Arattai is a messaging application from Zoho. By integrating your Arattai Business Platform account with Zoho CRM, you can receive messages from customers who use Arattai and respond to them from within CRM, with every conversation stored against the lead or contact.

As with the other business messaging providers, only the customer can start a conversation. When they do, the message enters your Messages module, is assigned to a user on your team, and can be answered for the next 48 hours.

Prerequisites

Before you integrate Arattai with Zoho CRM, you need:

• An Arattai Business Platform account.

• A phone number associated with that account

• Administrator privileges in Zoho CRM, as only an administrator can set up the integration

To create an Arattai Business Platform account, go to arattaibusiness.in/business-platform and follow the sign-up process there. You can check here for more information.

Integrating Arattai with Zoho CRM

Only an administrator can initiate this integration.

To integrate Arattai with Zoho CRM

1. Go to Setup → Channels → Business Messaging.

2. Under Arattai, click Details → Integrate. The Arattai Business Platform login page opens.

3. Enter the email address and password of your Arattai Business Platform account, and sign in.

4. On the access request page, review the list of details that Zoho CRM will be allowed to access.

5. Select the consent checkbox and click Accept.

6. On the Arattai Business Profile pop-up:

• Enter a Nick Name for the Arattai Business profile in CRM. You will identify this profile by this name inside CRM.

• Select the Arattai Business Company. The associated Number ID is displayed. If your account has only one company, this picklist is disabled.

• Select the Arattai Business Account.

• Select the phone number to be used for this integration. The numbers available depend on the account you selected.

7. Click Next.

8. On the Account Preferences pop-up:

• In Add as, choose whether messages from unknown senders should create Leads or Contacts.

• In Assign To, choose Users, Roles or Groups.

• In the picklist that appears, select the users, the role or the group that should handle these messages. You can select multiple users, but only one role or one group.

9. Click Save.

A confirmation message indicates that the integration is successful. On the Business Messaging page, the Arattai tile now carries an Integrated tag.

About account preferences

When a potential customer messages your business for the first time, Zoho CRM cannot match them to an existing record, so they arrive as an unknown sender. Account preferences tell CRM what to do with them.

"Add as" determines whether the sender is created as a lead or a contact. "Assign To" determines who owns the incoming message. Assignment happens in a round-robin pattern across the users, the users in the selected role, or the members of the selected group.

You can change these preferences at any time after integration.

You can associate one Arattai phone number with a Zoho CRM organization.

Managing the integration

After integration, go to Setup → Channels → Business Messaging and click Details on the Arattai tile. You will see the account details, and options to edit or deactivate the integration.

Viewing and editing account preferences

1. Go to Setup → Channels → Business Messaging.

2. Click Details on the Arattai tile. A pop-up displays the Account Name and Account Number, followed by the Account Preferences section.

3. Click the Edit icon.

4. Change Add as, Assign To, and the users, role or group in the picklist.

5. Click Save.

A message confirms the change. New assignments follow the updated preferences; messages already assigned are not reassigned.

Credits

The Arattai tile displays an Available credits label and a Buy Credits option.

Responding to messages that your customers send does not consume credits. Because this release does not support business-initiated messages, no action you take in the Arattai channel is charged. The Buy Credits option is available for capabilities introduced in later releases.

Deactivating the integration

1. Go to Setup → Channels → Business Messaging.

2. On the Arattai tile, click Details → Deactivate.

3. On the Are you sure you want to deactivate this integration? pop-up, click Deactivate. To keep the integration, click Cancel.

A record's Arattai messages are not affected when you deactivate the integration. Messages are deleted only if the record itself is deleted.

Receiving and managing messages from Arattai users

Messages from Arattai users share the same interface as your other business messages. An incoming message is matched to an existing lead or contact and associated with it automatically. If the sender does not match any record, Zoho CRM creates one for them. Whether that record is a lead or a contact depends on the Add as preference you set during configuration, and its owner is picked from your Assign To selection in round-robin.

Note: If the user has chosen to not share their number on Arattai, they will be considered as an unknown sender and a new lead/contact record will be created for them.

Getting notified of new messages

Every incoming message appears as a pop-up notification on your Zoho CRM screen. You can respond immediately, or ignore it and respond later.

Incoming Arattai messages are also listed in your Signals notifications, provided signals for business messaging are enabled.

To enable signals for incoming business messages

1. Go to Setup → Experience Center → Signals. Alternatively, click the Signals icon in the top bar, then click Settings at the bottom of the panel that slides open.

2. Under Business Messaging, select Incoming Messages.

3. Click Save.

Users now receive a notification whenever a customer sends a message.

Working with the Messages module

Arattai conversations appear in the Messages module along with messages from your other providers, listed chronologically with no difference in the interface. Hover over the name of a prospect or customer to see the source of the message.

You can choose from these views:

• All Messages

• All Not Replied Messages

• All Today's Messages

• My Messages

• My Not Replied Messages

• My Today's Messages

Two system-defined filters are available: Not Replied Messages and Replied Messages. You can also filter by Message Time, Notifications, Record Owner and Replied By, and sort the list by Message Time in ascending or descending order.

Click a message to open the conversation view, which is divided into three sections. The left panel lists text messages from all customers. The centre panel is where you read and respond, divided into Messages and Attachments tabs. The right panel holds Info, Timeline and Conversations.

The Info tab shows the basic details of the lead or contact, with options to send an email, add notes, and create tasks, meetings and calls. The Timeline tab lists actions performed on the record in chronological order. The Conversations tab shows social conversations, emails sent from CRM, and messages.

Responding to Arattai users

The message owner can respond once the customer has started the conversation. You can type a message, insert a predefined text, or use merge fields to personalize your reply, for example "Hi, $[Leads.First Name]". Preview the merged value before sending.

Note: You can reply to a message within 48 hours of receiving it. After this window closes, you cannot respond to that message.

To set up predefined text

1. Go to the Messages module and click a message.

2. Next to the typing bar, click New Predefined Text. Alternatively, click Manage → + New Predefined Text.

3. Enter a name for the text, such as Greetings.

4. Enter the message. You can use merge fields.

5. Click Save.

To edit or delete a predefined text, click Manage, hover over the text and click the Edit or Delete icon. You cannot change the module while editing a predefined text, as this would break any merge fields used in it.

Sending attachments

You can attach up to five files to a message. Files can be added from your computer, or from Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, Box and Evernote.

All files sent and received in a conversation are collected in the Attachments tab, where you can preview and download them.

Messages related list

Depending on the account preference you set during configuration, incoming messages are associated with the lead or the contact. You can view them on the record in the Messages related list, in chronological order.

See also

• Business Messaging — An Overview

• Arattai Business Platform