Configuring Automatic Actions
Zoho CRM allows you to create specific set of actions that aide in automating your sales and marketing activities. There are totally 5 actions that you can create and these actions can be associated with Workflow rules, Blueprint and Approval Process. The actions include:
- sending email notifications
- assigning tasks to users
- updating fields
- communicating with third-party applications by sending instant web notifications
- updating data in related CRM modules or third-party applications by executing simple program scripts.
Actions are defined for specific modules. Workflow rules, Approval processes and Blueprints created for a module can have actions that are created for the same module. These actions are triggered when the the criteria is met in associated features. For example, you can direct a record for approval either when the record is edited or created and associate an email alert to the manager who needs to approve. Similarly, in Blueprint different actions (email alerts, assign task or field update) can be set to trigger when a deal moves from one stage to another. Under workflow rules, Zoho CRM allows you to associate actions that can be triggered immediately when the conditions are met or schedule them to be triggered on a specific time.
Benefits
- Improves efficiency by automating task assignment.
- Reduces operating costs.
- Enhances businesess processes through standardized working methods.
Different types of actions that can be created are:
- Email notifications
- Tasks
- Field updates
- Webhooks
- Functions
- Create record
- Assign record owner
- Actions by Zoho Flow
Note
A single action may be associated with multiple workflow rules. It can also be used in other places in the CRM like blueprints. When you edit an action, the change will be reflected in all workflow rules (and other automations) associated with that action.
For example, let's say that we have an email notification that is associated with a workflow rule and with a blueprint. You want to create a similar workflow rule. When you clone the existing workflow rule and edit an action, a confirmation popup will appear.
Click Update if you want to go ahead with the change even if it will reflect in all associated automations. If you don't want the change to be reflected in other automations, click Cancel and create a new action.