Shared values: From classroom lessons to teaching moments in customer service

Shared values: From classroom lessons to teaching moments in customer service

While the world observes Teachers’ Day on October 5, in India, we celebrate a month earlier, on September 5, to mark the birth anniversary of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, a great teacher, renowned scholar, educationist, and advocate for empowerment.
We've all had different kinds of teachers in our school years. Their influence continues to shape us as professionals. Some inspired creativity, others instilled discipline, while many patiently walked us through challenging lessons. If we reflect, each teacher has made an impact on our lives, just as every customer interaction leaves a mark on both sides.


The common ground for teachers and customer service

Patience and endurance

Teaching and customer service require patience. Customers may come to us frustrated or overwhelmed by circumstances. Sometimes, the stress of the moment affects them more than the “issue”. Like teachers guiding students through confusion, customer service professionals' empathy and patience offer clarity and reassurance alongside solutions.

Simple communication

Teachers excel at breaking down complex concepts into simple, digestible lessons. Customer support agents require this skill to help customers find solutions with simple and easy navigation steps. A simplified process helps customers get hooked on our business. 

Empathy and encouragement

The best teachers are remembered for the way they made us feel: valued, encouraged, and raised our confidence to achieve more. Great customer service works the same way. A thoughtful email, a clear solution, or a proactive follow-up can turn frustration into trust and confidence.

Adaptability and continuous learning

Every student is different, and good teachers adapt their methods accordingly. In customer service, no two tickets nor two customers are alike. Support teams offer guided support through calls, live chats, webinars, and one-on-one sessions that mirror interactive lessons.

Beyond the issue

Teachers don’t just answer questions; they prepare us for future challenges. Likewise, customer service empowers agents to not only solve current tickets but also guide customers through proactive tips, tutorials, and community discussions that help them succeed long-term.

Feedback and growth

Teachers evaluate, correct, and encourage us to grow. Customer service thrives on feedback through CSAT surveys, community discussions, and follow-ups. Each interaction is a chance to improve, both for the organization and the customer relationship.

How does Zoho Desk embody teaching principles?

Knowledge base: Articles, FAQs, and screenshots serve as textbooks for customers.
Help center: A virtual classroom for customers to self-learn, track tickets, and stay informed.
Community: A space for peers and agents to exchange insights, like collaborative learning.
Continuous empowerment: Zoho Desk provides proactive support, product updates, product walkthroughs, and trainings to keep customers engaged and confident.

Time for reflection

Just like how our teachers have left lasting imprints on our lives, the service we provide to customers leaves an impression on them. Each successful issue resolution can help a person grow and thrive at work.

We’d love to hear your experiences:
  1. Which teacher has influenced you the most, and how have their lessons carried over into your professional life?
  2. Share teaching experiences you've had with customers: imparting knowledge, building trust, or guiding them through challenges.
  3. Can you recall a moment where your patience and empathy changed the course of a customer interaction?
At Zoho Desk, we believe in celebrating not just service, but the spirit of teaching that underpins it. Thank you for continuing to share your experiences with us; it helps us connect, learn, and grow together.

Happy Teachers’ Day to all the teachers who shaped us, and to every customer service professional who continues to teach, guide, and empower their customers.

Best wishes, 
Lydia | Zoho Desk


      Zoho Campaigns Resources


        • Desk Community Learning Series


        • Digest


        • Functions


        • Meetups


        • Kbase


        • Resources


        • Glossary


        • Desk Marketplace


        • MVP Corner


        • Word of the Day


        • Ask the Experts


          • 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

          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

                                  • How to interpret Campaign report statistics - definitions/explanation

                                    I am trying to make sure I understand the Campaign report correctly Do you have a list of definitions for: Delivered - it has reached the recipient's inbox Campaign reach - is this the number that have opened the campaign email? Unique Opens Clicks/Open
                                  • Feature request - pin or flag note

                                    Hi, It would be great if you could either pin or flag one or more notes so that they remain visible when there are a bunch of notes and some get hidden in the list. Sometimes you are looking for a particular name that gets lost in a bunch of less important
                                  • Schedule a Call by Date and Time when a specific lead status is selected

                                    Hi Wanting to create a workflow where a call can be scheduled by date & time when a specific lead status is selected. Can only currently set the date by Due Date - Trigger Date - Plus 'x' day(s) Thanks
                                  • Zoho CRM's Copy Customization functionality now works across DCs, for customized accounts, and more

                                    Availability This feature is available in Standard, Professional, Enterprise, and Ultimate editions. These changes have been rolled out to all users in all DCs. For more information, please refer to these help documents: Overview | Instructions Hello
                                  • How can I bold text on Zoho Forms submit buttons?

                                    In the old theme builder, I could bold the text on a form's submit button. With the new theme builder, I can only change the text of the header or fields in the form, and not the button itself.
                                  • Hiding Pre-defined Views

                                    You can enhance Zoho with custom views - but you cannot hide the pre-defined views. Most users focus on 4 or 5 views. Right now for EVERY user EVERY time they want to move to one of their 4 or 5 views - they have to scroll down past a long list of pre-defined views - we don't use ANY of the pre-defined views. Adding the feature to allow a predefined view to be hidden completely or only visible to certain users would be a big improvement in usability for Zoho CRM. This feature is already available
                                  • Rich-text fields in Zoho CRM

                                    Hello everyone, We're thrilled to announce an important enhancement that will significantly enhance the readability and formatting capabilities of your information: rich text options for multi-line fields. With this update, you can now enjoy a more versatile
                                  • [Integration Edition] Deluge Learning Series – Third-Party Integrations with Deluge | October 2025

                                    We’re excited to continue this three-month edition of the Deluge Learning Series: Session 1 – Integrating Zoho Apps with Deluge Using Built-In Integration Tasks Session 2 – Integrating Zoho Apps with Deluge Using invokeURL and invokeAPI Session 3 – Third-Party
                                  • Feature Request: Tag, Search, and Report on Individual Private Comments

                                    Zoho Desk Team, First, I want to say that we are extensive users of Zoho Desk and it is a core part of our support operations. We rely heavily on the private comments feature for internal communication, knowledge sharing, and maintaining a clear history
                                  • Zoho CRM Community Digest - August 2025 | Part 2

                                    Hello Everyone! Here's a quick round-up of handy tips, clever workarounds, and product updates from late August. Product Updates: Meeting Enhancements in Zoho CRM! Track whether a meeting is online, in-office, or at the client’s location using the new
                                  • Assistance Needed: Ticket Status Not Updating and Sorting by Last Customer Reply in Zoho Desk

                                    Hello, I’m facing two issues in Zoho Desk that I’d like your guidance on: Ticket Status Not Updating: When a customer replies to a ticket, the status does not change to Reopened. Instead, it remains in Waiting on Customer, even after the customer’s response
                                  • Round robin

                                    Hi, I'm trying to set up a round robin to automatically distribute tickets between agents in my team but only those tickets that are not otherwise distributed by other workflows or direct assignments. Is that possible and if so which criteria should I
                                  • Time Entry Notifications

                                    Hi All - I have support staff who place notes of their work in the time entry section of Zoho Desk. Is there a specific workflow or setting I need to enable to have the ticket holder updated via email when an entry is saved?
                                  • Change text in help desk

                                    Hi, Please let me know how can i change the this text, see screenshot.
                                  • Customer happiness customisation

                                    Hi, I was wondering if it's possible to somehow customise to whom and when customer happiness request is sent? Can you enable it only for selected tickets for example based on workflow or any other criteria (customer name, tag or anything else)? Also
                                  • No Zoho Support Response in Months

                                    I want to say that I love Zoho FSM, Books, and CRM, but the support is scary bad. About 2-3 months ago, I emailed Zoho FSM support with two specific issues I needed help with, and I have still not received one single response. I also submitted a support
                                  • Has anyone built a custom AI support agent inside Zoho (SalesIQ/Zobot)?

                                    Hi all, I’ve been experimenting with building my own AI support assistant and wanted to see if anyone here has tackled something similar within Zoho. Right now, I’ve set up a Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipeline outside of Zoho using FAISS. It
                                  • Null

                                    If a result is null how do I make it so that a custom error pops up instead of the default error? Can someone write an example as if I were using the script builder?
                                  • Format a "return" message

                                    Good day, Is there a way to format the message of the "return" function in CRM deluge script?
                                  • Change Last Name to not required in Leads

                                    I would like to upload 500 target companies as leads but I don't yet have contact people for them. Can you enable the option for me to turn this requirement off to need a Second Name? Moderation update (10-Jun-23): As we explore potential solutions for
                                  • Having Trouble Opening The Candidate Portal

                                    Recently am having trouble opening the Candidate Portal. It keeps loading but cannot display any widgets. Tried Safari, Chrome and Edge. Non of them work. Please solve the problem ASAP.
                                  • Tip of the Week - Spot Risky Sales with Conditional Formatting

                                    In Zoho Analytics, small tweaks can lead to big insights. One such feature is Conditional formatting based on other columns, your key to instantly spotting where sales success is overshadowed by product returns. Our tip this week shows you how to apply
                                  • How do I duplicate / copy a campaign

                                    I am evaluation Zoho Campaigns and sent an email to one of my personal email accounts from Zoho Campaigns.  It went into my junk file in Hotmail. I want to duplicate that same (1-page) campaign and send it to another of my personal accounts to try to
                                  • For a Bill, can "Pay via Check" - Can we also "Pay via Check" when documenting refund for payment?

                                    We really like when we have a Bill in Zoho Books that we can record payment by selecting "Pay via Check" and that will cut the check for us from Zoho Books. However, when we have to write checks as a result of invoice overpayment, we can not select "Pay
                                  • Creator Change History: Ways to improve

                                    Hi Everyone, Recently been working in developing this change history(an idea from Zoho Forms) - unlike forms that you can this with a click but using Creator, we can use "old" keyword. The concept I come up with is to put the result in a table however,
                                  • Suitability of Zoho One (Single User License) for Multi-State GST Compliance & Cost Analysis

                                    Hello Zoho Team, I am an e-commerce business owner selling on platforms like Amazon, Flipkart, and Meesho, and I'm currently using their fulfillment warehouses. I have two GSTIN registrations and am planning to register for an additional 2-3 to expand
                                  • add employees and customiz

                                    I want a Zoho software to track employees record. I logged in a demo so now I tried adding employee, first thing when I click on add employee it takes me to a page where it says add user maximum 10 users, my first doubt why users I don't want employees
                                  • Inactive User Auto Response

                                    We use Zoho One, and we have a couple employees that are no longer with us, but people are still attempting to email them. I'd like an autoresponder to let them no the person is no longer here, and how they can reach us going forward. I saw a similar
                                  • 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
                                  • Zoho One subscription

                                    we have got Zoho CRM for 3 users and we paid for the app , and we have still 9 months to go , but if we join Zoho one , does it mean the payment for that subscription would be a waste? Please help. Thanks.
                                  • How Zoho CRM Can Enhance Your Faucets Accessories Business Operations?

                                    In today's competitive market, having a reliable CRM system is crucial for managing customer relationships and streamlining business operations. For businesses in the faucets accessories niche, Zoho CRM offers powerful tools to help manage everything
                                  • Dashboard

                                    I’m currently working on a project using the Zoho IoT Cloud with an ESP32 and MQTT. I’ve successfully connected the ESP32 to Wi-Fi and MQTT, and the data from the ESP32 is displayed in the telemetry section of the cloud. However, when I try to create
                                  • Can i connect 2 instagram accounts to 1 brand?

                                    Can i connect 2 instagram accounts to 1 brand? Or Do i need to create 2 brands for that? also under what subscription package will this apply?
                                  • Zoho Forms - Improved Sub-Forms

                                    Hi Forms team, I'm helping a client move from JotForms to Zoho Forms and I've found another opportunity for improvement. In the below screenshot, JotForm left and Zoho Forms right. The Zoho Forms Sub-Form is quite a poor visually. There is no way to make
                                  • What's New in Zoho Billing | Q3 2025

                                    Hello everyone, We are excited to share the latest set of updates and enhancements made to Zoho Billing in Q3 2025. From the latest GST updates to multi-level discounting, Zia-powered report summaries, and customizable web forms, these updates are designed
                                  • How to Delete Personal Account Linked with My Mobile Number in past or by someone else

                                    How to Delete Account Created with My Mobile Number in past or by someone else This is creating issues in making or sync with my credentials mobile and email address..
                                  • WhatsApp Business Calling API

                                    Dear Zoho SalesIQ Team, I would like to request a feature that allows users to call WhatsApp numbers directly via Zoho SalesIQ. This integration would enable sending and receiving calls to and from WhatsApp numbers over the internet, without the need
                                  • Does Zoho Learn integrate with Zoho Connect,People,Workdrive,Project,Desk?

                                    Can we propose Zoho LEarn as a centralised Knowledge Portal tool that can get synched with the other Zoho products and serve as a central Knowledge repository?
                                  • Marketer's Space - Going beyond basics: Smarter ecommerce marketing with Zoho Campaigns

                                    Hello Marketers, Welcome back to this week's Marketer's Space. In the last post, we discussed the basics of email marketing and how to get started with email marketing in ecommerce. In this part, we'll dive much deeper into some other advanced features
                                  • Connecting two modules - phone number

                                    Hi, I’d like some guidance on setting up an automation in Zoho CRM that links records between the Leads module and a custom module called Customer_Records whenever the phone numbers match. Here’s what I’m trying to achieve: When a new Lead is created
                                  • Next Page