Kaizen 156 - Enhancing Mass Communication in Zoho CRM with a Custom Button Widget

Kaizen 156 - Enhancing Mass Communication in Zoho CRM with a Custom Button Widget




Hello code enthusiasts! 

Welcome to a fresh week of Kaizen! In this post, you will learn how to build a custom button widget to boost mass communication of your business using SMS notifications and pre-recorded calls within Zoho CRM. 

Business Scenario

Timely communication with customers is crucial in any business to send important updates, reminders, and promotional messages. 

Imagine you are managing a sales team, and your business regularly sends promotional offers to hundreds of customers. Typically, you would need to export customer details to a separate broadcasting system, create the messages, and send them manually. 

Instead of manually making individual calls and messages about the offer, you can now leverage this custom button widget placed in the mass menu within Zoho CRM to send personalized SMS notifications or even recorded voice calls to your customers. 

Creating a Custom Button Widget

Let us look at the steps to create a widget for the above-mentioned functionality. 

1. Log in to your Zoho CRM, go to Setup>Customization>Modules and Fields and select your desired Module. For this demo, we will choose the Leads module.
2. In the Leads module, switch to the Buttons tab and click Create New Button.
3. Follow the steps outlined in this help page and create a new button in the Mass Action Menu with its action defined by a widget. 



4. A pop-up appears for you to choose either from the available local widgets or create a new widget. 
5. Follow the steps provided in this kaizen to create a new widget for this use case.


Code Logic for Mass Communication

6. Here is the code logic to send broadcast SMS notifications and pre-recorded calls to the selected leads. 
  • Build the widget HTML page with the following elements shown in the GIF for obtaining user input like phone fields, sms/voice call preference, and the message content.


For voice calls, the entered text message will be converted to speech using Twilio's services.
  • The current module (Leads) and the selected record IDs are passed to the widget through the on PageLoad callback function.
  • For the current module, we used the Zoho CRM Meta JS SDK to get fields that have phone data type in it. These fields are listed in the Phone Fields dropdown, allowing the user to select the desired phone numbers that Twilio should use to send SMS or make calls. 
  • The COQL API SDK helps fetch values from the selected Phone fields in the dropdown for the selected record IDs. 
  • Depending on the selected action SMS or Voice Call tab, the corresponding Twilio Message or Call API will be triggered for communication. 
For this demo, we used the Twilio APIs for sending SMS and making pre-recorded calls, but you can use any cloud communication platform of your choice.

    const context = { };
    async function getPhoneNumbers() {
const phoneFieldsDropdown = document.getElementById('phone-fields-dropdown');
const selectedValues = Array.from(phoneFieldsDropdown.options).filter(option => option.selected).map(option => option.value);
    if (!selectedValues.length) {
return showAlert('error', 'Please select atleast one phone field');
}
const ids = context.recordIds.map(x => `'${x}'`).join(', ');
    const select_query = `SELECT ${selectedValues.join(', ')} FROM ${context.module} WHERE id in (${ids})`;
    const {data} = await ZOHO.CRM.API.coql({select_query});
    const phoneNumbers = [];
data.forEach(x => {
        Object.keys(x).forEach(key => {
            if (key !== 'id' && x[key]) {
                phoneNumbers.push(x[key]);
            }
        });
});
    return phoneNumbers;
}
    ZOHO.embeddedApp.on("PageLoad", function (data) {
// Get the current module name and selected record ids
const {Entity, EntityId} = data;
    context.module = Entity;
    context.recordIds = EntityId;
    // Get the phone fields for current module
    ZOHO.CRM.META.getFields({Entity}).then(
    function (response) {
const {fields} = response;
const phoneFields = fields.filter(x => x.data_type === 'phone').map(x => ({value: x.api_name, label: x.display_label }));
    new Choices('#phone-fields-dropdown', {
        removeItemButton: true,
    choices: phoneFields,
    placeholder: true,
    placeholderValue: 'Select Phone Fields to be used'
});
    ZOHO.CRM.UI.Resize({height:"400", width:"700"});
});
    // Initialize twilio credentials
    twilio.init("$YOUR_ACCOUNT_SID", "$YOUR_AUTH_TOKEN", "+YOUR_TWILIO_NUMBER");
})
    ZOHO.embeddedApp.init();

Try It Out!

To try this out, a fully functional code sample is attached to this post. All you have to do is replace your Twilio credentials on line 185 and everything else is already setup for you.

Widget in Action
  1. Select multiple records in the Leads module. 
  2. Click Broadcast (custom widget button) to open a streamlined interface (we have used Twilio for this demo).
  3. Select the Phone Fields to which you need to send the message / pre-recorded call. 
  4. Choose SMS or Voice Call in the tab based on your requirement.
  5. Enter your message and hit Send. 




                                    


Ta-daa! The messages go out to all the selected records immediately. You can also use any other third-party cloud communication platform of your choice instead of Twilio. 

Caution!

Since the Twilio Message and Call APIs are triggered from the UI, the Twilio authentication will be accessible to anyone with access to the Zoho CRM organization where this widget is deployed.

Similar Scenarios

  • Sales Teams can send follow-up reminders in bulk to multiple leads after an event. 
  • Support Teams can inform customers about system maintenance or updates by sending bulk notifications. 
  • Operation Teams can send updates on deliveries or service schedules to relevant contacts.  
We hope you found this post useful and engaging!

If you have any queries reach out to us at support@zohocrm.com or let us know in the comments section. 

Cheers! 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Additional Reading

  1. Zoho CRM Widget - An Overview, Installation and Creation, Mobile Compatibility, other Kaizens
  2. Zoho CRM - Custom Button, COQL API, Fields Metadata API, JS SDK for Widgets
  3. Twilio - Message API, Call API, Twiml(Twilio Markup Language)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



    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
                                                  What's New in Zoho Desk

                                                  Use cases

                                                  Make the most of Zoho Desk with the use cases.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  eBooks

                                                  Download free eBooks and access a range of topics to get deeper insight on successfully using Zoho Desk.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  Videos

                                                  Watch comprehensive videos on features and other important topics that will help you master Zoho Desk.

                                                   
                                                    

                                                  Webinar

                                                  Sign up for our webinars and learn the Zoho Desk basics, from customization to automation and more

                                                   
                                                    
                                                  What's New in Zoho Desk

                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Ask the Experts


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner





                                                      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