The CRM Zen Show – Episode 80 – We’ve Seen The Light

Zoho News

• Zoho Vault New Interface is Open To Public Beta
  • A very nice overhaul.  Sign up here.
• 8 New Zoho Sheets Functions
  • XLOOKUP – Zoho’s take on an improved VLOOKUP Function will be very interesting to spreadsheet power users.
  • And the SEQUENCE function does look to be pretty useful as well
• Zoho Bookings Gets an Offical Product Launch
  • It’s getting close.  Give it a try. Here is our getting started guide.
• Zoho Inventory Updates
  • View the price lists associated with an item
  • Add payment terms to your sales and purchase orders
  • Add a subject to your invoices and credit notes
• Zoho Books Updates
  • Quite a few updates here, but two that stand out are:
    • Related Lists can now be added and customized, and;
    • If there are multiple prices associated with an item, you can view them on the item’s details page.
• New Zoho Marketplace Apps for January 2020
  • And let’s give another shout out to the Catalyst Connect Client Portal we have been using this for a month or so now and it is rock solid.  Contact us about getting one set up for your company.
• Check out the upcoming SalesIQ webinar on Intelligent Triggers
  • Intelligent Triggers in SalesIQ are used to trigger actions to your website visitors at different instances and grab their attention. With triggers, you can perform predefined actions when the visitor lands on your website or is accessing your web page. You also have an option to set custom triggers for your website.
• Zoho Backstage Updates
  • Domain Authentication, Cancelation Policies, and BadgeUp enhancements.
• Zoho Analytics Updates
  • New Data Connectors
    • Advanced Analytics for LinkedIn Ads
    • Advanced Analytics for Eventbrite
  • New Charts and More
• Brekeke PBX Now Integrates With Zoho CRM
  • We have never used or implemented Brekeke, but it does offer some very unique services that no other Zoho Telephony Integration Does:
    • True Multi-Tenancy: Brekeke PBX offers true multi-tenant capabilities, which allow service providers to work with multiple Zoho CRM organization accounts on a single server.
    • WebSocket API: Developers can create companion applications for Brekeke PBX with JavaScript or any major programming languages with simple API.
    • WebRTC ready: Users can receive incoming audio/video calls on the WebRTC client connected with Zoho CRM. Visitors to the site can contact agents from their web browsers without installing special applications.

Notable Mobile Updates

• The following updates have been added to the Zoho Inventory iOS app:
  • Added the Payments Received and Payments Made module to view existing payments and to record new payments.
  • The expiration date of a batch can now be viewed while adding batch tracked items to a transaction.
  • Added the ‘Inventory Start Date’ field under Settings.
  • Added the ‘Share Invoice Link’ option to copy and share the invoice URL through any messaging applications instantly.
  • Added the Payments list page to view the payments collected for paid invoices.

Implementation of the Week

• Zoho Forms – Subform integration to create custom module records in CRM
  • CRM hierarchy with Accounts (ex: Restaurant Groups) and Establishments (ex: Restaurant Locations)
  • Zoho Form created with subform to capture multiple Establishments for one Account
  • Submission of Form triggers webhook to Zoho Flow, which creates the Account and Contact
  • Establishment names written into Account field as comma-separated list, which triggers CRM deluge function to create Establishment records in custom module (linked to Account and Contact)

Things We Noticed

• Some strange issues are showing up in Zoho CRM.  Please share yours with us if you have noticed them.

This Weeks Reads

• The New App Dev CRM Model – CRM Buyer – By Denis Pombriant
  • An interesting read on where the industry is headed, and why Zoho is leading the pack.
• Zenatta Blogs

• • Scheduling Appointments With Zoho Bookings and Zoho CRM
    • Our guide on getting started with Zoho Bookings
  • Zoho Checkout – An Overview
    • Finishing off our series on Zoho’s Finance Suite

Application / Plug-In of the Week

• Zoho Backstage for Zoho CRM
  • Create a new Zoho Backstage event from the Campaigns module in CRM
  • Add expenditure (budgeted cost) and keep track of event finances with cash inflow from sponsors and ticket sales
  • Once the event is live, you can monitor the count of attendees who have checked-in
  • View all details of sponsors, speakers, and organizers of the event

Tips and Tricks

• Keep your visitors from waiting with chat forward action in the Zobot!
  • The ‘forward’ action in the Zobot lets the Zobot transfer chats to operators inside your organization in case it does not know the answer to any query that comes from visitors.