the tasks associated with a lead while simultaneously creating a new task, like when you need to halt all progress towards a lead while the lead is not available at the moment but create a reminder task. Business scenario: The success of a company, in one way or another, is determined by the leads it gets. Each lead is just

• Zoho CRM Webinar - Redesigning Daily User Experiences with Canvas

  <br> Your users across roles use the CRM for day-to-day tasks that are necessary. Whether they perform their tasks on time, the right way, or at all depends on a lot of factors, including User Experience. Many businesses struggle with rigid layouts,

• Join us at the Canada ZUG Meetup: What’s New in Zoho CRM

  Hello Zoho Community! Start your year with fresh insights into Zoho CRM’s latest updates and tools. Whether you're a CRM beginner or a experienced user, this meetup is crafted to help you optimise your processes and leverage new features. Explore practical

• CRM Hack #2: Automate sending of birthday greetings to your customers.

    Hello everyone! What sets you apart as a sales person is your ability to add that personal touch to your business relationship with your customers. Sending a gift on a special day, or leaving a note wishing them on their birthdays, are small, yet significant actions that show your customers that you care. And these are actions done without any expectations :) You must be engaging with a lot of customers and it is highly unlikely that they all are your friends on Facebook or some social channel,

• Recent Topics

• Need help with message box

  End user updates many records at once. Each have unique serial number. They want a confirmation box that says starting number, ending number and qty. Is there any way to do this? I been searching and asking support but seems like no great solution.

• [Webinar] The Transformative Power of Gen BI

  Traditional decision-making tools are no longer enough. The integration of generative AI into business intelligence (BI) is proving to be a true game changer—enabling businesses to make faster, smarter, and better informed decisions. Early adopters of

• Backorder process review - Automating Removal of Sales Order from "On Hold" When PO is Received

  Hello Zoho Inventory Team, Currently, sales orders in On Hold status are released only when the bill for the purchase order is created. In our workflow, it would be much more efficient if the sales order could automatically move out of On Hold as soon

• How to access the saved Query using API?

  I have created a query in setting. Is it possible to access it from a API? What's the endpoint? I tried /v8/queries/important_deals but didnt' work.

• création d'une base de données

  base de donnee d'un lycée

• User Session variables to recall after form submit & redirect to menu

  Hey, Forgive me if this is a simple answer I have overlooked. I have built a big onboarding process for my SAAS platform which is built and managed by an external Dev team. I am hoping to embed my new creator app on the SAAS platform. I have a menu page

• Zoho Writer Merge Template with data from Zoho Analytics Views

  Hello, Is there any way to pull information from Zoho Analytics and put it into a Merge Template? I am trying to create a bulk export of one report that filters on a field to create a single document for each of the filter fields.

• Having to enter bill before stock shows as available.

  Hi, Am I right in thinking you must create a bill from the purchase order receipt before the goods are available for shipping?

• Agent Availability Report

  From data to decisions: A deep dive into ticketing system reports Businesses need to track when their support agents check in and check out from work. This report, titled Agent Availability, is one of the static reports that helps managers track the number

• Writing by Hand in "Write" Notes

  Hi there! I just downloaded this app a few moments ago, and I was wondering if there was a way to write things by hand in "Write" mode instead of just typing in the keyboard. It would make things a bit more efficient for me in this moment. Thanks!

• AI-driven construction analytics using Zoho Projects Plus

  Construction projects thrive on timelines; if a project is completed on or before the expected time, it makes headlines, but if it gets delayed, the company’s credibility will be at risk. Such projects require precise planning and constant monitoring,

• Canadian payroll

  Hello ZOHO, is any updates on when payroll for Canada will be available?

• Unified customer view: Bringing product intelligence into your CRM data

  For businesses today, applications and digital interfaces are the main touch points in the customer journey. While Zoho CRM data already tells who your customers are and what they buy, Zoho Apptics tells you how they interact and engage with your product.

• Zoho Creator SaaS app with multiple client AND multiple users

  I am close to finalizing a Zoho Creator app that will be used by different companies to manage sale info, and each company can have multiple users using the app. Things were going perfectly until I tried a search on a report. I use a database field in each table to separate the data for each company, which works great. BUT when I do a search, I get to see ALL the data. This means that Company A could easily see the data from Companies B and C via the built-in search. Is there a way to set up the

• Project Change Orders and Additions

  We are in the process of migrating from QuickBooks Online to Zoho Books. We have Zoho One and like the ability to sync all of our data across everything. And I like that projects work in a way that's less dumb than QuickBooks. I'm trying to figure out

• Track online, in-office, and client location meetings separately with the new meeting venue option

  Hello everyone! We’re excited to announce meeting enhancements in Zoho CRM that bring more clarity and structure to how meetings are categorized. You can now specify the meeting venue to clearly indicate whether a meeting is being held online, at the

• Possible to send Zoom AI Companion transcripts and summaries to contacts in CRM?

  Title says it all. Is it possible to send Zoom AI Companion transcripts and summaries to contacts in Zoho CRM?

• How do I edit the Calendar Invite notifications for Interviews in Recruit?

  I'm setting up the Zoho Recruit Interview Calendar system but there's some notifications I don't have any control over. I've turned off all Workflows and Automations related to the Calendar Scheduling and it seems that it's the notification that is sent

• Posibility to add Emoticons on the Email Subject of Templates

  Hi I´ve tried to add Emoticons on the Subject line of Email templates, the emoticon image does show up before saving the template or if I add the Emoticon while sending an Individual email and placing it manually on the subject line. Emoticons also show

• Clarity on extended contract status

  Clarity on “extended” status- How does Zoho “extend” a contract?  E.g. if client extends by 1 month, can the “end date” be adjusted accordingly in Zoho and tagged as “Extended” with a clear audit trail that also captures the client’s email? Note- Email

• Customizing contract status

  Can we customize/add/remove status on Zoho contracts ourselves or does Zoho needs to do this? Context- There is a long list of status on Zoho but not all of them are relevant for us . There are few status which are missing and needs to be added. E.g-

• Set Custom Business Calendars and Holidays for Global Teams

  Managing a project across diverse teams means accounting for more than just tasks and deadlines; it means acknowledging how and when each team actually works. Users might follow different working days or observe region-specific holidays that cannot be

• [Integration edition] Deluge learning series - Integrations between Zoho apps and Third-party services with Deluge | 28 August 2025

  We’re excited to welcome you to the Deluge learning series: Integration edition! The Integration edition will run for three months: Session 1 – Integrating Zoho Apps with Deluge using inbuilt integration tasks Session 2 – Integrating Zoho Apps with Deluge

• Critical Vulnerability in all major password manager plugins - is Zoho Vault affected?

  Hi Zoho, a security researcher found a critical clickjacking vulnerability in all major browser password managers: DOM-based Extension Clickjacking: Your Password Manager Data at Risk | Marek Tóth Is Zoho Vault affected as well? Apparently the Vault extension

• Introducing SecureForms in Zoho Vault

  Hey everyone, Let’s face it—asking someone to send over a password or other sensitive data is rarely straightforward. You wait. You nudge. You follow up once, twice—maybe more. And when the information finally arrives, it shows up in the worst possible

• Change eMail Template for Event-Invitations

  Hello ZOHO-CRM Team How I can change the eMail Template for Event-Invitations? I work with the German Version of the Free Version. I know how I can modify eMail alerts or Signature Templates, but where I can other eMails modify you send out? Thank you for your answer. Regards, Juerg

• Need Your Insights

  Hi Zoho, I'm confused why the flow only sends to one output. setVariable15 is from a list. It doesn't consider the 2nd entry. Any thoughts?

• Map Dependency Fields - How can can I limit picklist values from a multi-select Parent field?

  I know the "Map Dependency Fields" feature doesn't allow a multi-select parent field. However, I need the functionality. Can I do it through a deluge function, and would it still support color coding picklists? We need the color coding for quick scanning

• DYK 1 - Color Palette for Enhanced Visual Identification of Status

  Introducing the Did You Know series of posts. The goal of this series is to familiarize users with certain features or enhancements in Zoho Projects that may not be evident at first glance. The first post in this series deals with color palettes for indicating

• Invalid field in the COQL query

  Dear Zoho Support! I believe that you already helped me with a similar problem a few years ago. One of my clients has a custom field named "LOB" in the "Deals" Module (see the field's metadata below). The COQL query using this field: : "select id, Deal_Name,

• Automating Employee Birthday Notifications in Zoho Cliq

  Have you ever missed a birthday and felt like the office Grinch? Fear not, the Cliq Developer Platform has got your back! With Zoho Cliq's Schedulers, you can be the office party-cipant who never forgets a single cake, balloon, or awkward rendition of

• Transferring domain registration to new registrar and switching email hosting at the same time?

  I need to transfer an existing domain uv cure adhesive that's currently with SiteGround to Porkbun. I also need to move the existing custom email addresses from SiteGround to Zoho Mail. I'm not sure if I should transfer the domain first and then tackle

• Split deposits

  Can Zoho do split deposits. One deposit, two checks for two separate invoices from different customers. This is one of the most common tasks I can imaging. When I mark the two invoices paid, there are two deposits in bank register. When I try to match,

• Deactivate Desk Contact without Deleting Contat

  We have a client who has multiple tenants for regulatory purposes, and as such, has a few users that have email addresses in both tenants. They've then emailed into the ticketing system, so we have multiple contacts (no big deal, we want to keep their

• Ability to add VAT to Retainer Invoices

  Hello, I've had a telephone conversation a month ago with Dinesh on this topic and my request to allow for the addition of VAT on Retainer Invoices.  It's currently not possible to add VAT to Retainer Invoices and it was mutually agreed that there is absolutely no reason why there shouldn't be, especially as TAX LAW makes VAT mandatory on each invoice in Europe!   So basically, what i'm saying is that if you don't allow us to add VAT to Retainer Invoices, than the whole Retainer Invoices becomes

• [Free Webinar] Learning Table Series - Zoho Creator for Asset Management with AI Enhancements

  Hello Everyone! We’re excited to invite you to another edition of Learning Table Series, where we showcase how Zoho Creator empowers industries with innovative and automated solutions. Each month highlights a specific sector, and this time our focus is

• Menu Building is completely broken

  I have been 3 hours, I have not been able to edit the menu. Either it is completely broken, very little intuitive or I do now know anything... There is no way to create a megamenu, no way to create a menu. Despite the fact I go to menu configurartion

• Can you sell Subscriptions using Zoho Commerce?

  In addition to physical products and the apparently coming soon 'Digital Products', it is possible to sell Subscriptions using Zoho Commerce?

• Kaizen #197: Frequently Asked Questions on GraphQL APIs

  🎊 Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – We want to hear from you! Do you have any questions, suggestions, or topics you would like us to cover in future posts? Your insights and suggestions help us shape future content and make this series better for everyone.

• Multiple Languages for Product Names

  Hi, I use 2 languages: spanish and english. I want to have for every product a name in spanish and a name on english. I want to have to possibility of choosing one of these languages when making an invoice or a purchase order. Is there any way to do

• Next Page