Ring in the New Year with Guided Conversations for Smooth Offline Support

Ring in the New Year with Guided Conversations for Smooth Offline Support

As we step into the new year, it’s time to refocus, re-energize, and gear up for fresh opportunities. But what about your customers as they begin the year with their own set of challenges or queries to resolve? 
With Zoho Desk’s Guided Conversations (GC), you can ensure they’re supported seamlessly, even as your team navigates the post-holiday rush.

Zylker Techfix, a mobile gadget firm, has a busy start as its customers flood them with requests: repair appointments, service inquiries, delivery tracking, and questions about new products. By leveraging Guided Conversations, Zylker Techfix provided an efficient, self-service experience that kept customers engaged while their team prioritized high-value tasks.

Here’s why Zylker Techfix setup the Guided Conversations feature within Zoho Desk:
  • Customers could effortlessly log repair or service requests.
  • Delivery updates and product inquiries were instantly addressed without delays.
  • Clear and reassuring messaging kept customers informed that their concerns were logged and would be prioritized.


Guided Conversations acts as a dependable, 24/7 virtual assistant, automating ticket creation while offering a personal touch. Its intuitive, drag-and-drop builder enables you to design workflows that guide customers through their questions, gather essential information, and create tickets—even when your team is unavailable.

For businesses like Zylker Techfix, GC turned the often-hectic start of the year into an opportunity to build stronger customer relationships. By ensuring requests were acknowledged and logged, customers felt valued and confident that their needs were being addressed.

As you plan for the year ahead, Guided Conversations can help you create a customer experience that’s efficient, thoughtful, and future-ready. 

Guide to Set up Guided Conversations (GC) in Zoho Desk
Here’s how you can easily set up Guided Conversations to create tickets when agents are unavailable/offline:
1. Go to Setup > Self-Service > Guided Conversations.
2. Select the department before creating the flow because Guided Conversations are department-specific. 

Create a New Flow
3. Click on the Create Flow tab in the top-right corner.
4. Select the Web Channel. 
5. Enter a Name and Description for your flow, then click Next.
6. The GC design window will appear. Below the Guided Conversation icon, click the + icon to start building your flow.
7. Drag and drop elements from the right-hand panel to create your conversation blocks.
8. Drag the Text Message Block and drop it into the flow. Type a Welcome message. 
9. Enter the Name of the block and the Message you want to display to customers. This block is used to share direct information with your customers.
10. Click the + icon below the text message block and add a Question Block.
11. Use the Question blocks to collect inputs from customers based on your questions.
For example, use the following Question Blocks using the + icon to receive the information from your customers: 
  • Name (Text Block) 
  • Email (Email Block)
  • Contact Number (Number Block)
  • Date (Calendar Block for availability)
  • Attachments (Attachment Block to receive files or images, such as screenshots).


Add Button Choice Blocks
12. Use the Button Choice Blocks to present predefined options to customers, such as a list of countries, states, or regions. This is useful for collecting specific information like location and understanding the time zone.
13. Drag the Text Question block to receive a description on the Issues submitted. 
14. Create the Date and Time question block to get the customer's availability time to reconnect, if required. 



To Create a Ticket
15. Now, click on the Zoho Desk blocks, click on the Create ticket.
16. Give the Block Name, choose the Department (the same department where you create this Guided Conversation), choose the layout for the Email template. 



17. In the Input variable mapping, click on the gear icon, map the field variables in the Tickets layout with the Flow variables created within  GC. 

For example, map the Email field within Tickets to the Email block in GC, map Phone with the Phone field, map Subject with the Issue Type, and map Description with the Describe issue text block



18. Click Save to save the mapping variables
19. In the Output variable mapping, click on the gear icon, map the ticket related information which you would like to share with the customers within the GC.  



Preview and Publish
20. Once all blocks are added, click on Preview to view the flow and ensure it works based on your requirements. 
21. Save your changes, and click Publish. Your Guided Conversation is ready to use!
Notes
Note: Some blocks are being developed for Instant Messaging (IM) channels and will appear faded out if you choose IM channels.
Create A GC Widget
i.    Go to Setup(S) >> Self Service >> Guided Conversations >> GC widgets. 
ii.   Click on Create GC widget. Give a Name and Description. 
iii.  Choose the Channels. click on the drop-down arrow under Associate flows >> Add Flow >> select the Published GC.
iv.  Click Associate. under Access Permissions, select users based on your preferences. 
v.   Enter your preferred welcome message that you would like to appear on your GC widget.
vi.  Enter End Options based on your preferences.
vii. Click Save to save your GC widget. 
ASAP Widget
Go to Setup (S) >> Self-Service >> ASAP >> Create New Widget. 
a. Enter a Name, enable the widget launcher to show the widget on your website. 
b. Associate the help widget with required departments.
c. Choose the required modules to associate with the widget.
d. Once you are done, click on Generate.  
Embed GC 
You can obtain the embed code to integrate the widget into your website or Help Center, as well as the organization ID for iOS and Android SDKs.
i.   Go to Setup (S) >> Self-Service >> ASAP. 
ii.  Hover over the created ASAP widget; click on Embeddable Code.  
iii. Copy the web embed code for use on your website or Help Center.
iv. Use the iOS ID for iOS SDK and the Android ID for Android SDK.
That’s it—your Guided Conversation is now live and ready to assist your customers! 

Pro Tip 
Guided Conversations can be tailored to suit a variety of scenarios, from managing customer inquiries to streamlining ticketing operations. Enhance the customer experience by customizing, editing, or updating workflows to meet their needs effortlessly.

Explore our Guided Conversation Guide and the automation with GC to  ensure your customers always have the support they need.

Here’s to a fantastic start to the New Year! Wishing you success and seamless experiences ahead: Happy New Year from the Zoho Desk Team! 🎉




    • 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

    Nederlandse Hulpbronnen


      • Recent Topics

      • Can I remove or divert certain contacts from an active Campaigns workflow?

        I have created a workflow in Zoho Campaigns, which sends different emails, once contacts have been added to a mailing list. To choose which email to send to the contacts, there are conditions, which divert contacts based on their company type and their company size. There was a subsection of this workflow, where company size wasn't selected correctly, and some contacts have been sent down the wrong path and received the wrong email. The workflow contains a reminder loop and a further series of emails.

      • How to map fields from Zoho Recruit to Zoho People

        I've got these fields from my Job Offer that I'm trying to map to the Work information fields in Zoho People, but they arent showing up. For example, how do I get the department name field (in the job post) to map to the work information field in Zoho

      • UTM in zoho campaigns

        Helloo everybody!!! Someone know how IF ZOHO CAMPAIGNS has UTM for tracking the url of any campaigns. thank u

      • Full Context of Zoho CRM Records for Zia in Zoho Desk for efficient AI Usage

        Hello everyone, I have a question regarding the use of Zia in Zoho Desk in combination with CRM data. Is it possible to automatically feed the complete context of a CRM record into Zia, so that it can generate automated and highly accurate responses for

      • Knowledge base printing

        I saw a posting about printing the knowledge base as I was looking for the answer, but we would like the ability to print out the entire knowledge base with a click, keeping the same organization format.   Bonus would include an index of keywords and

      • Search not working!

        I have items in my notebook tagged but when I search for a tag nothing comes up! Any fix for this?

      • Zoho Books | Product updates | January 2026

        Hello users, We’ve rolled out new features and enhancements in Zoho Books. From e-filing Form 1099 directly with the IRS to corporation tax support, explore the updates designed to enhance your bookkeeping experience. E-File Form 1099 Directly With the

      • Updates for Zoho Campaigns: Merge tag, footer, and autoresponder migration

        Hello everyone, We'd like to inform you of some upcoming changes with regard to Zoho Campaigns. We understand that change can be difficult, but we're dedicated to ensuring a smooth transition while keeping you all informed and engaged throughout the process.

      • Drag 'n' Drop Fields to a Sub-Form and "Move Field To" Option

        Hi, I would like to be able to move fields from the Main Page to a Sub-Form or from a Sub-Form to either the Main Page or another Sub-Form. Today if you change the design you have to delete and recreate every field, not just move them. Would be nice to

      • Sharing my portal URL with clients outside the project

        Hi I need help making my project public for anyone to check on my task. I'm a freelance artist and I use trello to keep track on my client's projects however I wanted to do an upgrade. Went on here and so far I'm loving it. However, I'm having an issue sharing my url to those to see progress. They said they needed an account to access my project. How do I fix this? Without them needing an account.

      • How do i integrate google analytics to Zoho Campaigns?

        Looking to track Zoho Traffic from email Current topic is outdated

      • How do teams manage meeting follow-ups across Zoho tools?

        We’re using Zoho tools for collaboration and tracking, but managing meeting notes, action items, and follow-ups across teams is still challenging. Curious how others are handling this within Zoho workflows. Are there best practices or integrations that

      • Customize Colors used on graphs and charts according to users desire.

        It would be great if we could customize the graph's colors as we see fit. I hate that yellow is always the default color!

      • Let us view and export the full price books data from CRM

        I quote out of CRM, some of my clients have specialised pricing for specific products - therefore we use Price Books to manage these special prices. I can only see the breakdown of the products listed in the price book and the specialised pricing for

      • Mejoras urgentes para ZOHO MEETING

        Tengo unos meses usando Zoho Meeting. En general, es buena, pero hay cosas vitales que no logra cumplir con mínima calidad. 1) Calidad de audio y video: urge mejoras. Audio con retraso, imagen borrosa, mal recorte de silueta con fondos virtuales. Además,

      • Multiple header in the quote table???

        Hello, Is it possible in Zoho CRM to add multiple headers or sections within the Quote product table, so that when the quote is printed it shows separate sections (for example “Products” and “Services”)? To clarify, I’m asking because: This does not appear

      • Saving sent email campaign as PDF

        I'm looking to add all campaigns sent to an archive folder in sharepoint. Is there anyway to accomplish this in Zoho Flow ? I'm falling at the first hurdle ... can I automatically save a sent campaign as a PDF to a folder location ?

      • Exporting All Custom Functions in ZohoCRM

        Hello, All I've been looking for a way to keep about 30 functions that I have written in Zoho CRM updated in my own repository to use elsewhere in other instances. A github integration would be great, but a way to export all custom functions or any way

      • Conditional Layouts On Multi Select Field

        How we can use Conditional Layouts On Multi Select Field field? Please help.

      • Appreciation to Qntrl Support Team

        We are writing this topic to appreciate the outstanding level of support from Qntrl Team. We have been using Qntrl since 2022 after shifting from another similar platform. Since we joined Qntrl, the team has shown a high level of professionalism, support,

      • How can I hide "My Requests" and "Marketplace" icon from the side menu

        Hello everybody, We recently started using the new Zoho CRM for Everyone. How can I hide "My Requests" and "Marketplace" from the side menu? We don't use these features at the moment, and I couldn't find a way to disable or remove them. Best regards,

      • Whatsapp Integration on Zoho Campaign

        Team: Can the messages from Zoho Campaign delivered through Whatsapp... now customers no longer are active on email, but the entire campaign module is email based.... when will it be available on whatsapp.... are there any thirdparty providers who can

      • Mandatory Field - but only at conversion

        Hello! We use Zoho CRM and there are times where the "Lead Created Date & Time" field isn't populated into a "Contractor" (Account is the default phrase i believe). Most of my lead tracking is based on reading the Lead Created field above, so it's important

      • Different Task Layouts for Subtasks

        I was wondering how it would be possible for a subtask to have a different task layout to the parent task.

      • Enable Free External Collaboration on Notecards in Zoho Notebook

        Hi Zoho Notebook Team, I would like to suggest a feature enhancement regarding external collaboration in Zoho Notebook. Currently, we can share notes with external users, and they are able to view the content without any issue. However, when these external

      • Using data fields in Zoho Show presentations to extract key numbers from Zia insights based on a report created

        Is it possible to use data fields in Zoho Show presentations along with Zoho Analytics to extract key numbers from Zia insights based on a report created? For example, using this text below: (note that the numbers in bold would be from Zia Insights) Revenue

      • Free webinar: AI-powered agreement management with Zoho Sign

        Hi there! Does preparing an agreement feel like more work than actually signing it? You're definitely not alone. Between drafting the document, managing revisions, securing internal approvals, and rereading clauses to make sure everything still reflects

      • WhatsApp Channels in Zoho Campaigns

        Now that Meta has opened WhatsApp Channels globally, will you add it to Zoho Campaigns? It's another top channel for marketing communications as email and SMS. Thanks.

      • CRM For Everyone - Bring Back Settings Tile View

        I've been using CRM for Everyone since it was in early access and I just can't stand the single list settings menu down the left-hand side. It takes so much longer to find the setting I need. Please give users the option to make the old sytle tile view

      • Lets have Dynamics 365 integration with Zohobooks

        Lets have Dynamics 365 integration with Zohobooks

      • Add notes in spreadsheet view

        It would be great if we could Add/edit notes in the spreadsheet view of contacts/leads. This would enable my sales teams to greatly increase their number of calls. Also viewing the most recent note in the Contact module would also be helpful.

      • Opening balances - Accounts Receivable and Payable

        Our accounting year starts on 1st August 2013 and I have a Trial Balance as at that date, including Accounts Receivableand Accounts Payable balances, broken down by each customer and supplier. Q1 - do I show my opening balance date as 31st July 2013 or

      • Cancel Subscription

        Hi , Im want to cancel my account but without success please help me to do it

      • Making an email campaign into a Template

        I used a Zoho Campaign Template to create an email. Now I want to use this email and make it a new template, but this seems to be not possible. Am I missing something?

      • Direct Access and Better Search for Zoho Quartz Recordings

        Hi Zoho Team, We would like to request a few enhancements to improve how Zoho Quartz recordings are accessed and managed after being submitted to Zoho Support. Current Limitation: After submitting a Quartz recording, the related Zoho Support ticket displays

      • Multiple Cover Letters

        We are using the staffing firm edition of Recruit and we have noticed that candidates cannot add more than one cover letter. This is a problem as they might be applying for multiple jobs on our career site and when we submit their application to a client,

      • URGENT: Deluge issue with Arabic text Inbox

        Dear Deluge Support, We are facing an issue that started on 12/Feb/2026 with custom functions written using Deluge within Qntrl platform. Currently, custom functions do not accept Arabic content; it is replaced with (???) characters. Scenario 1: If we

      • File Conversion from PDF to JPG/PNG

        Hi, I have a question did  anyone every tried using custom function to convert a PDF file to JPG/PNG format? Any possibility by using the custom function to achieve this within zoho apps.  I do know there are many third parties API provide this with

      • Now in Zoho One: Orchestrate customer journeys across apps with Zoho CommandCenter

        Hello Zoho One Community! We’re excited to introduce Zoho CommandCenter as a new capability available in Zoho One. For the whole customer journey As Zoho One customers adopt more apps across sales, marketing, finance, and support, a common challenge emerges:

      • annualy customer report

        we need a report per customer that looks like this invoic number cleaning laundry repair management 01 january xxx euro xx euro xx euro xxx euro 02 february xxx euro xxx euro x euro xxxx euro and so on the years 12 months is that possible to make and

      • Next Page