Notification SMS integration with Zoho CRM
- This feature is currently supported for companies registered in India.
- You can send transactional SMS from your registered sender IDs to customers in India.
- SMS notifications will be available for organizations throughout the world with our future releases.
In different business scenarios, it can be customary, or sometimes mandatory to send notifications to customers during various stages of the business process. While sending email notifications is always the standard choice, in certain cases, email notifications have some drawbacks.
There can be situations when a customer needs to be reminded of an event they are supposed to attend, or details of a successful purchase needs to be provided. Again, general service reminders, or transaction details are also important to be shared with customers. In these situations, sending quick and short SMS notification into their mobile devices with only the related details could be a better choice than an email notification.
Enable Notification SMS
You can enable the Notification SMS feature for your organization in the following steps:
- Provide the basic company details, like company name, brand name, city, country of registration, etc.
- Provide the sender ID details for using the notification SMS service. These details are different for different countries based on the rules and guidelines set up by the telecom provider authorities. The details required on the sender ID page will change depending on the country of registration of your company.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has enforced DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) to ensure only legitimate SMS is sent to customers in India. The notification SMS must be sent via an Indian Sender ID, registered with the DLT. Once a sender ID is verified by DLT, provide the following details on this page. - Once the details are provided, you can buy credits to start sending notification SMS.
To set up SMS notifications
- Navigate to Setup > Channels > Notification SMS.
- Click Enable.
- Click Continue.
- On the next screen, provide the following details:
- Legal Company Name
- Brand Name
- City
- State/Region
- Postal Code/Zip Code
- Country of registration
- Click Next.
- On the sender ID Info tab, provide the following details:
- Sender Name (Sender ID/Header): An unique alpha header registered with DLT under TRAI’s Regulation for sending
transactional communication. - PEID: PEID is the unique 19 digit entity ID on your registered DLT portal.
- Entity Name: Entity name as registered in DLT
- Sender Unique ID: The unique Header ID provided by DLT.
- Registered By: The telecom service provider used to register for the sender ID.
- Click Save.
Chain Creation in DLT Portal
Once the configuration of Notification SMS is complete, do not miss this step of updating your telemarketer aggregator as ZOHO CORPORATION PRIVATE LIMITED in your DLT portal. This must be adhered to in order to guarantee seamless delivery for your Notification SMS messages.
What to do:
What to do:
Since Zoho sends your Notification SMS messages, Zoho acts as your telemarketer. The new regulation requires you to visit your respective DLT (Distributed Ledger Technology) portal and add Zoho Corp as your Telemarketer Aggregator under the Chains section. Once your chain has been submitted, the DLT will notify us. We will then approve it and send you an email confirmation.
This action is mandatory for all Indian customers who have enabled the Notification SMS feature.
How to do:
Log in to your DLT portal.
Navigate to the Chains section, create a new chain, and name it.
In the Telemarketer section, look for Zoho Corp using the telemarketer ID 1102631350000082951 or ZOHO CORPORATION PRIVATE LIMITED.
Add ZOHO CORPORATION PRIVATE LIMITED as your Telemarketer Aggregator. Before submitting, please ensure that the details match the image below ("Zylker" is an example).
5. Click Submit.
6. Kindly create another similar chain entry declaring Zoho as a Telemarketer Aggregator. This is to ensure SMS delivery through our fallback mechanism if the direct route is unavailable, guaranteeing delivery even during connectivity issues.
Credit Details
To send SMS notifications, you must have credits in your account. As and when SMS are sent, credits will be deducted from here. Upon enabling the Notification SMS feature with company info and sender ID info, you will be redirected to the Credit Details tab. Here, you can view details of your credits like the available balance and the credit usage analysis, as well as buy new credits, set up auto recharge, or view credits purchase history.
To buy credits
- Go to Setup > Channels > Notification SMS > Credit Details.
- Click Buy Credits.
The SMS notifications will only be sent if you have credits available in your balance. To avoid situations of running out of credits, you can also set up auto recharge.
To set up auto recharge
- Go to Setup > Channels > Notification SMS > Credit Details.
- Click on the three dots.
- Click Manage Auto Recharge.
- Toggle the button to enable auto recharge.
- Set the minimum credit balance to be maintained.
- The balance will be automatically recharged, every time the credit is less than the minimum balance.
Set the number of credits to be added once the credit balance is below minimum.
Pricing
In order to send SMS notifications, you need to have sufficient credits in your account. Each time an SMS is sent, credits will be deducted from your account. The pricing per SMS to send transactional SMS from your DLT registered sender ID to Indian phone numbers is 0.0020 credits (1 credit = $1 USD).
Preference
Admins can enable the preference options to set up your preferences to send reminders to your CRM users to remind them of tasks, meetings, and calls.
Configure SMS Templates
Once the Notification SMS feature is enabled and credits are bought, the next requirement is to set up SMS templates, have them verified as per the DLT guidelines, and use the templates to set up notifications.
You can configure SMS Templates in the following steps.
Create an SMS template on CRM
Give the template a name, select the module to associate the action, and provide the SMS content. You can use merge fields to add fields from records as your SMS content.
To configure SMS templates
Create Template in CRM
- Navigate to Setup > Automation > Actions > SMS Notifications > SMS Templates.
- Click + New SMS Template.
- On the pop-up for SMS template, provide the details.
- Click Save.
- Once the template is created, copy the content for DLT approval.
You can click the link to copy the SMS content, and paste it on the DLT platform and submit for DLT approval.
You can view the message template by clicking on the record in the list view. You can edit the Message Name and the message when clicked on edit.Button is provided along with the action buttons in the top-right corner of the message template view page.
Notes:
- Upon editing an SMS template, you can't change the Module.
- If the message is edited, you need to submit it again for approval. You will be provided with the option to save as draft and submit for approval.
Get the SMS content DLT Approved
Once the SMS template is set up in CRM, you will need to get it approved from DLT before using them. You can simply copy the SMS content into your clipboard from CRM and use it for review in your DLT portal. Once approved, you can download the DLT approved File.
DLT has set up rules and guidelines for the template content and restrictions.
Get CTA Whitelisted in DLT Portal
It has been observed by the Government that the URLs in the messages are often misused and cannot be traced back. As a measure to address this, TRAI have mandated that all Call to action links in the message template to be whitelisted.
These call to action links can only be long URLs, main domain pages, WABA links (WhatsApp for Business Accounts), APK links, mobile numbers, toll-free numbers, and email addresses can be whitelisted in templates. Shortened URLs from Bitly, TinyURL, and others will be neither approved nor allowed.
Go to your DLT Portal and whitelist the URLs that your message content will contain. If you fail to do this, messages containing URLs that are not whitelisted will not be delivered.
Upload DLT approved file and map SMS content
Once the DLT approved file is downloaded, you can upload it back to CRM. In Submit DLT file, map the Zoho CRM templates with the DLT approved SMS contents available in the file. Based on the mapped contents, SMS notifications will be sent as and when workflows are triggered.
To upload DLT approved file
- Navigate to Setup > Automation > Actions > SMS Notifications > SMS Templates.
- Click Submit DLT file.
- Select the DLT file from your device.
- Click Next.
- On the CRM Template Mapping page, map the templates.
Once the SMS contents are mapped, a test message will be sent to verify whether the message template is approved by DLT. Upon successful verification, the message templates will be approved in Zoho CRM and can be used in workflows.
Setting up notifications
Once you have enabled SMS notification for your org, and have DLT approved SMS templates uploaded on your CRM, you can configure SMS notifications and use them with different Workflow rules.
To set up SMS notification
- Navigate to Setup > Automation > Actions > Message Notifications.
- On the Notifications tab, click + Create Notification > SMS Notification.
- In the pop-up, provide the following details:
- Name: Provide a name for the notification for future references.
- Module: Select the module for the SMS notification.
- Recipients: Select the recipients mobile numbers from the records of the different modules for sending the SMS.
- Message Template: Choose and associate the DLT approved SMS template.
- Click Save.
You can view the notifications by clicking on the record listed in the Notifications tab. You can edit the notification by clicking Edit.
To send transactional SMS from CRM in India, the recipient's mobile number should be of the format: +91-XXXX-XXXXXX
Note:
- The module of the Notification cannot be edited.
Associate Message Notifications in Workflow
In Workflow, the user can configure the workflow transaction, condition and choose SMS Notification in Instant action to send SMS Message.
The user can choose an existing SMS Notification or create a new notification.
When creating a new notification, you will only be able to choose from approved templates.
Send Reminder Messages via Notification SMS
By default, when the admin enables Notification SMS, reminder messages are sent to the users tasks, calls, and meetings. Users can turn off the reminder messages for themselves by checking the box to Turn off Reminder via SMS in their Calendar Preferences under Reminder Settings.
The admin can disable reminder SMS for all the users in Notification SMS Setup Preferences in the CRM Setup.
Supporting resources
The following are help links to some of the most popular providers in the country:
Airtel: Video | Help article
Jio Trueconnect: User guide | Website
Vi Business: Vilpower website | User manual
BSNL: Video | User guide
Videocon's Smart Enterprise Solutions: User manual
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