The silent force behind great customer service

The silent force behind great customer service

Customer service is known to be a demanding role. Customer service agents are expected to bring empathy, clarity, and human connection to every voice call, chat, and remote session, even if the situation requires some time for customers facing stressful, technical issues. The farther the technology advances, the more the need for human connection grows.
But there's one team whose services are in greater demand in every organization.
Even after spending 8 – 12 hours a day at our computers, most of us aren’t experts in how our systems work behind the scenes. That’s why, even as professionals in our pieces of work, we depend on experts of a different kind.
The ones who work quietly, without needing the spotlight.
The ones who defend, stabilize, and heal our digital environments.
We’re talking about our System Administrators, the firefighters of our systems.

Behind the ticketing system, there’s a SysAdmin  

Imagine you are attending a customer who is facing an issue with your service, and your system is facing a malicious attack. It would be difficult to fight the attack as well as serve your customer. Or, how about you’re trying to share a large file with a customer, and the transfer keeps failing because of a network glitch. This can turn out to be more frustrating and time-consuming.
We would not be able to handle situations like this without the system administrators in our office, the people who make it possible for us to focus on what we do best.
They’re the first to catch that pending update, the ones to jump in when your laptop acts up, and the silent troubleshooters making sure everything runs smoothly. System administrators monitor software health, keep your network secure, and vigilantly observe updates required on your system. They are ever-ready to help you with any troubleshooting on your laptop.
None of what we do would be possible without them. They’re the ones who make it possible for us to focus, perform, and deliver without interruption.
At Zoho Desk, we'd like to reflect on the exceptional customer service system administrators provide. SysAdmins don’t just fix broken things; they are watchful, defensive, and ensure systems are protected around the clock. They help us upgrade to new machines and keep our systems free from malware and suspicious attacks, even before we notice a risk, so we can offer support with confidence and agility.

Customer support lessons from system administrators  

We often think customer support representatives are the ones teaching patience, but system administrators show us another level. Their work may seem technical, but their effect is deeply human.
Lessons to learn for our customer service irrespective of the stream we are in:
  • Troubleshoot calmly while users panic.
  • Gently walk the users through configurations they barely understand.
  • Answer questions without judgment, even if users ask the same thing repeatedly.
  • Create short video tutorials to address common issues and guide users through self-debugging.
  • Enrich your knowledge base, like SysAdmins and Zoho Desk do, with steps, configurations, and FAQ lists. Include images and visuals for better understanding and make navigation easier.
On this SysAdmin Appreciation Day, July 25, 2025,   we'd like to take a moment to appreciate the quiet power behind every screen, success, and stress-free work days. Thank you for the uptime. Thank you for your patience. Thank you for helping us deliver better customer service by being the calm behind the scenes.
You are part of every customer experience, even if the customer never knows it. Cheers to our System Administrators!
With respect and gratitude,
The Zoho Desk Support Team

      • Sticky Posts

      • 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
      • 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. 
      • Tip #1: Learn to pick the right channels

        Mail, live chat, telephony, social media, web forms—there are so many support channels out there. Trying to pick the right channels to offer your customers can get pretty confusing. Emails are most useful when the customer wants to put things on record. However, escalated or complicated issues should not be resolved over email because it's slow and impersonal.  When you need immediate responses, live chat is more suitable. It's also quick and convenient, so it's the go-to channel for small issues. 
      • Welcome to Zoho Desk Community - Say hello here!

        Hello everyone! Though we have been here for a while, it’s time to formally establish the Zoho Desk Community; we’re really happy to have you all here! This can be the place where you take a moment to introduce yourself to the rest of the community. We’d love to hear all about you, what you do, what company or industry you work for, how you use Zoho Desk and anything else that you will like to share! Here’s a little about me. I am Chinmayee. I have been associated with Zoho since 2014. I joined here
      • Webinar 1: Blueprint for Customer Service

        With the launch of a host of new features in Zoho Desk, we thought it’ll be great to have a few webinars to help our customers make the most of them. We’re starting off with our most talked about feature, Blueprint in Zoho Desk. You can register for the Blueprint webinar here: The webinar will be delivered by our in-house product experts. This is a good opportunity to ask questions to our experts and understand how Blueprint can help you automate your service processes. We look forward to seeing

        • Recent Topics

        • Add the ability to view number of hours planned for a workorder while in the Dispatch Console

          Hi Zoho, When dispatching a work order through the Dispatch Console, there's currently no way to view the number of planned hours for the service tasks associated with that specific work order. Having to click into the details each time to check planned
        • Uploading Files from uploads api

          I tried uploading the image from the API call but its giving me unauthorized error even i have given valid token in header. After uploading i need that id to pass in create ticket api uploads but its not uploading that file. Please help me out in th
        • Categorize Items with Item Headers

          Hello customers, Did you ever want to classify items based on specific categories to help your customers understand your invoice better? With the new Item Header feature, you can easily categorize items in your invoices and estimates and give them a common title.  Item Headers are available in the Invoices, the Recurring Invoices and the Estimates module. It can be carried forward from estimates to invoices at the time of converting the estimates.  To add an item header: Go to the Estimates, Invoices
        • URLs being masked despite disabling tracking

          Hey, We had disabled click tracking from an email update we are sharing with our users. Despite this, the URL the end user is receiving is masked, and looks like "https://qksyl-cmpzourl.maillist-manage.net/click/1d8e72714515cda6/1d8e72714515ca70" instead
        • Change format of quantity format

          Hi,  I would like to change the qunatity format from 1,00 to 1.  Is this possible?   thanks!
        • square up and Zoho books

          Since we set up the app connection between square up and Zoho books we have realised that when the amounts are getting transferred Zoho is adding VAT again making the numbers 20% more than they should be. We have checked our settings and they VAT/ Tax
        • How to provide Access rights to specific Bank accounts

          We have several bank accounts. I want to provide certain members access to only 2-3 accounts. It appears that when I give permissions, they are for ALL bank accounts. How do I do that?
        • Errors Getting a Bank Transaction

          Using Postman(for testing), I am receiving errors when attempting to get a single bank transaction. I am able to receive the list of bank transactions with https://www.zohoapis.com/books/v3/banktransactions/?organization_id={org_id} but when I try to
        • Subscriptions Plans and CRM Products Integration?

          Is there any way to set up plans and pricing in Zoho Subscriptions and have those available as Products in the CRM? We are trying to set up the CRM and the Products seem to be more geared toward selling products that are not subscription based.  So if we sell annual or monthly contracts which are $10/seat/month, I can set this up as a plan in Subscriptions, but how can I set the same thing up in the CRM for the salespeople to sell/quote? What is the best practice for setting up the CRM Products to
        • Mapping Zoho Subscription Plans and Products to CRM and Books

          We have products that are one time products and subscription products.   1) We would like to have the ability to create an opportunity in CRM that includes both one-time charge products and subscription products.  Currently the only way of creating a subscription product is by defining a "Product->Plan" hierarchy in Zoho Subscription.  It appears that the only SYNC between Subscription and CRM is around contacts and the Product->Plan hierarchy doesn't sync to CRM, thus, you would need a duplicate
        • Zoho People Attendance Module - Split Shifts

          Hello, Our business employs a number of college students who often split their workdays between work hours and class schedules, resulting in split shifts. For example: Employee 1 works 9am to 11:30am and then leaves for class, returning to work at 3pm
        • Bulk update fields based on date

          Hi! I need all the quotes with "Quote Stage" set to "Next Year" to update to "Draft" every January 8 (every year). Can you help?
        • Target for a campaign

          Hi, Hope you can help me. I need to create a report (for a marketing campaign) that combines Deals and Contacts to export all the contacts with closed deals. I can easily do that, what I cannot do is to remove from the target the contacts that have more
        • Zoho Desk + Jira integration - Email notifications and comments posted by administrator instead of real user

          Dear All, I set up the integration under my admin account, and now when users leave comments in Jira (to created tickets in Zoho Desk), the email notifications show that the ‘Administrator’ left a comment, not a real user. The same happens in the ticket
        • Celebrating the power of visuals

          On World Photography Day, we would like to highlight the power of visuals in customer service. Visuals promote learning and understanding in less time. A photograph can rekindle a memory, convey more than words, and give a fresh perspective. How does
        • Customer address in Zoho Bookings

          Hello,  Is it possible to add customer address information to the Zoho bookings appointment screen? Or have it pull that information automatically from the CRM? We are wanting to use this as a field management software but it is difficult to pull the address from multiple sources when it would be ideal to have a clickable address on the appointment screen that opens up the user's maps.  It would also be advantageous for the "list view" to show appointment times instead of just duration and booking
        • Blocking / black listing customers

          Hi, We have a situation, we observed that certain customers are blocking multiple appointments with our advsiors but not showing up. Some of these are repeat offenders. This leads to those service hours getting blocked and not available for genuine customers.
        • Option to block bookings from specific email address or ip adresss in zoho booking

          Sometime few of our client keep booking irrelevant booking service just to resolve their queries and they keep booking it again and again whenever they have queries. Currently its disturbing our current communication process and hierarchy which we have
        • Feature Request: Email Templates for notifications accross all services

          Currently in Zoho Bookings, email notifications (such as booking confirmations, reminders, and cancellations) must be customized individually for each service. This becomes time-consuming and error-prone when managing multiple services that require consistent
        • Allow customers to choose meeting venue and meeting duration on booking page

          My business primarily involves one-to-one meetings with my clients. Given the hybrid-work world we now find ourselves in, these meetings can take several forms (which I think of as the meeting "venue"): In-person Zoom Phone call I currently handle these
        • Approval-based booking with Zoho Creator and Zoho Bookings

          Hi community members, We have developed a workaround for approval-based booking using Zoho Creator and Zoho Bookings! This provides a temporary solution as we work on the native feature, and it's useful for anyone needing an approval workflow when confirming
        • Member Accounts in Related List

          Hi Team, Currently, when a parent account is associated with an account in FSM, there is no related list displaying the associated member accounts under the parent account’s related list section. To view member accounts, I have to manually search using
        • how do i remove a specific Zoho Service from my account

          I no longer need Zoho CRM, ZRM Assist nor ZRM BugTracker. How do I remove them from the list of apps for my account?
        • I Want migarte all invoice details to zoho sheets

          I want to migrate all existing invoice details to Zoho Sheet, and automatically update the sheet whenever a new invoice is created.
        • were can i find my invoices i need this for my accountant

          were can i find my invoices i need this for my accountant, how can i get id direct to my email?
        • ONLY email field not populating Writer fillable document (randomly)

          I have a Zoho Writer fillable document that has pulled all my data from my Zoho Sheets file, EXCEPT the email column. It pulled every data before and after that column with no issues. Screenshots attached. It's not my first time using the app or the feature,
        • My number is marked as spam

          Hello Zoho Mail Support, My phone number was incorrectly flagged as “spam” during sign-up. This is my personal number, and I have not engaged in any spam activities. Kindly review and verify my account so I can proceed with my email setup. Thanks.
        • Personnalisation des paramètres dans Zoho Mail

          Pourquoi cela compte-t-il ? La personnalisation des paramètres dans Zoho Mail permet aux administrateurs de configurer l’environnement de messagerie en fonction des besoins spécifiques de leur organisation. Que ce soit pour alléger l’interface pour certaines
        • How To Save Data Into Zoho CRM Sandbox

          Hi Community, I want to save data into my zoho sandbox , for this I am using this api endpoint - https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v8/Patients but I am getting this error - { "success": false, "message": "Zoho API request failed", "error": { "code": "INVALID_MODULE",
        • Automate pushing Zoho CRM backups into Zoho WorkDrive

          Through our Zoho One subscription we have both Zoho CRM and Zoho WorkDrive. We have regular backups setup in Zoho CRM. Once the backup is created, we are notified. Since we want to keep these backups for more than 7 days, we manually download them. They
        • Question about retrieving unsubscribed contacts (outside of lists) via API

          Hello, I am currently using Zoho Marketing Automation and would like to integrate it with our company’s core system. For this purpose, I am exploring the API options available to retrieve contact information. Specifically, I would like to know if there
        • Getting “mandatory field missing: Service_Line_Items” When Creating Work Order via Zoho Flow Deluge

          Hi Team, I’m trying to create a Work Order in Zoho FSM with only a Service Line Item (no Parts). However, I keep getting this error: Work Order Response: {"code":"MANDATORY_NOT_FOUND","details":{"api_name":"Service_Line_Items"},"message":"required field
        • How to customize the colors of the Client Portal login screen and add the company logo?

          As title, how to customize the colors of the Client Portal login screen and add the company logo?
        • Daily updates/fixes and how to see what was changed?

          When I receive the notification that zoho was updated and I need to refresh it. How can I see what was changed or fixed? Sometimes they change things that effect my books and I need to know what they did. For example over this past weekend something was
        • Upcoming Change: Snowflake Username/Password Authentication Deprecation – Action Required

          Hello Users, Snowflake has officially announced that username and password-based authentication will be deprecated by November 2025. You can find the official announcement [here]. If you're using a Snowflake connection in Zoho Analytics to import data,
        • Why should I choose Zoho Inventory vs Odoo?

          Hello there! I have used Zoho in different companies I've worked in, and I have a positive perception of it. I am starting a new import business for pipes, tubes, fittings, valves, elbows, etc., which all have serial numbers, cast numbers, etc., so I
        • Product Updates in Zoho Workplace applications | July 2025

          Hello Workplace Community, Let’s take a look at the new features and enhancements that went live across all Workplace applications this July. Zoho Mail Import bookmarks from Pocket Worried about losing your Pocket bookmarks? Don't worry we have got you.
        • PLEASE FIX YOR BUGS

          PICTURES ARE BEING REJECTED DESPITE THEM FOLLOWING THE GUIDELINES ON DIMENTIONS.
        • Kaizen# 204 - Answering Your Questions | Perform Field Updates before Blueprint transition via Client Script

          Hello everyone! Welcome back to another exciting Kaizen post. One of the questions we received through your Kaizen feedback was: “How can I update fields before Blueprint transition and how to prevent a transition based on a condition using Client Script?”
        • Create online meetings for Booking Pages with Zoho Meetings and Zoom

          Greetings, We hope you're all doing well. We're excited to share some recent enhancements to Bigin's Booking Pages. As you know, Booking Pages let you create public pages to share your availability so that your customers can easily book time slots with
        • Next Page