When moments in customer support get "spooky"

When moments in customer support get "spooky"

It’s Halloween again!
Halloween is celebrated with spooky symbols and meanings based on history and traditions, with each region adding its own special touch. While we were kids, we would dress up in costumes along with friends, attend parties, and enjoy the thrills of the season. Growing older, our perspectives and the way we celebrate might may have changed. Now, we might find ourselves watching children enjoy their spooky fun or simply relaxing.
But for those working in customer support, Halloween can reveal different kinds of “spooky” moments. Some moments at work can feel just as haunting as the Halloween characters that test patience, empathy, and presence of mind. This Halloween, let’s talk about how we can turn moments of horror in customer support into delightful experiences.

The “spooks” of customer support  

Overflowing tickets

When you sign in to your Zoho Desk account, you might immediately have more tickets than you can handle. Too many tickets can make you miss your first-response time, drop your metrics, and soon you’re buried under an endless stream of unresolved tickets.

Falling resolution rates

As the workload piles up, your average resolution time can slip. Despite your best efforts, the gap between customer expectations and your responses continues to widen.


Tone gone wrong

With an overwhelming number of tickets, we might rush to reply quickly, which can make the emails sound curt or emotionless. We end up sounding rude or robotic without intending to. The lack of warmth can turn a neutral interaction into a negative experience.

Disappointing feedback

After all this, you work hard to respond to your customers and close all the tickets, aiming to solve their problems, yet the customer leaves a negative rating or an unhappy emoji. These negative rating can affect our CSAT scores leading to a more chilling experience than a Halloween scare.

Endless escalations

You’ve given your best, but tickets keep escalating one after another. Encountering one frustration after another while juggling deadlines is enough to make any support agent feel haunted by unfinished work.

Self-service pages

Imagine the customer's frustration when they're trying to find an answer, but the outdated knowledge base goes unpublished because it is outdated. What could have been resolved turns into a frustrated ticket.

Let's see how we can turn those spooky moments into spectacular ones.
Every “horror moment” in support can be transformed into an opportunity for excellence with the right tools, automation, and teamwork.

Organize your tickets

The prediction tools in Zoho Desk help you identify the high-priority tickets and learn from ticket history in less time. Zia can also detect anomalies and notify your team of tickets that require attention. The summary tools help you understand tickets and conversations quickly.
Use the default views and create custom views to categorize your tickets based on their assigned priority levels and due dates. Use various views under Workmodes to resolve tickets based on status, priority, and SLAs. The ticket notifications also help you view details where your name is tagged (@ mentions), unread, and flagged messages. These will help you resolve tickets quicker, leading to happy customers.

Assignment rules

Assignment rules help you distribute tickets evenly among agents so that one or two agents do not feel overwhelmed. Sharing the workload with fellow agents helps your team respond faster and serve customers more efficiently. The agent collision feature alerts you if two agents are working on the same ticket, thus avoiding duplicate efforts.

Workflow rules

Automate notifications for customer tickets or complaints. A simple response and acknowledgment can reassure customers that their issue is abeing ddressed to offer resolution.

Define service level agreements (SLAs)

Establish clear response and resolution times based on your business hours and ticket priorities. SLAs help you address the most urgent cases while maintaining service quality and consistency.

Update your availability status

Under profile, set your status for each support channel in Zoho Desk. When you’re online, you’ll be notified of new chats or emails to ensure nothing goes unnoticed.

Keep knowledge base (KB) articles updated

Set expiration dates for your help articles so you’re notified when it’s time to review or update them. Updating your knowledge base with the current information helps customers find the right answers faster, reducing ticket load.

Use Zia

Zia can help you sense the tone of the customers' emails. If you miss noticing the customer's emotions, Zia Insights and Zia Reply Assistance are at your service with emoticons and quick references to respond effectively. Zia insights give you an analysis of the customer's tone as well as the topics they discussed. You can also view the customer's CSAT ratings under their contact info.

Every one of these small steps can turn potential “frights” into smooth, positive experiences, both for you and your customers. The spooky moment in customer support can fade away with Zoho Desk's automation tools, AI-powered sentiment analysis, and unified knowledge base. This Halloween, while we celebrate with costumes and candy, let’s also celebrate the courage, creativity, and care of every customer support professional who turns the fright of a long queue into customer delights.
Wish you a happy Halloween! 🎃
Wishes from the Zoho Desk team 

    • 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

    • Add deluge function to shorten URLs

      Zoho Social contains a nice feature to shorten URLs using zurl.co. It would be really helpful to have similar functionality in a Deluge call please, either as an inbuilt function or a standard integration. My Creator app sends an email with a personalised

    • Archiving Contacts

      How do I archive a list of contacts, or individual contacts?

    • Edit default "We are here to help you" text in chat SalesIQ widget

      Does anyone know how this text can be edited? I can't find it anywhere in settings. Thanks!

    • Quick way to add a field in Chat Window

      I want to add Company Field in chat window to lessen the irrelevant users in sending chat and set them in mind that we are dealing with companies. I request that it will be as easy as possible like just ticking it then typing the label then connecting

    • How to create a two way Sync with CRM Contacts Module?

      Newbie creator here (but not to Zoho CRM). I want to create an app that operates on a sub-set of CRM Contacts - only those with a specific tag. I want the app records to mirror the tagged contacts in CRM. I would like it to update when the Creator app

    • Hide/Show Subform Fields On User Input

      Hello, Are there any future updates in Hide/Show Subform Fields "On User Input"?

    • Zoho Sheet for Desktop

      Does Zoho plans to develop a Desktop version of Sheet that installs on the computer like was done with Writer?

    • Allow Manual Popup Canvas Size Control

      Hello Zoho PageSense Team, We hope you're doing well. We would like to request an enhancement to the PageSense popup editor regarding popup sizing. Current Limitation: Currently, the size (width and height) of a popup is strictly controlled by the selected

    • Where is the settings option in zoho writer?

      hi, my zoho writer on windows has menu fonts too large. where do i find the settings to change this option? my screen resolution is correct and other apps/softwares in windows have no issues. regards

    • How to set page defaults in zoho writer?

      hi, everytime i open the zoho writer i have to change the default page settings to - A4 from letter, margins to narrow and header and footer to 0. I cannot set this as default as that option is grayed out! so I am unable to click it. I saved the document

    • Develop and publish a Zoho Recruit extension on the marketplace

      Hi, I'd like to develop a new extension for Zoho Recruit. I've started to use Zoho Developers creating a Zoho CRM extension. But when I try to create a new extension here https://sigma.zoho.com/workspace/testtesttestest/apps/new I d'ont see the option of Zoho Recruit (only CRM, Desk, Projects...). I do see extensions for Zoho Recruit in the marketplace. How would I go about to create one if the option is not available in sigma ? Cheers, Rémi.

    • Critical Issue: Tickets Opened for Zoho Support via the Zoho Help Portal Were Not Processed

      Hi everyone, We want to bring to your attention a serious issue we’ve experienced with the Zoho support Help Portal. For more than a week, tickets submitted directly via the Help Portal were not being handled at all. At the same time no alert was posted

    • How to import data from PDF into Zoho Sheet

      I am looking to import Consolidated Account Statement (https://www.camsonline.com/Investors/Statements/Consolidated-Account-Statement) into zoho sheet. Any help is appreciated. The pdf is received as attachment in the email, this document is password

    • Zoho Projects Android app: Integration with Microsoft Intune

      Hello everyone! We’re excited to announce that Zoho Projects now integrates with Microsoft Intune, enabling enhanced security and enterprise app management. We have now added support for Microsoft Intune Mobile Application Management (MAM) policies through

    • Cant't update custom field when custom field is external lookup in Zoho Books

      Hello I use that : po = zoho.books.updateRecord("purchaseorders",XXXX,purchaseorder_id,updateCustomFieldseMap,"el_books_connection"); c_f_Map2 = Map(); c_f_Map2.put("label","EL ORDER ID"); c_f_Map2.put("value",el_order_id); c_f_List.add(c_f_Map2); updateCustomFieldseMap

    • Wrapping up 2025 on a high note: CRM Release Highlights of the year

      Dear Customers, 2025 was an eventful year for us at Zoho CRM. We’ve had releases of all sizes and impact, and we are excited to look back, break it down, and rediscover them with you! Before we rewind—we’d like to take a minute and sincerely thank you

    • About Zoneminder (CCTV) and Zoho People

      Hi team I would like to implement a CCTV service for our branches, with the aim of passively detecting both the entry and exit of personnel enrolled in Zoho Peeple, but my question is: It is possible to integrate Zoho People with Zoneminder, I understand

    • Introducing the Zoho Projects Learning Space

      Every product has its learning curve, and sometimes having a guided path makes the learning experience smoother. With that goal, we introduce a dedicated learning space for Zoho Projects, a platform where you can explore lessons, learn at your own pace,

    • Create CRM Deal from Books Quote and Auto Update Deal Stage

      I want to set up an automation where, whenever a Quote is created in Zoho Books, a Deal is automatically created in Zoho CRM with the Quote amount, customer details, and some custom fields from Zoho Books. Additionally, when the Sales Order is converted

    • How to show branch instead of org name on invoice template?

      Not sure why invoices are showing the org name not the branch name? I can insert the branch name using the ${ORGANIZATION.BRANCHNAME} placeholder, but then it isn't bold text anymore. Any other ideas?

    • Admin asked me for Backend Details when I wanted to verify my ZeptoMail Account

      Please provide the backend details where you will be adding the SMTP/API information of ZeptoMail Who knows what this means?

    • Unable to remove the “Automatically Assigned” territory from existing records

      Hello Zoho Community Team, We are currently using Territory Management in Zoho CRM and have encountered an issue with automatically assigned territories on Account records. Once any account is created the territory is assigned automatically, the Automatically

    • Kaizen #223 - File Manager in CRM Widget Using ZRC Methods

      Hello, CRM Wizards! Here is what we are improving this week with Kaizen. we will explore the new ZRC (Zoho Request Client) introduced in Widget SDK v1.5, and learn how to use it to build a Related List Widget that integrates with Zoho WorkDrive. It helps

    • Set connection link name from variable in invokeurl

      Hi, guys. How to set in parameter "connection" a variable, instead of a string. connectionLinkName = manager.get('connectionLinkName').toString(); response = invokeurl [ url :"https://www.googleapis.com/calendar/v3/freeBusy" type :POST parameters:requestParams.toString()

    • Possible to connect Zoho CRM's Sandbox with Zoho Creator's Sandbox?

      We are making some big changes on our CRM so we are testing it out in CRM's Sandbox. We also have a Zoho Creator app that we need to test. Is it possible to connect Zoho CRM's Sandbox to Zoho Creator's Sandbox so that I can perform those tests?

    • I Need Help Verifying Ownership of My Zoho Help Desk on Google Search Console

      I added my Zoho desk portal to Google Search Console, but since i do not have access to the html code of my theme, i could not verify ownership of my portal on Google search console. I want you to help me place the html code given to me from Google search

    • Timeline Tracker

      Hi Team, I am currently using Zoho Creator – Blueprint Workflows, and I would like to know if there is a way to track a timeline of the approval process within a Blueprint. Specifically, I am looking for details such as: Who submitted the record Who clicked

    • Primary / Other Billing Contacts

      If you add an additional contact to a Zoho Billing Customer record, and then mark this new contact as the primary contact, will both the new primary and old primary still receive notifications? Can you stop notifications from going to the additional contacts

    • Missing Import Options

      Hello, do I miss something or is there no space import option inside of this application? In ClickUp, you can import from every common application. We don't want to go through every page and export them one by one. That wastes time. We want to centralize

    • CRM x WorkDrive: File storage for new CRM signups is now powered by WorkDrive

      Availability Editions: All DCs: All Release plan: Released for new signups in all DCs. It will be enabled for existing users in a phased manner in the upcoming months. Help documentation: Documents in Zoho CRM Manage folders in Documents tab Manage files

    • Is it possible to enforce a single default task for all users in a Zoho Projects ?

      In Zoho Projects, the Tasks module provides multiple views, including List, Gantt, and Kanban. Additionally, users can create and switch to their own custom views. During project review meetings, this flexibility creates confusion because different users

    • [Free Webinar] Zoho Creator webinars - Learning Table and Creator Tech Connect Series in 2026

      Hello everyone, Wishing you all a wonderful new year! May 2026 and the years ahead bring more opportunities, growth, and learning your way 🙂 We’re excited to kick off the 2026 edition of the Learning Table Series and Creator Tech Connect Series ! Learning

    • Reply and react to comments

      Hi everyone! We're excited to bring to you a couple of new features that'll make your sprint process simpler. A cloud application brings with it an array of social media features that can be efficiently used in your organizational setup. As an agile scrum

    • Restrict Users access to login into CRM?

      I’m wanting my employees to be able to utilize the Zoho CRM Lookup field within Zoho Forms. For them to use lookup field in Zoho Forms it is my understanding that they need to be licensed for Forms and the CRM. However, I don’t want them to be able to

    • Module Customisation - Lookup function not available

      Good evening, Within my business, I can have multiple customers, who have multiple mobile assets. When I set these assets up, I enter information such as vehicle registration, Vehicle identification number (VIN), Unit number, YOM, in addition to others.

    • zoho click, and nord VPN

      Unfortunately, we've been having problems with Zoho Click, where essentially the line cuts off after about a minute's worth of conversation every time we are on VPN. Is there a way we can change this within the settings so it does not cut the line off

    • Zoho Calender

      a) does the clanender in zoho project allow you to see the name of the event in the celnder view, it currently says either "Task (1) or "Milestoen (1)" b) Alternatively does the calender in Zoho project integrate with zoho calender?

    • Matching ZOHO Payments in Banking

      Our company has recently integrated ZOHO Payments into our system. This seemed really convenient at first because our customers could pay their account balance by clicking on a link imbedded in the emailed invoice. Unfortunately, we can't figure out how

    • Team Gamification

      Would love to motivate, engage and encourage our team with our social media posts. Would like to include Gamification features of Social Media in Zoho Social or Marketing Automation. And also bring in Social Advocacy tools/tracking/management to these,

    • Power up your Kiosk Studio with Real-Time Data Capture, Client Scripts & More!

      Hello Everyone, We’re thrilled to announce a powerful set of enhancements to Kiosk Studio in Zoho CRM. These new updates give you more flexibility, faster record handling, and real-time data capture, making your Kiosk flows smarter and more efficient

    • Next Page