Kaizen 216 - Actions APIs : Email Notifications

Welcome to another week of Kaizen!

For the last three weeks, we have been discussing Zylker's workflows. We successfully updated a dormant workflow, built a new one from the ground up and more. But our work is not finished—these automated processes are operating in a vacuum.

What happens when a high-value deal is finally flagged, or a new social media post is published? How does the team know to take the next crucial step? How does the system connect with your team? Through Automatic Actions-the vital link between automation and people.   

The actions include:

1. sending email notifications
2. assigning tasks to users
3. updating fields
4. communicating with third-party applications by sending instant web notifications, etc.

In this post we will focus on Email Notifications.

After bringing structure and visibility to workflows using the custom admin dashboard, the system administrators at Zylker seek to include Workflow Actions so that details of the actions associated with each workflow can be managed from the dashboard itself. Including Email Notification details to Zylker's dashboard ensure the right people receive clear, actionable email alerts at the perfect moment.

This update to the dashboard will allow system admins to:

1. audit the existing email notifications,
2. create new email notifications,
3. update existing email notifications, and
4. clean up inactive and unwanted email notifications.

STEP 1: Discover and audit existing email notifications

To get details of email notifications in the system the admins use GET email notifications API. This gives us the required information about email notifications in the system. 

Request URL: 

GET {api-domain}/crm/v8/settings/automation/email_notifications

Response JSON: 

{     "email_notifications": [         {             "template": {                 "name": "VP Alert - High Value Deal",                 "id": "6660682000001292005"             },             "reply_to_address": {                 "resource": {                     "id": "5843104000000424686"                 },                 "type": "user"             },             "created_time": "2025-02-26T14:35:51+05:30",             "lock_status": {                 "locked": false             },             "editable": true,             "module": {                 "api_name": "Deals",                 "id": "6660682000000002181"             },             "related_module": null,             "deletable": true,             "recipient_count": "3",             "source": "crm",             "created_by": {                 "name": "Alex Rivera",                 "id": "6660682000000501002"             },             "feature_type": "workflow",             "modified_time": "2025-07-06T16:15:58+05:30",             "associated": true,             "name": "VP Alert - High Value Deal",             "modified_by": {                 "name": "Alex Rivera",                 "id": "6660682000000501002"             },             "id": "6660682000000000353",             "from_address": {                 "resource": {                     "id": "5843104000000424686"                 },                 "type": "user"             }         },    //more records omitted for brevity     ],     "info": {         "per_page": 200,         "count": 2,         "page": 1,         "more_records": false     } }

STEP 2: Create new email notifications

The admin seeks to create a new email notification when a deal is lost. For creating the email notification first the admin should create an email template in Zoho CRM. 

Lost Deal Email Template

For creating an email notification, admin uses Create Email Notification API.

Request URL: 

POST {api-domain}/crm/v8/settings/automation/email_notifications

Input JSON: 

{   "email_notifications": [     {       "template": {         "name": "Lost Deal",         "id": "5843104000006629014"       },       "module": {         "api_name": "Deals",         "id": "5843104000000002181"       },       "related_module": null,       "feature_type": "workflow",       "bulk_email": false,       "recipients": {         "to": [           {             "details": {               "api_name": "${!Deals.Owner}",               "id": "5843104000000002555"             },             "type": "merge_field"           },           {             "details": {               "api_name": "${!Deals.Owner.Reporting_To}",               "id": "5843104000000256015"             },             "type": "merge_field"           },           {             "resource": {               "name": "Patricia Boyle",               "id": "5843104000000424672"             },             "type": "user"           }         ]       },       "name": "LostDealNotification"     }   ] }

Response:

{     "email_notifications": [         {             "code": "SUCCESS",             "details": {                 "id": "5843104000006646001"             },             "message": "alert created successfully",             "status": "success"         }     ] }

Key Fields:

1. Basic Fields

1. name: A unique identifier for your notification (e.g., "LostDealNotification")
2. feature_type: Set to "workflow" for automation-triggered notifications from workflow. 
3. template: The ID and name of the email template you created earlier
4. module: The ID and API_name of the module this  email notification applies to.
5. bulk_email: bulk_email field indicates whether the email notification will be sent a single mass email with all recipients displayed. When this key is set as true, you can add recipients in CC and BCC

2. Recipients 

The recipients object determines who receives the notification. The possible recipients to an email notification are indicated by the to, cc and bcc keys. These  type field inside these keys indicate the type of recipient, with possible values including merge_field, group, role, role_and_subordinate, territory, territory_and_subterritory, emails, user (applicable for team modules), and profile (applicable for team modules).

You can use three main strategies to add recipients:

1. A. Dynamic Fields (Merge Fields) 

           Use "type": "merge_field" to dynamically pull email addresses from the record:

{   "type": "merge_field",   "details": {     "api_name": "${!Deals.Owner}" // Sends to the deal owner   } }

1. B. Specific Users or Groups or Roles or Territories

          Use these options to send notifications to specific people

{   "type": "user",   "resource": {     "id": "5843104000000424672"  // Patricia Boyle's user ID   } }

1. C. Direct Email Addresses

          Use "type": "emails" for fixed email addresses:

{   "type": "emails",   "details": {     "emails": ["customer.success@zylker.com"]   } }

STEP 3: Updating an email notifications  

Zylker noticed a troubling pattern in their sales analytics. They were experiencing a much higher deal loss rate compared to the same period last year. The management brought in Mark Stevens, a Sales Strategist who specializes in analyzing lost deals. His first request was simple: "I need to see every lost deal as it happens to spot patterns in real-time."

Rather than creating new work flow rules or actions, the admin simply updates the existing email notification for lost deals to include Mark.

Request URL to update the lost deal email notification: 

POST {api-domain}/crm/v8/settings/automation/email_notifications/5843104000006646001

Input JSON: 

{     "email_notifications": [         {             "recipients": {                 "to": [                     {                         "details": {                             "api_name": "${!Deals.Owner}",                             "id": "5843104000000002555"                         },                         "type": "merge_field"                     },                     {                         "details": {                             "api_name": "${!Deals.Owner.Reporting_To}",                             "id": "5843104000000256015"                         },                         "type": "merge_field"                     },                     {                         "resource": {                             "name": "Patricia Boyle",                             "id": "5843104000000424672"                         },                         "type": "user"                     },                    {                         "details": {                             "email": ["mark.stevens@zylker.com"]                         },                         "type": "emails"                     }                 ]             }         }     ] }

Response:

{     "email_notifications": [         {             "code": "SUCCESS",             "details": {                 "id": "5843104000006646001"             },             "message": "alert updated successfully",             "status": "success"         }     ] }

After analyzing two weeks of lost deal notifications, Mark identified a pattern in the lost deals: over 80 percent of the recent losses were concentrated in the one industry - healthcare. He found that healthcare prospects consistently raised concerns about HIPAA compliance and data security protocols and that Zylker's sales team were not addressing them effectively. He made suggestions to train the sales team so that they can confidently address these specific requests.

STEP 4: Deleting email notifications  

Any unwanted or redundant email notification can be deleted using Delete Email Notifications API.

Request URL to delete an email notification: 

DELETE {api-domain}/crm/v8/settings/automation/email_notifications/5843104000006645001

Request URL to delete multiple email notifications: 

DELETE {api-domain}/crm/v8/settings/automation/email_notifications?ids=5843104000006645001,5843104000006645002

However, notifying alone is not sufficient. It should be followed with actionable tasks. In the next post, we will explore Workflow Tasks APIs.

We hope that you find this post on Actions - Email Notifications APIs useful. If you have any feedback, or if there are any pain-points that you would like us to address in our Kaizen series, please let us know in the comments, or reach out to us via support@zohocrm.com. 

Previous Kaizen : Kaizen #213 - Workflow APIs - Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 | Kaizen Directory

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