With over 300 clients in an endless variety of industries, sometimes solutions require out-of-the-box thinking. If you watch the CRM Zen Show, then you know every week Tyler shares a new implementation that our team put together for a client. Well, out of the 52 implementations from last year, here are the top ten.
1 – Zoho CRM Custom Accounts Related List Containing 3rd Party Data
- Applications Involved
- CRM
- Any Application with a REST API
- General Overview Snapshot
- Related Lists in the CRM are normally constrained to records that are contained directly within the CRM itself
- In this case, our client was looking to display Quickbooks Online invoices within each CRM Account
- To solve this, first, we synced QBO data to Zoho Analytics
- Then, using a Related List Deluge Function, we can query Analytics data, format it into XML, and display is as a native related list
- This list can include custom redirect links out to 3rd party services
- Importance of the Zoho Implementation
- This allows you to display data within CRM records, without actually syncing it to the CRM. Keeping data in sync in two different places is prone to error, but if you are just refrencing the data you know it is going to always be accurate. Thus making this implementation extremely useful and powerful.
2 – Client Scripting for Live-Loading Deal Name Customization
- Applications Involved
- CRM
- General Overview Snapshot
- Client scripts are a relatively new functionality within the CRM
- They differ from Deluge functions in that they run on the client-side (browser) rather than the server-side
- This allows them to trigger on the fly without a save/refresh to display the result
- When creating a Deal record from a Contact/Account, client scripts can be used to create the naming structure for the Deal record as the record is being initially created, so that the user can see the result without a re-load
- Importance of the Zoho Implementation
- While Deluge functions can accomplish anything that a client script could accomplish, Deluge scripts don’t run while you are creating or editing the record. This makes cleint scripts very useful for things like naming conventions, address validation, and mathmatical calculations.
3 – Marketing ROI Calculation with Books, CRM, and Analytics
- Applications Involved
- Books
- CRM
- Analytics
- General Overview Snapshot
- All incoming Leads from various paid platforms categorized by Lead Source
- This was done using Zoho Social integrations, as well as source specific landing pages for Forms
- Marketing Expenses were categorized into specific GL accounts based on platform
- Ex: Facebook PPC, Instagram PPC, LinkedIn PPC
- Query tables pull in Analytics to consolidate Marketing Expenses and Lead/Deal information into tables with shared date column (for reporting purposes)
- Values calculated for Cost per Lead, and Cost per Closed Won Deal per each tracked source
- All incoming Leads from various paid platforms categorized by Lead Source
- Importance of the Zoho Implementation
- This is imporant because in order to adjust and optimize marketing campaigns you need to be able to connect the real spend on that campaign to the revenue generated by the campaign. Oftentimes by using GoogleAds or Analytics you are only tracking conversions through the form submission, but that doesn’t tell you whether those leads turned into any revenue.
4 – Phone Number Format Standardization via Zenatta’s first Zoho plug-in
- Applications Involved
- CRM
- General Overview Snapshot
- Phone number formatting can be a thorn in many of our clients side, as customer or employee entry of these values can differ greatly
- Using Zoho’s Developer platform, our team created a plug-in that will deploy workflows and custom functions automatically to a client’s CRM instance
- This plug-in allows the user to specify what phone number format they would prefer when they are configuring the plugin
- Once the phone number is defined, the system uses regex expressions to standardize all phone numbers upon initial fill, or future updates
- Importance of the Implementation
- If you have messed around in the CRM you know that formatting phone numbers is a HUGE pain in the butt. This plug-in is our best attempt to solve that problem once and for all.
5 Aggregated “Last Touch Date” field in CRM Contact Zoho Implementation
- Applications Involved
- CRM
- General Overview Snapshot
- There is a “Last Activity Date” field in the CRM, which includes updates from Tasks, Calls, Meetings, Notes, Emails, AND field updates
- Oftentimes, we’d like to track only real touches, excluding field updates
- Automations were written for each specific action (Task, Call, Meeting, Note, Email) to datestamp this field in the Contact record
- This automation does not include field updates so that the true “Last Touch Date” can be accurately tracked
- Importance of the Zoho Implementation
- This is essentially a bug fix. There is a field called last activity time in the CRM, which is updated by “edits to fields on a record” and “related email, tasks, calls being logged against that record”. Many clients need a field that ONLY looks at the related user activity without field edits.
6 – New Customer Journey automation via Zoho Campaigns leveraging the Shopify connector for Zoho CRM
- Applications Involved
- Zoho Campaigns
- Shopify
- CRM
- General Overview Snapshot
- Zoho provides a pre-built connector to pull in Shopify Orders and Customers into Sales Orders and Contacts, respectively
- CRM workflows stamp Contacts with Customer identifier once they have a related Sales Order via the integration
- This Customer identifier qualifies the Contact to enter a Customer Mailing List in Campaigns, via the CRM-Campaigns connector
- Customer Mailing list is lined up with a new Customer Journey email series using Campaigns Workflows
- This provides a set-it-and-forget-it solution for entering all new Shopify Customers into a long-term drip sequence
- Importance of the Implementation
- A vast majority of ecommerce companies use a “Welcome Journey” to introduce a new customer to their brand. These integrations provide a seamless way to do that without writing any custom code.
7 – Automated Creation of Zoho Projects via Zoho CRM Workflows/Deluge
- Applications Involved
- Campaigns
- Shopify
- CRM
- General Overview Snapshot
- Using the standard Projects integration for CRM, Projects can be manually created from within Account and Deal records
- When created manually, the Project template must be selected by the user
- In this implementation, we used Deluge actions to query Account/Deal record information to determine the appropriate template
- Once the template is identified, the Project is created with the proper links to Account and Deal records in the CRM
- This process can be mimicked for child records of the Deal as well, if multiple Projects are required for one Deal record
- Importance of the Implementation
- For many companies after any sale is made there needs to be a handoff from the sales team to an operations or fullfilment team. By automating Project creation when Deals are won, we cut down the manual labor needed to specify action items.
8 – Subscription Link Builder
- Applications Involved
- CRM
- Subscriptions
- General Overview Snapshot
- We find that oftentimes, companies use the CRM Deals module to track sales of subscription products
- This works well for pipeline management, but by default there is no way to natively customize and prefill a specific subscription plan/add-on set offered to a customer
- Using CRM custom fields (one for the plan, and one for defining quantity of each add-on), we can build a custom button to create a custom link and add it to the Deal
- This link will assign the plan, add-on quantities, and Customer information from the CRM records
- This helps with preventing duplicate Customer accounts, as well as aiding in a seamless sales flow for Subscription onboarding
- Importance of the Implementation
- We found that many customers use the CRM deals to manage their sales processes. The CRM and Books integration works for sending one-time invoices, but there is not a good out of the box tool for configuring and sending a subscription sign-up. This link builder allows sales teams to easily create and deliver custom subscriptions.
9 – Customized Round Robin based on CRM User Role Designation
- Applications Involved
- CRM
- Customized Round Robin based on CRM User Role Designation
- Sales users are organized into roles based on physical locations
- Roles are named in a standard format based on location name
- On submission of a new Prospect submission (custom form), data is routed through Zoho Flow which runs a custom function to check open Prospect engagements for each Sales user at the submitted location
- Custom function identifies the last Prospect assigned to each user, and then determines which one is oldest
- Whichever user whose most recent Prospect is the oldest is assigned as the owner of the new Prospect
- Importance of the Zoho Implementation
- It is extremely common to run some form of round-robin assignment within the CRM. While there are many ways to accomplish this, we think this way is the best because it refrences system information such as user role, rather than arbritrary identifier.
10 – Zoho Sign Document Management Automation via CRM/Workdrive
- Applications Involved
- CRM
- WorkDrive
- Sign
- Zoho Sign Document Management Automation via CRM/Workdrive
- As we’ve previously discussed, Zoho Sign documents can be send programmatically via CRM deluge functions
- However, oftentimes we may want to organize and archive completed Zoho Sign documents related to the CRM customer
- Zoho Sign can trigger automation actions upon completion of documents
- Using the recipient Email address, we can search for CRM Contacts, and pull their specific Contact Workdrive folder information
- Using this information, we can automatically upload completed ZohoSign documents (including signatures) to this folder
- Importance of the Implementation
- This is the best way to generate, send, and recieve signature on a proposal from within Zoho. All records are neatly organized within account specific WorkDrive folders, as well as, linked to a specific deal from which they were generated.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
A few were right on the cusp of making this list, here are the ones that barely didn’t make the cut for the top ten:
- Deluge function within Zoho Survey to send out instant feedback reports for Survey-takers
- Zoho Sign/Forms Integrated Workflow for CRM Data Capture
- GPS Integration for mapping fleet assets via CRM
- Sales Profitability Reporting via FIFO Data with Inventory and Analytics
- Net Sales (Invoices – Credit Notes) Reporting via Zoho Books and Zoho Analytics
Of course, if you see an implementation that would be useful for your business and need help implementing it, we would be happy to help. Click here to learn how as a Zoho Partner we can help your business grow. And, of course, if you found this information useful please subscribe to our YouTube Channel and Newsletter to get the implementation and latest Zoho news every week!
