The CRM Zen Show Episode 420 – Everything Just Cliq’d

Zoho News

Zoho Cliq: Cliq 7.0 Collaboration and Workflow Enhancements

Cliq has been quiet for a while and now we know why, because 7.0 lands with unread and unread-mention filters, cleaner message cards, screen share annotations, multi-vendor AI support, live captions and sign language mode in meetings, MCP servers, recurring reminders, and out of office autoresponders that can send different messages depending on whether you were DMed, mentioned in a channel, or contacted by an external user. The other standout is a flow builder for bots, so building a Cliq bot now works more like Zoho Flow instead of hand coding every bot handler and its four layers of syntax.

Separately, Cliq Mini got its first real update in years. That little chat bar tucked into the bottom of CRM and Desk picks up pinned channels and threads, the ability to start a new DM or schedule a meeting without leaving the app you’re in, a fresh coat of paint, and a window that finally expands to a usable size.

Zoho CRM: Redesigned Functions with Analytics and Multi-Language Support

Function logs. In 2026. The functions page gains filtering tools, a per-function dashboard showing input arguments, revision history, and usage analytics, and logs that surface successes and info statements instead of only failures. Multi-language support is also going wide instead of staying a secret menu item you had to ask for, currently running Node 22, Java 17, and Python 3.12, with newer versions promised inside of two months.

Zoho CRM: More Flexible Approval Process Configuration

The config page got a cleaner look, but the real win is per-stage control: name your stages, fire field updates and task assignments at each step rather than only at the end, and send workflow-style rejection emails with real recipient, CC, and BCC options pulled from record field values. Stamp a date field at every stage and a multi-step approval turns into its own little funnel, which means you can finally see exactly where things are bogging down and whether that engineering review step is the reason proposals sit for a week.

Zoho Desk: Guided Conversations Enhancements

Five updates to Desk’s guided conversation bots, headlined by one flow configuration covering multiple languages instead of a separate build per language, and the customer’s first message staying in context so it can ride along into the ticket. That second one matters more than it sounds, because there is nothing worse than talking to a robot for five minutes and then having the human open with “so what can I help you with?” Gradient backgrounds, audit logs, and file-type responses from webhook blocks round it out.

Zoho Desk: Shared WhatsApp Number and Expanded Template Limits

One WhatsApp number can now be shared across Desk, SalesIQ, CRM, Recruit, Bigin, and Marketing Automation, with whichever service you configure first becoming the parent that controls chatbots, auto replies, and notifications. Worth thinking hard about where you set it up first, and our vote is Desk, because that is where the automation around inbound communication usually belongs anyway.

Zoho Webinar: Zoho MCP Integration

Yes, Zoho Webinar still exists, and it now ships an MCP server for pulling registrant lists, spinning up sessions, and checking attendance data, with pairing ideas for Cliq and Desk baked into the docs. Shout out to Zoho for publishing example prompts alongside it, because word choice matters far more with these tools than people expect, and every MCP rollout should do this.

Zoho Bigin: Related Products Topping for Contacts and Companies

A new topping on contacts and companies rolls up every product tied to that customer, with deal counts, quantities, and total revenue, and you can group it by product or split it out by deal and filter by pipeline stage. This is the kind of thing we normally build with a custom related list in CRM, so if you are running products in Bigin and associating them to deals, turn it on.

Zoho Desk: WhatsApp BSUID Becomes Primary Customer Identifier

More PSA than news, WhatsApp usernames mean phone numbers are no longer guaranteed in webhook payloads, so the Business-Scoped User ID becomes the primary customer identifier and any workflow, macro, routing rule, or contact search that leans on phone numbers alone needs a review.

Zoho Creator: Salesforce Integration Authentication Changes

Action required here too: Salesforce tightened its API security rules, so Quick Connect is gone and every existing Salesforce connection in Creator will stop working, which takes your workflows, Deluge tasks, and integration fields down with it unless you rebuild the connection with your own OAuth credentials or a custom connector.

Zoho CRM: Dashboard Filtering and Funnel Enhancements

Funnel components finally support drill-down so you can click a stage and see the records behind it, Duration is no longer mandatory on KPIs, target meters, funnels, and comparators, date filters pick up Before and After operators, and week groupings now display real date ranges instead of making you decode “W12, 2026.”

Zoho Desk: Instant Messaging Ticket Management Enhancements

Three routing-focused updates: IM tickets can be transferred across departments, where they arrive as new open tickets under the receiving department’s SLAs and automations, a Fall-back to Default setting pulls resolved conversations back into an active status when a customer replies, and agent availability changes now land in the audit log.

Zoho Desk: Smarter IM Session and Message Automation

Two new APIs for instant messaging, one that updates a session’s assignee and status programmatically for things like bot to agent hand-offs, and one that returns a canned or template message with the contact’s information already merged into the placeholders.

Zoho Desk: Password Encryption for Backups and Exports

Backups and exports can now be locked behind a password across all editions and data centers, with one catch worth flagging to your team: only the user who created the password can view it afterward.

Zoho Workplace: Product Updates

The monthly roundup brings a Connect dashboard you can dress up with a background image and a new greeting widget, plus a solid batch of Writer additions including conditional show and hide sections in merge templates, twelve new string formulas with an AI formula assistant, and Zoho Checkout payment links dropped straight into merged documents.

Zoho Bigin: Bulk Import Associated Products to Pipeline Records

Associated products can now be imported in bulk and linked to their pipeline records in a single operation, which beats attaching them one deal at a time in the middle of a migration.

Zoho Publish: Store Locator Widget

An embeddable map widget lets visitors search your locations by city, ZIP, or address and grab directions without leaving your site, and it syncs from Zoho Publish so hours and addresses stay current. Free on every plan, including the free one.

Code Share of the Week

Generate a Summary of All CRM Workflow Rules Using Deluge

This one leans on the CRM metadata APIs, the side of the API docs that deals with the structure and architecture of your CRM instead of the records inside it. It pulls the full list of workflow rules, then makes an additional call per rule to grab the complete details of what each one actually does, whether that is email notifications, field updates, custom functions, or Zoho Flow connections, along with analytics on when the rule last ran. It separates instant actions from scheduled actions and compiles the whole thing into one big JSON map. Run it, paste that JSON block into Claude or your AI of choice, and ask it whatever you want: which rules have scheduled actions, what has fired in the last two days, or whether the new automation you are planning is going to collide with something already running. That last use case is the real one, because systems get big and you do not always know what cascading effects a new feature is going to have.

This Week’s Blog

Zoho for Construction, Contracting and Development

A walkthrough of how Zoho fits home builders, specialty contractors, land developers, and civil and industrial construction firms, with the typical left to right flow and the applications that come into play at each step. Expect Creator to show up more than usual in this one, because custom pricing and milestone or progress-based billing rarely fit neatly inside CRM alone.

Tips and Tricks

QuickBooks vs. Zoho Books: Pros, Cons and 6 Major Differences

Christopher and Nicole from our finance team tag team the real differences between the two, covering customization depth, the estimate and sales process, transaction locking, search, and undeposited funds, plus the GAAP compliance strictness that occasionally trips up a migration.

Automate Your Bank Feed with Zoho Books Bank Rules

Bank rules turn transaction categorization into clicking “use rule,” and they get granular enough to separate your Google Workspace bill from your YouTube ad spend, so set them up early instead of stacking rules on rules for years like we did.

Question of the Week

Cadence vs Email Workflow

Carrie runs a small consulting company and wants to send a set of scheduled marketing emails followed by phone calls, and asked what a cadence actually gives her over the email workflow shown in the video. The two overlap a lot, and the deciding factor is branching: if you just want four emails to go out on a schedule, a workflow handles it fine, but the moment the next step depends on an open, a click, or a reply, a workflow becomes one rule sending emails and a second multi-branched rule reacting to responses. A cadence does that branching without code, keeps it on one page, and shows you right on the record that the lead is sitting at step five, and the only real tradeoff is that you cannot fire a Deluge function from inside one, which matters for texts but not for this use case.

This Week’s Quizzes

• Monday Quiz: Which feature of Zoho Notebook’s AI Meeting Notes is specifically highlighted as a standout differentiator from most other tools?
• Wednesday Quiz: In Zoho CRM Forecasts, what is the limitation when configuring custom columns for a forecast group?