Featurecast Story 6 - Workflows

Featurecast Story 6 - Workflows

IM'ing (Instant Messaging) Feature Story Series

Featurecast Story 6 - Workflows

Make it easy with workflows



Zoho Desk's instant messaging functionality includes the ability to automate and simplify the customer support process. Workflows allow you to create customizable actions and write custom functions to automate your repetitive support workflows, reducing the manual workload for your team.

What is a workflow?

A workflow is a series of sequential tasks to execute a business process.

An example would be sending a customer timely updates on the status of their orders. In this workflow, after the customer orders a product, they would receive confirmation when the order is accepted and updates during the delivery process. Based on the set criteria and trigger points, the customer would be kept up-to-date on where their product is and when they'll receive it.

Workflow automation

Workflow automation is a technique that streamlines and optimizes business processes by using technology to automatically route tasks and information between systems and business users in an organization. 

With workflow automation, businesses can save time, increase efficiency, and reduce errors by eliminating manual, repetitive tasks and ensuring workflow consistency.

Benefits of workflow automation

    •    Reduced errors
    •    Accelerated service delivery
    •    Enhanced consistency and control
    •    Improved business processes
    •    Increased productivity
 
Desk's custom actions gallery lets you add workflow actions in addition to alerts, tasks, field updates, skills, and custom functions that are available by default. All you need to do is specify the required actions and their values to add the action to your workflow rule.

The two IM custom actions that can be associated with workflow rules are:
  • Notify via the Instant Messaging module: Send a message (notification) to the customer through the configured IM channels. This rule will only notify the customer, and the message will not be appended to the conversation sub-tab in the ticket module.
  • Reply via the Instant Messaging module: Send a message (reply) to customers through the configured IM channels. This message will also be appended to the conversation sub-tab in the ticket module.
Think carefully about whether your processes are ready for automation. It makes sense to automate a workflow when:
  • You have a series of repetitive tasks that need to be completed regularly.
  • The workflow is critical, and tasks must be achieved accurately and efficiently.
  • Automation can significantly improve the execution time or output quality.
I hope you found this article helpful and try the workflow feature to streamline manual tasks and make your team more efficient!
 
There's more to come. Please watch this space for more IM feature stories.


Until next time,


Kavya Rao

The Zoho Desk team


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