Zoho Desk Autumn Release - 2024 — Post 3

Zoho Desk Autumn Release - 2024 — Post 3

Instant Messaging 

Mass WhatsApp messaging for efficient communication


Agents can send WhatsApp messages to multiple contacts at once, which is useful for various activities, such as onboarding and customer engagement programs. There’s also an option to skip sending messages to contacts who are already engaged in a conversation with another agent to avoid interruptions in the ongoing conversation.


Help document and availability

Sending mass WhatsApp messages to contacts | Standard and above



 


Add new contacts to Desk while sending WhatsApp messages and reply to IM tickets from the Tickets module

 

A new shortcut, +w, has been introduced to streamline sending WhatsApp messages directly from the Tickets module. When using +w, users can quickly initiate a WhatsApp message to the associated contact. If the message is being sent to a new contact, their details will be automatically recorded within the system, and autopopulated in the Contact's record. For example, if a new customer contacts the support via WhatsApp and their details are not yet in Zoho Desk, sending a reply will automatically create a new record in the Contacts module.

 

Help document and availability

Create a contact while sending WhatsaApp messages | Standard and above


Integrate Facebook messenger with Zoho Desk


Integrating Facebook Messenger with Zoho Desk allows businesses to efficiently manage customer communication through Meta's Facebook business pages. Once set up, the Messenger platform enables seamless interactions between customers and the business via various entry points, including Facebook Posts, the Meta business page, and the business's website.


Help document and availability

Integrate Facebook messenger with Zoho Desk | Standard and above




Integrate Instagram with Zoho Desk


Integrating Instagram with Zoho Desk enables businesses to manage customer communications through their Instagram business accounts. This integration allows seamless message exchanges between customers and businesses, with conversations originating from Instagram posts, the Meta business page, or a website widget. For example, a retail clothing brand can integrate its Instagram business account with Zoho Desk to manage customer inquiries directly from its Instagram posts or DMs.


Help document and availability

Integrate Instagram with Zoho Desk | Standard and above





Configure business hours for your IM channels


Business hours can be configured for various IM channels, including WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, and Line, ensuring that customer inquiries are managed efficiently within the designated timeframes. Setting business hours involves defining the times when a business is open and available to assist customers. This ensures that the support team operates in alignment with these hours.


Help document and availability

Setting conversation rules in instant messaging | Standard and above





Implement a customizable business messaging widget


Business messaging offers another channel for engaging with customers through customizable widgets available for Web, iOS, and Android platforms. By integrating a fully customizable chat widget into a website, businesses can provide real-time support and interact with visitors seamlessly. The chat window’s appearance, including its color scheme and logo, can be tailored to match the website’s design, ensuring a cohesive brand experience.


Help document and availability

Adding a business messaging widget to your website | Standard and above






Multi-WABA support for WhatsApp business platform


Supported multiple WhatsApp Business Accounts (WABA), allowing businesses to create channels for different brands or departments. Each business unit can manage its communication channels with a dedicated WABA to ensure efficient operations. Businesses with multiple WhatsApp accounts can set up and link as many channels as needed to provide a centralized platform and shared access to customer data for seamless information flow and operations.

 

Help document and availability

Support multiple WhatsApp Business Accounts | Standard and above







Add GC Bots to Telegram, FB Messenger, Line, Instagram, and Business Messaging channels  


Guided Conversation (GC) bots can be deployed in a variety of IM channels such as Telegram, FB Messenger, Line, Instagram, and Business Messaging channels. This provides customers with a self-service platform where they can interact with bots and support agents when needed.


Help document and availability

GC Bots to Telegram | GC Bots to Line | GC Bots to Instagram | GC Bots to Business Messaging channels | GC Bots to FB Messenger | Enterprise


GC Bots in FB Messenger



GC Bots in Instagram




 

GC Bots in Telegram




GC Bots in Business Messaging



GC Bots in Line




Manage agent visibility and notifications for IM

 

Agents can set their status as online or offline specifically for the Instant Messaging feature. This allows them to control their visibility and mute all IM notifications with a click, ensuring uninterrupted work during critical tasks.

 

Help document and availability

Managing user status in IM | Standard and above





Use webhooks in IM to automate tasks

 

Zoho Desk's instant messaging webhooks enable automation of event-driven tasks between messaging apps and business workflows. By leveraging IM webhooks, businesses can integrate multiple channels into their business workflows, creating a seamless conversational ecosystem that enhances the customer journey and meets their preferences. For example, an ecommerce platform can automatically share package delivery OTPs via WhatsApp, an insurance provider can send payment reminders, and a travel agency can deliver booking details—all triggered through the webhooks in IM.

 

Availability

Professional and above



 

 

Measure customer happiness rating for IM Channels


Collect feedback on customer satisfaction for interactions conducted through the IM channel. A customer's happiness rating helps to see what they think about the support they receive at the end of each response or after closing their ticket. The integrated analytics will also assist the business in monitoring the ratings received by the agents or given by their contacts and accounts across various time frames.


Help document and availability

Customer happiness rating for IM channels | Standard and above





Thread separation in IM tickets  

Users can enhance clarity in IM tickets with the help of thread separation. This feature distinguishes different conversation threads to make it easier for agents to manage and resolve issues effectively.


Availability

Standard and above






Integration 

Scheduling meetings from the ticket interface with Zoho Meeting integration


The Zoho Meeting integration enables agents to schedule and conduct meetings directly from the ticket interface. For example, if a customer submits a ticket requesting a product demo, the agent can create the meeting from the ticket interface, invite the relevant stakeholders, and also have the meeting recording and meeting details such as link, date, time, and venue available inside the ticket for easy access.


Help document and availability

Integrate Zoho Meeting with Zoho Desk | Standard and above



 


Track agent attendance and availability with the Agent Attendance Tracker extension

The Agent Attendance Tracker extension provides a comprehensive system for the support managers to monitor the agent's attendance. It addresses key operational challenges related to tracking and managing agents' break hours, attendance, and routine activities. Managers can track check-in and check-out timings and view detailed activity logs of their support agents. This is helpful in various ways:


  • Accurate break logging: Allows agents to define and log break times, maintain proper shift coverage, and ensure uninterrupted service for customers.
  • Streamlined check-in/out: Simplifies the process of checking in and out and enables precise tracking of work hours and real-time monitoring via the Agent Availability Report.
  • Custom statuses: Enables the creation of custom statuses for activities like training and meetings to provide detailed visibility into agents' time allocation and enhance accountability.

 

Help document and availability

Integrating Zoho Desk with agent attendance tracker | Standard and above

 


 


 




Also see our What's new page

Regards,
Varsha P | Zoho Desk - User Education

    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



                                                          • Sticky Posts

                                                          • 2024 Email Authentication Standards: Elevating Security with Google and Yahoo

                                                            In contemporary email communication, email authentication plays a pivotal role in mitigating email fraud, spam, and phishing attacks. Brace yourself for a new level of security. Starting February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo will be implementing robust email
                                                          • Using Agent Email Address as From Address

                                                            Currently, while replying to a ticket, it is possible for agents to choose their own email addresses as 'from' addresses. Although we built this just for that little extra flexibility, in hindsight, it hasn't figured much in conventional usage.  Almost all businesses prefer that responses to their customers' tickets be sent from the common support/service email address and NOT from those of individual agents. During personal interactions at events, some of you have even made passing mentions about
                                                          • Edit and Delete options in Comments

                                                            A lot of teams have been using ticket comments extensively to collaborate everyday. Notification Center further improved this experience by bringing real-time updates. As we continue to build more improvements to this experience, we've shipped a small-yet-important
                                                          • Webinar 2: Supercharged customer support for growing business

                                                            Join us for this webinar and learn how to step up your support game using a real-time communication platform to generate happier, more successful customers. In this live webinar, we will will discuss the importance of SalesIQ for your support team and how it can help you:  Understand your customers better and their journeys to proactively support and engage them even before they ask for help.  Integrating real time conversations into Zoho Desk’s Support, providing a conversational customer service
                                                          • Customize Colors of your Customer Self Service Portal

                                                            You asked for it. We heard you. We're happy to roll out the most sought after feature request, Customizing the Colors of your Customer Self-service Portal. Now you can set the color of your customer portal to mimic your company's web site, so that your customers visiting the portal will not feel alienated by the default theme.  Go ahead and configure the color of the header, tabs, fonts and background according to your needs. You can either choose between default color themes like Blue, Grey, Green


                                                          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

                                                                                                            • Employee type and source translation

                                                                                                              In Zoho People, when I fill in the employee’s information, there is the option to determine the type of employment (employee type) and the hiring source. Both options ALWAYS appear in English. It is extremely inconvenient to deal with poorly translated
                                                                                                            • Sync Issue Between Zoho Notebook Web App on Firefox (PC) and Android App

                                                                                                              Hi Zoho Notebook Community, I'm facing a sync problem with Zoho Notebook. When I use the web version on Mozilla Firefox browser on my PC, I create and save new notes, and I've synced them successfully. However, these new notes aren't showing up in my
                                                                                                            • Request for Clarity on Timeline for True GPT/Zia Auto-Response Capabilities

                                                                                                              I appreciate Zoho’s steady innovation, but I’m concerned that Desk and Zia remain well behind modern AI capabilities. For years, GPT-based tools have been able to generate and send contextual responses, yet Zoho Desk only supports summarization or suggested
                                                                                                            • Notebook audio recordings disappearing

                                                                                                              I have recently been experiencing issues where some of my attached audio recordings are disappearing. I am referring specifically to ones made within a Note card in Notebook on mobile, made by pressing the "+" button and choosing "Record audio" (or similar),
                                                                                                            • Has anyone built a ticket export that allows Help Center users to export the tickets shown in the My Area list they are looking at?

                                                                                                              Hi, We are moving to Zoho Desk soon. Our current support system displays an option in our help center allowing customers to export their Open, Closed, or all tickets based on which list they are looking at. We need to offer the same in Zoho Desk help
                                                                                                            • Zoho Desk: Q2 2025 | What's New

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, We are excited to announce Zoho Desk's 2025 Autumn updates. This release brings new features and enhancements that improve work management and enable businesses to provide a better overall support experience. Spanning from Zia Agents to
                                                                                                            • Checkboxes not adhering to any policy in mail merge - data from CRM

                                                                                                              I want checkboxes to appear depending on whether the checkbox in the CRM module is ticked or not. However, the tickboxes that appear are either ticked or not, but don't correlate to the actual selections in the CRM module. This is is despite updating
                                                                                                            • Items Landed Cost and Profit?

                                                                                                              Hello, we recently went live with Zoho Inventory, and I have a question about the Landed Cost feature. The FAQ reads: "Tracking the landed cost helps determine the overall cost incurred in procuring the product. This, in turn, helps you to decide the
                                                                                                            • CC and/or BCC users in email templates

                                                                                                              I would like the ability to automatically assign a CC and BCC "User (company employee)" into email templates. Specifically, I would like to be able to add the "User who owns the client" as a CC automatically on any interview scheduled or candidate submitted
                                                                                                            • Create Contract API Endpoint Unclear "inputfields" Requirements

                                                                                                              Hello, I'm trying to create a Deluge function that accepts inputs from a form in Zoho Creator and creates a barebones contract of a given type. See below for the current code, cleaned of authentication information. // Fetch form data // Hidden field client_name
                                                                                                            • Kaizen #46 - Handling Notes through Zoho CRM API (Part 1/2)

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! This week, we will discuss Handling Notes through Zoho CRM API. What will you learn from this post? Notes in Zoho CRM Working with Notes through Notes APIs 1. Notes in Zoho CRM 1a. Why add Notes to records? Notes are a great way to summarize your observations on customer and prospect interactions and outcomes. By saving notes as CRM data, a sales rep will always be able to keep track of how a sale is progressing. To know more about notes in
                                                                                                            • Marketer's Space - Why email marketing matters in ecommerce (and how to get started with Zoho Campaigns)

                                                                                                              Hello Marketers, Welcome to this week's Marketer's space post. Today, we'll discus why email marketing matters in ecommerce businesses. Running an online store is exciting but challenging. If you're running an online store, you've probably experienced
                                                                                                            • Zoho Campaigns Event timestamps do not propagate to Zoho CRM

                                                                                                              We have integrated Zoho CRM and Zoho Campaigns. But when looking at Contact records, the Campaign event data is missing the actual timestamps: especially when a particular email was sent. They're not in the Campaigns related list, and the cannot be found
                                                                                                            • Kaizen #121 : Customize List Views using Client Script

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interesting Kaizen post. In this post, we can discuss how to customize List Views using Client Script. This post will answer the questions Ability to remove public views by the super admin in the Zoho CRM and Is
                                                                                                            • Setting default From address when replying to request

                                                                                                              At the moment, if I want to reply to a request, the From field has three options, company@zohosupport.com, support@company.zohosupport.com, and support@company.com.  The first two are really internal address that should never be seen by the customer and
                                                                                                            • Tip #45 - Explore Your Support Reach with Zoho Assist’s Geo Insights - 'Insider Insights'

                                                                                                              Understanding where your remote support sessions are happening can help you make smarter decisions, allocate resources effectively, and improve overall customer satisfaction. In this week's Zoho Assist's community post we will be exploring Geo Insights
                                                                                                            • Formatting of text pasted into Zoho documents

                                                                                                              Howdy, I'm a newbie and finding Zoho an improvement to MS Word. Consider yourself hugged. High on my wish list would be plain text cut-and-paste. When pasting text from the web to Zoho, presently Zoho imports the formatting along with the text. This means that every cut-and-paste operation brings in text in a different font, size, or style. Can we have at least the option of importing plain text without formatting (or better yet, is this option already out there?) ... Thanks Helen
                                                                                                            • Can't deactivate Spell Check

                                                                                                              Hi Community, right now I'm using the Zoho Mail Desktop-Software. So far, so good.. many possibilities. Overall very nice. What is extremely annoying right now, is that we are not able to deactivate the Spell Check feature. And we are barely able to focus
                                                                                                            • Add additional features to Zoho Tables

                                                                                                              Zoho Tables is a really great tool, why not add features like diagramming capability into the tool from applications like Draw.io which I believe is open source, you should be able to do wireframes, process flow diagrams, network design, etc. Please note
                                                                                                            • The Social Wall: August 2025

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, As summer ends, Zoho Social is gearing up for some exciting, bigger updates lined up for the months ahead. While those are in the works, we rolled out a few handy feature updates in August to keep your social media management running smoothly.
                                                                                                            • The Social Wall: July 2025

                                                                                                              Hello everyone! July has brought some exciting new updates to Zoho Social. From powerful enhancements in the Social Toolkit to new capabilities in the mobile app, we’ve packed this month with features designed to help you level up your social media presence.
                                                                                                            • Use Zoho Creator as a source for merge templates in Zoho Writer

                                                                                                              Hello all! We're excited to share that we've enhanced Zoho Creator's integration with Zoho Writer to make this combination even more powerful. You can now use Zoho Creator as a data source for mail merge templates in Zoho Writer. Making more data from
                                                                                                            • Tagged problem !!!

                                                                                                              Damn it, we're one of dozens of construction companies in Africa, but we can't link purchasing invoices to projects. Why isn't this feature available?
                                                                                                            • Syntax for URLs in HTML Snippets

                                                                                                              What are some best practices for inserting a URL in an HTML snippet? I've looked at Zoho Help articles on navigation-based and functional-based URLs, but I'm still unclear on how to incorporate them in an HTML snippet. For example, 1. How do I link to
                                                                                                            • The Social Wall: June 2025

                                                                                                              Hello everyone, We’re back with June Zoho Social highlights. This month brought some exciting feature updates—especially within the Social Toolkit—to enhance your social media presence. We engaged with several MSME companies through community meet-ups
                                                                                                            • Make panel configuration interface wider

                                                                                                              Hi there, The same way you changed the custom function editor's interface wider, it would be nice to be able to edit panels in pages using the full width of the screen rather than the currently max-width: 1368px. Is there a reason for having the configuration panel not taking the full width? Its impossible at this width to edit panels that have a lot of elements. Please change it to 100% so we can better edit the layouts. Thanks! B.
                                                                                                            • Tip 7: How to fetch data from another application?

                                                                                                              Hi everyone, Following our Zoho Creator - Tips and Tricks series every fortnight, we are back today with a tip based on one of the most popular questions asked in our forum. This tip would help you fetch data from another application(App B) and use it
                                                                                                            • The Social Wall: May 2025

                                                                                                              Hey everyone, We're excited to share some powerful updates for the month of May! Let's take a look! Reply to your Instagram and Facebook comments privately through direct messages Are you tired of cluttered comment threads or exposing customer queries
                                                                                                            • Sub-Form Fields as Filters for Reports

                                                                                                              Hi, I would like to use the Sub-Form Fields as Filters in Reports just like we do for Main Page Fields. Thanks Dan
                                                                                                            • Zoho CRM Formula - Current Time minus Date/Time field

                                                                                                              Hello, I am trying to prevent duplicate emails going to clients when more than 1 deal is being updated. To do this, I would like to create a formula to identify if a date/time field is >= 2 hours ago. Can someone please help me write this formula? Example:
                                                                                                            • Billing Management: #7 Usage Billing in Telecom & Internet Service Provider

                                                                                                              Telecom and Internet Service Providers operate in markets where usage varies drastically from one customer to another. While flexible, usage-based models align revenue directly with consumption, they also introduce operational challenges like real-time
                                                                                                            • Zoho Sprints - Q3 updates for 2025

                                                                                                              The updates for the third quarter of 2025 are out. A few significant features and enhancements have been rolled out to improve user experience and product capabilities. The following are the updates: Manage tags and cluster tags Record and maintain project
                                                                                                            • Kaizen #208 - Answering your Questions | Functions, AI and Extensions

                                                                                                              Hello Developers! Welcome back to a fresh week of Kaizen! We are grateful for your active participation in sharing feedback and queries for our 200th milestone. This week, we will answer the queries related to Functions and Extensions in Zoho CRM. 1.
                                                                                                            • Zoho CRM still doesn't let you manage timezones (yearly reminder)

                                                                                                              This is something I have asked repeatedly. I'll ask once again. Suppose that you work in France. Next month you have a trip to Guatemala. You call a contact there, close a meeting, record that meeting in CRM. On the phone, your contact said: "meet me
                                                                                                            • Creating Restaurant Inventory Management on Zoho

                                                                                                              Hi,  We run a small cloud kitchen and are interested to use Zoho for Inventory and Composite Item tracking for our food served and supplied procured to make food items.  Our model is basically like subway where the customer can choose breads, veggies,
                                                                                                            • To Zoho customers and partners: how do you use Linked Workspaces?

                                                                                                              Hello, I'm exploring how we can set up and use Linked Workspaces and would like to hear from customers and partners about your use cases and experience with them. I have a Zoho ticket open, because my workspace creation fails. In the meantime, how is
                                                                                                            • Zoho Forms to Zoho CRM : First/Last Name to just Name ?

                                                                                                              When integrating a Zoho Form into the Accounts menu of the CRM I'm having trouble with how names are formatted ; In Forms the data is available as First Name or Last Name In the CRM there is only one field called Name How can I ensure that "John" "Smith"
                                                                                                            • This festive season, offer discounts with coupon code support in Stripe Checkout

                                                                                                              Hello form builders! It’s the festive season, the perfect time to spread joy and great deals! Now, with Zoho Forms’ latest enhancement for Stripe Checkout, you can do exactly that with coupon codes! Your payment forms integrated with Stripe Checkout can
                                                                                                            • Cómo creo una factura negativa o de abono?

                                                                                                              NEcesito anular una factura y crear una nueva igual pero en negativo. El sistema no me lo permite
                                                                                                            • Power of Automation::Streamline log hours to work hours upon task completion.

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