Ask the Experts 18: Supercharge Self-Service: Simplify Support, Empower Customers!

Ask the Experts 18: Supercharge Self-Service: Simplify Support, Empower Customers!


Welcome to the Ask the Experts Session 18 focusing on Zoho Desk’s Self-Service features! With the AI buzzing around like busy bees, ever thought of how you can incorporate AI into Self service? Explore how Zoho Desk's Help Center, Knowledge Base (KB), Guided Conversations, ASAP, and Community can supercharge support with AI-powered solutions.

What's Ask the Experts (ATE)? 

Ask the Experts Session is a monthly online text-based discussion where you get the opportunity to connect with Zoho Desk technocrats and discuss the key modules and features related to the topic.
This time, we're looking forward to have a more interactive and insightful discussion. 
More than providing insights or answering questions, we want to hear from you too! Take this opportunity to meet the creators of Zoho Desk's Self Service modules.  

Delve deeper into the realm of Self service with AI 

Start the discussion with your ideas and real-time experiences.  Whether you seek advice on incorporating AI into your knowledge base, address hiccups, require implementation strategies, or want to learn new ways to enhance customer experience, Ask, Explore and Elevate your self-service game!

What Makes This Session Special?

Beyond the consistent support, we give you a chance to connect with the masterminds behind Zoho Desk’s self-service solutions. Our expert panelists have been the brains behind the making, building, and upgrading of these features to help your businesses offer efficient and smart support.

Meet the Minds Behind the Expertise!

Rajaram Iyyankalai
Rajaram, the mastermind behind Self-Service at Zoho Desk, drives success through his leadership, teamwork, and resilience, inspiring peers and empowering customers.
Kannapiran
A hands-on cricket coach for his son and a passionate badminton player, Kannapiran finds inspiration in innovating Zoho Desk's self-service features and driving AI into Self Service.
Chaya Jayasankar
Chaya Jayasankar, Tech Builder of Guided Conversation, specializes in building block for chatbots and conversations within Zoho Desk.
John Joshua
John Joshua is a seasoned expert in product training, data migration, and implementation, ensuring compliance with EU data regulations and processes.

Why Self-Service?

From self-checkout to online banking, self-service is now essential. In customer support, AI has made self-service smarter: powering chatbots, virtual assistants, and knowledge bases for instant, 24/7 support. AI-driven systems boost efficiency, reduce agent workload, and personalize interactions, creating happier, more empowered customers.
Join the Conversation! Live Expert Panel on March 20,2025 | 9:30 AM - 7:30 PM GMT
Start your discussions today. Our experts will be live on March 20 to connect, discuss, and brainstorm with you!

Live time slots corresponding to different time zones.
  • PST: March 20 ,2025,  01:30 AM - 11:30 AM
  • CET: March 20  2025, 10:30 AM - 08:30 PM
  • GST: March 20 , 2025, 01:30 PM - 11:30 PM
  • IST: March 20 , 2025,   03:00 PM - 01:00 AM (March 21, 2025)
  • AEDT:March 20 , 2025, 08:30 PM - 04:30 AM (March 21 ,2025)
Tell us how you use the Help Center, Knowledge Base, and Community in Zoho Desk. How has self-service improved your operations? What challenges have you faced?

Drop your questions, ideas, and experiences in the Comments below. Let’s simplify support and empower customers together!

    • Sticky Posts

    • 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

    • 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.

    • Ask the Experts 5: Online Q&A on Zoho Desk Extensibility

      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.

    • Ask the Experts 4: A 5 hour online Q&A on agent productivity

      Welcome to Ask the expert 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.

    • Ask the Experts 3: A 5 hour online Q&A on reports and dashboards

      Welcome to Ask the expert 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.

      • Recent Topics

      • Add Setting Values to the Rules

        Hi, It would be great to use the rules to set values in fields for submission, such as if a Type is X then set the Field Y to 10. Thanks Dan

      • So we ran with it for the week

        In our company i bit the bullet and ran with FSM for a whole week. Service calls, deliveries and surveys. Covering about 30-120 miles a day to domestic properties. Loved the appointment list and satnav integration. Loved the timer to measure the appointments.

      • Is there a way to set Document Owner/Sender via the API

        When sending requests for zoho sign, it would seem zoho uses the id of the person that created the zoho api cred to determine the owner_id, is there a way to set a default for this?

      • What's New - September 2025 | Zoho Backstage

        September has been a different month for Zoho Backstage. Instead of rolling out a long list of new features, we focused on something just as important: Performance, reliability, and stability The event season is in full swing, and organizers are running

      • Prevent stripping of custom CSS when creating an email template?

        Anyone have a workaround for this? Zoho really needs to hire new designers - templates are terrible. A custom template has been created, but every time we try to use it, it strips out all the CSS from the head.  IE, we'll define the styles right in the <head> (simple example below) and everything gets stripped (initially, it saves fine, but when you browse away and come back to the template, all the custom css is removed). <style type="text/css"> .footerContent a{display:block !important;} </style>

      • Stock Quotes/Spreadsheet

        It would be nice if we could download security and mutual fund prices from Yahoo Finance (or?) in order to maintain an up to date investment portfolio on Zoho. Any chance?

      • link to any Belgian bookkeeping software?

        Hello, Does anyone on this Forum can help me with the question whether the ZOHO CRM (Invoices) or ZOHO Book can be linked to software that is used for Belgian Bookkeeping/accountancy? By linking, I mean either with the help of a middleware program or either by the ability to export the custom made reports as CSV-files... If someone has an experience with online CRM-Accountancy in Belgium, with ZOHO (or other), it would be great to read it... Thank you

      • marketing automation

        wants to know about the zoho marketing automation

      • Create custom rollup summary fields in Zoho CRM

        Hello everyone, In Zoho CRM, rollup summary fields have been essential tools for summarizing data across related records and enabling users to gain quick insights without having to jump across modules. Previously, only predefined summary functions were

      • Problems with email templates (HTML - Outlook)

        Hi there, I've been trying to create a newsletter from the template "Business 4". Everything looks great in the preview, but when I send it to my Outlook inbox, the layout doesn't seems to stick. More particularly: - The line-height is way more reduced, even though I used the line-height tool from the template - Columns but they are sometimes misaligned - Font size is not always the one I've selected. Could you help? Thanks!

      • Zoho CRM IP Addresses to Whitelist

        We were told to whitelist IP addresses from Zoho CRM.  (CRM, not Zoho Mail.) What is the current list of IP Addresses to whitelist for outbound mail? Is there a website where these IP addresses are published and updated?  Everything I could find is over

      • How to create a drop down menu in Zoho Sheets

        I am trying to find out, how do I create a drop down option in Zoho sheet. I tried Data--> Data Validation --> Criteria --> Text  --> Contains. But that is not working, is there any other way to do it.  Thanks in Advance.

      • Introducing Keyboard Shortcuts for Zoho CRM

        Dear Customers, We're happy to introduce keyboard shortcuts for Zoho CRM features! Until now, you might have been navigating to modules manually using the mouse, and at times, it could be tedious, especially when you had to search for specific modules

      • Zoho CRM's custom views are now deployable from sandboxes

        This feature is now available for users in the AU, JP, and CN DCs. This feature is now available for users in CA and SA DCs. New update: This feature is now available for users in all DCs. Hello everyone, We're excited to announce that you can now deploy

      • Where are Kanban swimlanes

        So i've been playing with Zoho Projects Kanban view a bit more. It appears that task lists are being used as the Kanban columns, which makes sense from the implementation point of view but not the logical one.  Kanban columns are statuses that a task can flow through, while a task list has been a logical way to organize related tasks and relate them to a mislestone. In other words a task in a particular task can go through several stages while remaining in the same task list. After doing some research

      • Send Automated WhatsApp Messages and Leverage the Improved WhatsApp Templates

        Greetings, I hope all of you are doing well. We're excited to announce a major upgrade to Bigin's WhatsApp integration that brings more flexibility, interactivity, and automation to your customer messaging. WhatsApp message automation You can now use

      • Scheduling Calls in CommandCenter / Blueprints

        I would love it if you could add a function to schedule a call in the lead's record for a future date. I know you can add a Task by going to Instant Actions > Task and completing the form: These tasks go into the lead's record under Open Actions. But

      • Zoho One - Syncing Merchants and Vendors Between Zoho Expense and Zoho Books

        Hi, I'm exploring the features of Zoho One under the trial subscription and have encountered an issue with syncing Merchant information between Zoho Expense and Zoho Books. While utilizing Zoho Expense to capture receipts, I noticed that when I submit

      • Limit in number of records for subforms and multi-select lookup fields

        It is my understanding that a maximum of 100 items can be selected in a multi-select lookup field, and that a total of 200 items can be selected in total between both subforms in a given module.  Are there any ways to work around this limitation if we

      • Kaizen #136 - Zoho CRM Widgets using ReactJS

        Hey there! Welcome back to yet another insightful post in our Kaizen series! In this post, let's explore how to use ReactJS for Zoho CRM widgets. We will utilize the sample widget from one of our previous posts - Geocoding Leads' Addresses in ZOHO CRM

      • Getting Permission denied to access this portal.

        We have one user that can't login to projects even though access has been granted. This user can login to accounts.zoho.com but when login to https://projects.zoho.com/portals.do we get this error: Unauthorized login to this portal Permission denied to access this portal. Check your portal URL again. Sometimes we also get "server too busy". We have tried killing sessions (in accounts.zoho.com) and we have deleted cookies; and tried different computers and still the same problem. All others use can

      • Marketing Tip #1: Optimize item titles for SEO

        Your item title is the first thing both Google and shoppers notice. Instead of a generic “Leather Bag,” go for something detailed like “Handcrafted Leather Laptop Bag – Durable & Stylish.” This helps your items rank better in search results and instantly

      • Does Zoho Docs have a Line Number function ?

        Hi, when collaborating with coding tasks, I need an online real time share document that shows line numbers. Does Zoho's docs offer this feature ? If yes, how can I show them ? Regards, Frank

      • Setting Default Views for Custom, List and Detail Views

        Hey, Is it possible to set a default custom view, list view and detail view for a module for every user? We are onboarding a lot of non technical people that struggle with these things. Setting the views as default would really help. Btw: also setting

      • Custom function return type

        Hi, How do I create a custom deluge function in Zoho CRM that returns a string? e.g. Setup->Workflow->Custom Functions->Configure->Write own During create or edit of the function I don't see a way to change the default 'void' to anything else. Adding

      • Filter Based API request in Zoho Books using POSTMAN

        How do I GET only specified CONTACTS based on created time or modified time in Zoho Books using POSTMAN. In the api documentation, it is written we can apply filters but I need a sample request.

      • URL validation

        We use an internal intranet site which has a short DNS name which Zoho CRM will not accept.   When attempting to update the field it says "Please enter a valid URL". The URL I am trying to set is http://intranet/pm/ Our intranet is not currently setup with a full DNS name and given the amount of links using the shortname probably isn't a feasible change for us.

      • Has anyone been experiencing slow issues?

        Dear all, I just want to ask if anyone has been experiencing slow issues with Zoho Creator in the past two weeks? I worked with the ISP to improve network quality by changing routes and upgrading bandwidth, but nothing changed. I am in Vietnam.

      • Zoho Projects Roadshows 2025 - USA

        Dear Users, After an amazing response to our roadshows in 2024, we are excited to be back for the second year in a row! Join our team of experts as they walk you through the most-used features in Zoho Projects, explore powerful automation capabilities,

      • Billing Management: #6 Usage Billing in SaaS

        Imagine a customer shuffling across multiple subscriptions, a streaming service, a music app, cloud storage, and a design tool. Each one charges a flat monthly fee, regardless of how much or how little they use. Some months, the customer barely opens

      • Is there anyone who has been experiencing issues regarding the Zoho Creator Certification Website in the past 2 weeks?

        Dear all , I just wanted to ask is there anyone who was planning on taking the Zoho Creator Developer Certification Test in the past 2 weeks and have been facing errors stating that the website is under maintennance and also not allowed to access the

      • Directly Edit, Filter, and Sort Subforms on the Details Page

        Hello everyone, As you know, subforms allow you to associate multiple line items with a single record, greatly enhancing your data organization. For example, a sales order subform neatly lists all products, their quantities, amounts, and other relevant

      • GST Slabs Redefined: Stay Compliant Using Zoho Books!

        Hello Everyone! The Government of India is rolling out new GST rates, a major reform aimed at simplifying the current tax structure starting 22 September 2025. GST will move from four slabs (5%, 12%, 18%, 28%) to two main slabs (5% and 18%), plus a special

      • Allow syncing Activities from other applications

        Marketing Automation could be a much more powerful platform if you were able to sync activities into the platform (e.g. purchase, donation, etc) outside of a user doing something on your website. I'd love it if you could sync Custom CRM Modules as activities,

      • Create static subforms in Zoho CRM: streamline data entry with pre-defined values

        Last modified on (9 July, 2025): This feature was available in early access and is currently being rolled out to customers in phases. Currently available for users in the the AU, CA, and SA DCs. It will be enabled for the remaining DCs in the next couple

      • Global Sets for Multi-Select pick lists

        When is this feature coming to Zoho CRM? It would be very useful now we have got used to having it for the normal pick lists.

      • Introducing Profile Summary: Faster Candidate Insights with Zia

        We’re excited to launch Profile Summary, a powerful new feature in Zoho Recruit that transforms how you review candidate profiles. What used to take minutes of resume scanning can now be assessed in seconds—thanks to Zia. A Quick Example Say you’re hiring

      • Integración Books para cumplir la ley Crea y Crece y Ley Antifraude (VeriFactu)

        Hola: En principio, en julio de 2025, entra en vigor la ley Crea y Crece y Ley Antifraude (VeriFactu). ¿Sabéis si Zoho va a cumplir con la ley para cumplir con la facturación electrónica conectada a Hacienda? Gracias

      • Ask the Experts #1

        Hello everyone! It’s time to transform how you manage projects. Define the processes. Automate the tasks. Streamline the workflows. Let us dive into automation in Zoho Projects — from configuring workflows and custom functions to building triggers, using

      • Option to Customize Career Site URL Without “/jobs/Careers”

        Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you are doing well. We would like to request an enhancement to the Career Site URL structure in Zoho Recruit. In the old version of the career site, our URL was simply: 👉 https://jobs.domain.com However, after moving to

      • Next Page