Zoho Desk Autumn Release - 2024 — Post 3

Zoho Desk Autumn Release - 2024 — Post 3

Instant Messaging 

Mass WhatsApp messaging for efficient communication


Agents can send WhatsApp messages to multiple contacts at once, which is useful for various activities, such as onboarding and customer engagement programs. There’s also an option to skip sending messages to contacts who are already engaged in a conversation with another agent to avoid interruptions in the ongoing conversation.


Help document and availability

Sending mass WhatsApp messages to contacts | Standard and above



 


Add new contacts to Desk while sending WhatsApp messages and reply to IM tickets from the Tickets module

 

A new shortcut, +w, has been introduced to streamline sending WhatsApp messages directly from the Tickets module. When using +w, users can quickly initiate a WhatsApp message to the associated contact. If the message is being sent to a new contact, their details will be automatically recorded within the system, and autopopulated in the Contact's record. For example, if a new customer contacts the support via WhatsApp and their details are not yet in Zoho Desk, sending a reply will automatically create a new record in the Contacts module.

 

Help document and availability

Create a contact while sending WhatsaApp messages | Standard and above


Integrate Facebook messenger with Zoho Desk


Integrating Facebook Messenger with Zoho Desk allows businesses to efficiently manage customer communication through Meta's Facebook business pages. Once set up, the Messenger platform enables seamless interactions between customers and the business via various entry points, including Facebook Posts, the Meta business page, and the business's website.


Help document and availability

Integrate Facebook messenger with Zoho Desk | Standard and above




Integrate Instagram with Zoho Desk


Integrating Instagram with Zoho Desk enables businesses to manage customer communications through their Instagram business accounts. This integration allows seamless message exchanges between customers and businesses, with conversations originating from Instagram posts, the Meta business page, or a website widget. For example, a retail clothing brand can integrate its Instagram business account with Zoho Desk to manage customer inquiries directly from its Instagram posts or DMs.


Help document and availability

Integrate Instagram with Zoho Desk | Standard and above





Configure business hours for your IM channels


Business hours can be configured for various IM channels, including WhatsApp, Messenger, Telegram, and Line, ensuring that customer inquiries are managed efficiently within the designated timeframes. Setting business hours involves defining the times when a business is open and available to assist customers. This ensures that the support team operates in alignment with these hours.


Help document and availability

Setting conversation rules in instant messaging | Standard and above





Implement a customizable business messaging widget


Business messaging offers another channel for engaging with customers through customizable widgets available for Web, iOS, and Android platforms. By integrating a fully customizable chat widget into a website, businesses can provide real-time support and interact with visitors seamlessly. The chat window’s appearance, including its color scheme and logo, can be tailored to match the website’s design, ensuring a cohesive brand experience.


Help document and availability

Adding a business messaging widget to your website | Standard and above






Multi-WABA support for WhatsApp business platform


Supported multiple WhatsApp Business Accounts (WABA), allowing businesses to create channels for different brands or departments. Each business unit can manage its communication channels with a dedicated WABA to ensure efficient operations. Businesses with multiple WhatsApp accounts can set up and link as many channels as needed to provide a centralized platform and shared access to customer data for seamless information flow and operations.

 

Help document and availability

Support multiple WhatsApp Business Accounts | Standard and above







Add GC Bots to Telegram, FB Messenger, Line, Instagram, and Business Messaging channels  


Guided Conversation (GC) bots can be deployed in a variety of IM channels such as Telegram, FB Messenger, Line, Instagram, and Business Messaging channels. This provides customers with a self-service platform where they can interact with bots and support agents when needed.


Help document and availability

GC Bots to Telegram | GC Bots to Line | GC Bots to Instagram | GC Bots to Business Messaging channels | GC Bots to FB Messenger | Enterprise


GC Bots in FB Messenger



GC Bots in Instagram




 

GC Bots in Telegram




GC Bots in Business Messaging



GC Bots in Line




Manage agent visibility and notifications for IM

 

Agents can set their status as online or offline specifically for the Instant Messaging feature. This allows them to control their visibility and mute all IM notifications with a click, ensuring uninterrupted work during critical tasks.

 

Help document and availability

Managing user status in IM | Standard and above





Use webhooks in IM to automate tasks

 

Zoho Desk's instant messaging webhooks enable automation of event-driven tasks between messaging apps and business workflows. By leveraging IM webhooks, businesses can integrate multiple channels into their business workflows, creating a seamless conversational ecosystem that enhances the customer journey and meets their preferences. For example, an ecommerce platform can automatically share package delivery OTPs via WhatsApp, an insurance provider can send payment reminders, and a travel agency can deliver booking details—all triggered through the webhooks in IM.

 

Availability

Professional and above



 

 

Measure customer happiness rating for IM Channels


Collect feedback on customer satisfaction for interactions conducted through the IM channel. A customer's happiness rating helps to see what they think about the support they receive at the end of each response or after closing their ticket. The integrated analytics will also assist the business in monitoring the ratings received by the agents or given by their contacts and accounts across various time frames.


Help document and availability

Customer happiness rating for IM channels | Standard and above





Thread separation in IM tickets  

Users can enhance clarity in IM tickets with the help of thread separation. This feature distinguishes different conversation threads to make it easier for agents to manage and resolve issues effectively.


Availability

Standard and above






Integration 

Scheduling meetings from the ticket interface with Zoho Meeting integration


The Zoho Meeting integration enables agents to schedule and conduct meetings directly from the ticket interface. For example, if a customer submits a ticket requesting a product demo, the agent can create the meeting from the ticket interface, invite the relevant stakeholders, and also have the meeting recording and meeting details such as link, date, time, and venue available inside the ticket for easy access.


Help document and availability

Integrate Zoho Meeting with Zoho Desk | Standard and above



 


Track agent attendance and availability with the Agent Attendance Tracker extension

The Agent Attendance Tracker extension provides a comprehensive system for the support managers to monitor the agent's attendance. It addresses key operational challenges related to tracking and managing agents' break hours, attendance, and routine activities. Managers can track check-in and check-out timings and view detailed activity logs of their support agents. This is helpful in various ways:


  • Accurate break logging: Allows agents to define and log break times, maintain proper shift coverage, and ensure uninterrupted service for customers.
  • Streamlined check-in/out: Simplifies the process of checking in and out and enables precise tracking of work hours and real-time monitoring via the Agent Availability Report.
  • Custom statuses: Enables the creation of custom statuses for activities like training and meetings to provide detailed visibility into agents' time allocation and enhance accountability.

 

Help document and availability

Integrating Zoho Desk with agent attendance tracker | Standard and above

 


 


 




Also see our What's new page

Regards,
Varsha P | Zoho Desk - User Education

      • Sticky Posts

      • 2024 Email Authentication Standards: Elevating Security with Google and Yahoo

        In contemporary email communication, email authentication plays a pivotal role in mitigating email fraud, spam, and phishing attacks. Brace yourself for a new level of security. Starting February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo will be implementing robust email
      • Using Agent Email Address as From Address

        Currently, while replying to a ticket, it is possible for agents to choose their own email addresses as 'from' addresses. Although we built this just for that little extra flexibility, in hindsight, it hasn't figured much in conventional usage.  Almost all businesses prefer that responses to their customers' tickets be sent from the common support/service email address and NOT from those of individual agents. During personal interactions at events, some of you have even made passing mentions about
      • Edit and Delete options in Comments

        A lot of teams have been using ticket comments extensively to collaborate everyday. Notification Center further improved this experience by bringing real-time updates. As we continue to build more improvements to this experience, we've shipped a small-yet-important
      • Webinar 2: Supercharged customer support for growing business

        Join us for this webinar and learn how to step up your support game using a real-time communication platform to generate happier, more successful customers. In this live webinar, we will will discuss the importance of SalesIQ for your support team and how it can help you:  Understand your customers better and their journeys to proactively support and engage them even before they ask for help.  Integrating real time conversations into Zoho Desk’s Support, providing a conversational customer service
      • Customize Colors of your Customer Self Service Portal

        You asked for it. We heard you. We're happy to roll out the most sought after feature request, Customizing the Colors of your Customer Self-service Portal. Now you can set the color of your customer portal to mimic your company's web site, so that your customers visiting the portal will not feel alienated by the default theme.  Go ahead and configure the color of the header, tabs, fonts and background according to your needs. You can either choose between default color themes like Blue, Grey, Green

        • Recent Topics

        • Zoho Creator customer portal limitation | Zoho One

          I'm asking you all for any feedback as to the logic or reasoning behind drastically limiting portal users when Zoho already meters based on number of records. I'm a single-seat, Zoho One Enterprise license holder. If my portal users are going to add records, wouldn't that increase revenue for Zoho as that is how Creator is monetized? Why limit my customer portal to only THREE external users when more users would equate to more records being entered into the database?!? (See help ticket reply below.)
        • Script Editor not an option

          I am trying to apply a script to a sheet and Script Editor is not an option. I don't want to go outside Sheets to do this (like Creator) if it can be done inside Sheets.
        • Envio de mails

          Hola! No puedo enviar mails pero si recibirlos. No se como solucionarlo! Mi dominio es chidobebes.com.ar
        • ERROR CODE :554 - Your access to this mail system has been rejected due to poor reputation of a domain used in message transfer

          In my email configuration: The domain's MX Records are pointed to Zoho The domain's SPF Records have been pointed out successfully DKIM is enabled. DMARC Record is pointed for the domain. The domain name is digioorja.in. Still facing the issue of Error:
        • This Operation has been restricted. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details

          l tried to verify my domain (casalimpaeperfumada.com.br) and its shows this error: This Operation has been restricted. Please contact support-as@zohocorp.com for further details.
        • SLOW EMAILS

          Is there an issue with the Zoho server? For two days now I've been having issues with very long buffering. Please advise. Thank you.
        • POP3 authentication error - SOLVED

          Just in case others are as forgetful as me ... As Zoho has changed the POP server for personal and free organisational users, I needed to change the POP server on my email client. This failed persistently but eventually I remembered that I had chosen
        • Solution to Import PST File into Office 365.

          MailsDaddy OST to Office 365 Migration Tool is an outstanding solution to recover OST files and migrate them into Office 365 without any hassle. Using this software users can multiple OST files into Office 365 with complete data security. It offers users
        • Add Zoho One Groups/Departments to Shared Mailbox Access

          Hi, I hope you're doing well. Currently, in Zoho Mail, I can manually add specific users or the entire organization to a shared mailbox. However, there is no option to add Zoho One groups or departments. Feature Request: We would like the ability to assign
        • Allow Filters with Only Special Characters in Zoho Mail

          Hi Zoho Mail Team, I hope you're doing well. We have noticed that currently, Zoho Mail does not allow creating filter criteria using only special characters, such as = or #. However, there are scenarios where such a filter is necessary. For example: Filtering
        • How to save email as PDF?

          I saw 2 previous threads about this. One is from 14 years ago. The other was closed as "answered" a year ago but the feature was never implemented: https://help.zoho.com/portal/en/community/topic/how-to-download-save-emails-as-pdf Is the "save as PDF"
        • Flexible plans

          Hi, I have a Workplace Standard subscription. On Zoho's website, it mentions that with the annual plan it's possible to have multiple plans under the same organization—for example, Workplace Standard and Mail Lite. However, I can’t find a way to do this
        • Weekly Tips : Teamwork made easy with Multiple Assignees

          Let's say you are working on a big project where different parts of a single task need attention from several people at the same time—like reviewing a proposal that requires input from sales, legal, and finance teams. Instead of sending separate reminders
        • Cannot give public access to Html Snippet in Zoho Creator Page

          Hi, I created a form in Zoho Creator and published it. The permalink works but I want to override the css of the form. (style based URL parameters is not good enough) So I created a page and added an Html snippet. I can now override the css, which is
        • Weekly Tips : Customize your Compose for a smoother workflow

          You are someone who sends a lot of emails, but half the sections in the composer just get in your way — like fields you never use or sections that clutter the space. You find yourself always hunting for the same few formatting tools, and the layout just
        • Accounting on the Go Series-43:Enhancing Your Reporting Efficiency with Dashboard Filter State Retention

          Hello everyone! Welcome back to our series on Zoho Books mobile app features. Today, we will talk about a feature that yet again helps you focus on work that really matters-Dashboard Filter State Retention. Imagine you're working on your Zoho Books dashboard,
        • Zoho books/payroll tax payment

          I accidentally made a second payment to my taxes for $300 which is reflected in my bank account and therefore on Zoho books but I can not match it to any transactions because its not reflected in payroll as a tax payment. Is there a way to add an extra
        • I can't renew the Finance Plus subscription

          I tried to renew the Finance Plus subscription but it keeps reloading the same page over and over when ever I click on "Renew Subscription" button
        • Estimate vs Quote

          they are different. Quote is for 1 piece price + other charges. Estimate is for total quantity to be ordered. The gross total amount of the Estimate is the amount payable. Replacing Estimate as Quote is not understandable because they are different. In
        • Accounting on the Go Series-47: Effortless GSTIN Management- Auto Populate TaxPayer Details in Zoho Books Mobile App

          Hello everyone, Welcome back! Today, we're focusing on a feature specifically designed for our Indian users in the Zoho Books-Indian edition, particularly those who deal with GST compliance regularly. We understand the importance of accurate and efficient
        • Accounting on the Go Series-48: Enhance Accuracy with Custom Work Week Start Days in Zoho Books iOS app

          Hello everyone, Welcome back! We’re here with another feature spotlight that might seem small but can have a big impact on your daily routine: setting the first day of the work week in the Zoho Books iOS app. Imagine this: You’re a business owner who
        • Time to Get Paid Report in ZBooks

          Hello, One of our customers who has 25 different companies around the world gets 60 days to make payments. Unfortunately, the subject report does not report an average time to get paid (in days) or the ability to look at a custom period of time. Currently
        • How to prepare a balance sheet for a company that has no operations yet?

          .
        • Project Billing Method from Zoho People

          Normaly our customers use Zoho Projects to manage projects and timesheet that are being charge to the customer. Using the integration from Zoho Project we can have projects base on different billing method. For example most of our customer use Hourly
        • Zoho Books-Accounting on the Go Series!

          Dear users, Continuing in the spirit of our 'Function Fridays' series, where we've been sharing custom function scripts to automate your back office operations, we're thrilled to introduce our latest initiative – the 'Zoho Books-Accounting on the Go Series'.
        • Zoho Books | Product updates | July 2025

          Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From plan-based trials to the option to mark PDF templates as inactive, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. Introducing Plan Based Trials in Zoho
        • Zoho Books | Product updates | August 2025

          Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From the right sidebar where you can manage all your widgets, to integrating Zoho Payments feeds in Zoho Books, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience.
        • Update or Upsert Records Using Unique Custom Fields

          Hello customers, We've enhanced the process of updating records via API. You can now: Update records using unique custom fields Upsert records using unique custom fields Note: Both the features are available in the Zoho Books and Zoho Inventory apps.
        • [Webinar] Understanding the New Invoice Management Systems

          Join industry expert CA Pritam Mahure as he discusses the importance of the new Invoice Management System (IMS) and its impact on taxpayers. Topics Covered: - Concept of IMS and pre-requisites - Applicability and Restrictions on Invoices/Records for IMS
        • Accounting on the Go Series-51: Effortless Transactions: Create and Manage Directly from Uploaded Documents

          Hello everyone, We’re back with another useful feature that makes working with Zoho Books even easier! This time, we’re simplifying the process of creating transactions directly from uploaded documents. Imagine you’re out meeting clients, and you receive
        • [WEBINAR] Effortless migration to the VAT-ready South Africa edition of Zoho Books

          Hello there, If you are one of our early users from South Africa using the older edition of Zoho Books, this webinar is for you! We have now launched a new South Africa edition with VAT support, to which you can migrate your existing data. Join this session,
        • Accounting on the Go Series-52: Capture Receipts on the Go, Right from Your Lock Screen.

          Hello everyone, We’re excited to introduce a feature that will make your life so much easier—especially for those constantly on the move! With iOS 18, Zoho Books now allows you to capture receipts directly from your lock screen using Locked Camera Capture.
        • AT - Austrian Accountant familiar with ZOHO

          Hello, as I have just migrated to ZOHO and unfortunately have to change my accountant next year, I am looking for an accountant (for Austria) who already has experience with Zoho or who already manages clients using Zoho books. Is there anyone here from
        • Zoho Workflow issue

          Dear Zoho Users, I have Zoho Books premium subscription, I have created a email alerts workflow for Invoices and following are the configurations for the same: 1. Workflow for Invoice module 2. Choose when to tigger - created or edited 3. Filter the triggers
        • Accounting on the Go Series-53: Swift Transactions at Your Fingertips-Zoho Books in Your Control Center

          Hello again, We’ve all had those moments where you need to get something done quickly, but the process of unlocking your phone, finding the app, and navigating through menus slows you down. Now, with Zoho Books integrated into the iOS 18 Control Center,
        • Update on PDF Download Issues Caused by Antivirus Software

          Hello users, Antivirus software is designed to protect your computer from malicious software and threats. However, they may mistakenly identify legitimate files and software as threats at times. This is known as a false positive. We have received reports
        • Accounting on the Go Series-54: Effortlessly Find Your Zoho Books Customers in Your Phone’s Contact List

          Hello Zoho Books users! How are you all ? We’re happy to share a handy new feature in Zoho Books mobile app. Now, you can access your Zoho Books customers right from your phone's contact list, making it easier to stay connected on the go. How this can
        • Integration of Phase 2 -e-invoicing- KSA

          Zoho Team, I want to get a training of integration of phase 2 invoicing KSA in zoho step by step.
        • I can not save new invoice

          Hello Now I am trying to save a new invoice but I can not save it because showing unpaid invoice warning which are not overdue. Please let me know how to skip unpaid invoice warning letter and save new invoice. Thank you
        • ADD CONDITIONS FOR FIELD IN ZOHO BOOKS TEMPLATE CUSTOMAZATION

          HELLO I WANT TO ADD CONDITIONS FOR FIELD IN ZOHO BOOKS TEMPLATE CUSTOMAZATION FOR SALES ORDER . I HAVE SET %StatusStamp% IF APPROVAL I WANT THAT TEXT TO BE DISPLAYED WITH GREEN COLOR OTHERWISE OF OTHERR STATUS RED COLOR AS SHOWN IN CODE BELOW . BUT IT
        • Next Page