Tip #3 : Send SMS Reminders for your Subscription Business

Tip #3 : Send SMS Reminders for your Subscription Business

Hello everyone,

As you all know, we are coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation to the previous blog, this week we will be seeing how you can use SMS reminders for your Subscription Business.

Using SMS messages for your Subscription Business:

While managing your subscription business, more often than not, you need to keep your customers informed about upcoming renewals, payment reminders and cancellations. By keeping them informed in advance, you can get quicker payments and also retain the customers in the long run. As a business owner, you need to come up with ways to get your message/reminders to the customers in a more quick and efficient way.

Email notifications satisfy such requirements where you could just send out an email to your customers about the necessary upcoming reminders. However, with a contrasting ratio of four mobile devices to one computer, it is evident what our customers are using as their preferred mode of communication. Along with the growing number of smartphone users day by day, you should try to make your business more mobile-friendly. 

Now, wouldn't it be more efficient to keep your customers notified instantly via SMS about their upcoming reminders? Let us see how we can leverage SMS messages to effectively communicate with your customers.

How to set up a Custom SMS workflow for your business?

You can use our Custom Function workflow to integrate with one of the many third party SMS providers to send out your messages. You can choose your SMS provider based on your region or preference.

Since most of the reminders are events triggered, we are going to use event based workflow for this integration. You can choose the event according to your requirement. Few such examples would be new subscription, subscription renewal and subscription cancellation events. As soon as the event occurs, you will have to use the SMS provider's API to send an SMS to the customer with an appropriate message.

Below are few of the third party providers for which we have compiled the custom functions.

1)  Twilio


     Website                    - https://www.twilio.com/

     API Documentation -  https://www.twilio.com/docs/usage/api
     Custom Function      - GitHub Link

2) Text Local


    Website                    - https://www.textlocal.in/

    Custom Function     - GitHub Link


3) SMS Magic


   Website                     - https://www.sms-magic.com/

   Custom Function     - GitHub Link

For this particular blog, I will be explaining how to integrate with Twilio's API.

Obtain Twilio credentials for authentication:

In order to use Twilio's API, a Twilio account is needed. We will follow the simple token-based authentication using Custom variables. All requests to Twilio's REST API requires you to authenticate using the two important authentication parameters namely Account SID and Auth Token. 

Login to https://www.twilio.com/ and get the credentials after signing up. Obtain the Account SID and Auth Token.




Code Explanation:

As previously mentioned, you can refer the code for Twilio integration here. The code is written in Deluge script, which is easily understandable to non-programmers.

1) Initially, we need to paste the Account SID and Auth Token values in the corresponding variables.

2) This snippet of code will be executed after the event which you configure in your custom function. So, construct the SMS message with regards to that context.

3) Once that particular event is triggered, we will be hitting an API request to Twilio with the customer's mobile number and the message.

Getting started with the Custom Functions:  


1. Go to Settings -> Automation -> Custom Functions. 


2. Create a new Custom function. Provide a name for the function. 


3. Choose the module and event according to your need.


4. Copy the code which was given above. Do the necessary changes that are required.


5. Save the Custom function and you are good to go.

Found this useful? Try it out and let us know how it works! If you have questions, do not hesitate to ask!


Cheers,

Sasidaran K,
Zoho Subscriptions.

    • Sticky Posts

    • Tip #4 : Refer and Earn Workflow system for your Subscription Business

      Hello everyone, We've been coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which can be implemented for your business. In continuation to the previous post, this week we will be seeing about how you can implement the Refer and Earn Workflow system to acquire more customers. Why are Referrals important? Customer Acquisition is crucial for any business to sustain itself in a constantly evolving market. It involves persuading new consumers to purchase your products. Customers

    • Tip #2 - Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date

      Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a custom function workflow every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation of this previous blog, this week we will be seeing about Cancellation of Offline Subscriptions based on the Expected Payment Date. Business Scenario: In general, for any business, the customers make payments via online as well as offline. In case of subscription where the automatic collection of charge is enabled (aka online subscription), the customer's

    • Tip #3 : Send SMS Reminders for your Subscription Business

      Hello everyone, As you all know, we are coming up with a tip every week to address specific business scenarios. In continuation to the previous blog, this week we will be seeing how you can use SMS reminders for your Subscription Business. Using SMS messages for your Subscription Business: While managing your subscription business, more often than not, you need to keep your customers informed about upcoming renewals, payment reminders and cancellations. By keeping them informed in advance, you can

    • Tips And Tricks - Announcement

      Hello everyone, Every business is unique and each of them follows a specific workflow. While managing your customers' subscriptions with Zoho, you might have some needs unique to your business. Custom Functions helps you address such needs. This is a start to a series of posts, where we will be coming up with a custom function workflow every week that addresses specific business scenarios. Watch this space for further updates! Also, if you have any specific business scenario which needs to be addressed,

    • Tip #6 : Accessing external URLs from Zoho Subscriptions

      Hello everyone, We have been sharing a tip every week to address specific business scenarios which you can implement for your subscription business. Last week, we shared a tip about implementing the Approval Workflow system. This week, let's look at how you can access external URLs with the help of Custom Link. Business Scenario: Every business functions differently and has its unique requirements. At times, businesses might want to access other websites or applications by appending specific information

    • Recent Topics

    • Sharing Knowledge Base articles across multiple departments

      It would be useful to share some Knowledge Base articles across multiple departments where they are applicable, rather than having to go into other departments to find the article you're looking for. For example. Our reception uses the 'Admin' desk whereas our IT guys use the 'Support' desk, however both divisions would find KB articles about our company intranet useful. Reception does not have access to the support desk, so cannot see articles created in the Support KB. Perhaps you could install

    • Contacts marked as Spam are shown as Contacts in tickets.

      Hi Zoho, If a ticket is marked manually as Spam you get an option to set the contact as Spam as well. It would be great if there was another option to delete this Contact. This would be based on the understanding that it wouldn't be marked automatically

    • Is possible to use ${webhookTrigger.payload.street==null?"No street":${webhookTrigger.payload.street}} for to detect inline a null parameter

      Hi Team I need to know if it's possible to evaluate inline the following parameter, with the objetive to detect a null value ? I would like to use ${webhookTrigger.payload.street==null?"No street":${webhookTrigger.payload.street}} Regards, Pablo

    • Real Estate CRM

      How can I tailor my CRM for real estate? I had seen an image where the CRM included property tabs.

    • Totals on Pivot Table

      Is there a way to change the way the subtotal calculates? In this example I have a formula to give me the average monthly attendance ....but I want the grand total of the month to be the sum of all the average attendances...any ideas? Thank you!@

    • API (v2) Search Criteria using CONCAT

      With API I can search for a contact using First_Name and Last_Name. However, when I need to search the Contact Module using a full name — and because CRM does not provide an API for full name — I am not finding a way to do this in the traditional way

    • Issue with Bulk Edit Triggering Function Multiple Times in Zoho Report

      In our Zoho report, we have observed an issue where executing a function during a bulk edit operation runs the function multiple times—once for each selected report entry. This behavior is causing errors due to overlapping or redundant executions. Our

    • Is there a Kanban view of Tasks across all Projects?

      As the title indicates, I could use a Kanban view of my Tasks across my Projects. If it's there, I don't see it. If it isn't there, I'd like to submit this as a feature request. Thx.

    • Set recurring tasks in Zoho Support?

      Hello,   We use the task function in Zoho Support to set reminders for "due dates" of important events, such as lease expirations, etc. Is it possible to set some of these as recurring yearly? As of now, we have to reset every task manually after one year. Is there a way to have it reset automatically?   Additionally, is there a way to import a list of tasks and their dates into Zoho Calendar? I have not been able to do it from Zoho Support to Calendar. I tried exporting tasks from Zoho Support,

    • Help - How Can I Enter a Hourly Rate (Global Cost) for our Team for Profitability Reporting?

      Hi everyone, I'm hoping someone can help as I am at a loss and am quite shocked (if true) at the lack of functionality in Zoho Books. We run a company in which we do hourly jobs for clients and we bill based on the hours of work completed. Projects are

    • Schedule a regular backup

      In CRM I have a regular backup setup. I cannot find an option to backup Desk? I would like to take a backup before I test syncing products between CMR and Desk.

    • Opening & working multiple tickets

      We work in multiple tickets at the same time. Currently to do this, we have to open multiple instances of Desk.  Is there a way to do this by just opening multiple ticket tabs within 1 instance of Desk?  

    • Limit who can submit a support ticket to your site?

      Does anyone have a use case for needing to limit who can submit tickets via your help portal? Some of our customers want to have end-users view our knowledge base articles and see tickets their IT groups have submitted but they do not want end-users to

    • Is there a way to request a password?

      We add customers info into the vaults and I wanted to see if we could do some sort of "file request" like how dropbox offers with files. It would be awesome if a customer could go to a link and input a "title, username, password, url" all securely and it then shows up in our team vault or something. Not sure if that is safe, but it's the best I can think of to be semi scalable and obviously better than sending emails. I am open to another idea, just thought this would be a great feature.  Thanks,

    • Allow us to disable the Reopen Ticket button after a ticket is closed

      Disabling the Reopen Ticket will allow us to have more control over the ticket's flow. According to support, this is currently not possible. Please add this to let us, the customers, mold the ticketing system into something that we can use for our business

    • How to Enforce Mandatory Fields (Category/Sub-category) Before Closing a Ticket?

      Hi, I'm currently using Zoho Desk and encountering an issue where agents are able to close tickets without filling out mandatory fields, specifically Category and Sub-category. I’ve already set them both as a mandatory field, but it can still be bypassed

    • Admin Control for Default Email Templates in Zoho Desk

      Hi Zoho Desk Team, We would like to request a feature enhancement related to default email templates. Currently, agents can select and set their own default email templates when replying to tickets. However, we believe this setting should be managed centrally

    • How can the direct link to a ticket be created from ticket #?

      Our agents will be using ZDesk but we will have to create direct link to tickets in another ERP by providing the Desk Ticket # Is there a way to create the direkt links from the ticket # alone? Do we have to use the API to get the direct links?

    • Lock out of account after password update

      This is a bit of a catch 22 situation. I updated my account password using password generator in ZohoValut. Now I am locked out of everything, as I cannot get into OneAuth for 2FA, as the password is randomly generated, without getting into ZohoValut,

    • Guidance on Making Zoho Desk Connections Available for All Data Centers

      Hi Team, I’m currently developing an application using Zoho Desk connections to manage OAuth for my third-party products. Could you please advise on the steps required to make it available across all data centers? Looking forward to your thoughts on

    • How to use Twilio to send appointment notification and reminder SMS in Zoho Bookings

      Hit no-shows out of the ballpark by combining Zoho Bookings and SMS providers. SMS notifications help you remind customers of their appointments and reduce no-shows by reaching out where they are. In this guide, we'll configure an SMS provider called

    • Multibrand Help Center - Share knowledge base catgories between multiple departments

      Hello, I would like to know if it is possible to share categories between multiple departments when the multi brand feature is enabled. So that then one portal exists per department, but certain categories are visible in multiple portals. After all, we

    • "Copy Field Values from one Module to another" how to use?

      Hi everyone! I'm sorry if this question was already asked, I didn't find it! So let me explain:  In my Tickets module, we have the custome field "customer type" where we indicate if it's a lead, user, etc... In the Contact module I used the "type" field with exactely the same entries. I would like when in the tickets module an operator choose an option that it automatically update it in the contact module. I found the "Copy Field Values from one Module to another" custom function which seems perfect

    • Unable to upload document error on zoho sign

      i am creating a document using laravel php and here is my code and i get this reponse {"code":2005,"message":"Unable to upload the document","status":"failure"} $path = storage_path($file); $ch = curl_init(); curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, 'https://sign.zoho.com/api/v1/requests');

    • How to sort a data in summary report with Monthly ?

      Hi Team, Can any one help me out how to sort a data based on monthly, Month was shuffled based on aliphatic order. i want to sort the below data monthy?

    • Is this link the transparent pixel used to track opens?

      Could someone please help me identify this highlighted link? It is automatically created by Zoho and a lot of contacts receiving campaigns will click on this link. I don't believe that it is the "update your preferences link" because on the Link Clicks

    • Kiosk Studio wrap-up | How our community used kiosks in 2024

      Hello, everyone! Happy new year! The end of 2024 has been busy, and 2025 promises to be bigger and better. As we ring in the new year, let's rewind and look at Kiosk Studio, our no-code customization tool. The past 300 days have seen the CRM community

    • Zoho Crm - Inventory Integration

      Hello, I need help about Map Fields between CRM and Inventory. For Example, I can't match amount of stock between these 2. I can put opening stock number  in Inventory but I can't see it on CRM. Also I want to see categories and parent categories on Inventory, in CRM too. Best Regards.

    • Inventory Valuation Method Feature

      Zoho added another feature so called Inventory Valuation Method of each Item. This is actually good to see and it will benefit us so much but I have a question on this. For Existing Items that already have transactions, Zoho made it a default and assumed

    • Where is the customization and extendibility of zoho inventory?

      After delving into zoho one subscription to test out systems we need for our business, I'm really disappointed after working in Zoho Inventory. Its features and customizability are extremely lacking compared to the other tools like CRM. In our case we

    • Organization Variables - Restrict Access

      Currently, there is no way to restrict the access to organization variables. This leads to a problem when storing API related values that should be kept secret as anyone with access to create and edit email templates, workflow rules, or inventory templates

    • Values in multi pick list are not copied to copied deal

      Hi, After a deal is completed in our sales funnel we copy the deal to an automatically created new deal in our project funnel. All fields are copied properly, but only a Multi Pick List is not copied. How can we copy the selected values in this field

    • Flow to follow up on trade fair contacts

      Hi, Before we moved to Zoho we had some flows (sequences) in HubSpot to follow up on trade fair contacts. To explain further on this it had the following characteristics: New contacts could be added to the sequence When added a flow of communication started.

    • Zoho takes too long to load...

      I am based in Europe and in the last couple of weeks, Zoho CRM takes minutes even to load modules. Is there a specific reason this is happening? Is this happening to other people?

    • Modules are continuously loading

      Hi! We are not able to open the task modules, it keeps continuously loading

    • Execution failure when fetching a Name field from another app

      In creator I have one app [Employee Directory] with a form [Employees]. One of the fields is a name field called [Name]. Here is a sample that works, if executed from the Employees app: test_Employee = Employees[Name.first_name == "Alex"]; info test_Employee.Name;

    • Accessing Subform Data using getRecordByID

      I am getting data from Zoho Creator using deluge zoho.creator.getRecordByID task, from another application. The report contains a subform, and that subform is in the detail view of the report. I do not appear to have any subform data in the JSON response,

    • Allow "add new" option to picklists and multiselection fields from add or edit pages

      Hello zoho, please insert an add option (ie +)sign) to pick and multiselect fields so we can add new options while entering or editing records. For example. in my lead module, while adding a new record, I realized I had a new lead source. I went to my

    • Allow customer to select meeting duration

      I would love to see a feature where I can give the customer the option to select the meeting duration they require based on a dropdown list which I have predefined in the service settings. For example: 15, 30, 45, 60, 90 minutes.

    • Can you internally tag/categorize posts for campaigns?

      Would love to easily sort through posts by tags or categories (i.e. we have multiple memberships and share studies from each. It would be nice to pull reports in a second for "membership A studies" for a campaign etc.).

    • Next Page