🎄 Jingle, Mingle, and Automate: Spread Christmas Cheer with Zoho Desk Auto-Replies! 🎄

🎄 Jingle, Mingle, and Automate: Spread Christmas Cheer with Zoho Desk Auto-Replies! 🎄

Hello Everyone!

Welcome to this week's episode of the Community Learning Series.

Christmas is in the air, and I’m sure we can all feel the jingle and the mingle of the season! The folks at Zylker Techfix are no exception—they’re busy with holiday plans and festive cheer. But amidst all the celebrations, they also wanted to ensure their customers felt cared for, even while their agents enjoy a well-deserved break.

With Zoho Desk, they found the perfect solution: a simple workflow rule that automates replies to customers during the holidays. By configuring the Holiday List and Business Hours, Zylker Techfix reassured their customers with thoughtful, seasonal messages—spreading festive cheer while letting them know their queries will be handled once the team is back.



Here's how you can configure the automation.
In Zoho Desk, you can configure holidays for the year manually:
  • Go to Setup (S) >> Organization >> Holiday Lists.
  • Click on the New Holiday List tab to create a holiday list for your organization. 


2. Associate Business Hours
  • Within the Holiday List, enable the toggle for Associate Business Hours and link the preferred Business Hours.
3. Link from Business Hours
  • Alternatively, you can associate the Holiday List directly on the Business Hours page.
  • Navigate to Setup (S) >> Organization >> Business Hours and enable the Associate Holiday List toggle.


This ensures your Holiday List and Business Hours work seamlessly together for better holiday management.
Notes
You can associate only one Holiday to a Business Hour. 
Info
To avoid duplicate notifications, disable the Receiving a new ticket toggle under Contact Notifications before configuring this Workflow rule. (Go to Setup(S) >> Customization >> Notifications (Notification Rules) >> Contact Notifications)
Steps to configure Workflow with a Custom Action 
To create the Workflow rule, perform the following steps:
1. Go to Setup >> Automation >>Workflows.
2. In the left panel, under Workflows, click Rules > Create Rule.

In the Basic Information section, perform the following steps:
3. In the Module drop-down menu, select Tickets.
4. Enter a name and description for the rule.
5. To activate the rule immediately, select the Active checkbox. Otherwise, you can activate it later from the Rules page.
6. Click Next.

In the Execute on section, perform the following steps:
7. Select Create and Customer Reply to execute the rule when a ticket is created or a customer replies.
8. Click Next.

Under Criteria:
9. Select the criteria Execution Time, choose on a holiday of, and select the Business Hours to which you have associated the Holiday Lists. Click Next.
10. Add another criteria Execution Time, choose outside of business hours, and select the business hours during which your organization is operational.
Notes
The outside business hours criteria is added to ensure the workflow starts operating either from the holiday eve or once business hours end.
11.  Add an Action 
In the Actions section, You can add an Alert or a Custom Action (Email reply).

I. To Add an Alert: Create/ Edit the Email Notification 
a. You can create or edit an email template by navigating to Setup (S) >> Customization >> Email Templates. To create a new email template, click on the Add tab.
b. To edit the default notification, select the email template Acknowledge Contact on Receiving a New Ticket under Contact Notifications and modify the email message based on your holiday reasons.
c. To add this Alert to the Action in the workflow, Click on the + icon under Action and select Alerts, then click New under Action Type.
d. Enter a name, choose the email template Acknowledge Contact on Receiving a New Ticket under Contact Notifications or a custom alert you’ve created, select the teams or roles you would like to notify, and click Save.
II. Add an Custom Action (Email reply)
i. To add a Email reply  to the workflow rule, click on the + icon under "Action" and select Email Reply under Action Type.
ii. Enter a name. Under From Address, select Email address from the drop-down list.
iii. Under To Address, click on the Insert Placeholder { } option and select the Email placeholder from Tickets, Contacts, or Accounts as required.
iv.  In  the Ticket Reply section, type the customised message that you want to send to your customers. You can use Insert Placeholder as required within the Ticket Reply section. 
v. Click Save to save the Action.
12. Add an Action based on your preference (Alert/ Email reply) within the Workflow rule. 
13. Click Save to save the Workflow.
Info
The alert email will be sent separately to your customer's inbox, whereas the custom action email reply will be threaded within the customer's inquiry email.
Implementation
When a ticket is created or a customer responds to a pending ticket during the Holiday List or outside Business Hours, an automated response is sent to inform them that a ticket has been created and will be promptly handled as soon as business hours resume after the holiday. 
It’s the perfect way to enjoy your holidays and keep your customers smiling. So go ahead—plan your celebrations and let Zoho Desk take care of the rest!

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas filled with joy, warmth, and just the right balance of work and play! 🎅🎄
Christmas wishes from The Zoho Desk Team. 

Until Next week, 
Lydia | Zoho Desk. 


    • Sticky Posts

    • Zoho Desk Virtual Meetup: US Central, October 5 - 7, 2021

      After the interactive Virtual Meetups in the other regions, we are starting with the US Central and Midwest regions from October 5 to October 7, 2021. The dates for other regions will be announced soon.  At this event, we will explore the topics which

    • Register for Zoho Desk Beta Community

      With the start of the year, we have decided to take a small step in making the life of our customers a little easier. We now have easy access to all our upcoming features and a faster way to request for beta access. We open betas for some of our features

    • Ask the Experts 10: A 5-hour online Q&A on Zoho Desk Best Practices

      Welcome to Zoho Desk's Ask the Experts session! This is a monthly discussion on our  forums; wherein a panel of experts will take on questions  specific to topics related to Zoho Desk. The panel will be available for a 5-hour period and will answer any questions posted here.   Let's begin the year learning some best practices from our experts. In this month's ATE we are opening the floor to questions on how to use Zoho Desk the best way.  If you have a business use case but not sure if Workflow is

    • Share your Zoho Desk story with us!

      Tell us how you use Zoho Desk for your business and inspire others with your story. Be it a simple workflow rule that helps you navigate complex processes or a macro that saves your team a lot of time; share it here and help the community learn and grow with shared knowledge. 

    • Ask the Experts 7: A 5-hour online Q&A on Telephony and Call Module

      Welcome to Ask the Experts session! This is a monthly discussion in forums; each session, a panel of experts will take questions on specific topics related to Zoho Desk. The panel will be available for a 5-hour period and answer any questions posted here. In this month's Ask the Experts, we will take questions on everything related to Telephony and the Call Module in Zoho Desk. We will discuss the following aspects:  Integration with different Telephony vendors Routing calls to agents Converting

      • Recent Topics

      • Profile stitching with Zoho Marketing Automation

        When it comes to marketing, knowing who your audience is and tracking their interactions is vital. That's why Zoho Marketing Automation has taken a significant leap forward with its enhanced profile stitching feature. With this update, you can track your

      • GDPR

        Hi , I'm checking out the HIPPA capabilities and at the moment I can see only three modules that can be selected to enable HIPPA Any idea how I can add additional modules such as customers? TNX David

      • default task list for new project

        Is there any way to have a default task list already created in a project, when the project is created in Zoho Books?

      • Record less quantity than ordered in ZOHO inventory

        Lets say I ordered 100 widgets from a Vendor. I have paid the Vendor month ago and just waiting for the product to ship. I have finally received the products but have only received 80 widgets. I see no way in ZOHO to only receive 80 widgets. ZOHO is forcing

      • Stripe payments via Books invoice link missing email - affects fraud detection

        Hi, All our payments done via Books invoice link have a warning: Integration improvement available This transaction is missing customer email address, which affects fraud detection. Why doesn't Books pass this info to zohosecurepay.eu/books/... for more

      • Power of Automation: Automatically sync custom field data between two tasks.

        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:-

      • 'View Invoice' button hyperlink taking to Google Business Maps listing

        The green "view invoice" button in my invoice emails is sending people to my Google maps business listing rather than the invoice. Both my clients and I are experiencing this as a new issue.

      • Migrating Zoho emails to Google Workspace

        Hi Is there a tool to migrate Zoho email to Google workspace?

      • Custom Functions - Calculate Commission - failure after migration from US to EU

        Hello, i would ask for help. My Custom Function - Calculate Commission stopped working and shows a failure. Mismatch of data type expression. Expected List but found String What is the problem? Could anyone help? Here is script: void automation.ObliczProwizje(Int

      • GoCardless Mandate Sync Question

        Hello, When syncing our customer database with GoCardless, some customers aren't working despite both email addresses matching in Zoho Books and GoCardless. Also what do we do about customers where they are associated with multiple accounts as these aren't

      • Create a draft in reply to an email via Emails API

        Hi, I’d like to use the outgoing webhook to automatically create a draft reply to incoming mail. How can I use the Emails API to create a draft reply that is linked to an existing email thread? I couldn’t find the relevant method in the documentation.

      • Weekly Tips: Flags for an organized mailbox

        Wishing you all a Happy New Year 🎉 As we step into 2025, it's time to refocus and set our intentions for the year straight. Whether you're already back at work or just returning from the holidays, you probably have emails that need your immediate attention,

      • Edit line item amount

        It would be sooooo much better to be able to edit the line item amount in all of the modules, if there is any variation in agreed prices it's extremely painful to calculate the rate to match ;-( The rate could be auto calculated on editing this field making life so much easier !

      • Chanel Partner

        Any Zoho channel partner or dubai based company who will help us for getting zoho services including the training for our staff

      • Refer a Friend Campaign

        I am looking to run a referral campaign that sees an initial email going to existing clients, asking them to refer a friend. For each new client referred, the existing client will get a ticket in a prize draw - the more new clients they refer, the more tickets they get in the draw.  I am wanting to figure out how this could be done via Zoho, and how these referrals can be tracked and linked to the existing client who referred them.

      • Emails cannot be received

        Hey, There is an issue in my Zoho account, E-mails can be send from my side but cannot be received on my account MX, DCIM and other are added but still cant receive them. Please help me to solve this problem at your earliest convenience and this is happening

      • Newsletter in multiple languages

        Hi We are planning on starting to use Zoho Campaigns for our newsletters. Since we send our newsletters in three languages, I would need the "unsubscribe page" and other pages related to the NL (Thank you page and so on) to be available in different languages

      • i couldn't recall message as one of the receptionists didn't received the message and i want to recall it urgent

        i couldn't recall message as one of the receptionists didn't received the message and i want to recall it urgent as recall button doesn't appear

      • Servidores caidos?

        Buenas, Hoy 30/12/2024, mi empresa esta sufriendo bastante problemas para acceder a las aplicaciones de Zoho. No sabemos si es solo nuestra compañia o esta afectado a todos. Cuando intentamos acceder a las aplicaciones nos salta el siguiente error: A

      • Tip #1- Remote support vs. unattended access: Contrasting two key concepts in tech assistance- 'Insider Insights'

        Hello everyone! We, at Zoho Community, are excited to introduce Insider Insights, a new series where we will look into various aspects of remote support technology and how they might help you. We'll be sharing tips, methods, and insights acquired from

      • Introducing Fair Evaluation for Interviews

        Collaboration is key in recruitment, but it’s important to ensure individual interviewers’ assessments are not influenced by others. With Fair Evaluation, you can choose how and when interviewers can see reviews of a candidate for the same job opening.

      • I have been looking for CVID to get segmate list where & how can fnd it?

        I am trying to get segment details from the Zoho API. The API documentation says that the CVID is a mandatory parameter, but I cannot find the CVID in the "getmailinglists" API. Can you tell me where to find the CVID?

      • "The data you have entered already exists" when trying to create contac@mydomain.com

        Hi all, Our domain is ananasjuicebar.com. Working as admin in the control panel: When I try to add the email account "contact@ananasjuicebar.com" I get the error: "The data you have entered already exists" I've tried creating a new user or creating a new group with this address associated. To my knowledge this address has never been added and I can also not find any reference to it. (Shopify used this address to send customer notifications BEFORE setting up Zohomail.) Any ideas? are there any restrictions

      • Tip of the week 03 - Sending emails in batches

        Today's marketers not only want their email marketing to be efficient, but also smart. For an email campaign, you may think you have all the essential elements for lead conversion—a big mailing list, an attractive template design, and the most-engaging message content, but after hitting the ‘send’ button, you may not get the expected conversions. Wondering why? Here’s one of the major reasons. Many marketers miss out on sending the email campaign the right way. Did you know that you should not be

      • Zoho Books Bank Feed

        Good afternoon, Is it possible to change the bank feed provider on a bank account. I'm using Plaid but think that Yodlee would be better in terms of pulling transactions in a timely manner. Thank you.

      • Create Bill from Purchase Order via API

        I know you can create a invoice from a Sales Order by using https://books.zoho.com/api/v3/invoices/fromsalesorder Is there a similar url for creating a bill from a purchase order?

      • Log incoming calls on Android CRM?

        I keep reading that I'm able to log incoming calls on the CRM app for Android, but when I answer a call and hang up, I never get the option to log. Is there a special admin I need to do for that? Or permissions? Thanks

      • How do i send an automated email 10 days after closing a ticket

        I am trying to set up an automated email to the customer a set period after the ticket is closed. I have created the email template, but i cannot work out how to set the trigger to send this out. Can someone point me in the right direction please? If

      • Domain Verification

        Hey,  How do I know that my account is verified by Zoho?  Do I need some zd code/number for it?  Need help asap! 

      • Sender not verified message showing on mails sent using zoho mail

        Hello, I am using Zoho mail to send and receive emails. Whenever i send emails to zoho mail id, it showing a message "Warning! Unverified sender.We could not verify that the email was actually from sending email. Be cautious when opening any links/ attachments,

      • Mail Outgoing blocked. Reason :Mail rate exceeded limit

        Hello, Please unblock my mail account: ser1@innspo.com Thanks

      • Why is Zoho Mail support so lousy?

        This is not the first time I voiced out about this, the first time was 2 months ago https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/what-the-actual-fk-is-wrong-with-zoho-mail-support where I had to follow 7 times in the span of 2 months to get a (unhelpful)

      • This domain is not allowed to add. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details

        I am trying to setup the free version of Zoho Mail. When I tried to add my domain, theselfreunion.com I got the error message that is the subject of this Topic. I've read your other community forum topics, and this is NOT a free domain. So what is the

      • Add Google Workspace Module to Zoho Flow

        Dear Zoho Flow Team, I hope this message finds you well. We’d like to request the addition of a dedicated Google Workspace module in Zoho Flow. Currently, there are no triggers or actions for Google Workspace, which limits our ability to integrate and

      • Separate Triggers and Enhanced Information for Zoho One Departments and Groups in Zoho Flow

        Dear Zoho Flow Team, I hope this message finds you well. Currently, there seems to be a mix-up between zoho one departments and groups in Zoho Flow, which causes some challenges in handling triggers effectively. For instance, when using the "User added

      • Creator Subform to CRM Subform

        Hello all, Has anyone successfully written data from a Creator Subform into CRM subform? I have a Creator form that once submitted creates a new Location in the CRM. Inside a Location there is a subform for hours of operation. I collect those hours in

      • not able to accept the Invitation

        not able to accept the Invitation

      • Inventory Management for Manufacturer

        Hello, We are a manufacturing company in the FnB industry. We want to use the inventory management system to manage our raw material stocks and at the same time once we produce items, we need to increase our final product inventory while decreasing the

      • Another nightmare experience with a "Zoho Partner": Cloud Z Technologies

        I found "CloudZTech" on fiverr and I hired them to do a simple $300-$500 task. They did not deliver on time and I was forced to fire them. You guys must watch out for these fake ZOHO PARTNERS, 99% of them don't have the expertise necessary to help. I

      • Produce application url to be common for all the Creator application Stages

        I am trying to develop an application using the 3 environments steps like development, stage, production. I am trying to pass in a variable url like which redirects to a Report inside the application URL = "https://creatorapp.zoho.eu/insurancemarket/environment/development/all/#Report:Sign_Up_Form_Report"

      • Next Page