Narrative 15: Blueprint - Automate, guide, and transform your support processes

Narrative 15: Blueprint - Automate, guide, and transform your support processes

Behind the scenes of a successful ticketing system: BTS Series 

Narrative 15: Blueprint - Automate, guide, and transform your support processes

Even organizations that deliver quality products and services can face low customer satisfaction when their processes for addressing issues are poorly defined. This problem often stems from communication gaps, inadequate training, or failing to involve the right stakeholders at the required stages. The problems may range from minor procedural errors to major organizational oversights, and the impact extends beyond customers; employees also face significant difficulties when structured processes are not correctly followed.
Using a Blueprint in Zoho Desk drives consistent, high-quality customer service by making support processes transparent and repeatable at scale, regardless of team size or industry. It enables teams to easily spot bottlenecks, monitor SLA compliance, and refine workflows for maximum efficiency. Whether for onboarding, escalations, or compliance management, Blueprint helps businesses accelerate case resolution, deliver timely experiences, and onboard new agents faster with clear, actionable guidance on every ticket.

Components of a Blueprint

In Zoho Desk Blueprints, "stages" represent distinct steps or milestones in a business process, while "transitions" define the movement and conditions required to progress from one stage to another. 

Stages

Stages are the specific checkpoints or states that a support ticket or record passes through in a process, such as "Assigned," "In Progress," "Awaiting Response," or "Closed." Each stage captures the ticket's status at a given point in time and provides visibility into the process's progress.

Transitions 

Transitions are the actions, criteria, and intermediate checkpoints required to move a ticket from one stage to another. A transition can enforce checks, require specific actions, or mandate that fields be completed before advancing to the next stage. Transitions can also be configured to trigger automations, send notifications, or assign ticket owners.


A transition typically includes:
  • The criteria for when the transition is allowed
  • The actions to perform during the transition (updating fields, completing checklists, sending messages)
  • Transition ownership (who can act)
  • Automated actions are triggered upon execution

Common transitions: These transitions can be accessed from multiple stages, such as a "Cancel Ticket" action available at any point in the process.
Parallel transitions: Multiple transitions can be configured to run in parallel, allowing a ticket to move through multiple paths simultaneously.

Highlights

Enabling Strict Mode ensures that agents strictly follow ticket processes. When activated, all other actions in the ticket interface are disabled, allowing agents to perform ticket-related actions exclusively through the transition bar.

Admins can now selectively set which actions and fields are required during a transition. The introduction of the Configure Mandatory option enhances this capability to provide greater control and flexibility in customizing Blueprints for various groups of agents and refining specific aspects of the support process.

Admins can now effortlessly prioritize and reorder transitions with a simple drag-and-drop feature. This allows them to easily arrange the sequence of transitions in a Blueprint to determine how they are presented to agents. In the past, this process required agents to delete and re-add transitions in the desired order, which was time-consuming and labor-intensive.

The number of Points and Transitions permitted in a blueprint dictates the complexity of the internal processes you can design for your team. We have increased the number of pointers and transitions to allow you to incorporate greater complexity into your support operations as needed. 

When developing a Blueprint, you may find the need to rename a State or modify its Status Type after it has already been linked to the blueprint. This was not an option previously, but we've now made it possible. You can now change the Status Type and rename states associated with a blueprint. 

Key Features

  1. Design sequential ticket workflows with defined states and transitions.  
  2. Assign transition ownership to agents or departments.  
  3. Control ticket progression by restricting actions until necessary steps are completed.  
  4. Automate notifications, field updates, task assignments, and custom functions during and after transitions.  
  5. Use a Blueprints dashboard to track the number of tickets in each stage, SLA violations, bottlenecks, and overall process efficiency.  
Idea

Commonly automated business processes

  1. Quote management
  2. Task management
  3. Library book lending
  4. Hospital management
  5. Converting leads to customers
  6. Order cycles
  7. Support request handling and escalations
  8. Recruitment
  9. Deal follow-up

Takeaway

Creating a Blueprint involves specifying the states (ticket statuses), transitions (actions to move between states), and, if needed, criteria to apply the Blueprint only to specific tickets. It provides structured guidance to agents and makes help desk operations more efficient and consistent across teams.


Please stay tuned for more in the Desk behind-the-scenes series.


Regards,

 

Kavya Rao

The Zoho Desk Team


      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          Zoho CRM Plus Resources

            Zoho Books Resources


              Zoho Subscriptions Resources

                Zoho Projects Resources


                  Zoho Sprints Resources


                    Zoho Orchestly Resources


                      Zoho Creator Resources


                        Zoho WorkDrive Resources



                          Zoho CRM Resources

                          • CRM Community Learning Series

                            CRM Community Learning Series


                          • Tips

                            Tips

                          • Functions

                            Functions

                          • Meetups

                            Meetups

                          • Kbase

                            Kbase

                          • Resources

                            Resources

                          • Digest

                            Digest

                          • CRM Marketplace

                            CRM Marketplace

                          • MVP Corner

                            MVP Corner




                            Zoho Writer Writer

                            Get Started. Write Away!

                            Writer is a powerful online word processor, designed for collaborative work.

                              Zoho CRM コンテンツ




                                ご検討中の方

                                  • Recent Topics

                                  • Not able to delete a QC nor able to revert or create a cycle of manufacturing for QC failed Jobs

                                    Not able to delete a QC nor able to revert or create a cycle of manufacturing for QC failed Jobs
                                  • Dheeraj Sudan and Meenu Hinduja-How do I customize Zoho apps to suit my needs?

                                    Hi Everyone, I'm Meenu Hinduja and my husband Dheeraj Sudan, run a business. I’m looking to tweak a few things to fit my needs, and I’d love to hear what customizations others have done. Any tips or examples would be super helpful! Regards Dheeraj Sudan
                                  • Zoho Desk blank screen

                                    opened a ticket from my email, zoho desk comes up blank, nothing loads. our receptionist also gets the same thing under her login on her computer. our sales rep also gets same thing on zoho desk at his home on a different computer. I tried clearing cache/history/cookies,
                                  • is there any way to change the "chat with us now" to custom message?

                                    is there any way to change the "chat with us now" to custom message? I want to change this text
                                  • Deprecation Notice: OpenAI Assistants API will be shut down on August 26, 2026

                                    I recieved this email from openAI what does it means for us that are using the integration and what should we do? Earlier this year, we shared our plan to deprecate the Assistants API once the Responses API reached feature parity. With the launch of Conversations,
                                  • Capture Last check-in date & days since

                                    I have two custom fields on my Account form, these are "Date of Last Check-In" and "Days Since Last Contact" Using a custom function how can I pull the date from the last check-in and display it in the field "Date of Last Check-In"? and then also display the number of days since last check-in in the "Days SInce Last Contact" field? I tried following a couple of examples but got myself into a bit of a muddle!
                                  • Why is the ability Customize Calls module so limited?

                                    Why can't I add additional sections? why can't I add other field types than the very limited subset that zoho allows? Why can I only add fields to the outbound/inbound call sections and not to the Call Information section?
                                  • Zoho Desk - Upsert Ticket

                                    Hi Desk Team, It is common to request more information from end-users. Using forms is a great way to ensure all the required information is collected. It would be great if there were an "upsert" option on the Zoho Form -> Zoho Desk integration which would
                                  • CRM gets location smart with the all new Map View: visualize records, locate records within any radius, and more

                                    Hello all, We've introduced a new way to work with location data in Zoho CRM: the Map View. Instead of scrolling through endless lists, your records now appear as pins on a map. Built on top of the all-new address field and powered by Mappls (MapMyIndia),
                                  • Enhance Appointment Buffers in Zoho Bookings

                                    There was previously a long-standing feature request related to enhancing the way appointment buffers work in Zoho Bookings, but it looks like the original post has been deleted. I am therefore adding a new request that Zoho Bookings adjust how appointment
                                  • Subscriptions for service call

                                    So we install products and we want to offer a service contract for the customers yearly service calls to be billed monthly. So ideally at some point we want to email them a quote for their needs. WE will choice it our end based on the equipment. It would
                                  • Blocklist candidates in Zoho Recruit

                                    We’re introducing Block Candidate, which helps recruiters to permanently restrict a candidate from applying to current/future job openings. Once the candidate is blocked, they will no longer be able to participate in the recruitment process. This will
                                  • Add RTL and Hebrew Support for Candidate Portal (and Other Zoho Recruit Portals)

                                    Dear Zoho Recruit Team, I hope you're doing well. We would like to request the ability to set the Candidate Portal to be Right-to-Left (RTL) and in Hebrew, similar to the existing functionality for the Career Site. Currently, when we set the Career Site
                                  • Zoho recruit's blueprint configuration is not functioning as mapped

                                    Current Status: Zoho Blueprint is not functioning as configured. Issue: We are moving a Candidate status in Zoho Recruit "for active file" but we encountered: "Status cannot be changed for records involved in Blueprint." This happens to various client
                                  • Delay in rendering Zoho Recruit - Careers in the ZappyWorks

                                    I click on the Careers link (https://zappyworks.zohorecruit.com/jobs/Careers) on the ZappyWorks website expecting to see the job openings. The site redirects me to Zoho Recruit, but after the redirect, the page just stays blank for several seconds. I'm
                                  • How to add interviews through API

                                    I'm trying to add an interview without much luck. The documentation gives examples of adding just about everything except an interview. However, the issue might be the way I'm formatting it, because the documentation is unclear to me. It seems as if the xml should be passed in the url, which seems unusual. I've tried the data as both plain and character escaped, but nothing seems to work, nor do I even get an error response. https://recruit.zoho.com/recruit/private/xml/Interviews/addRecords?authtoken=***&scope=recruitapi&version=2&xmlData=<Interviews> <row
                                  • Connection to other user

                                    Zoho Cliq handles sharing of Custom OAuth Connections that require individual user logins.
                                  • How to invite friends on other social media platforms to one of my group chats in arattai?

                                    Hello, I have formed chat groups in arattai. I want to invite my friends on other social media platforms like WhatsApp/ FB to one of my groups. Different friends would be invited to different groups. How to share an invite link of one of my groups to
                                  • Cliq does not sync messages after Sleep on Mac

                                    I'm using the mac app of Cliq. When I open my mac after it was in sleep mode, Cliq does not sync the messages that I received. I always have to reload using cmd + R, which is not what I want when using a chat application.
                                  • Creator Offline

                                    We had online access setup and working on our iphones. We have just set it up on an 'Android Tablet' and it is not downloading all the images? We use it to show customers our catalogue. Any ideas. Offline components all setup on both devices
                                  • Optimum CRM setup for new B2B business

                                    Can some advise the most common way to setup Zoho CRM to handle sales for a B2B company? Specifically in how to handle inbound/outbound emails. I have spent hours researching online and can't seem to find an accepted approach, or even a tutorial. I have
                                  • Facing Issues with Sites Mobile font sizes

                                    my page renediaz.com is facing issues mobile view, when i try to lower font sizes in home page, instead of changing the size, it changes the line space
                                  • Does the Customer “Company Name” field appear anywhere in the Zoho Books UI outside of PDFs?

                                    Hi everyone, I’m trying to understand how the Company Name field is actually used in Zoho Books. There is a Company Name field on the customer record, but when viewing transactions like a Sales Order in the normal UI (non-PDF view), that field doesn’t
                                  • Set expiration date on document and send reminder

                                    We have many company documents( for example business registration), work VISA documents. It will be nice if we can set a expiry date and set reminders ( for example 90 days, 60 days, 30 days etc.,) Does Zoho workdrive provide that option?
                                  • Analytics : How to share to an external client ?

                                    We have a use case where a client wants a portal so that several of his users can view dashboards that we have created for them in Zoho Analytics. They are not part of our company or Zoho One account. The clients want the ability to have user specific,
                                  • Automatically Update Form Attachment Service with Newly added Fields

                                    Hi, When I have a Form Setup and connected to a 3rd Party Service such as OneDrive for Form Attachments, when I later add a new Upload Field I have to remove and redo the entire 3rd Party Setup from scratch. This needs to be improved, such as when new
                                  • Zoho Sheet for Desktop

                                    Does Zoho plans to develop a Desktop version of Sheet that installs on the computer like was done with Writer?
                                  • Payroll and BAS ( Australian tax report format )

                                    Hello , I am evaluating Zoho Books and I find the interface very intuitive and straight forward. My company is currently using Quickbooks Premier the Australian version. Before we can consider moving the service we would need to have the following addressed : 1.Payroll 2.BAS ( business activity statement ) for tax purposes 3.Some form of local backup and possible export of data to a widely accepted format. Regards Codrin Mitin
                                  • Zoho Desk API - Send Reply to CUSTOMERPORTAL

                                    Hello! I'll try to send a reply to Customer Portal, But the response is 500 (INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR in service response). {"Error":"{\"errorCode\":\"INTERNAL_SERVER_ERROR\",\"message\":\"An internal server error occurred while performing this operation.\"}"}
                                  • Python - code studio

                                    Hi, I see the code studio is "coming soon". We have some files that will require some more complex transformation, is this feature far off? It appears to have been released in Zoho Analytics already
                                  • From Zoho CRM to Paper : Design & Print Data Directly using Canvas Print View

                                    Hello Everyone, We are excited to announce a new addition to your Canvas in Zoho CRM - Print View. Canvas print view helps you transform your custom CRM layouts into print-ready documents, so you can bring your digital data to the physical world with
                                  • Zoho Books Payroll

                                    How am I supposed to do payroll and pay my employees with Zoho Books? I think it's pretty strange that an accounting software doesn't have the ability to perform one of the most common functions in business; paying your employees. Am I missing something,
                                  • Layout Rules Don't Apply To Blueprints

                                    Hi Zoho the conditional layout rules for fields and making fields required don't work well with with Blueprints if those same fields are called DURING a Blueprint. Example. I have field A that is used in layout rule. If value of field A is "1" it is supposed to show and make required field B. If the value to field A is "2" it is supposed to show and make required field C. Now I have a Blueprint that says when last stage moves to "Closed," during the transition, the agent must fill out field A. Now
                                  • validation rules doesn't work in Blueprint when it is validated using function?

                                    I have tried to create a validation rule in the deal module. it works if I try to create a deal manually or if I try to update the empty field inside a deal. but when I try to update the field via the blueprint mandatory field, it seems the validation
                                  • Sort Legend & stacked bar chart by value

                                    I'd love to see an option added to sort the legend of graphs by the value that is being represented. This way the items with the largest value in the graph are displayed top down in the legend. For example, let's say I have a large sales team and I create
                                  • Is It Possible to Convert a Custom Module to a Quote?

                                    I recently created a custom module in our CRM environment for RFQs so that our sales team can submit quote requests directly in Zoho rather than by email/phone. This allows for a cleaner overall process, minimizing potential errors and potentially encouraging
                                  • All new Address Field in Zoho CRM: maintain structured and accurate address inputs

                                    The address field will be available exclusively for IN DC users. We'll keep you updated on the DC-specific rollout soon. It's currently available for all new sign-ups and for existing Zoho CRM orgs which are in the Professional edition. Latest update
                                  • How can Data Enrichment be automatically triggered when a new Lead is created in Zoho CRM?

                                    Hi, I have a pipeline where a Lead is created automatically through the Zoho API and I've been trying to look for a way to automatically apply Data Enrichment on this created lead. 1) I did not find any way to do this through the Zoho API; it seems like
                                  • Client Side Scripts for Meetings Module

                                    Will zoho please add client side scripting support to the meetings module? Our workflow requires most meeting details have a specific format to work with other software we have. So we rely on a custom function to auto fill certain things. We currently
                                  • Proposal: Actionable API Error Messages to Reduce Support Ticket Volume

                                    I've encountered a long-standing frustration with how Zoho Creator's API communicates errors to developers, and I'm hoping the Zoho team can address this in a future update. This issue has persisted for over 9 years based on community discussions, and
                                  • Next Page