Ring in the New Year with Guided Conversations for Smooth Offline Support

As we step into the new year, it’s time to refocus, re-energize, and gear up for fresh opportunities. But what about your customers as they begin the year with their own set of challenges or queries to resolve? 

With Zoho Desk’s Guided Conversations (GC), you can ensure they’re supported seamlessly, even as your team navigates the post-holiday rush.

Zylker Techfix, a mobile gadget firm, has a busy start as its customers flood them with requests: repair appointments, service inquiries, delivery tracking, and questions about new products. By leveraging Guided Conversations, Zylker Techfix provided an efficient, self-service experience that kept customers engaged while their team prioritized high-value tasks.

Here’s why Zylker Techfix setup the Guided Conversations feature within Zoho Desk:

• Customers could effortlessly log repair or service requests.
  
• Delivery updates and product inquiries were instantly addressed without delays.
  
• Clear and reassuring messaging kept customers informed that their concerns were logged and would be prioritized.
  
  
  

Guided Conversations acts as a dependable, 24/7 virtual assistant, automating ticket creation while offering a personal touch. Its intuitive, drag-and-drop builder enables you to design workflows that guide customers through their questions, gather essential information, and create tickets—even when your team is unavailable.

For businesses like Zylker Techfix, GC turned the often-hectic start of the year into an opportunity to build stronger customer relationships. By ensuring requests were acknowledged and logged, customers felt valued and confident that their needs were being addressed.

As you plan for the year ahead, Guided Conversations can help you create a customer experience that’s efficient, thoughtful, and future-ready. 

Guide to Set up Guided Conversations (GC) in Zoho Desk

Here’s how you can easily set up Guided Conversations to create tickets when agents are unavailable/offline:

1. Go to Setup > Self-Service > Guided Conversations.

2. Select the department before creating the flow because Guided Conversations are department-specific. 

Create a New Flow

3. Click on the Create Flow tab in the top-right corner.

4. Select the Web Channel. 

5. Enter a Name and Description for your flow, then click Next.

6. The GC design window will appear. Below the Guided Conversation icon, click the + icon to start building your flow.

7. Drag and drop elements from the right-hand panel to create your conversation blocks.

8. Drag the Text Message Block and drop it into the flow. Type a Welcome message. 

9. Enter the Name of the block and the Message you want to display to customers. This block is used to share direct information with your customers.

10. Click the + icon below the text message block and add a Question Block.

11. Use the Question blocks to collect inputs from customers based on your questions.

For example, use the following Question Blocks using the + icon to receive the information from your customers: 

• Name (Text Block) 
  
• Email (Email Block)
  
• Contact Number (Number Block)
  
• Date (Calendar Block for availability)
  
• Attachments (Attachment Block to receive files or images, such as screenshots).
  

Add Button Choice Blocks

12. Use the Button Choice Blocks to present predefined options to customers, such as a list of countries, states, or regions. This is useful for collecting specific information like location and understanding the time zone.

13. Drag the Text Question block to receive a description on the Issues submitted. 

14. Create the Date and Time question block to get the customer's availability time to reconnect, if required. 

To Create a Ticket

15. Now, click on the Zoho Desk blocks, click on the Create ticket.

16. Give the Block Name, choose the Department (the same department where you create this Guided Conversation), choose the layout for the Email template. 

17. In the Input variable mapping, click on the gear icon, map the field variables in the Tickets layout with the Flow variables created within  GC. 

For example, map the Email field within Tickets to the Email block in GC, map Phone with the Phone field, map Subject with the Issue Type, and map Description with the Describe issue text block

18. Click Save to save the mapping variables

19. In the Output variable mapping, click on the gear icon, map the ticket related information which you would like to share with the customers within the GC.  

Preview and Publish

20. Once all blocks are added, click on Preview to view the flow and ensure it works based on your requirements. 

21. Save your changes, and click Publish. Your Guided Conversation is ready to use!

Note: Some blocks are being developed for Instant Messaging (IM) channels and will appear faded out if you choose IM channels.

Create A GC Widget

i.    Go to Setup(S) >> Self Service >> Guided Conversations >> GC widgets. 

ii.   Click on Create GC widget. Give a Name and Description. 

iii.  Choose the Channels. click on the drop-down arrow under Associate flows >> Add Flow >> select the Published GC.

iv.  Click Associate. under Access Permissions, select users based on your preferences. 

v.   Enter your preferred welcome message that you would like to appear on your GC widget.

vi.  Enter End Options based on your preferences.

vii. Click Save to save your GC widget. 

ASAP Widget

Go to Setup (S) >> Self-Service >> ASAP >> Create New Widget. 

a. Enter a Name, enable the widget launcher to show the widget on your website. 

b. Associate the help widget with required departments.

c. Choose the required modules to associate with the widget.

d. Once you are done, click on Generate.  

Embed GC 

You can obtain the embed code to integrate the widget into your website or Help Center, as well as the organization ID for iOS and Android SDKs.

i.   Go to Setup (S) >> Self-Service >> ASAP. 

ii.  Hover over the created ASAP widget; click on Embeddable Code.  

iii. Copy the web embed code for use on your website or Help Center.

iv. Use the iOS ID for iOS SDK and the Android ID for Android SDK.

That’s it—your Guided Conversation is now live and ready to assist your customers! 

Pro Tip 

Guided Conversations can be tailored to suit a variety of scenarios, from managing customer inquiries to streamlining ticketing operations. Enhance the customer experience by customizing, editing, or updating workflows to meet their needs effortlessly.

Explore our Guided Conversation Guide and the automation with GC to  ensure your customers always have the support they need.

Here’s to a fantastic start to the New Year! Wishing you success and seamless experiences ahead: Happy New Year from the Zoho Desk Team! 🎉

• Topic Participants

• Lydia | Zoho Desk

  

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