Kaizen #112 - Signals in Zoho CRM

Kaizen #112 - Signals in Zoho CRM

Hello everyone!
Welcome back to another week in the Kaizen series!
This week, we will discuss Signals in Zoho CRM.

What are Signals in Zoho CRM?

One of the most important aspects of any business is staying on top of customers' needs and understanding how they use the product, their pain points, what they look for, etc.
Now, customers have multiple channels by which they communicate with your company. From visiting your website to filling up surveys, from raising support tickets to posting on X and Facebook, customers get in touch with several people from various departments in your organization. So, it is difficult for a relationship manager to stay on top of all these channels.

This is where Signals in Zoho CRM come into play.
Signals allow you to get real-time notifications of various customer touchpoints across multiple channels. What's more? you can get all the information in your Zoho CRM account!

For example, if you have sent out a survey, you can raise a signal in CRM when users respond. If someone created a ticket in Zoho Desk, you can view it in CRM.

Default Signals

Zoho CRM has native integrations with many other Zoho products. A few of these such as Zoho PhoneBridge, Zoho Survey, Zoho Campaigns, Zoho SalesIQ, Zoho Desk, Zoho Webinar, and Zoho Backstage have default signals configured for each of these services.

You can simply enable or disable them from the Manage Signals page under Setup > Channels > Signals.
When you have turned on these signals, when an event occurs in one of these services, you will receive a notification in your CRM account. To know how each notification looks upon receiving, refer to View Signals.

Custom Signals

When you use a third-party application, and want to raise a signal in Zoho CRM when an event occurs in the third-party app, you must create a custom signal.
For steps to create a Signal, refer to Creating a custom signal.

You can disable this signal anytime from the Manage Signals page under Setup > Channels > Signals > Manage Signals.

How can you Raise/Trigger Signals?

There are three ways you can raise a signal:
  1. Through an API
  2. Using Zoho Flow
  3. Through a function
Let us see when to use each of these methods.

1. Raising a signal through an API

You must choose this method when:
  • The third-party allows you to make a POST request with the details of the event and supports the OAuth2.0 authentication.
  • The third-party allows you to customize the way it sends the data in the callback. Refer to this page for more details.

2. Raising a signal through Zoho Flow

Zoho Flow is an integration platform that allows you to automate workflows and connect various applications, including Zoho CRM. Using Zoho Flow to raise a signal in CRM can be beneficial in certain scenarios, particularly when you want to automate processes, trigger event-specific actions, or integrate CRM data with other applications.
Refer to this page for details.

3. Raising a signal through a function

You should use a function to raise a signal when:

  • The third-party application (in which the event occurs) allows you to only register a webhook URL in their service.
  • The third-party application does not send the data back to the webhook URL in the format that the Signals API accepts.
We will discuss this method in this post.

Sample use case for raising a signal through a function

Let us consider the example where you create a survey in Typeform and users respond to it. When they do, you want to raise a signal in Zoho CRM. Let's see how this works.
  1. Create a survey in Typeform. This form has a form ID. You will also get an API key.
  2. Create a function in Zoho CRM of the type Signals that has the logic for the following:
    a. Triggering the API to get the details of the form you sent out through Typeform.
    b. Parsing the data you got from Typeform API and constructing the pay load to trigger the signal.
    c. Raising the signal using the built-in raisesignal integration task. This eliminates the need for a connection.
  3. Enable REST API for this function to get the webhook URL.
  4. Register this webhook URL in Typeform. This means that you want Typeform to trigger this function whenever a survey is answered.
  5. Create a custom signal in Zoho CRM.
  6. Choose "Function" for the Trigger Function via drop-down.
  7. Choose the function that has the logic to raise the signal and whose webhook URL is registered with Typeform.
So, whenever a survey is answered, the user in CRM gets a notification of the same. You can choose to view the signal either in the default view or add a widget of your choice. You can configure this while creating a signal.

Here is the function code that uses the raisesignal integration task and raises the signal.

namespace = "typeform_typeform";
sub = "Sample Poll Results";
email = "email_id_here";
signalMap = Map();
signalMap.put("signal_namespace",namespace);
signalMap.put("email",email);
signalMap.put("subject",sub);
mess = crmAPIRequest.get("body");
formId = mess.get("form_response").get("form_id");
token = mess.get("form_response").get("token");
apiUrl = "https://api.typeform.com/forms/" + formId + "/responses?included_response_ids=" + token;
authMap = Map();
authMap.put("Authorization","Bearer tfpxx9PQ");
response = invokeurl
[
url :apiUrl
type :GET
headers:authMap
];
selectedOption = response.get("items").get(0).get("answers").get(0).get("choice").get("label");
signalMap.put("message","Selected Option :: " + selectedOption);
result = zoho.crm.invokeConnector("raisesignal",signalMap);
info result;

Logic
  1. Construct a map that takes the signal's namespace, email ID of the user you want to notify(raise the signal), and the subject of the signal.
  2. Make an API call to Typeform to get the details of the survey.
  3. Use the crmAPIRequest object to get the details from the response body of the Typeform survey. This includes the fields "choice", "answers", "label" from the form.
  4. Provide authorization details. This should be the API key from the third party.
  5. Construct a map with the survey fields and pass it to the raisesignal integration task. This triggers the signal.
Here is the custom signal that is created for Typeform.



Here is a gif of the signal.
​


To view function's execution,
  1. Go to Setup > Developer Space > Functions > "Your Function".
  2. Click the three-dot icon and select Logs.

  3. Click one of the executions. You will get the details.


We hope you found this post useful. Let us know your feedback. Get in touch with us at support@zohocrm.com.
Cheers!

    Access your files securely from anywhere






                    Zoho Campaigns Resources


                          Zoho Developer Community



                              Bootcamp
                              Community
                              Pricing
                              Webinars
                              What's New
                              Integrations
                              Contact Support
                              Contact Sales

                                Zoho Survey Resources
                                  Features
                                  Survey Templates
                                  Integrations
                                  Community
                                  iOS Mobile Surveys
                                  Pricing
                                  Android Mobile Surveys
                                  Insurvey Blogs
                                  Insight Blogs
                                  Tips & Tricks






                                              Latest Feature Updates

                                                • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                • Digest


                                                • Functions


                                                • Meetups


                                                • Kbase


                                                • Resources


                                                • Glossary


                                                • Desk Marketplace


                                                • MVP Corner


                                                • Word of the Day


                                                • Ask the Experts




                                                    Zoho SalesIQ Resources

                                                          • Sticky Posts

                                                          • 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.

                                                          • Kaizen #198: Using Client Script for Custom Validation in Blueprint

                                                            Nearing 200th Kaizen Post – 1 More to the Big Two-Oh-Oh! 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.

                                                          • Celebrating 200 posts of Kaizen! Share your ideas for the milestone post

                                                            Hello Developers, We launched the Kaizen series in 2019 to share helpful content to support your Zoho CRM development journey. Staying true to its spirit—Kaizen Series: Continuous Improvement for Developer Experience—we've shared everything from FAQs

                                                          • Kaizen #193: Creating different fields in Zoho CRM through API

                                                            🎊 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.

                                                          • Client Script | Update - Introducing Commands in Client Script!

                                                            Have you ever wished you could trigger Client Script from contexts other than just the supported pages and events? Have you ever wanted to leverage the advantage of Client Script at your finger tip? Discover the power of Client Script - Commands! Commands


                                                          Manage your brands on social media
                                                          Access Zoho Social

                                                            Zoho Pagesense Resources


                                                                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 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

                                                                                                          • Power of Automation :: Automatic removal of project users once the project status is changed.

                                                                                                            A custom function is a software code that can be used to automate a process and this allows you to automate a notification, call a webhook, or perform logic immediately after a workflow rule is triggered. This feature helps to automate complex tasks and

                                                                                                          • Customizing Form Questions per Recipient Group in Zoho Campaigns/Forms

                                                                                                            Hello everyone, I would like to ask if it’s possible in Zoho Campaigns or Zoho Forms to send out a campaign where the form questions can be customized based on the group of recipients. Use case example: I have prepared 20 questionnaire questions. For

                                                                                                          • Automatic category assignment

                                                                                                            Hi, I’d like to ask if there is a way to automatically assign an expense category based on the recognized Merchant. What would be the simplest way to set up automatic category assignment? Alternatively, is there an option to first choose the category

                                                                                                          • Zoho Books - France

                                                                                                            L’équipe de Zoho France reçoit régulièrement des questions sur la conformité de ses applications de finances (Zoho Books/ Zoho Invoice) pour le marché français. Voici quelques points pour clarifier la question : Zoho Books est un logiciel de comptabilité

                                                                                                          • Every time an event is updated, all participants receive an update email. How can I deactivate this?

                                                                                                            Every time an event is updated in Zoho CRM (e.g. change description, link to Lead) every participant of this meeting gets an update email. Another customer noticed this problem years ago in the Japanese community: https://help.zoho.com/portal/ja/community/topic/any-time-an-event-is-updated-on-zohocrm-calendar-it-sends-multiple-invites-to-the-participants-how-do-i-stop-that-from-happening

                                                                                                          • Having Trouble Opening The Candidate Portal

                                                                                                            Recently am having trouble opening the Candidate Portal. It keeps loading but cannot display any widgets. Tried Safari, Chrome and Edge. Non of them work. Please solve the problem ASAP.

                                                                                                          • Forms - Notification When Response Submitted

                                                                                                            How do I set it up to generate an email notification when a response (class request) is submitted?

                                                                                                          • How to disable user entry on Answer Bot in Zobot

                                                                                                            Hi, I have an Answer Bot in my Zobot, here is the configuration: I only want the user to choose 1 of the 4 the options I have provided: When no answer found, user chooses 'I'll rephrase the question' or 'Ask a different question When answer is found,

                                                                                                          • More admin control over user profiles

                                                                                                            It's important for our company, and I'm sure many others, to keep our users inline with our branding and professional appearance. It would be useful for administrators to have more control over profile aspects such as: Profile image User names Email signatures

                                                                                                          • Please Make Zoho CRM Cadences Flexible: Allow Inserting and Reordering Follow-Up Steps

                                                                                                            Sales processes are not static. We test, learn, and adapt as customers respond differently than expected. Right now, Zoho Cadences do not support inserting a new step between existing follow-ups or changing the type of an existing primary step. If I realize

                                                                                                          • Changing the Default Search Criteria for Finding Duplicates

                                                                                                            Hey everyone, is it possible to adjust the default search criteria for finding and merging duplicate records? Right now, CRM uses some (in my opinion nonsensical) fields as search criteria for duplicate records which do nothing except dilute the results.

                                                                                                          • Clear Tag & Linking Between Quotes and Sales Orders

                                                                                                            Hi Zoho Team, In Zoho Books, when a quote is converted into a sales order, it would be extremely useful to have: A clear tag/indicator on the quote showing that it has been converted into a sales order. A direct link in the sales order back to the originating

                                                                                                          • Zoho Books Sandbox environment

                                                                                                            Hello. Is there a free sandbox environment for the developers using Zoho Books API? I am working on the Zoho Books add-on and currently not ready to buy a premium service - maybe later when my add-on will start to bring money. Right now I just need a

                                                                                                          • Add Direct Ticket Link to Zoho Help Center Portal in Email Replies

                                                                                                            Hi Zoho Support Team, We hope you're doing well. We’d like to request a small but valuable improvement to enhance the usability of the Zoho Help Center portal (https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/myarea). Currently, when someone from Zoho replies to a support

                                                                                                          • [Webinar] Deluge Learning Series - AI-Powered Automation using Zoho Deluge and Gemini

                                                                                                            We’re excited to invite you to an exclusive 1-hour webinar where we’ll demonstrate how to bring the power of Google’s Gemini AI into your Zoho ecosystem using Deluge scripting. Whether you're looking to automate data extraction from PDFs or dynamically

                                                                                                          • Connecting Zoho Inventory to ShipStation

                                                                                                            we are looking for someone to help connect via API shipStation with Zoho inventory. Any ideas? Thanks. Uri

                                                                                                          • Subform edits don't appear in parent record timeline?

                                                                                                            Is it possible to have subform edits (like add row/delete row) appear in the Timeline for parent records? A user can edit a record, only edit the subform, and it doesn't appear in the timeline. Is there a workaround or way that we can show when a user

                                                                                                          • New in Cadences: Option to Resume or Restart follow-ups when re-enrolling records into a Cadence, and specify custom un-enrollment criteria

                                                                                                            Managing follow-ups effectively involves understanding the appropriate timing for reaching out, as well as knowing when to take a break and resume later, or deciding if it's necessary to start the follow-up process anew. With two significant enhancements

                                                                                                          • Im Stuck in an EDIT ONLY WITH WIZARD issue

                                                                                                            So I found Wizards to be a really helpful tool in minimizing the exposure of redundant, superfluous fields to staff that would never otherwise have to edit those fields. My issue is, that when the record (in this case a lead) is created with a wizard,

                                                                                                          • Account upgrade

                                                                                                            Good evening, I upgraded my account and paid for it. From standard to professional. Unfortunately after the paiment my account was not upgraded. Please your advise. Best Regards Erik van Staverden

                                                                                                          • How to set ALL default dates of my organization to DD-MM-YYYY format?

                                                                                                            All replies to this question comes from a time where the UI was different. It's extremely frustrating not being able to find how to do this simple setting change. I want everything and everyone in my organizations to have DD-MM-YYYY date format by default.

                                                                                                          • How can I sync from Zoho Projects into an existing Zoho Sprints project?

                                                                                                            Hi I have managed to integrate Zoho Projects with Zoho Sprints and I can see that the integration works as a project was created in Zoho Sprints. But, what I would like to do is to sync into an existing Zoho Sprints project. Is there a way to make that

                                                                                                          • Can we generate APK and IOS app?

                                                                                                            Dears, I want to know the availability to develop the app on zoho and after that .. generate the APK or IOS app  and after that I added them to play store or IOS store.. Is it possible to do this .. I want not to use zoho app or let my customers use it. thanks 

                                                                                                          • Zoho Subform Workflows onAdd of Row

                                                                                                            Suppose I have a form with attached workflows onLoad. If I use the form as a subform, will it inherit the workflows or do I need to create new ones onAdd of row?

                                                                                                          • Session Expired

                                                                                                            I constantly get "Session Expired" and need to relogin or close and open the application again. This gets really frustrating during the day. Is this something that can be solved? This really makes me want to leave the app as it is no go to need to reopen

                                                                                                          • Super Admin removal

                                                                                                            I brought a sub, and I gave the Super admin rights to a person who is no longer with us, so I need to change, and I need to make myself the Super admin

                                                                                                          • Better Notes Commenting

                                                                                                            Hi, I'd like to suggest better collaboration tools for NOTES. The current notes section for Accounts, Contacts and Deals is not ideally suitable for any degree of communication or collaboration. When responding to a note, there is no ability to leave

                                                                                                          • Exporting Templates

                                                                                                            I have just spent 2 hours creating a project template for a Netsuite configuration, and want to share it with other Zoho Projects users - who have a different account. Is there any way to do this?

                                                                                                          • Power of Automation:: Streamline Associated Teams based on the Task Owner update.

                                                                                                            Hello Everyone, A Custom function is a user-written set of code to achieve a specific requirement. Set the required conditions needed as when to trigger using the Workflow rules (be it Tasks / Project) and associate the custom function to it. Requirement:

                                                                                                          • No Response from Zoho Support in 8 Days - Typical?

                                                                                                            I have a couple of issues I'm trying to work through. Initially, I was getting support from support@zohofsm.com, but I have not received a response in 8 days (11 on another question). Is this typical? Can I pay for support? For context, I am not spamming

                                                                                                          • Add QUOTE OWNER profile image to a Quote Template

                                                                                                            I can add their email address.. phone number, DOB. I need to add a users profile picture so when they assign a template to a quote they own it adds their picture to the cover page. I've tried hacking a solution together but there has to be an easier way.

                                                                                                          • Zoho Connections Desk API relative URL PATTERN_NOT_MATCHED

                                                                                                            While i am trying to do this: async function fetchTicketsFromDesk(timeFilter = 'current_month') { try { const response = await ZOHO.CRM.CONNECTION.invoke("desk_connection", { url: "/api/v1/tickets", method: "GET", }); const data = response.details ? JSON.parse(response.details)

                                                                                                          • Zoho CRM - Custom Views for Portal Users

                                                                                                            I'm looking for an option to customise custom views for portal users in CRM. It would be great if "portal user" was a permission on custom views.

                                                                                                          • 【参加無料】10/17(金) 東京 ユーザ交流会 Vol.3 参加登録 受付開始！

                                                                                                            ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの藤澤です。 10/17(金)に、東京・新橋で「東京 ユーザー交流会 Vol.3」を開催します！ 今回のユーザー事例セッションのテーマは、「Zoho Flowを活用した他社の決済サービスとの連携事例」です。 さらに、Zoho Flowに限らず、Analytics や Campaigns などの多彩なZohoサービスの活用方法について、豊富なご経験をもとにご紹介いただきます。 また、Zoho社員セッションでは、Zoho CRMを活用して日々の営業業務を効率化する具体的な事例をお話しします。業界を問わず、幅広い方にご参考いただける内容となっています！

                                                                                                          • Zoho Meeting Plug compatibility with newer versions of Outlook

                                                                                                            Documentation states that the zoho meeting plug in for outlook is only compatible with versions up to Outlook 2019 What is available to users of more up to date versions of outlook/office 365?

                                                                                                          • Getting Attachments in Zoho Desk via API

                                                                                                            Is there a way to get attachments into Zoho Desk via an API?      We have a process by which a zoho survey gets sent to the user as a link in a notification.    The survey has several upload fields where they can upload pdf documents.    I've created

                                                                                                          • Introducing Zoho's own SMS gateway

                                                                                                            We're thrilled to announce the launch of our own SMS gateway feature within Zoho Marketing Automation! This new feature enables seamless SMS campaign management alongside your email marketing initiatives, providing a more integrated and efficient way

                                                                                                          • Embedding in Desk articles

                                                                                                            We would like to embed documents in our Desk articles. When we use an iframe for the embed, we get scrollbars and a frame border. Neither of those is acceptable. I've spoken with the Desk Support team about what we want and they tell me that it cannot

                                                                                                          • Zoho CRM button to download images from image upload field

                                                                                                            Hello, I am trying to create a button in Zoho CRM that I can place in my record details view for each record and use it to download all images in the image upload fields. I tried deluge, client scripts and even with a widget, but feel lost, could not

                                                                                                          • Mass Update Contacts In Zoho Campaigns

                                                                                                            Is there a way to mass update contacts in zoho campaigns? I want to be able to change the content of a field for a few hundred contacts, and can't go through all of them individually.

                                                                                                          • Next Page