Turn chat conversations into real action with Integration Blocks in Guided Conversations

Turn chat conversations into real action with Integration Blocks in Guided Conversations


When a Guided Conversation fails, it's usually not because the logic is wrong. They fail because the conversation stops moving.

A customer starts a chat with a clear goal: report an issue, check a status, or confirm something. At first, the flow does exactly what it was designed to do: It asks the right questions. It captures the right inputs.

Then nothing happens.

From the builder’s point of view, the flow is complete, and from the customer’s point of view, it feels unfinished. This gap is where most frustration comes from.

Why progress matters more than answers   

Customers rarely start a chat because they want information alone. They want momentum. They want to know that what they just shared led to something real: a request logged, a record updated, or a confirmation sent.

If the conversation ends without that signal, customers assume they will have to explain everything again somewhere else. Guided Conversations need to close that gap.
 

How  Integration Blocks maintain the flow   

Integration Blocks are not about adding more automation. They are about preventing dead ends.

An Integration Block connects a point in the conversation to an action in another system. While the chat continues, work is already happening in the background.

This is the moment where a conversation becomes operational.

A practical example from day-to-day support   

Consider a simple flow for reporting a billing issue:
  1. The customer shares their email address and describes the problem.
  2. The bot acknowledges it and ends the chat.
Technically, this is correct. Emotionally, it feels risky.

Now compare that with the same flow using a Desk Integration Block:
  1. As soon as the customer submits their details, a lead or ticket is created in Zoho Desk.
  2. A ticket reference number is generated, giving the customer immediate confirmation that their request is being tracked
  3. The customer receives a confirmation and may later get a follow-up from the team for an issue resolution.
The chat did not just listen, it acted. The customer feels the difference because progress is visible, even if the backend work is hidden.
 

The role of confirmation in reducing anxiety   

Even when an action is taken, customers still look for reassurance. Did their request actually go through?

This is where the Email Integration Block fits naturally into the flow.

A short email sent at the right moment changes how the entire conversation is. This is where an Email Integration Block fits naturally. A short, well-timed email changes how the conversation is perceived:
  1. The system has not just captured the issue, it's already working on it.
  2. Customers feel confident that the next steps are already in motion.
You don't need to send any long emails; the point is just to close the loop.
 

Designing for handoff, not escalation   

Some conversations end with automation; others end with a person. A common mistake is treating agent handoff as a fallback.

A better approach: make handoff intentional. Using Zia Context Blocks, you can summarize the conversation so far, then transfer it to an agent seamlessly.

Integration Blocks allow the context, actions, and confirmations to travel forward. The agent starts where the bot left off, not from scratch. Customers experience continuity, not repetition.
 

Thinking in outcomes, not blocks   

It is easy to think about Guided Conversations as a sequence of blocks: a question block, a choice block, an integration block.

Customers do not experience blocks. They need to see results.
  1. Was my issue captured?
  2. Was something sent to me?
  3. Does someone know about this now?
Integration Blocks help you design for those outcomes.

The quiet success of a good conversation   

When Guided Conversations work well, customers do not notice the flow. They leave without reopening the chat. They don't need to send any follow-up emails or repeat the story to another team.

From the outside, nothing dramatic happened.

But the conversation never stalled, and that is often the difference between a chat that looks complete and one that actually feels that way to a customer.

So let me ask you:

Where do your Guided Conversations usually stop moving?
Have Integration Blocks helped turn chats into real action?
What worked, and what didn’t?

Share your thoughts below. Let’s talk.
 
Prabin | Zoho Desk

    Access your files securely from anywhere







                            Zoho Developer Community




                                                  • Desk Community Learning Series


                                                  • Digest


                                                  • Functions


                                                  • Meetups


                                                  • Kbase


                                                  • Resources


                                                  • Glossary


                                                  • Desk Marketplace


                                                  • MVP Corner


                                                  • Word of the Day


                                                  • Ask the Experts



                                                        • Topic Participants

                                                        • Raj R

                                                            • Sticky Posts

                                                            • Zoho Desk Partners with Microsoft's M365 Copilot for seamless customer service experiences

                                                              Hello Zoho Desk users, We are happy to announce that Zoho Desk has partnered with Microsoft's M365 to empower customer service teams with enhanced capabilities and seamless experiences for agents. Microsoft announced their partnership during their keynote
                                                            • WhatsApp pricing changes: Pay per message starting July 1, 2025

                                                              Starting July 1, 2025, WhatsApp is shifting from conversation-based pricing to per-message billing. That means every business-initiated message you send will count. Not just the first one in a 24-hour window. Pricing updates on the WhatsApp Business Platform
                                                            • Live Webinar - Work smarter with Zoho Desk and Zoho Workplace integration

                                                              Hello customers! Zoho Desk and Zoho Workplace are coming together for a webinar on 14th May, 2024. Zoho Workplace is a suite of productivity apps for email, chat, docs, calls, and more at one single place. Zoho Desk is closely integrated with a few tools
                                                            • Apple iOS 17 and iPadOS 17 updates for Zoho Desk users

                                                              Hello Zoho Desk users! Apple recently announced the release of iOS 17 and iPad OS 17. These latest OS updates will help you stay productive and efficient, through interactive and seamless user experiences. Zoho Desk has incorporated the updates to help
                                                            • Zoho Desk Cheat Sheet For The Year-End

                                                              Check out these Zoho Desk best practices to end this year on a high and have a great one ahead! #1 Set Business (Holiday) Hours - If you have limited working hours, please make sure you restrict your business hours or set them as holidays for the coming days. Let your customers know when you will, and won't, be available. #2 Update the Annual Holiday List - Check the holidays for the new year and update the holiday schedule. Usually, holidays from the current year will be carried over for the next


                                                            Manage your brands on social media



                                                                  Zoho TeamInbox 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

                                                                                              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

                                                                                                              • Unveiling Cadences: Redefining CRM interactions with automated sequential follow-ups

                                                                                                                Last modified on 01/04/2024: Cadences is now available for all Zoho CRM users in all data centres (DCs). Note that it was previously an early access feature, available only upon request, and was also known as Cadences Studio. As of April 1, 2024, it's
                                                                                                              • customer data security

                                                                                                                We are exploring ways to enhance our within Zoho CRM. Our Goal: We want to fully integrate RingCentral with Zoho CRM to enable click-to-call functionality for our sales team. However, to comply with data privacy regulations and protect customer contact
                                                                                                              • Sync CRM inventory data with Zoho Books

                                                                                                                I just switched everything over to ZoHo books, but I am trying to find out why the CRM Estimates, Invoices, and Sales Orders created in ZoHo CRM are not then duplicated in ZoHo Books? I had Quickbooks before, and had to do everything twice, I thought
                                                                                                              • mask Customer phone number and agents cant see customer phone number

                                                                                                                Is there any way we can integrate Zoom Phone with Zoho CRM while ensuring that customer phone numbers remain masked? We need a solution where agents can make outbound calls but cannot see customer phone numbers. Please let us know if there is any solution
                                                                                                              • Email Reminders on Shared Calendars

                                                                                                                How do we turn off the setting that emails reminders to everyone who has accepted or declined a calendar invite? If 8 of us have been invited to the same meeting, we receive 8 notifications for every step of the process, from invitation to decision.
                                                                                                              • How to refresh a ticket view ?

                                                                                                                I am doing a widget where I send a rest api call to make a new draft to the ticket I am viewing. The issue is sometimes it refresh a ticket view and I can see inserted draft right away, but sometimes I do not see it even if it is inserted correctly and
                                                                                                              • Ugh! - Text Box (Single Line) Not Enough - Text Box (Multi-line) Unavailable in PDF!

                                                                                                                I provide services, I do not sell items. In each estimate I send I provide a customized job description. A two or three sentence summary of the job to be performed. I need to be able to include this job description on each estimate I send as it's a critical
                                                                                                              • Supervisor Rules - Zoho Desk

                                                                                                                Hi, I have set up a Supervisor Rule in Zoho Desk to send an email alert when a ticket has been on hold for 48 hours. Is there a way to change it so that the alert only sends once and not on an hourly basis? Thank you Laura
                                                                                                              • ResponseCode 421, 4.7.0 [TSS04] Messages from 136.143.188.51 temporarily deferred due to user complaints

                                                                                                                Had email bounce. Let me know if you can fix this. Thanks. Michael
                                                                                                              • New Zoho triggers Google Dangerous flag due toabnormal charcters

                                                                                                                Just signed up and doing my first email test. I sent it to my google email account but it got flagged as Dangerous" due abnormal characters. My DNS setup looks ok. Page snips attached Help Please Thanks, Rick DC PowerWorld
                                                                                                              • Is there a API to fetch tasks in a Board/Section

                                                                                                                I am writing a scheduled function that retrieves all the tasks and send an reminder on cliq. I cannot seem to find a API to fetch tasks (by user / board / section) What are the way to fetch tasks?
                                                                                                              • Having trouble fetching contents of Zoho Connect Feeds using the API, requesting alternative API documentation.

                                                                                                                I'm trying to retrieve feed/post data from Zoho Connect using the API but facing challenges with the current documentation. What I've tried: OAuth authentication is working correctly (getting 200 OK responses) Tested multiple endpoints: /pulse/nativeapi/v2/feeds,
                                                                                                              • Adding an Account Name to Tasks/Reminders

                                                                                                                Does anyone know how to add the related account name to a task?  When we look at the list of activities and when the reminders pop up, there is no way of quickly seeing who the account is. 
                                                                                                              • Triggering Zoho Flow on Workdrive File Label

                                                                                                                Right now Im trying to have a zoho flow trigger on the labeling/classification of a file in a folder. Looking at the trigger options they arent great for something like this. File event occurred is probably the most applicable, but the events it has arent
                                                                                                              • SendMail to multiple recipients

                                                                                                                Hi, I'm trying to send an email to a list of recipients.  Right now the "to" field is directed to a string variable. (List variables won't work here). In the string variable, how can I make it work? trying "user@app.com;user2@app.com" or "user@app.com; user2@app.com" just failed to send the emails. Ravid
                                                                                                              • Populate drop down field from another form's subform

                                                                                                                Hello, I found how to do that, but not in case of a subform. I have a Product form that has a subform for unit and prices. A product might have more than one unit. For example, the product "Brocoli" can be sold in unit at 3$ or in box of 10 at 25 $. Both
                                                                                                              • Usar o Inventory ou módulo customizado no CRM para Gestão de Estoque ?

                                                                                                                Minha maior dor hoje em usar o zoho é a gestão do meu estoque. Sou uma empresa de varejo e essa gestão é fundamental pra mim. Obviamente preciso que esse estoque seja visível no CRM, Inicialmente fiz através de módulos personalizados no próprio Zoho CRM,
                                                                                                              • Signup forms behaviour : Same email & multiple submissions

                                                                                                                My use case is that I have a signup form (FormA) that I use in several places on my website, with a hidden field so I can see where the contact has been made from. I also have a couple of other signup forms (FormB and FormC) that slight differences. All
                                                                                                              • getting error in project users api

                                                                                                                Hello, I'm getting a "Given URL is wrong" error when trying to use the Zoho Projects V3 API endpoint for adding users to a project. The URL I'm using is https://projectsapi.zoho.com/api/v3/portal/{portalid}/projects/{projectid}/projectusers/ and it's
                                                                                                              • Change total display format in weekly time logs

                                                                                                                Hi! Would it be possible to display the total of the value entered in the weekly time log in the same format that the user input? This could be an option in the general settings -> display daily timesheet total in XX.XX format or XX:XX.
                                                                                                              • How to display historical ticket information of the total time spent in each status

                                                                                                                Hi All, Hoping someone can help me, as I am new to Zoho Analytics, and I am a little stuck. I am looking to create a bar chart that looks back over tickets raised in the previous month and displays how much time was spent in each status (With Customer,
                                                                                                              • Zoho Community Weekend Maintenance: 13–15 Sep 2025

                                                                                                                Hi everyone, We wanted to give you a heads-up that Zoho Community will undergo scheduled maintenance this weekend. During this period, some community features will be temporarily unavailable, while others will be in read-only mode. Maintenance Window:
                                                                                                              • Agent Performance Report

                                                                                                                From data to decisions: A deep dive into ticketing system reports An agent performance report in a ticketing system provides a comprehensive view of how support agents manage customer tickets. It measures efficiency and quality by tracking key performance
                                                                                                              • Pourquoi dans zohobooks version gratuite on ne peut ajouter notre stock d'ouverture??

                                                                                                                Pourquoi dans zohobooks version gratuite on ne peut ajouter notre stock d'ouverture ??
                                                                                                              • How can I adjust column width in Zoho Books?

                                                                                                                One issue I keep running into is as I show or hide columns in reports, the column widths get weird. Some columns have text cut off while others can take a fourth of the page for just a few characters. I checked report layout guides and my settings, but
                                                                                                              • Invalid value passed for file_name

                                                                                                                System generated file name does not send file anymore - what is the problem?
                                                                                                              • Custom Function for Estimates

                                                                                                                Hey everyone, I was wondering if there was a way to automate the Subject of an estimate whenever one is created or edited: * the green box using following infos: * Customer Name and Estimate Date. My Goal is to change the Subject to have this format "<MyFirm>-Estimate
                                                                                                              • Search in module lists has detiorated

                                                                                                                Every module has a problem with the search function :-/
                                                                                                              • YouTube Live #1: AI-powered agreement management with Zia and Zoho Sign

                                                                                                                Hi there! We're excited to announce Zoho Sign’s first YouTube live series, where you can catch the latest updates and interact with our Zoho Sign experts, pose questions, and discover lesser-known features. We're starting off by riding the AI wave in
                                                                                                              • Search in module lists has detiorated

                                                                                                                Every module has a problem with the search function :-/
                                                                                                              • Bigin: filter Contacts by Company fields

                                                                                                                Hello, I was wondering if there's a way to filter the contacts based on a field belonging to their company. I.e.: - filter contacts by Company Annual Revenue field - filter contacts by Company Employee No. field In case this is not possibile, what workaround
                                                                                                              • Has Zoho changed the way it searches Items?

                                                                                                                Right now all of our searches have broken and we can no longer search using the SKU or alias. It was fine last night and we came in this morning to broken.....this is impacting our operations now.
                                                                                                              • Refunds do not export from Shopify, Amazon and Esty to Zoho. And then do not go from Zoho inventory to Quickbooks.

                                                                                                                I have a huge hole in my accounts from refunds and the lack of synchronisation between shopify , Amazon and Etsy to Zoho ( i.e when I process a refund on shopify/ Amazon or Etsy it does not come through to Zoho) and then if I process a manual credit note/
                                                                                                              • CRM->INVENTORY, sync products as composite items

                                                                                                                We have a product team working in the CRM, as it’s more convenient than using Books or Inventory—especially with features like Blueprints being available. Once a product reaches a certain stage, it needs to become visible in Inventory. To achieve this,
                                                                                                              • Zoho Calendar not working since a few days

                                                                                                                Hey there, first off a minor thing, since I just tried to enable the Calendar after reading this in another topic (there was no setting for this though) : For some reason my current session is showing me based in New York - I'm in Germany, not using a
                                                                                                              • Monthly timesheet, consolidation of time by project

                                                                                                                I have time logs for various jobs for project. Is it possible to consolidate the time spent for each job, when I am generating a timesheet for a month? I am getting the entries of jobs done on each day when I generate a timesheet for a month For example
                                                                                                              • Sending emails from an outlook account

                                                                                                                Hi, I need to know if it's possible to send automatic emails from an Outlook account configured in Zoho CRM and, if so, how I can accomplish that. To give you some context, I set up a domain and created a function that generates PDF files to be sent later
                                                                                                              • Struggling with stock management in Zoho CRM – is Zoho Inventory the solution?

                                                                                                                My biggest pain point today with Zoho is inventory management. I run a retail business and reliable stock management is absolutely critical. Obviously, I need this inventory to be visible inside the CRM. At first, I tried handling it through custom modules
                                                                                                              • can't login Kiosk URGENT

                                                                                                                already try, can't login pls help to support. thanks.
                                                                                                              • 【Zoho CRM】CRM for Everyoneに関するアップデート:関連データ機能

                                                                                                                ユーザーの皆さま、こんにちは。コミュニティチームの中野です。 今回は「Zoho CRM アップデート情報」の中から、CRM for Everyoneの新機能「関連データ機能」をご紹介します。 関連データ機能は、あるタブのデータを別のタブに柔軟に関連付け、異なるタブで管理されている情報を1か所にまとめて表示できます。 たとえば、組織タブとチームタブのデータを関連付けることで、必要な情報に効率よくアクセスでき、顧客理解を深めながら他チームとの連携もスムーズに行えます。 目次 1. 関連データの設定方法
                                                                                                              • Next Page