Extension pointers for integrating Zoho CRM with Zoho products #7: Initiate remote sessions and assist customers with their concerns from within Zoho CRM

Extension pointers for integrating Zoho CRM with Zoho products #7: Initiate remote sessions and assist customers with their concerns from within Zoho CRM

With an increase in customers, there's also an increase in the demand for customer support. While customer support can be provided via a variety of channels, such as live chat, email, or phone, there may be times when a visual demonstration is required in order for a support representative to check on the issue and resolve it.

In this post, let's see how to help Zoho CRM customers through an integration with Zoho Assist. In general, a support technician handles the customer's concern in the Cases module of Zoho CRM. Consider the following scenario: whenever a support representative wants to have a remote session with a customer to troubleshoot an issue on their end, they can do so with the click of a button from within Zoho CRM.

In order to resolve the problem, the technician will have met with the customer multiple times. Having all of the created sessions logged in a separate custom module, and the case-specific sessions as a related list in the specific case record, would make it easier to keep track of the assistance provided. Let's see how we can achieve this.

Creating a connector for Zoho Assist and adding connector APIs
  • Create a new connector in your extension for Zoho Assist using the Connectors feature under Utilities in the left panel of the Zoho Developer console. 
Note: Zoho Assist follows OAuth 2.0 protocols for authentication. You can see how to register Zoho products and retrieve your client credentials here.

                                                

The connector details for our example are as follows:
  • Add the necessary connector APIs for your functionality. Please refer to the Zoho Assist API guide for details.


The Zoho Assist REST APIs we added for our example are as follows:

Connector API Name
Method type
URL
Create Session
POST

Note: You can refer to this post to see the detailed steps involved in creating a connector, adding the connector APIs, and associating them with the extension.

Creating a button in the Cases module and associating it with a widget to initiate a remote session
  • Create a button called "Initiate a remote session" using the Links & Buttons feature available in the Components section of the Zoho Developer console, then associate a widget to perform the desired action.
  • For our use case, since we're going to log all the newly created sessions in a custom module, let's create a custom module, Session Details, with new custom fields like Session ID, Case Name and Case status during session initiation. Here the field Case Name is a lookup type, so that a relationship can be established between the Cases and the Session Details module in the form of a related list.
Initiate a remote session.js - code snippet

Util={};
var EntityId;
var EntityName;
var temp;
var emailid;
var message;
//Subscribe to the EmbeddedApp onPageLoad event before initializing the widget 
ZOHO.embeddedApp.on("PageLoad",function(data)
{
EntityId=data.EntityId[0];
console.log(EntityId);
entityname=data.Entity;  
//Fetching the current record details and retrieving the necessary field information
ZOHO.CRM.API.getRecord({Entity:entityname,RecordID:EntityId})
.then(function(data){
dataa=data.data[0];
email=dataa.Email;
customeremail=encodeURIComponent(email);
casestatus=dataa.Status;

var x = {
"customeremailid":customeremail,
}
/*Invoking the connector API to create a remote session with the customer in Zoho Assist by passing the constructed data set*/
ZOHO.CRM.CONNECTOR.invokeAPI("xxx.zohoassist.createsession",x)
.then(function(dataa){
response=dataa.response;
parseresponse=JSON.parse(response);
representation=parseresponse.representation;
//Fetching the necessary details from the created session response 
sessionid=representation.session_id;
customerurl = representation.customer_url;
technicianurl = representation.technician_url;

document.getElementById("customeremail").value=email;
document.getElementById("myAnchor").href = technicianurl;
//Constructing and passing the fetched data to be inserted in the new custom module called Session Details
var recordData = {
"Name": "Remote Session - " + sessionid,
"testsupport__Session_ID": sessionid,
"testsupport__Case_Number":EntityId,
"testsupport__Case_status_during_the_session_initiation":casestatus,
}

//Invoking the insert record API to insert a new record of the created session details
ZOHO.CRM.API.insertRecord({Entity:"xxx__Session_Details",APIData:recordData,Trigger:[]}).then(function(data){
console.log(data);
});

ZOHO.embeddedApp.init();

})
})
})

  • The above code snippet fetches the record details for the current case, from which the customer email ID and case status are retrieved. 
  • The retrieved customer email ID is passed as a parameter to the Create session API, which creates and initiates a remote session with the customer. 
  • The relevant details such as session ID and technician URL are retrieved from the session API response.
  • The retrieved details along with certain case-specific details are constructed and passed to the insert record API to be inserted as a new record in the custom module Session Details.
  • Now that the functionality is defined, the extension is published and installed in the Zoho CRM account using the private installation URL.


Sample output
  • After installing the extension, authorize the Zoho Assist connector.
  • Go to the Cases module and choose a case. Click on the Initiate a remote session button available on the record's view page. 

  • The widget is displayed with the customer email ID that the technician is going to initiate a remote session with.

  • Click on the hyperlink text "here". It will proceed to the remote session in Zoho Assist.
  • Now you can see that a new record has been inserted into the Session Details module.

  • Similarly, the record also reflects as a related list in the specific case record's view page as well.


Using this method, you can integrate Zoho CRM and Zoho Assist via an extension and perform functionalities as per your business requirements. We hope you find this information useful. Keep following this space for more advice!

SEE ALSO



    Access your files securely from anywhere

          Zoho Developer Community




                                    Zoho Desk Resources

                                    • Desk Community Learning Series


                                    • Digest


                                    • Functions


                                    • Meetups


                                    • Kbase


                                    • Resources


                                    • Glossary


                                    • Desk Marketplace


                                    • MVP Corner


                                    • Word of the Day



                                        Zoho Marketing Automation


                                                Manage your brands on social media



                                                      Zoho TeamInbox Resources

                                                        Zoho DataPrep Resources



                                                          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

                                                            Zoho Books Resources


                                                              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                                                                Zoho Projects Resources


                                                                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                                                                    Qntrl Resources


                                                                      Zoho Creator Resources



                                                                          Zoho Campaigns Resources


                                                                            Zoho CRM Resources

                                                                            • CRM Community Learning Series

                                                                              CRM Community Learning Series


                                                                            • Kaizen

                                                                              Kaizen

                                                                            • Functions

                                                                              Functions

                                                                            • Meetups

                                                                              Meetups

                                                                            • Kbase

                                                                              Kbase

                                                                            • Resources

                                                                              Resources

                                                                            • Digest

                                                                              Digest

                                                                            • CRM Marketplace

                                                                              CRM Marketplace

                                                                            • MVP Corner

                                                                              MVP Corner





                                                                                Design. Discuss. Deliver.

                                                                                Create visually engaging stories with Zoho Show.

                                                                                Get Started Now


                                                                                  Zoho Show Resources


                                                                                    Zoho Writer Writer

                                                                                    Get Started. Write Away!

                                                                                    Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                                                                                      Zoho CRM コンテンツ






                                                                                        Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


                                                                                            ご検討中の方





                                                                                                  • Recent Topics

                                                                                                  • Allow a brand to connect multiple facebook pages at the same time

                                                                                                    Our company have multiple facebook pages to represent, every branch, right now we can only link one facebook page, so we can only recive messages from one branch. It would be nice to be able to connect all pages.
                                                                                                  • 5名限定 課題解決型ワークショップイベント Zoho ワークアウト開催のお知らせ (12/19)

                                                                                                    ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。Zoho ユーザーコミュニティチームの藤澤です。 12月開催のZoho ワークアウトについてお知らせします。 ※定員に達したため、受付を終了しました。 ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Zoho ワークアウトとは? Zoho ユーザー同士で交流しながら、サービスに関する疑問や不明点の解消を目的とした「Zoho ワークアウト」を開催します。 Zoho サービスで完了させたい設定やカスタマイズ、環境の整備など……各自で決めた目標達成に向け、 他の参加者と同じ空間で作業を行うイベントです。先輩ユーザーや他の参加者と意見交換をしながら集中して作業に取り組むことが可能です。
                                                                                                  • Whatsapp reply not reflected under Tickets for offline agent

                                                                                                    Hi, We are encountering a situation where WA response from customer is not reflected under tickets (if the agent handling the case previously is not active due to off day/ MC). The ticket will remain in the offline agent's queue until agent is back to
                                                                                                  • Missing Folders on iPhone Zoho Mail

                                                                                                    Under mailboxes on my iPhone, I don't have an inbox, sent folder, deleted photo, etc. See pics.
                                                                                                  • Select CRM Custom Module in Zoho Creator

                                                                                                    I have a custom module added in Zoho CRM that I would like to link in Zoho creator.  When I add the Zoho CRM field it does not show the new module.  Is this possible?  Do i need to change something in CRM to make it accesible in Creator?
                                                                                                  • Send Whatsapp with API including custom placeholders

                                                                                                    Is is possible to initiate a session on whatsapp IM channel with a template that includes params (placeholders) that are passed on the API call? This is very usefull to send a Utility message for a transactional notification including an order number
                                                                                                  • Increase Round Robin Scheduler Frequency in Zoho Desk

                                                                                                    Dear Zoho Desk Team, We hope this message finds you well. We would like to request an enhancement to the Round Robin Scheduler in Zoho Desk to better address ticket assignment efficiency. Current Behavior At present, the Round Robin Scheduler operates
                                                                                                  • Separate One-Time Mentions from Ongoing Ticket Following in Zoho Desk

                                                                                                    Dear Zoho Desk Support Team, We are writing to request an enhancement to the mention functionality within Zoho Desk. Currently, when an agent is mentioned in a ticket, they receive notifications for all subsequent activity on that ticket, similar to being
                                                                                                  • Mass update Accounts in Zoho Desk

                                                                                                    We used the integration feature to bring in all of our accounts from Zoho CRM. While all of the names and links are in place, on the Zoho Desk side the email, phone, website, and address fields are blank. By going into each account I can select "Update
                                                                                                  • Vivaldi will not open the Zoho Mail app when I click a email link in the browser

                                                                                                    I'm running Vivaldi on Arch with the Plasma desktop and have under default applications Zoho Mail set as my default email client. Whenever I click a email link in Vivaldi I get the below when it should be launching Zoho. Any ideas on rectifying this issue?
                                                                                                  • Digital publisher

                                                                                                    Kinetic Digital Publisher provides comprehensive digital publishing services, including eBook creation, formatting, cover design, and marketing. We help authors publish and promote their work across online platforms with ease.
                                                                                                  • Time Zone Correction with Daylight Savings Time

                                                                                                    Hey, I'm writing a series of reports where the source data is synced from an external source which stores the date/time information in GMT, but I want the reports to be in local time. Now, I understand there is the CONVERT_TZ function which allows me
                                                                                                  • Load form in iframe without header

                                                                                                    I am trying to load a form into an iframe without the header, but I am not having any luck. I am using openUrl() to load the iframe with the form URL and zc_Header set to false, e.g. #Form:Add_Case?zc_Header=false but it is still loading the header. Any
                                                                                                  • Filter embedded report

                                                                                                    How to filter embedded report in a page, below code is not working. dateField => startDate & dateField=< endDate The report should print on page containing records from startDate to endDate. params='zc_Header=true&amp;Service_Date__gte=<%=startDate%>&amp;Service_Date__lte=<%=endDate%>'
                                                                                                  • Creator Simplified #5: Set file upload restrictions in Zoho Creator

                                                                                                    Hey Creators, Welcome to the next post in the Creator Simplified series. Today, we’ll explore how to implement file upload restrictions to limit user submissions to specific file types. By implementing an allowed list for file uploads, you can optimize
                                                                                                  • Field Type: Address, Change District/State to Dropdown with picklist??

                                                                                                    Using the Address Field type, is there a way to make the District/State field be a dropdown with a picklist so the users can select rather than type the state name every time? I know this can be done if I use a drowdown field for the State (or entire address information), but that isn't as tidy as using the address field type. I apologize if this is a duplicate. I posted this question the other day, or so I though. Can't find that post.
                                                                                                  • cutomized fields are not showing up in zoho creator from zoho crm

                                                                                                    We have customized fields in zoho crm under accounts module like "Last production upgrade" --> This field is a date. When created a solution in zoho creator i couldn't find any of the customized fields. Would you please help me on this matter? Thanks
                                                                                                  • How to Add Bulk Data in Zoho Creator Forms Using Deluge Without Exceeding Execution Time Limit

                                                                                                    I have a database form with a column named 'Product Name' containing 8000 values in a Zoho Creator form. In another form named 'Returns Data,' I have a column with the same name, 'Product Name.' How do I add these 8000 values to the 'Returns Data' form
                                                                                                  • Open New Free Zoho Account

                                                                                                    Hi Team, Do you guys offer a free email hosting? I do have a domain already. If yes, what is the process to open the new account? Thanks,
                                                                                                  • 554 5.7.1 : Recipient address rejected: user info@intimspace.de does not exist

                                                                                                    554 5.7.1 : Адрес получателя отклонен: пользователь info@intimspace.de не существует I can't send an email to Google at info@intimspace.de. An error comes. I entered everything correctly in DNS https://zohomail.tools/#domainDetails/intimspace.de/ALL
                                                                                                  • Emails going back unread

                                                                                                    Hi all, When in Zoho mail - when I recieve a new mail it puts back all emails read that day back to unread - I then have to go back through and open all emails I have already read! Gets very annoying... Any idea on the bug fix?
                                                                                                  • Been getting this error, every now and then "Get count limit exceeded, please try again after 3 mins"

                                                                                                    it is really annoying.
                                                                                                  • Constraints on Tasks

                                                                                                    We have a use case where we have certain fixed date tasks and need to schedule predecessor tasks around these. Predecessor tasks need to be completed with a lag before the fixed date. We should be able to schedule the start and end date for predecessor
                                                                                                  • Moving Project Dependencies Not Moving Precedessors

                                                                                                    Most of the time we want to base our start dates around an event that is in the middle of the project template. If I set a bar up at the date we want it, it doesn't move the predecessors up. Is there a way to change this? eg. there is no point starting
                                                                                                  • Can you set task due dates to be "x" days before the milestone?

                                                                                                    We have a milestone set as the date of our first event. All of the tasks need to happen in increments prior to the milestone event. Is there a way to configure this without having to set up each task due date? Thanks!
                                                                                                  • Default ticket template in helpcenter

                                                                                                    Hello, I have a web form and a ticket template created. How can I make that my default ticket template? If an user clicks New ticket or create a ticket, I want that template to be the default one. Thank you for the time and info.
                                                                                                  • Expanded data-capturing capabilities with enhanced tabular sections

                                                                                                    We are thrilled to announce an update to Zoho Recruit that brings even more flexibility and customization to your recruiting process. With the addition of 10 new field types to the tabular sections, you now have the power to enhance your tabular sections
                                                                                                  • Integration of Business Hours in Email Templates

                                                                                                    Dear Zoho Desk Team, We would like to propose a feature enhancement to Zoho Desk that would greatly improve the utility of the Business Hours settings and streamline communication with our clients. Feature Request: Integration of Business Hours in Email
                                                                                                  • Add Owner to deluge-created module record note

                                                                                                    Is it possible to include the "owner" aka "creator", of a Note when creating it via delulge? This sets "superadmin" as the Note creator. I need to override it. notemap = Map(); notemap.put("Parent_Id",program_contact_id); notemap.put("Note_Content",program_contact_data.get('Note'));
                                                                                                  • Blueprint - Field Validation Criteria (During)

                                                                                                    When setting validation criteria elsewhere in Zoho, or even workflow criteria etc., there are Is Empty and Isn't Empty options.  Within the Field Validation Criteria within Blueprint, those options aren't available.  Is there a particular reason for this? 
                                                                                                  • Delete Field that is used in a Zoho Flow connection

                                                                                                    I'm trying to delete a Field used in a Webhook created by Zoho Flow with CRM Connection and i get the following alert: When going to the alert i get to the following issue, can't edit it since its been deployed by a pluggin But yes i have here the prompted
                                                                                                  • Use image on img HTML tag

                                                                                                    Hi how could I do to use my image saved in Workdrive to use it in an HTML img tag ? I need to display it on my website without having to use iframes. Regards,
                                                                                                  • ZOHO Compain emails going to spam after authentication is successful

                                                                                                    Hello, I am frustrated right now. I have recently setup the zoho email compaign, The auto responder email went to receipient spam folder. then, I researched a lot and completed authentication (SPF, DKIM) in email deliverability, email relay in zoho crm.
                                                                                                  • Security Policies

                                                                                                    To protect against cyber threats and attacks, organizations need to set up security policies for their employees' accounts. Security policies are rules and regulations for every individual or group using the organization's assets and resources. Enabling
                                                                                                  • Zoho CRM functions editor is not in the programming language deluge

                                                                                                    I am trying to write a function for a button. I helped someone before in deluge and I'm using this new editor I'm not familiar with - I guess it is new. Why is the default code statically typed? The editor will not let me create a variable without a type.
                                                                                                  • "Age in Days" calculation in Advanced Analytics

                                                                                                    Hi Can someone advise how this is calculated? I am getting values on this report which I cannot understand. Thank you
                                                                                                  • Automatically set quotes to "lost" if deal is set to lost

                                                                                                    Hi, Is there a way to automate that if a deal (opportunity) is lost the related quotes are also set to lost? Thanks!
                                                                                                  • Subdomain

                                                                                                    How can i make subdomain in my zoho website
                                                                                                  • A/R Aging Details shows wrong aging days

                                                                                                    In the A/R Summary Report all of the invoices are in the right aging buckets. When I run the A/R Aging Details report I get aged dates of +300 days when they should be in the 0-90 day range.
                                                                                                  • Global Choice List share ownership

                                                                                                    I have created several forms that use one or more Global Choice Lists. These lists have been published to Org. I would like to allow one or more admins to edit the choices in these lists. Any help appreciated. Geoff
                                                                                                  • Next Page