CRM Hack #2: Automate sending of birthday greetings to your customers.

CRM Hack #2: Automate sending of birthday greetings to your customers.




 

Hello everyone!

What sets you apart as a sales person is your ability to add that personal touch to your business relationship with your customers. Sending a gift on a special day, or leaving a note wishing them on their birthdays, are small, yet significant actions that show your customers that you care. And these are actions done without any expectations :) You must be engaging with a lot of customers and it is highly unlikely that they all are your friends on Facebook or some social channel, right? How about keeping a tab on their birthdays from your business tool, Zoho CRM? And how about automating greetings just in case you are too pressed for time to leave a personal note? Besides, this reduces the possibility of your missing out wishing some of your clients. Cool, right? Let me just show you a simple hack that lets you automate birthday greetings to your customers!

Here are the steps:



1. Create a birthday wish template:
Go to Settings->Setup->Customization->Templates->Create a template for Leads/Contacts. You have three options to create birthday templates.


(a)
Pre-defined templates:  Find a few pre-defined birthday templates from Create a template -      >C elebration.

(b)
Customized templates: Find a few basic models from Create a new template -> Basic   


(c)Customized templates using HTML: Go to 'Insert HTML' option on the top right corner 
in the template gallery. Add or edit your code.    

 

2. Create a workflow to automate sending the birthday greetings.

 

a) Go to Settings->Setup->Workflow rules->Create a rule for Contacts.

b) Define the time and date on which the workflow must be triggered, and pick  the Date of Birth field.

c)Choose the date of execution as  Date of Birth field

d)Set the Execution cycle as Every year.

e) Set the "Which records" to “All records” (Or define specific groups and choose to send birthday wishes to that specific clientele (https://www.zoho.com/crm/help/automation/workflow-rules.html - Locate Set rule criteria)

 

3. Define an action to trigger emails to customers on their birthdays.


Go to Instant action->Send alerts->Choose the  birthday template just created->Email recipient is “Contact/Lead: email and save the workflow. This automation rule sends greetings to your contacts every year on their birthday. 



 

 

4. Personalize emails to important clients by creating a custom view showing upcoming birthdays. This is done using formula fields. Let me walk you through the steps:

 

 

1. Go to Setup->Modules->ContactsDrag and drop a Formula field and paste this in the expression and name it as “Month of Birth” and save the formula.

Month(${Contacts.Date of Birth})

This formula  extracts the month of the date of birth and updates it in this formula field.


Then, drag and drop another formula and paste the below expression and name it as “Day of birth” and save the formula and the layout.

Dayofmonth(${Contacts.Date of Birth})

This formula  extracts the day of the date and updates it in this formula field.





Similarly, consider the above image as reference and create another formula using Dayofmonth(${Contacts.Date of Birth})


 

2. Go to Contacts module—>List view drop down at the top left—>Create view.


3.  Give the criteria as “If “Month of Birth” is 1 and name this view as January and add Day of Month and Month of birth columns in the view. 


4.
Sort the day of month in the ascending order.




Now, all the birthdays that fall in January is listed in this view. Create 11 other views for each month. If you feel the custom views are flooding the drop down, just edit this custom view othe 1st of every month and change the month of birth criteria alone. If you have any queries on this, do leave a comment below. Will be happy to help you with it!

 

    • Sticky Posts

    • How to reach the official Zoho Support channels and avoid fake ones.

      Dear Customers, Thanks a lot for choosing Zoho! Our applications are built to help achieve your day-to-day business goals. We are committed to engaging with you, to understand and develop solutions that enhance your productivity.  We are happy and ready to help you use our services effectively. Understanding and avoiding fake support Just like using popular bank names and financial applications for phishing purposes, using Zoho and claiming to be providing Zoho Support or services with false numbers
    • Function #35: Close all tasks associated with a lead and create a new task.

      Welcome back everyone! Last week, we learnt how to close all tasks of a deal depending upon the deal stage. This week, let's look at a custom function that lets you close all of the tasks associated with a lead while simultaneously creating a new task, like when you need to halt all progress towards a lead while the lead is not available at the moment but create a reminder task. Business scenario: The success of a company, in one way or another, is determined by the leads it gets. Each lead is just
    • Zoho CRM Webinar - Redesigning Daily User Experiences with Canvas

      <br> Your users across roles use the CRM for day-to-day tasks that are necessary. Whether they perform their tasks on time, the right way, or at all depends on a lot of factors, including User Experience. Many businesses struggle with rigid layouts,
    • Join us at the Canada ZUG Meetup: What’s New in Zoho CRM

      Hello Zoho Community! Start your year with fresh insights into Zoho CRM’s latest updates and tools. Whether you're a CRM beginner or a experienced user, this meetup is crafted to help you optimise your processes and leverage new features. Explore practical
    • CRM Hack #2: Automate sending of birthday greetings to your customers.

        Hello everyone! What sets you apart as a sales person is your ability to add that personal touch to your business relationship with your customers. Sending a gift on a special day, or leaving a note wishing them on their birthdays, are small, yet significant actions that show your customers that you care. And these are actions done without any expectations :) You must be engaging with a lot of customers and it is highly unlikely that they all are your friends on Facebook or some social channel,

    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


      • Recent Topics

      • Can you prevent closing Ulaa window when the last tab is closed (inadvertently)?

        Most browsers have started to bring this feature in to prevent closing their windows when the last tab is closed (inadvertently). I hope Ulaa should get this in too.
      • Microsoft Phone Link

        Does anyone know if you can use Microsoft Phone Link to make calls through Zoho?
      • Voip Phone system that integrates with Zoho

        Just checking to see if anyone could tell me what phone system they are using with Zoho that is on the list of systems that integrate with Zoho.  I use Vonage and have been with them for quite a few years but their service has really gone down hill and
      • Removing Related Modules Lookup Fields Assignment / Relationship

        Issue: When creating a related list, I accidently selected module itself creating a circle reference. See attached. Situation: I wish to relating a custom module called "Phone Calls" to Leads and Contacts. Outcome: 1) I either want to remove the this
      • [Product Update] TimeSheets module is now renamed as Time Logs in Zoho Projects.

        Dear Zoho Analytics customers, As part of the ongoing enhancements in Zoho Projects, the Timesheets module has been renamed to Time Logs. However, the module name will continue to be displayed as Timesheets in Zoho Analytics until the relevant APIs are
      • Kaizen #210 - Answering your Questions | Event Management System using ZDK CLI

        Hello Everyone, Welcome back to yet another post in the Kaizen Series! As you already may know, for the Kaizen #200 milestone, we asked for your feedback and many of you suggested topics for us to discuss. We have been writing on these topics over the
      • Seriously - Create multiple contacts for leads, (With Company as lead) Zoho CRM

        In Zoho CRM, considering a comapny as a lead, you need us to allow addition of more than one contact. Currently the Lead Section is missing "Add contact" feature which is available in "Accounts". When you know that a particular lead can have multiple
      • can I link a contacts to multiple accounts

        can I link a contacts to multiple accounts
      • Free webinar! Digitize recruitment and onboarding with Zoho Sign and Zoho Recruit

        Hello, Tired of being buried in onboarding paperwork? With the integration between Zoho Sign and Zoho Recruit, a powerful applicant tracking system, you can digitize and streamline the entire recruitment and onboarding process, all from one platform.
      • is it possible to add more than one Whatsapp Phone Number to be integrated to Zoho CRM?

        so I have successfully added one Whatsapp number like this from this User Interface it seems I can't add a new Whatsapp Number. I need to add a new Whatsapp Number so I can control the lead assignment if a chat sent to Whatsapp Phone Number 1 then assign
      • Open Activities view.

        I really like the new views for the open and closed activities inside the deals. But when you are in the tab view instead of the column view you can only complete and edit the open activity there isn't the 3 dot option to be able to delete the activ
      • Potentially Outdated and Vulnerable Chromium Engine Installed by Ulaa Browser Installer

        I just installed Ulaa Browser a few minutes ago. Whats My Browser page shows I am using an outdated Chromium engine meaning I might be vulnerable for security exploits that might have got fixed in the new version.
      • Potentially hardcoded list of Browsers to import from (after Ulaa Setup)

        I have just installed Ulaa Browser and found that the list of browser to import data is potentially hardcoded ones rather than looking at the system. I do not have FF, IE and Edge is not my default itself. I would appreciated if Ulaa detected my browsers
      • From Layout to Code: Finding Custom Field IDs in Zoho Projects.

        Hello everyone! Ever found yourself wondering how to get the API names and IDs of custom fields in Zoho Projects while working on custom functions? Here’s a simple and effective way to do it! This method makes it super easy to locate the right field details
      • Session Expired

        I constantly get "Session Expired" and need to relogin or close and open the application again. This gets really frustrating during the day. Is this something that can be solved? This really makes me want to leave the app as it is no go to need to reopen
      • Employee type and source translation

        In Zoho People, when I fill in the employee’s information, there is the option to determine the type of employment (employee type) and the hiring source. Both options ALWAYS appear in English. It is extremely inconvenient to deal with poorly translated
      • Sync Issue Between Zoho Notebook Web App on Firefox (PC) and Android App

        Hi Zoho Notebook Community, I'm facing a sync problem with Zoho Notebook. When I use the web version on Mozilla Firefox browser on my PC, I create and save new notes, and I've synced them successfully. However, these new notes aren't showing up in my
      • Request for Clarity on Timeline for True GPT/Zia Auto-Response Capabilities

        I appreciate Zoho’s steady innovation, but I’m concerned that Desk and Zia remain well behind modern AI capabilities. For years, GPT-based tools have been able to generate and send contextual responses, yet Zoho Desk only supports summarization or suggested
      • Notebook audio recordings disappearing

        I have recently been experiencing issues where some of my attached audio recordings are disappearing. I am referring specifically to ones made within a Note card in Notebook on mobile, made by pressing the "+" button and choosing "Record audio" (or similar),
      • Has anyone built a ticket export that allows Help Center users to export the tickets shown in the My Area list they are looking at?

        Hi, We are moving to Zoho Desk soon. Our current support system displays an option in our help center allowing customers to export their Open, Closed, or all tickets based on which list they are looking at. We need to offer the same in Zoho Desk help
      • Two factor authentication for helpdesk users

        The company i work for wants use the helpdesk site in Zoho desk, as a place for their distribution partners to ask question and look for information about our product. The things there is suppose to go up there is somewhat confidential between my company
      • Zoho Desk: Q2 2025 | What's New

        Hello everyone, We are excited to announce Zoho Desk's 2025 Autumn updates. This release brings new features and enhancements that improve work management and enable businesses to provide a better overall support experience. Spanning from Zia Agents to
      • Committed Stock and To Be Received Stock via API?

        Is it possible to retrieve Committed Stock and/or To Be Received Stock for an Item via the API? I want to use this information for calculating the amount of inventory needed to be purchased.
      • Checkboxes not adhering to any policy in mail merge - data from CRM

        I want checkboxes to appear depending on whether the checkbox in the CRM module is ticked or not. However, the tickboxes that appear are either ticked or not, but don't correlate to the actual selections in the CRM module. This is is despite updating
      • Items Landed Cost and Profit?

        Hello, we recently went live with Zoho Inventory, and I have a question about the Landed Cost feature. The FAQ reads: "Tracking the landed cost helps determine the overall cost incurred in procuring the product. This, in turn, helps you to decide the
      • CC and/or BCC users in email templates

        I would like the ability to automatically assign a CC and BCC "User (company employee)" into email templates. Specifically, I would like to be able to add the "User who owns the client" as a CC automatically on any interview scheduled or candidate submitted
      • Create Contract API Endpoint Unclear "inputfields" Requirements

        Hello, I'm trying to create a Deluge function that accepts inputs from a form in Zoho Creator and creates a barebones contract of a given type. See below for the current code, cleaned of authentication information. // Fetch form data // Hidden field client_name
      • Kaizen #46 - Handling Notes through Zoho CRM API (Part 1/2)

        Hello everyone! Welcome back to another week of Kaizen! This week, we will discuss Handling Notes through Zoho CRM API. What will you learn from this post? Notes in Zoho CRM Working with Notes through Notes APIs 1. Notes in Zoho CRM 1a. Why add Notes to records? Notes are a great way to summarize your observations on customer and prospect interactions and outcomes. By saving notes as CRM data, a sales rep will always be able to keep track of how a sale is progressing. To know more about notes in
      • Marketer's Space - Why email marketing matters in ecommerce (and how to get started with Zoho Campaigns)

        Hello Marketers, Welcome to this week's Marketer's space post. Today, we'll discus why email marketing matters in ecommerce businesses. Running an online store is exciting but challenging. If you're running an online store, you've probably experienced
      • Zoho Campaigns Event timestamps do not propagate to Zoho CRM

        We have integrated Zoho CRM and Zoho Campaigns. But when looking at Contact records, the Campaign event data is missing the actual timestamps: especially when a particular email was sent. They're not in the Campaigns related list, and the cannot be found
      • Kaizen #121 : Customize List Views using Client Script

        Hello everyone! Welcome back to another interesting Kaizen post. In this post, we can discuss how to customize List Views using Client Script. This post will answer the questions Ability to remove public views by the super admin in the Zoho CRM and Is
      • Setting default From address when replying to request

        At the moment, if I want to reply to a request, the From field has three options, company@zohosupport.com, support@company.zohosupport.com, and support@company.com.  The first two are really internal address that should never be seen by the customer and
      • Tip #45 - Explore Your Support Reach with Zoho Assist’s Geo Insights - 'Insider Insights'

        Understanding where your remote support sessions are happening can help you make smarter decisions, allocate resources effectively, and improve overall customer satisfaction. In this week's Zoho Assist's community post we will be exploring Geo Insights
      • Formatting of text pasted into Zoho documents

        Howdy, I'm a newbie and finding Zoho an improvement to MS Word. Consider yourself hugged. High on my wish list would be plain text cut-and-paste. When pasting text from the web to Zoho, presently Zoho imports the formatting along with the text. This means that every cut-and-paste operation brings in text in a different font, size, or style. Can we have at least the option of importing plain text without formatting (or better yet, is this option already out there?) ... Thanks Helen
      • Add additional features to Zoho Tables

        Zoho Tables is a really great tool, why not add features like diagramming capability into the tool from applications like Draw.io which I believe is open source, you should be able to do wireframes, process flow diagrams, network design, etc. Please note
      • The Social Wall: August 2025

        Hello everyone, As summer ends, Zoho Social is gearing up for some exciting, bigger updates lined up for the months ahead. While those are in the works, we rolled out a few handy feature updates in August to keep your social media management running smoothly.
      • The Social Wall: July 2025

        Hello everyone! July has brought some exciting new updates to Zoho Social. From powerful enhancements in the Social Toolkit to new capabilities in the mobile app, we’ve packed this month with features designed to help you level up your social media presence.
      • Use Zoho Creator as a source for merge templates in Zoho Writer

        Hello all! We're excited to share that we've enhanced Zoho Creator's integration with Zoho Writer to make this combination even more powerful. You can now use Zoho Creator as a data source for mail merge templates in Zoho Writer. Making more data from
      • Tagged problem !!!

        Damn it, we're one of dozens of construction companies in Africa, but we can't link purchasing invoices to projects. Why isn't this feature available?
      • Syntax for URLs in HTML Snippets

        What are some best practices for inserting a URL in an HTML snippet? I've looked at Zoho Help articles on navigation-based and functional-based URLs, but I'm still unclear on how to incorporate them in an HTML snippet. For example, 1. How do I link to
      • Next Page