Integrating Zoho Desk with Zoho CRM

Integrating Zoho Desk with Zoho CRM

Zoho CRM integration gives your sales and support teams a holistic view of your customers by maintaining a single customer and product database which is always in sync. For the integration, you must have Administrator privileges in Zoho Desk. Also, make sure that you have a Zoho CRM administrator available with you.

Features
Integrating with Zoho CRM brings with it the below features to deliver a great customer experience:
  • Maintain a unified database of customer and product information using the two-way sync for contacts, accounts, and products along with their data for custom fields, if any.
  • Agents can view the customer information pulled in from the CRM - such as potentials, notes, and activities on the same window as that of the support ticket.
  • View the customer profile pulled in from the CRM, within a contact or an account in Zoho Desk.
  • Prioritize and work on Zoho Desk tickets based on their customer types in the Handshake Mode.

Configuring Zoho CRM Integration
Configuring the Zoho CRM integration can be split into 3 steps.

Step 1(A) - Setting up Zoho CRM Integration
Follow the steps below, if you are a Zoho Desk administrator and have Zoho CRM administrative privileges as well. If not, proceed to step 1(B).
  1. Log in to your Zoho Desk account with Administrator privileges.
  2. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
  3. In the Setup Landing page, click Zoho under Marketplace.
  4. On the Zoho page, click Zoho CRM.
    Make sure that you have a     Professional or Enterprise edition in Zoho Desk.



  5. On the Zoho CRM Integration page, click Integrate. The CRM account matching your email address is pre-populated. 
    You may choose to configure another CRM account by selecting "Configure another account."



  6. Click Authenticate.
    The Zoho CRM account is authenticated and you can proceed to     Step 2.

Step 1(B) - Setting up Zoho CRM Integration
Follow the steps below if you are a Zoho Desk administrator but not an administrator in Zoho CRM. Make sure you have an administrator, or someone with admin access to CRM, available.
  1. Log in to your Zoho Desk account with Administrator privileges.
  2. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
  3. In the Setup Landing page, click Zoho under Marketplace.
  4. On the Zoho page, click Zoho CRM.
    Make sure that you have a     Professional or Enterprise edition in Zoho Desk.
  5. On the Zoho CRM Integration page, click Integrate.
  6. In the Zoho CRM Authentication section, enter the administrator email and the ZSC key from Zoho CRM.
    Visit this page to learn where you can locate the ZSC key in CRM.



  7. Click Authenticate.
    The Zoho CRM account is authenticated and you can proceed to     Step 2.

Step 2 - Syncing Contacts and Accounts
The next step is to select the sync type and map the Zoho Desk fields with those of Zoho CRM. To begin with, the standard fields in the Contacts and Accounts module will come pre-mapped for your convenience. 
Follow the steps below to complete the integration:
  1. Select a Sync Type. By default, two-way sync is selected. You may choose a one-way CRM to Desk sync if required.



  2. Associate the fields under Zoho Desk Fields column header with the corresponding fields in Zoho CRM.
    You can choose the appropriate field from the drop-down menu.
  3. Click Start Sync.
    You can click 'Edit' under Configuration Details to edit the sync type or the field mapping.

Step 3 - Syncing Products
The final step is to configure syncing of your products. You must select the sync type, the departments whose products must be synced, and map the Zoho Desk fields with those of Zoho CRM.
Follow the steps below to sync products:
  1. Click Configure corresponding to Products and under Sync Settings.



  2. On the Configure Product Sync page, select a Sync Type.
    By default, two-way sync is selected. You may choose a one-way CRM to Desk sync if required.



  3. Select the departments whose products must be synced from the drop-down menu.
  4. Associate the fields under Zoho Desk Fields column header with the corresponding fields in Zoho CRM.
  5. You can choose the appropriate field from the drop-down menu.
  6. Click Start Sync.
    You can click 'Edit' under Configuration Details to edit the sync type or the field mapping.
The Zoho CRM integration is successfully completed.

Note:
  • During your first sync session, the system will perform a bulk import and export of data. Depending on the size of your database, this might take several hours to complete.
  • The records that were created during the last one year alone will be imported and synced between your Zoho Desk and Zoho CRM accounts.
  • The duplicate check for Contacts and Accounts is primarily based on the Email ID of the contacts and the Account Name respectively.
  • The duplicate check for Products is based on the Product Name.
  • All contacts irrespective of whether they have an email address or not will be synced.
  • The sync will kick-start when you create, update, delete or mass update records either in Zoho Desk/CRM.

Syncing Deleted Records
When some contacts or accounts are deleted from Zoho Desk, their corresponding records will not be deleted from Zoho CRM and vice versa. This will make the syncing experience smoother and prevent test or junk records from syncing between databases. However, please make sure that you delete the records from the recycle bin of the respective application. Else, the deleted records will be put back during subsequent syncs(read, record updates). 

Note:
  • When you update a Zoho CRM record which was previously deleted from Zoho Desk, a sync event will add the record again in the latter.

Setting Profile-level Permissions
The administrator can modify each Zoho Desk profile to grant and remove certain privileges concerning contacts and accounts in Zoho CRM. For example, if the light agents are to be restricted from viewing potentials information, simply disable the Potentials option. Now, all agents with a 'Light Agent' profile can see contact information, notes, and activities but cannot view the potentials information from CRM.

To set permissions:
  1. Go to Setup > Marketplace > Zoho > Zoho CRM.
  2. In the Zoho CRM Integration page, click Permissions.
  3. Under the Permissions tab, do the following:
    • Uncheck the 'Visible' checkbox (  ) corresponding to a profile to hide the Zoho CRM integration.
    • Click the toggle corresponding to Accounts or Contacts. This option allows you to choose to display either one of them for a specific profile.
    • Click the Permission-level link (i.e., Full Access or Restricted Access) to allow or deny access for the following items:
      • Contact/Account Information
      • Potentials
      • Notes
      • Activities [Select or unselect Calls, Events, and Tasks individually]

Viewing Sync History
Maintaining a log of the activities performed in your Zoho Desk account is always useful. You know when a ticket was edited, or who added a ticket. Similarly, a log of the synchronization activities is helpful in knowing when and what kind of records were imported. The Sync History in Zoho Desk provides a clear picture of the recently synced records over the last 7 days. 
You can see the following details under the sync history:
  • Date of sync
  • Source of the sync and the target, i.e., from Desk to CRM or vice versa
  • Imported record type, i.e., Contacts or Accounts
  • Details on the number of records that are added, updated or failed

To view sync history:
  1. Go to Setup > Marketplace > Zoho > Zoho CRM.
  2. In the Zoho CRM Integration page, click Sync History.

Viewing Failure Logs
The Failure Log is a chronological sequence of entries, each resulting from the failure of the sync actions in Zoho Desk. The logs are helpful to determine the reason behind the failure of a sync event and also to identify the records associated with the event. Given below in the table are some of the common error messages behind the failure of a sync event:

Error Messages
Description
CRM ID is already mapped with another Support Entity
The record seems to be a duplicate. Its original entity is already mapped with its counterpart in the other database.
Text value is given for an Integer field
You have incorrectly mapped a Text type field with an Integer field in the Desk— CRM field mapping.
Mandatory Field Missing (Extremely Rare)
You may have failed to map the mandatory fields that are required for Contacts and Accounts.
Missing Parameter (Extremely Rare)
This may occur when an API parameter was missed out during a back-end operation.
Incorrect API parameter or Parameter Value (Extremely Rare)
This may happen when an incorrect API parameter was called, or its value seems incorrect during a back-end operation.

To view failure logs:
  1. Go to Setup > Marketplace > Zoho > Zoho CRM.
  2. In the Zoho CRM Integration page, click Failure Log.
  3. Under Failure Log section, click on a record type to view the details.
The individual records that could not be synced will be displayed. You can view the failure time and the reason for their failure alongside a record. Click Try Again to re-sync the record.

Pausing/Resuming Sync
Zoho Desk allows you to pause and resume syncing as and when required.
To pause an active sync:
  1. Go to Setup > Marketplace > Zoho > Zoho CRM.
  2. In the Zoho CRM Integration page, click Pause Sync.
The data sync will be paused. During this time, no data exchange or update will happen between your Zoho Desk and Zoho CRM accounts. You can return here to Resume syncing when you're ready. 

Deleting Integration
You can delete Zoho CRM Integration at any time. On deleting:
  • No further data sync will take place between Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk.
  • You will no longer be able to view customer information from Zoho CRM.
  • You cannot answer tickets based on their customer type in the Handshake Mode.

To delete Zoho CRM integration:
  1. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
  2. In the Setup Landing page, click Zoho under Marketplace.
  3. On the Zoho page, click Zoho CRM.
  4. Click the More icon (  ) in the upper-right side of the Integration page.
  5. Click Delete Integration from the menu.
  6. In the Confirmation dialog box, click Delete.
The Zoho CRM integration is deleted in your help desk.

For Existing Users of One-way Import
Existing users, who have set up the one-way import of customer information from CRM to Desk can switch to the sync version. This will help you keep the two databases in sync with each other compared to the traditional method of scheduled import.

Part I - Switching to Sync
  1. Log in to your Zoho Desk account with Administrator privileges.
  2. Click the Setup icon (  ) in the top bar.
  3. In the Setup Landing page, click Zoho under Marketplace.
  4. In the Zoho page, click Zoho CRM.
  5. In the Zoho CRM Integration page, click Enable Two-way Sync.
  6. In the following alert pop-up, click Continue.
    Note: Once you click "Continue," you cannot revert to the one-way import or be able to sync records from custom views in Zoho CRM.



Part II - Selecting Sync Type and Mapping Fields
The next step is to select the sync type and map the Zoho Desk fields with those of Zoho CRM. To begin with, the standard fields in the Contacts and Accounts module will come pre-mapped for your convenience. 
Follow the steps below to complete the switch:
  1. Select a Sync Type. By default, two-way sync is selected. You may choose a one-way CRM to Desk sync if required.
  2. Associate the fields under Zoho Desk Fields column header with the corresponding fields in Zoho CRM.
    You can choose the appropriate field from the drop-down menu.
  3. Click Start Sync.
You have successfully switched to the sync version of the Zoho CRM integration.