Use Cases

Associating lead referrals to the respective contacts

In today's technological world, despite all the advertising a firm undertakes to attract potential clients, the number of customers a company obtains from referrals is enormous. So when happy customers refer leads to you, it's definitely a reason to celebrate. At the same time, when such word-of-mouth referrals occur, you may want to keep a good track of it.

Knowing who referred whom would give you a better context of the background behind a said lead. For example, a client may refer you to their sister concern or a different branch in their organization. Knowing details of the one who made the referral will help you make good offers and take informed decisions in a manner that will make both the referrer and the referred happy. Therefore keeping a track of referrals will therefore go a long way in helping you with customer retention, which is, after all, one of the most important aspects of maximizing revenue.

In Zoho CRM, you can establish referral association using what we call a lookup field, whose principal function is to establish a link between two separate modules. Let's look at how to create a lookup field.

For example, here, while you add a lead, you see a lookup field called "Referred by", from which you can pick the customer that referred your business to this lead.

To add a lookup field,

1. Go to Set Up > Customization > Modules and Fields > Choose the module you want to add the lookup field, in this case Leads.

2. Click on the layout of the module chosen. You will land on the Layout editor, click and drag the lookup field from the 'New Fields' section.

3. Now, enter the required Field Properties.

Field Label : The title of the field is displayed using this.
Lookup Module : You can choose the module to which you want to add a reference from this menu.
Related List Title : This is the option's title, which will appear in the related list on the detail page's left side.

4. Click Done, and save the layout.

Execution :

The look up field that we added in the layout will be displayed over the modules (Here, leads module) page.

The corresponding lookup reference is also found on the detail page of the module (Contact detail page).

Creating leads from contact :

The leads that a specific contact has referred to can be found on the contact module detail page. This occurred as a result of the contact module being added as a lookup module for the leads module. We can create leads from the contact's detail page. To generate a lead from a contact, follow these steps:

Go to Contacts module > Select the contact who has referred a lead
Click on the reference link in the Related list on the left tab (Referred leads). The reference tab displays all previously referred leads, or it is blank if none have been linked.
There are three options in the reference tab:

Assign - Here we can refer to already existing lead.
New - You can immediately add new leads here: If a lead is generated from this page, the lookup field is assigned to the contact from which the lead was generated.
Edit - This edits the rows that are needed to be displayed.

Streamlining the vendor management and contract signing process in a travel industry

Edition: Enterprise and above | Industry: Travel and Tourism, Hospitality | Features: Blueprint

Scenario

A California-based company provides an online platform for listing and renting local homes to travelers. It connects the property owners and the travelers to facilitate booking affordable living spaces all over the world.

Owners interested in listing their properties register on the company's portal. The agents contact them and sign a contract based on the company's terms and conditions. The interested owners are qualified and moved to the next stage of the sales cycle. The qualifying process is simple and doesn't involve rigid rules, the agents are encouraged to work at their own pace. They often prefer to discuss the terms, make negotiations, or sign contracts offline or on calls rather than via email. For this reason, there is no official way to warrant signing a contract.

Over time, the inconsistencies in the qualification process began to impact the conversions negatively. The sales managers noticed a sharp decline and increased delays in the overall conversions. The vendor onboarding process failed to provide clues as to the root cause. Now, the pressing demand from property owners and the travelers to add more listings has increased their challenges.

Requirements

They require a process that can guide the agents through the process, helping them understand the activities that must be done at each stage. Most importantly, it should restrict them from proceeding to the next stage if the activities in the current stage are not completed.

The processes they require are:

An onboarding process for the vendors (property owners) to ensure the sales team knows the upcoming stages and the activities involved. It will also ensure communications are made through the proper channels.
Contract signing process that regulates document collection and verification at the right stages to speed up the contract signing process.

Solution

The senior sales manager and the CRM administrator create two blueprints: one to manage the vendor onboarding process and the other one to manage the contract signing process.

I. Blueprint for vendor onboarding

The onboarding process is simple and contains just a few stages. The blueprint is expected to:

Specify activities at each stage so that the agent has a clear idea about their tasks.
For example, when the agent is unable to contact the vendor and clicks on the Failed to Contact transition, the next action would be to recontact them within 2 business days. To ensure they stay on track, you can create an After Transition task for them in the blueprint which will be visible under Next Action.
Send email reminders to the agents for upcoming tasks and calls. The due date for completion will be displayed on the record detail page.
Restrict the agents from saving activities with inappropriate values by validating them.
For example, the task status should be Completed and the due date of a call must be 2 days from the date of trigger. The agents will only be able to save the transition if the values match.
Make attachments and notes mandatory and specify the documents they must attach in the checklist.
For example, the NDA Needed transition can be completed only if the notes have been added, the email has been sent for NDA approval, and the call is completed. All these requirements are clearly mentioned in the checklist.
Prevent others from editing onboarding stages. Once a blueprint is created using the onboarding stages picklist field, the field will be locked after a record is created in the particular module. The stages will change as each transition is completed.

Blueprint configuration

Go to Setup > Process Management > Blueprint.
Click Create Blueprint and input the following:

Blueprint name: Vendor Onboarding
Module: Vendors
Layout: Standard
Field: Onboarding process

Create a picklist field called Vendor Onboarding stage with these values: Contact, In Discussion, Recontact, Contact in Future, NDA Approval, Interested, Lost.

3. In the blueprint editor, drag and drop the states and create the transitions in the table below:

Transition	Before Transition	During Transition	After Transition
New vendor created	Record owner	N/A	Send email notification to the record owner and record owner's manager. Email template: New vendor created.
Contacted	Record owner	1. Make notes and attachments mandatory. 2. Add a checklist and name it "Required attachments". Mention the following in the checklist: a) Email sent or acknowledgement from the vendor. b) Call script.	N/A
Failed to contact	Record owner	1. Make notes mandatory. 2. Insert message: give reason for contact failure in notes.	Click +Add > Create task: Subject: Recontact vendor. Due date: Transition trigger date + 2 business days. Status: In progress Priority: High Assigned to: select an agent Check notify and remind assignee. Remind one day before the due date at 10:00 am Alert: Email and pop-up.
Recontact failed	Record owner	N/A	Field update - Name: Call status - Field: Contact status = failed
NDA needed	Record owner	1. + Add > Associated item > Call > select outgoing call status and validate it as completed. - Insert error message: Call status must be completed to move to the next state. 2. Add checklist. Name: NDA-related attachment a) Attach acknowledgement email from the vendor. b) Mention call details in notes.	Send email notification to the record owner and record owner's manager. Email template: NDA required.
Sign NDA	Record owner	+ Add > Associated item > Task > select status is completed.	Send email notification to the record owner and record owner's manager. Email template: NDA signed.
NDA not needed	Record owner	1. Make attachment mandatory. 2. Add checklist - Name: Documents needed Attach the email that confirms NDA is not required.	N/A
Lost	Record owner	1. Insert message: Enter reason for rejection 2. Select Make Notes Mandatory	Automate email notification to record owner and record owner's manager. Template name: Vendor rejected

Configuring common transition and SLA alert

Common transition: A vendor can be marked uninterested from "Contact", "NDA approval", and "In Discussion" states if required. Make "Not interested" a common transition so that it is accessible from multiple states in the blueprint.

To create a common transition, do the following

Create a transition named "Not interested".
Check the Common Transition option.
Check the states: In Discussion, Contact, NDA Approval.

SLA alert: Set the maximum number of days a record can stay in a state and set it to escalate automatically when the period is extended. For example, the record can be in the NDA approval state for 3 business days, on the 4th day, an escalation alert will be sent to the manager.

To create an SLA alert, do the following

Go to NDA approval state.
Set the maximum days the record can stay in the NDA approval state: enter 3 business days.
In the When exceeding the time limit, choose who and when to be notified section, select escalate After > 1 business day.
Click +Actions > Default SLA Alert > Roles and add Sales Manager and Record Owner.
Click Save.

II. Blueprint for the contract signing process

The interested vendors are moved to another process for signing the contract. The vendor is now converted into a deal and is contacted by a different team to discuss the commission fee and sponsorship charges for the contract period. The manager for this team wants to use a blueprint to standardize the collection of documents and prevent delays in signing contracts and receiving sponsorship payments from the vendor.

Make it mandatory to attach the email and the proposal that is sent to the vendor during the Proposal Sent transition.
Assign a task to send an email to the vendor if the documents are not received.
Make it mandatory to attach documents and list the received documents in the notes. Specify the documents and list in the checklist for reference. For example, the Document Received transition can only be completed if the notes and documents are attached.
Set SLA alert if the contract is not signed within 7 business days. On the 8th day an alert will be sent to the record owner and their manager.

Blueprint configuration

Go to Setup > Process Management > Blueprint.
Click Create Blueprint and input the following:

Blueprint name: Contract signing process
Module: Deals
Layout: Standard
Field: Contract stages

Add the following values to the Contract Stage picklist field: Interested Vendor, Proposal and Document, Commercial Discussion, ID Creation, Contract Sent, Contract Signed.

3. In the blueprint editor, drag and drop the states and create the transitions in the table below:

Transition	Before Transition	During Transition	After Transition
Contract created	Record owner	N/A	Send email notification to the record owner and record owner's manager. Email template: New contract created.
Proposal sent	Record owner	Make attachments mandatory. Insert message: Attach a copy of the email and proposal that was sent to the vendor.	N/A
Document received	Record owner	1. Make notes and attachment mandatory. 2. Add checklist Name: Documents to attach - Attach documents received from the client. - List the documents that were received.	N/A
Not received	Record owner	N/A	Click +Add > Create task: Subject: Recontact vendor Due date: Transition trigger date + 2 business days Status: In progress Priority: High Assigned to: select an agent Check notify and remind assignee Remind one day before the due date at 10:00 am Alert: Email and pop-up
Received	Record owner	1. Make notes and attachment mandatory. 2. Add checklist Name: Documents to attach - Attach documents received from the client. - List the documents that were received.	N/A
ID created	Record owner	N/A	Send email notification to the record owner and record owner's manager. Email template: Contract ID created.
Signed	Sales manager	Make attachment mandatory. Insert message: Attach a copy of the contract.	Send email notification to the record owner, record owner's manager, and regional manager. Email template: Contract signed

Configuring SLA alert

Set the maximum number of days a record can stay in a state and set it to escalate automatically when the period is extended.

For example, the record can be in the Contract Sent state for 7 business days, on the 8th day an escalation alert will be sent to the manager.

To create an SLA alert, do the following

Go to the Contract Sent state.
Set the maximum days the record can stay in the Contract Sent state: enter 7 business days.
In the When exceeding the time limit, choose who and when to be notified section, select escalate After > 1 business day.
Click +Actions > Default SLA Alert > Roles and add Sales Manager and Record Owner.
Click Save.

Managing multiple services in Non-Profit Organizations

Edition: All Paid editions | Industry: NGOs or Non-Profit Organizations | Features: Layouts, Workflow Rules, Blueprint, Assignment Rule, Reports and Dashboards

The Requirement

Life Drops is an NGO that works towards saving the environment with a focus on water conservation. They have four areas of focus which they call the "four pillars" of their organization. They are: afforestation, water conservation, waste management and awareness camps.

Afforestation: Any organization, whether it is an educational institution, a company, or any other establishment, can approach Life Drops to help them plant trees on their premises.
Water conservation: The NGO also accepts requests from local farmers to help with water body restoration efforts such as reviving rivers and constructing water conservation facilities.
Waste management: As part of corporate social responsibility efforts, organizations may approach Life Drops to help them recycle their waste. The NGO offers 4 main categories of waste management: industrial waste, agricultural waste, commercial, domestic waste.
Awareness camps: And lastly, Life Drops conducts summer camps for children and general awareness camps for people of all age groups to learn about the importance of saving the environment, methods to dispose of waste, water conservation guidelines, etc. They enroll campers and each camp is conducted for a specified period at the end of which the participants are certified by Life Drops as an acknowledgement of their effort at the camp.

Life Drops is now looking for a solution to manage their database for all these service lines efficiently. Their specific challenge is to find a way to manage the requests for all these 4 lines of services in a single database with appropriate demarcation of data sets for the four lines of service. Suggest the best ways for them to use Zoho CRM to manage multiple lines of services efficiently in the same database.

The Solution: Multiple Page Layouts

When companies need to manage multiple brands, departments, or lines of service in the same CRM account, they can do so efficiently with multiple layouts. Creating layouts allows them to keep processes and people separate, while still using the same CRM account. The following is a detailed step-by-step solution for the requirements for Life Drops to manage the "four pillars" of their organization using a single Zoho CRM account.

Creating layouts

Life Drops maintains a master list of individuals and corporations who have chosen their services, in a module called "Beneficiaries". However, when it comes to actually implementing the services, there is a chance for confusion, as there are four services that a beneficiary could be using: Afforestation, water conservation, waste management, and awareness camps. And there are different people managing each service and the processes involved. In order to track all beneficiaries in a single module, but still differentiate them based on the service provided, Life Drops can create four different layouts, one for each service, and assign the right people and processes to each layout.

To create page layouts:

Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.
Click the Beneficiaries module and select the Standard layout.
Rename the Standard layout as "Afforestation" and add the desired fields.

As this is the primary service, this layout can be made visible to all profiles.
Go back to the list of layouts. Click on the Afforestation layout and clone this layout.
Name the second layout "Waste Management".
Add the fields and sections for waste management. Here, you can remove the fields related to afforestation, as they may not be relevant. Note that fields removed from a layout are still part of the module. They are just not used in this current layout but are still available for reuse at any time. Fields removed from a layout are not deleted fields, but they are termed "Unused field". You can resore a removed field back to its layout at any point in time from the Unused Fields section.
Once you have added all the fields and sections to the Waste Management layout, repeat the same steps for the Awareness Camps and Water Conservation layouts.
Once you have created all the layouts, assign each of them to the relevant departments.

Now, the four layouts have been successfully created in the Beneficiaries module.

Now when you enter a new beneficiary into the CRM system, you will be able to choose the correct layout.

For example, let's say a company Acme, Inc. approaches Life Drops with a request to help them with planting trees in their campus as part of their CSR efforts.

To enter the requirements of Acme, Inc., you would go to the Beneficiaries module, add a new record, choose the Afforestation layout and then enter the details.

Adding layouts helps with differentiating beneficiaries by the services they are interested in.

Once you have filled out the Beneficiary form for Afforestation, you will see a field called Layout that is auto-filled. This Layout field is key in differentiating and keeping the departments separate from each other within the same module.

When Life Drops enter ten other beneficiaries in CRM, a few for Afforestation, a few for Waste Management and other services, they will now have a master list of Beneficiaries. This list will reflect all beneficiaries, however in this list, it's difficult to sort beneficiaries by service.

So, for their convenience, they can create Custom Views to filter records based on the service (layout), to allow them to see the records for a specific service.

Also, only users with access to a specific layout will be able to enter data into it. For example, since the Afforestation department only has permissions for the Afforestation layout, they will not be able to view the other three layouts. So the data is kept separate. Similarly, other processes in Zoho CRM can also be defined based on the services (layouts).

Layout based workflow rules

Life Drops wants to send an introductory email to its beneficiaries explaining all the NGO activities they offer. However, the activities mentioned in the email will differ depending on the services that the beneficiary is interested in. For example, a university that has opted for afforestation will receive an email about all the activities relevant to afforestation. They may not receive information about waste management activities. Similarly, a beneficiary who wants water conservation will receive an email about activities related to that and not anything else. So there would be four totally different emails to be sent to four different groups of beneficiaries, depending on the specific service they want. This whole process can be automated in no time, using layout-based workflow rules.

Procedure:

Go to Setup > Automation > Workflow Rules.
Click Create Rule.
Choose the Beneficiaries module.
In the Rule Trigger section, select the Record Action as Create.
Under Conditions, select Records matching certain criteria and enter the following criteria:
Layout IS Afforestation.
Under Actions, select Instant Action and then Email Alert and associate the Afforestation Welcome Email template.
Click Add condition.
Enter the condition: Layout IS Waste Management.
Under Actions, select Instant Action and then Email Alert and associate the Waste Management Intro Email template.
Click Add condition.
Enter the following condition: Layout IS Water Conservation.
Under Actions, select Instant Action and then Email Alert and associate the Water Conservation Intro Email template.
Click Add condition.
Enter the following condition: Layout IS Awareness Camps.
Under Actions, select Instant Action and then Email Alert and associate the Awareness Camps Intro Email template.
Click Save.

Notes:

Make sure you select Beneficiary Email as the email recipient in the Email Alert settings. This will make sure that the email is sent to the beneficiaries.
You should have previously created all four email templates and have them ready in Customization > Templates > Email Templates.

Now, whenever you create a beneficiary in any of these four layouts, the corresponding intro email will be sent to the beneficiary automatically.

You can create other automated CRM processes such as layout based assignment rules, blueprints and reports.

Layout-based assignment rules

Layout based Blueprints

Layout based Reports and Dashboards

So, wherever you have criteria in CRM, you can perform CRM functions based on layouts, keeping the processes and people separate while managing everything seamlessly in the same CRM account.

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DISCLAIMER: Data seen on the screenshots (product images on this page) are fictional and intended as an example and any resemblance to a real person or organisation is purely coincidental and not intended.

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More use cases for Non-profit Organizations

Streamlining business processes in an Non-Profit Organization

Automate donor generation and retention activities

Automate donor generation and retention activities in Non-Profit Organizations

Edition: Paid editions | Industry: NGOs or Non-Profit Organizations | Features: Webforms, Workflow Rules, Reports and Dashboards

The Requirement

Second Life is an NGO that offers support in multiple service categories that include healthcare, child welfare, retirement homes, rural development, and education.

They have several ways to recruit donors to contribute to their work in these categories, including their website, phone calls, and spreadsheets. They are looking for effective ways to recruit and retain donors for their organizations. Help them with the following requirements in Zoho CRM:

Set up a way to capture donor details via their website. Set up an automated acknowledgement email whenever a new contributing donor enters CRM.
Set up automated reminder emails to past donors on the anniversary of their donation to encourage them to continue giving.
Generate reports to gain insight into their top donors for each service category.

Requirement—Solution Mapping

Set up a way to capture donor details via their website:
Solution — Webforms
Set up an automated acknowledgement email whenever a new contributing donor enters CRM:
Solution — Workflow rules and email templates
Set up automated reminder emails to past donors on the anniversary of their donation to encourage them to continue giving:
Solution — Workflow rules based on a date/time
Generate reports to gain insight into their top donors for each service category
Solution — Reports and dashboards

Setting up webforms to capture donor details from their website

Second Life sources donors from their website as one of their main donor generation points. Once a webform created in Zoho CRM is published on the website, all enquiries submitted via this form will be added to CRM and Second Life can follow up with these donors from CRM.

A webform in Zoho CRM can be created using the fields available for the particular module. To create a webform:

Go to Setup > Developer Space > Webform.
Create a New Form for the Zero Donors module. (Zero Donors are people who are likely to contribute to your NGO, but have not yet made their first donation. They could be people that you sourced from awareness campaigns, campus visits, your website, or referrals from current donors).
Drag and drop the required fields in the webform editor:

First name
Last name
Email
Phone
Describe your enquiry
Choose which causes you are willing to contribute towards

Note: These fields must first be available in the Zero Donors module. You need to create these fields using the module builder and customize the module before you create the form. Then when you create a webform, these fields are available to be used in the form.

Specify a landing page URL, form URL, and assignment rules as applicable.

Form URL: Where the form will be published.
Landing page URL: Where the user will be redirected to once they have submitted the form.
Assignment rules: How these entries will be distributed among CRM users.

Once you have specified the form details, you can proceed to the next step where you will get the source code.
Copy this code and publish it on the required web page on your site.
Once the form is live, any entries submitted via the form will now be added directly to Zoho CRM in the selected module and layout.

Setting up an automated acknowledgement email whenever a new contributing donor enters CRM

You can use workflow rules in Zoho CRM to automate emails.

To create a workflow rule:

Go to Setup > Automation > Workflow Rules.
Create a New Rule.
Choose the Current Donors module.
Specify the Rule Trigger to specify when this workflow rule should be triggered.
For this scenario, choose Record Action and then Create.
Specify a condition, if applicable. In this case, no conditions are needed.
The rule applies to any new contributing donor.
Specify the automated action as Instant Action > Email Alert.
In the Email Alert Settings, choose the recipient as Current Donor Email, and select the email template relevant for this scenario.

You must have already created the email template.To create a new template, go to Customization > Templates > Email Template.
You can either write your own email or modify one of the existing templates in the gallery to suit your context.
Choose the appropriate template and associate it with the rule.
Save the rule.

Now any new donor who enters the CRM system will automatically receive a common acknowledgement email thanking them for their involvement with the NGO.

Setting up automated reminder emails for donor retention

You need to take continuous efforts to engage with your donors for retaining them with your organisation. Say Second Life wants to send emails to past donors on the anniversary of their donation, to encourage them to continue giving. They can automate this particular email. You will need to make sure to create the rule based on a date/time field, so it can be sent on their contribution anniversary. This date will vary for each donor, so the rule must be set up accordingly.

To create the workflow rule:

Go to Setup > Automation > Workflow Rules.
Create a New Rule.
Choose the Funds module.
Specify the Rule Trigger to specify when this workflow rule should be triggered.
For this scenario, choose On a Date/Time and then choose the required donation date to calculate the donation anniversary from.
Specify a condition, if applicable. In this case, no conditions are needed. The rule applies to any new contributing donor.
Specify the automated action as Instant Action and then Email Alert.
In the Email Alert Settings, choose the recipient as Current Donor Email, and select the email template relevant to this scenario. You must have already created an email template. To create a new template, go to Customization > Templates > Email Template. You can either write your own email or modify one of the existing templates in the gallery to suit your context.
Choose the appropriate template and associate it with the rule.
Save the rule.

Generating reports and dashboards to gain insight into top donors for each service category

Zoho CRM has a set of predefined reports such as top donors, prospects by source, and best funds by month. In addition to these standard reports, a user can create a report from scratch using whatever parameters they want. The parameters to use to generate a report depend on what insight they want to draw. Life Drops wants to look at the top donors for each service category. So a report can be created with service category as a filter and represented on a dashboard as seen below.

More use cases for Non-profit Organizations

Managing multiple services in Non-Profit Organizations

Streamlining business processes in an Non-Profit Organization

Streamlining business processes in a Non-Profit Organization

Edition : Enterprise and above | Industry : NGOs or Non-Profit Organizations | Features : Blueprint, Module Customization

The Requirement

Idea Box is an NPO that extends their support to aspiring entrepreneurs. They offer regular guidance and coaching to different groups of entrepreneurs and make sure they create a platform for startup enthusiasts to come together and help each other, creating a solid community of entrepreneurs.

Idea Box has plans to scale up further. However, as they plan to expand, they are faced with a challenge. As their network of entrepreneurs grows, they want to ensure that only candidates with genuine interest in receiving guidance join their community. They want to avoid time wasters, and select their candidates carefully so that no one wastes their valuable time and effort. As an NPO, they cannot afford to waste their resources, so they have brought in a strict screening process to recruit candidates to join their community.

This process, however, is not efficient. There are no clear guidelines and the process is not applied consistently to all candidates. Selection is mostly done on an ad-hoc basis, based on the judgment of the recruiter without sufficient details on the candidates. The NPO administration wants to streamline the candidate recruitment process. Help them build and streamline their candidate recruitment process in Zoho CRM.

Requirement—Solution Mapping

Streamline the candidate recruitment process: Implement Blueprints.

Blueprint is one of Zoho CRM's process management features. Using a Blueprint will help an organization to streamline their processes in Zoho CRM and ensure:

Standardization
Validation
Compliance
Automation
Collaboration

Idea Box could have a module called "Prospective Candidates" for which the process can be built.

Prerequisites:

Create a module called "Prospective Candidates".
Build the module with fields and sections relevant to the organization. The following is a screen grab of the "Prospective Candidates" module for Idea Box.
The Blueprint for candidate recruitment process will be built on the Candidate Status field, which will have a few possible stages.

Blueprint Configuration

To design a Blueprint

Go to Setup > Process Management > Blueprint.
Select the Prospective Candidates module and the Standard layout.
Select the Candidate Status field as the picklist field to base the Blueprint on.

Note: The Candidate Status field should have the following stages (picklist values):
Contact Established -> Area of interest obtained -> Career history gathered -> Level 1 screening -> Level 2 screening -> Level 3 screening -> Background check -> Qualified/Rejected/On hold

In the Blueprint editor:

Drag and drop the States and create Transitions between them, as shown in the screenshot above.

Following are the Transition settings for each transition:

Transition Name	Before Transition	During Transition	After Transition
Contact Candidate	Record Owner	Insert Message: 1. Complete contact information and touch base with candidate 2. Attach a note on summary of the conversation Add Fields: Email Mobile Secondary email Select Make Notes as Mandatory	NIL
Area of Interest	Record Owner	Insert Message: 1. Describe candidate's startup idea in your words 2. Attach candidates' documents on their startup idea, and areas interested in. Add Fields: - Describe your idea - Have you worked in a startup before? - Startup budget Select Make Notes as Mandatory Select Make Attachments as Mandatory	NIL
Career History	Record Owner	Insert Message Complete the subform on career history. If there's no career history and candidate is a fresher, make a note of the same. Select Make Notes as Mandatory	NIL
Ready for Level 1	Record Owner	Insert Message Enter level 1 score and notes on feedback Add Fields: Level 1 Level 1 score Select Make Notes as Mandatory	Automate Email Notification to Record Owner and Record Owner's Manager. Template Name: Candidate passed Level 1
Ready for Level 2	Record Owner	Insert Message Enter level 2 score and notes on feedback Add Fields: Level 2 Level 2 score Select Make Notes as Mandatory	Automate Email Notification to Record Owner and Record Owner's Manager. Template Name: Candidate passed Level 2
Ready for Level 3	Record Owner	Insert Message Enter level 3 score and notes on feedback Add Fields: Level 3 Level 3 score Select Make Notes as Mandatory	Automate Email Notification to Record Owner and Record Owner's Manager. Template Name: Candidate passed Level 3
Initiate BG check	Record Owner	Insert Message 1. Complete background checklist 2. Attach conduct certificate and feedback as applicable 3. Attach criminal records if applicable Add Fields: Education Add Checklist: - Education - Employment history if applicable - Feedback from previous employer - Criminal records if any - Conduct certificate from reliable source Select Make Notes as Mandatory Select Make Attachments as Mandatory	Automate Email Notification to Record Owner and Record Owner's Manager. Template Name: Candidate cleared BG check
Select Candidate	Record Owner	Insert Message Enter reason for selection and next steps Add Fields Overall performance feedback Select Make Notes as Mandatory Select Make Attachments as Mandatory	Automate Email Notification to Record Owner and Record Owner's Manager. Template Name: Candidate selected
On Hold	Record Owner	Insert Message Enter reason for putting the candidate on hold and next steps Select Make Notes as Mandatory	Automate Email Notification to Record Owner and Record Owner's Manager. Template Name: Candidate on hold
Rejection	Record Owner	Insert Message Enter reason for rejection Select Make Notes as Mandatory	Automate Email Notification to Record Owner and Record Owner's Manager. Template Name: Candidate rejected

Additional Settings:

Make the following Transitions, common transitions. That is, a transition that is accessible from any state in the Blueprint. For instance, making "Reject Candidate" a common transition would mean that you will be able to drop this candidate from the recruitment process even from "BG Check" stage or "Career history" stage, if you find that they are not qualified to proceed further. On that note, the following transitions will be required for you at any stage in the Blueprint, hence you can make these "common transitions"

Reject Candidate — To be accessible from all States except "Qualified".
On Hold — To be accessible from all States except "Qualified and Rejected".
Contact Candidate — To be accessible from On Hold and None States.

Create an SLA on the state: On Hold.
That is, if a candidate is put on hold for more than 5 days, send yourself an alert, so that you resume the process.

Blueprint results — Process Execution (Illustrated with screenshots)

More use cases for Non-profit Organizations

Managing multiple services in Non-Profit Organizations

Automate donor generation and retention activities

Sales process: Closing deals

Edition: Paid editions | Industry: Applicable for all industries | Features: Integrations with Zoho products and built-in features

Lead generation and Lead engagement use cases described the methods used to generate, manage, and engage the leads. Eventually, qualified leads are converted to deals. In this use case we will discuss the steps the design team follow from deal creation through to closure:

Send the Design Preference Form when a deal is created
Schedule a task for the Design Consultant to call the client once the form is submitted
Send the calendar link to clients to schedule a site visit for the Design Consultant
Get an e-signature on the agreement draft and product purchase invoice
Streamline the deal management process
Assess key metrics like design consultant performance, deals in pipeline, and lost deals

A pictorial representation of the stages in deal closure:

Zoho Forms integration

Orange Interiorz email their Design Preference Form to the customer to capture their ideas and preferences. The form is integrated with with the Deals module and it is automatically sent to the clients as soon as a deal is created in CRM.

Calendar booking
The design consultants visit the project site to take measurements and discuss their ideas for the space. They allow the clients to book a convenient time for the site visit by sending an email with the available time slots.

Zoho Sign

Before proceeding with the project, the design consultants need signed copies of the agreement draft and invoice, which they send via email. The clients give e-signatures and send the documents back to the consultants. These signed documents are added to the client's CRM record for future reference.

Blueprint
Orange Interiorz streamlines their deal management process using blueprint. The consultant can only move to the next stage of the deal after the transition conditions are fulfilled. For example, if the agent wants to move the deal from the Call Completed stage to Site Visit Completed, they will need to fulfil the Site Visit transition, that requires the consultant to add notes and check the items in the checklist.

The list of transition and the conditions used in the above blueprint are:

Transition	Before	During	After
Client fills out form	Owner: Record owner	-	-
Call client	Owner: Record owner	Make notes mandatory	Email notification: Share calendar link
Site visit	Owner: Record owner	1. Make notes mandatory 2. Checklist	-
Prepare agreement	Owner: Record owner	-	-
Client consent	Owner: Record owner	1. Make attachment mandatory 2. Message: Upload the signed copy	-
Client rejection	Owner: Record owner	-	-
Payment	Owner: Record owner	1. Make attachment mandatory 2. Message: Attach payment confirmation mail from Accounts department	-
Design in progress	Owner: Record owner	-	-
Revision	Owner: Record owner	Make notes mandatory	-
Pending payment	Owner: Record owner	1. Make attachment mandatory 2. Message: Attach payment confirmation mail from Accounts department	-
Revision 2	Owner: Record owner	Make notes mandatory	-
Collect deposit	Owner: Record owner	-	-
Deposit not received	Owner: Record owner	-	-
Deposit received	Owner: Record owner	1. Make attachment mandatory 2. Message: Attach payment confirmation mail from Accounts department	-

Reports:

Orange Interiorz creates reports to assess key metrics such as:

Deals closing this month
Deals by stage
Deals by lead source
Design consultant performance
Lost deals

Sales process: Lead generation

Edition: Paid editions | Industry: Applicable for all industries | Features: Integrations with Zoho products and built-in features

A sales process is a framework of a repeatable set of steps that a salesperson or the sales team takes to move a prospect from a lead to a closed customer. A sales process can be broadly classified into three stages:

Prospecting or lead generation
Lead nurturing and qualifying
Deal closure

In the following use case, we will discuss various options used by a fictitious company for mapping out their sales process in Zoho CRM.

Orange Interiorz offers home and property design solutions at affordable prices. They use various platforms to attract new customers and engage them in various marketing activities. Their lead generation process is as follows:

Attracting visitors through blogs, social media, website, and Google Ads.
Visitors click the call-to-action button in one of these channels and are redirected to the company's landing page.
In the landing page, they fill out and submit the project details form.
A new lead is created and is automatically added to the org's CRM account.

They have set the following configurations in CRM to get leads from different sources added directly into the CRM system:

Social media integration:

Facebook and Twitter are their major sources of lead generation. They monitor the tweets, likes, comments, and posts and also new updates and information through these handles from their CRM platform. This allows them to identify any positive social activity such as likes, mentions, tweets, retweets, messages, posts, and comments and add the person's details as a lead in CRM. The sales team is automatically notified about the new lead and gets in touch with them to acquire further details. Once the team is assured that the client is interested in doing business with them, the sales qualified lead is passed on to the design consultants.

Web-to-lead forms:

Orange Interiorz attracts visitors to contact them by hosting seasonal discounts, flash sales, and sample design brochures on their web page. The CTA on the web page invites people to register and get updates from the company. When the visitor submits the form, their details are added to CRM as lead, with basic information such as their name, contact number, email address, and interests. When a lead is created, the sales team is notified to begin lead nurturing activities.

Google Ads integration:

Orange Interiorz uses the Google Ads Integration to get a complete picture of how much revenue their online ad campaigns are actually generating. It helps them understand whether the campaigns are beneficial for their business and which ones are generating the highest revenue. The GCLIP mapping helps them easily identify the leads that are coming in from Google Ads and track offline sales from clicks to conversions. Since CRM combines their sales data with Google Ads spending, they can also identify which keyword brings in the most qualified leads which helps them improve their conversion rate.

CRM mobile app:

Aside from online advertising, a lot of visitors approach them during trade shows, exhibitions, cultural events, and sometimes through referrals from existing customers. They can use mobile app to add the visitors' details as leads and pursue them later. Sometimes, the clients give the reps at the tradeshow their business cards asking the designers to visit their site and suggest suitable style and decor. In this case, Orange Interiorz scans the business cards and add the details as leads in CRM.

Sales process: Lead engagement

Edition: Paid editions | Industry: Applicable for all industries | Features: Integrations with Zoho products and built-in features

In the Lead Generation use case, we saw the marketing strategies used by Orange Interiorz to generate leads and capture them in CRM. In the next step, they engage the leads and qualify them for sales. Their lead engagement process is as follows:

The sales team gets notifications whenever a lead is added to CRM so they can immediately begin the follow-up process.
They prioritize the leads based on their responsiveness to different touch points used for contact and follow-up. This helps them move interested leads down the sales funnel faster.
They contact hot leads via call and email and after they qualify these leads, the sales team passes them over to the design team for the next stage.

Assignment Rules

The company has streamlined the way leads are assigned to the sales team based on the service they choose: Decoration, Remodeling, or New Construction. When a lead submits the form, a rep from the selected service is automatically notified by email and the lead is sent an acknowledgment email, with an option to select the contact method the rep can use to contact them.

Scoring Rules
The sales team uses various methods to contact leads and each lead is given a score based on their responsiveness. For example, a response on Facebook will give 5 points, an answered phone call will give 6 points, an email response will give 6 points, and so on. All these points add up to give a total score to the lead, which helps the sales team to identify their level of interest and prioritize them accordingly. If a lead is not responsive during engagement, their score will indicate the exact touch point the sales personnel needs to work on. For example, if the lead does not answer a phone call, their score will fall. The falling score can indicate that the time the call was made may not be convenient for the lead. The rep can check the best time to contact the lead for a favorable response.

Telephony

Even though the sales team uses multiple channels to communicate with leads, telephone communication is often the best method as it helps establish direct, more effective communication. Telephony allows the company to integrate their PBX with CRM, meaning agents can:

Call leads directly from CRM
Automatically log all outgoing calls made in CRM
Set up reminders to call leads for a follow-up call

SalesInbox

Since most of inbound and outbound communication happens over emails, the reps use SalesInbox for better email management. This keeps their inboxes well-organized with incoming emails categorized into different columns: Leads, Designers, Colleagues, and Not in CRM. They quickly prioritze the emails by checking the sentiment analysis of the emails. They also use the AutoResponse feature to set reminders to follow up again if a lead hasn't replied to their email.

Workflow Rules

A sales qualified lead is passed over to the design team. At this stage, the lead is converted and a deal is created. When the sales team marks a lead as sales qualified, a contact and deal are automatically created. A task is assigned to the design team to take over the project.

Initiate an approval request when the loan applicant has a low credit score

Edition: Enterprise | Industry: Banking and Loan | Feature: Approval Process

Scenario

Noah Parker is a loan officer at a Boston-based finance firm that specializes in providing financial assistance to SMBs, individuals, and retailers. He receives hundreds of loan applications every day along with supporting documents and proofs, that he reviews and forwards to the subsequent teams.

If he notices any application with a credit score below 750, he sends the application to his immediate supervisor and managers for loan processing approval. Only upon approval it is sent for validation and loan disbursal. This process is time-consuming, and often the approval emails sent to the managers are inadvertently overlooked amidst the pile of other emails.

Requirements

Applications with a credit score below 750 must be sent to three approvers—the senior agent, branch manager, and credit hub manager—in a sequential manner so that the branch manager doesn't receive the application until the senior agent approves it and so on.
Upon receiving the first approval the Loan Stage field should be automatically updated to "Credit Score Evaluated"
On second approval, the Loan Stage field should be updated to "Sent to Credit Hub"
On final approval, the Loan Stage field should be updated as "Qualified for loan" and the loan agent must receive an e-mail from the final approver stating that the applicant is qualified for the loan.
If any of the three approvers reject the application, then Noah and the other approvers must receive an e-mail stating the loan application has been rejected and the Loan Stage should be automatically updated as "Loan Rejected".

Solution

I. Create a Custom Module - Loan Application

II. Create a Custom Layout - Loan Applicant Details

III. Create Custom Fields - Credit Score & Loan Stage

IV. Create Email Template to send when the loan is qualified and loan is rejected

V. Setup an approval process for the Loan Application module,

When to execute: Record Creation > Add Rule to this Process

Section	Field Name	Value to enter
Rule criteria	Credit score	<750
Who should approve	-	1. Senior agent 2. Branch manager 3. Credit hub manager
Actions on approval	Configure action upon each Approval: Update Fields > Loan Stage	Value for 1st Approval: Credit score evaluated Value for 2nd Approval: Sent to credit hub Value for 3rd Approval: Qualified for loan
Actions on approval	Configure action upon final approval: Email notification	Loan qualified
Actions on rejection	Configure action after rejection: Update field	Loan rejected
Actions on rejection	Configure action after rejection: Email notification	Send email to > Everyone approved: Low credit score Please choose a template to send to the requester: Loan rejected

Identify duplicates between leads and contacts modules

Edition: Enterprise | Industry: Travel | Feature: Workflow rule and Functions

Scenario

Joshua Baker is a sales manager at an online travel agency that offers customized tour packages. The agency has a webform on its website through which interested people inquire about tour packages. Qualified inquiries (leads) are converted as contacts and a new deal is created. However, during this process, some duplicates are created in the database. For example, Kane Wilson inquired about and purchased a tour package last summer. Now, though he is already a customer in the database, when he makes another inquiry through the webform, his details are again captured as a new lead.

Requirements

Joshua wants to:

Identify the duplicate entries among customers and new inquiries
Merge the duplicate entries

Solution

The webform captures the new inquiries in the Leads module and the customers (converted leads) in the Contacts module. Joshua creates a checkbox field named "Duplicates" in the Leads module.

1. Identifying duplicates between Leads and Contacts modules

The deduplication tool can identify duplicates within a single module, but you can use a custom function to do it across multiple modules. So, in this case every time a new lead enters through the webform, a record is created in the Leads module and a custom function checks for duplicates in the Contacts module. In case a duplicate is found, the Duplicate checkbox field is marked.

a. Create a Custom Function to check the duplicate entries.

Go to Setup > Developer Space > Functions.
Write the below function in the Deluge Script Editor.

relcont = zoho.crm.searchRecords("Contacts", "(Email:equals:" + email + ")");
relcontsize = relcont.size();
if (relcontsize>0)
{
update = zoho.crm.updateRecord("Leads", leadid.toString(), {"Duplicate":true});
}
Click Edit Argument.
Set the arguments to be used in the script.
Click Save.

b. Create a workflow rule

Module	Leads
Rule Name	Duplicate check
When to execute	Record action > Create
Condition	All leads
Actions	Functions > Duplicate

2. Merging the duplicate records

In the Leads module, create a list view to filter the duplicate entries (Criteria: Duplicate is Selected). During Lead Conversion, you can either merge it with the existing contact or create a new contact.

Schedule annual notifications for subscription renewals

Edition: Enterprise | Industry: Media and Publishing | Feature: Workflow Rule

Scenario

The Zylker Weekly is one of the leading international publishers of Travel and Tourism and Hospitality magazines. Every month, they publish new editions of the magazines. The interested readers can subscribe to their annual subscription package by sending an email request to their marketing team.

The sales agents send reminder emails to the existing customers for annual subscription renewal. If the subscription is renewed, they are sent the magazines every month. To be sure that the renewal payment is made on time, they require a process to automatically start sending reminder emails 15 days before the renewal date, and upgrade the subscription status based on the payment. The following process chart explains their follow-up plan in brief:

Solution

They need to set up the following configurations:

Assigning a Sales Agent the task of calling the customers 15 days before their subscription renewal date
Sending reminder email to each customer five days after the first call.
Sending second reminder email 10 days after the initial call.

Pre-requisites

I. In the Custom Module named Subscription, create these Picklist fields:

Next Renewal Date
Subscription Renewed
Subscription Status

II. Create the following Email Templates:

Subscription Renewal Reminder
Second Subscription Renewal Reminder

Workflow Configurations

Go to Setup > Automation > Workflow Rules > Create Rule
Select the Subscriptions module in the pop-up and enter the other details as mentioned below:

Rule Name	Reminder about Subscription Renewal
Description (optional)	Send subscription reminder emails

When	On a Date/Time
Execute	15 days before Next Renewal Date
Execute at	9.00 am
Recur	Every Year

Which records the rule should apply to?	Records matching certain conditions
Criteria	Subscribed for IS Zylker's Travel and Tourism Magazine Subscription Renewed IS No
Instant Action	-
Action	Tasks > New Task
Subject	Call the Customer
Due Date	Next Renewal Date minus 15 days at 9.00 am
Scheduled Action I	Set action to execute 5 Days After Rule Trigger Date
Action	Email Notification
Name	Reminder Email for Subscription
Scheduled Action II	Set action to execute 10 Days After Rule Trigger Date
Action	Email Notification
Name	Second Reminder Email for Subscription
Scheduled Action III	Set action to execute 15 Days After Rule Trigger Date
Action	Field Update
Name	Subscription Canceled
Update	Subscription Status = Canceled

Assess the outgoing call quality of the sales agents

Industry: Insurance | Feature: Workflow Rule | Integration: Zoho Survey and Telephony | Edition: Enterprise

Scenario

Maria, a sales manager at an insurance company, heads a team of five sales agents. The team offers assistance via phone to clients who have reached out to them on chat or using the contact us form for help in filling out proposal forms.

She wants to achieve the following:

Track the outgoing calls made by the sales agents
Make sure that the call assistance is satisfactory, she wants to send a feedback survey to the applicants via email once the call is completed
Make the survey results accessible only to herself and her manager

Solution

A. Maria's requirements can be addressed in Zoho CRM by performing the following steps:

Calling customers from CRM
Adding the outgoing calls to a module as records
Setting up a feedback survey form
Triggering the survey automatically following an outbound call
Creating a report to analyze the survey responses.

B. She will need to implement the following configurations to meet her requirements:

Create a custom module named "Call Quality" to store the outbound call records, and set the permission so that only she (sales manager) and the regional manager can access it.
Create the following Fields for the Call Quality module:
Field Name
Field Type
Field Value
Call Recording
URL
-
Contact
Lookup
-
Call Type
Picklist
- Inbound
- Outbound
Call Duration
Single Line
-
Integrate the CRM account with a Telephony service provider so that the sales agents can call the customers from the CRM account.
Create a Custom Function to push the outbound call record to the Call Quality module:
Enter the following details:
Function Name
Call Quality
Display Name
Call
Description (optional)
Create a new record in the module
Category
Automation

Copy and paste the below code:
Edit Arguments
Function Name: CreateCallQuality
Function Arguments
CallId = Call Id
callDetails = zoho.crm.getRecordById("Calls",callId);
createCallQualityMp = Map();
createCallQualityMp.put("Name",callDetails.get("Subject"));
createCallQualityMp.put("Owner",callDetails.get("Owner").get("id"));
createCallQualityMp.put("Call_Recording","https://crm.zoho.com/crm/org685460759/tab/Activities/" + callId + "?sub_module=Calls");
createCallQualityMp.put("Call_Duration",callDetails.get("Call_Duration"));
contactId = callDetails.get("Who_Id");
if(contactId != null && contactId != "")
{
createCallQualityMp.put("Contact",contactId.get("id"));
getContactDetails = zoho.crm.getRecordById("Contacts",contactId.get("id"));
createCallQualityMp.put("Email",getContactDetails.get("Email"));
}
createCallQualityMp.put("Call_Type",callDetails.get("Call_Type"));
createArry = List();
createArry.add(createCallQualityMp);
createDataStr = {"data":createArry,"trigger":{"workflow"}};
createJsonStr = createDataStr.toString();
// createCallQualityResponse = zoho.crm.createRecord("Call_Quality",createCallQualityMp);
// info createCallQualityResponse;
createCallQualityResponse = invokeurl
[
url :"https://www.zohoapis.com/crm/v2/Call_Quality"
type :POST
parameters:createJsonStr
headers:{"Authorization":"2412c2f4061718fb297150ecb515b10e"}
];
info createCallQualityResponse;
Integrate the CRM account with Zoho Survey and create a survey form.
Create an email template named "Feedback survey" and add the survey link to the email.

Workflow Configurations

1. Configure a workflow rule to create new record in the "Call Quality" module when a call is completed:

Navigate to Setup > Automation > Workflow Rules and enter the following:
Rule Name
Create Call Quality
Module
Calls
Description (optional)
Create new record
When to execute
On a record action > Create

Condition 1:

Which calls will the rule apply to
All Calls
Instant Action
Functions > Call Quality

2. Configure a workflow rule to send a feedback survey via email

Navigate to Setup > Automation > Workflow Rules and enter the following details:
Rule Name
Rate Call Quality
Module
Call Quality
Description (optional)
Rating and Feedback
When to execute
On a record action - Create

Condition 2

Which call quality will the rule apply to
All call quality
Instant Action
Email Notification > Survey Form

The records will be pushed to the Call Quality module which contains details of the applicants along with their survey responses.

Call Quality Assessment

Maria generates a report to view the survey responses for each applicant.

Setting up organization details

Feature: Organization Settings | Edition: All

Scenario

A car dealership company subscribes to Zoho CRM's Enterprise edition to scale their customer service operation and increase sales across the US.

To begin using Zoho CRM, they must first set up the organization details in CRM:

I. Enter Company Details

Upload the company logo, which will be available to all users in the organization and displayed in outbound emails to the customers.
Edit the basic company details, like company name, employee count, company address, and phone number.
Select a super admin, a user who shares the same privileges as a CRM administrator. An organization can only have one super admin, and the user who signs into the organization's CRM account for the first time will be assigned as the super admin by default.

A super admin is the single point of contact for all communications (inquiries, billing details, and subscription-related information) from Zoho. After adding more users to the account, the default super admin can transfer the privilege to another user.

Enter the locale details like the currency and timezone for business operations. This company is based out of Boston and only operates in the US, therefore the currency is USD and the time zone is Eastern Standard Time (Boston's time zone).

II. Define the Fiscal Year

The fiscal year will determine an accurate sales forecast. The fiscal year at Zylker Motors begins in the month of April and ends in March of the following year. They want the forecast reports for the current year, so the fiscal year is set as starting on April 2019.

III. Define Business Hours and Holidays

Business hour - The company has headquarters is Boston, and their working days and time are as below:

Week starts on	Monday
Business Days	Monday - Friday
Business Hours	09:00 AM - 05:00 PM (Eastern Standard Time)
Closed	Saturday, Sunday

Shift hour - The support team operates at different working hours to cater to the different states in the US. They add the following shift hours according to the time zones of the different cities they operate in:

Fairbanks - Alaska Daylight Time
Sacramento - Pacific Daylight Time
Denver - Mountain Daylight Time

Holiday list - The company remains closed on select dates, so they add non-operational days to the holiday list. Since the company only operates in the US, they have a single holiday list that applies to all employees.

Holiday Name	Holiday Date	Day
New Year's Day	1 January	Tuesday
Martin Luther King Jr Day	21 January	Monday
Memorial Day	27 May	Monday
Independence Day	4 July	Thursday
Labor Day	2 September	Monday
Veterans Day	11 November	Monday
Thanksgiving	28 November	Thursday
Christmas	25 December	Wednesday
New Year's Eve	31 December	Tuesday

IV: Choose Hierarchy

The dealership has many departments, and wants only the supervisors from each department to be able to view their employees' data. Therefore, they chose a reporting hierarchy where they can manually select a senior member who has exclusive access to employee data. Read about role hierarchy.

Customize a health insurance proposal form and track its stages

Edition: Enterprise | Industry: Insurance | Feature: Module Customization

Scenario

Emma Wilkins is a Senior Sales Manager at a health insurance company. They offer custom-made insurance plans based on different coverage levels that cater to individuals and organizations. The interested clients usually call their customer care agent or send them emails to enquire about the available policies. The insurance agents ask questions to help them understand the customer's requirements so they can offer a comprehensive Health Insurance plan. Once the proposal forms are filled out, they progress through different stages—submitted, reviewed, payment link sent, payment received, and policy created.

Now, as numerous forms are filled out and submitted on a daily basis, Emma finds it difficult to monitor and track the progress of the forms from one stage to another. This also prevents her from noticing potential delays at any particular stage.

Requirement:

Emma wants to replicate the proposal form in one of the CRM modules to depict the different stages of the form.

Solution

Emma can create a custom module with the required custom fields and sections as in the proposal forms. However, custom modules don't allow Emma to include a way of tracking the stages in the CRM layout. One of the standard modules (the Deals module) in CRM does represent stages within the layout, exactly the way Emma wants. She therefore decides to customize the Deals module and renamed it "Proposal Form" to depict the different stages of the form.

Here's how she can do that:

1. Rename the Deals module to "Proposal Form".
2. Create a custom layout called "New Proposal Form" in the Proposal Form module.
3. Move standard fields that cannot be deleted to a new section in the layout.
4. Create new sections and add the following custom fields to the layout:

Section: Proposal Form Information

Field Name	Data Type	Additional Information	Value
Policy Holder First Name	Single Line	Click the More icon and select Mark as required to make this field mandatory	-
Policy Holder Last Name	Single Line	Click the More icon and select Mark as required to make this field mandatory	-
Nationality	Single Line	-	-
Date of Birth	Date	Click the More icon and select Mark as required to make this field mandatory	-
Email	Email	-	-
Mobile	Phone	Click the More icon and select Edit Properties. Check the Encrypt Field box to enable data encryption for this field	-
Marital Status	Pick List	-	Married, Unmarried, Divorced
Gender	Pick List	-	Male, Female, Other
Education	Pick List	-	Post-Graduate, Graduate, Diploma, Others
Occupation	Pick List	-	Self-employed, Salaried, House wife, Student, Other
Annual Income	Currency	-	-

Section: Address

Field Name	Data Type	Additional Information	Value
Address	Multi-Line	Click the More icon and select Edit Properties. Check the Show Tool Tip option and add the following text to the Info Icon text box "We will send your policy and all other important documents here".	-
City/Town	Single Line	-	-
District	Single Line	-	-
State	Pick List	Click Add Options in Bulk and choose Manual Entry. Add the names of the States sequentially and click Add choices.	-
Pincode	Number	-	-

Section: Plan Details

Field Name	Data Type	Additional Information	Value
Proposed Policy From Date	Date	-	-
Proposed Policy To Date	Date	-	-
Plan	Pick List	-	Gold, Silver, Platinum
Do you wish to opt for a 20% co-payment?	Checkbox	-	-
Sum Insured	Currency	-	-

Section: Documents for Verification

Field Name	Data Type
Proof of Address	File upload
Proof of Identity	File upload

Subform: Nominee Details

A subform is a secondary form within the primary form. The Nominee Details section will be a subform to collect required details such as name, age, and other identity-related information. While the primary form is still about the insurance policy holder, the subform is a table with details about their nominees.

Field Name	Data Type
Nominee Name	Single Line
Relationship	Single Line
Nominee Age	Number
Nominee Address	Multi-Line
Claim Percentage	Percentage

Send automatic notifications to the third-party providers

Edition: All editions | Industry: Travel | Features: Workflow Rules

Scenario

Zylker Travels offers various tour packages to its customers ranging from adventure trips, family outings, destination holidays and weekend getaways. Their customer flow mainly happens through the company's website, where they fill out the required details and the reps follow-up with them based on the individual's interest and enquiry.

The company hopes to streamline, categorize, and expedite the lead management process for two types of customers through workflow rules.

Condition 1: They want to send welcome emails immediately to those customers who have chosen the travelling month as current month and are not travelling solo. These customers must also be tagged as high priority, so the reps can promptly tend to their queries. Also, the reps should make a call to the prospects soon after the webform is submitted.
Condition 2: Zylker conducts solo trips in partnership with a third-party event organizing group ZK Adventures. It therefore wants to notify them about the interested prospect and also redirect the individual to them. They create a webhook to send them notifications as soon as the webform is submitted in Zylker's website.

Expected Result

Solution

Pre-requisite

I. Create custom picklist fields called “Travelling With” and "When do you want to travel?". To do this:

Go to Setup > Customization > Modules and Fields.
Select the Leads module/Standard Layout.
Drag and drop a Picklist field type into the layout.
In the Picklist Properties popup, enter the Field label as “Travelling With”.
Add the following picklist values:

Family
Solo
Friends

In the next Picklist Properties popup, enter the Field label as “When do you want to travel?".
Add the following picklist values.

This month
Next month
Later

Click Done.
Click Save.

II. Create an email template to send the welcome email to the customers registered via webform.

Go to Setup > Customization > Templates
Select New Template
Choose the Leads module.
Select the Blank document.
Enter a Template name.
Enter a Subject name.
Click Create Template.
Click Save.

III. Create a Webhook to send notification to the third-party company about prospects who are interested to travel solo.

Go to Setup > Automation > Actions > Webhooks.
Click Configure Webhook.
Enter a name for the Webhook.
In URL to Notify, enter the URL provided by the third-party company.
In Method, check POST.
You should select the POST option only, because the notification is sent from CRM to the third-party provider.
Give a Description.
Select Leads Module.
In URL Parameters, fill the Parameters in User Defined Format.
Give Argument and Argument Value
(Note: Arguments are defined by the third-party in their code)
Click Save and Associate.
Click Save.

Workflow Rule

Condition 1

Go to Setup > Automation > Workflow Rules.
Click Create Rule.
In the Create New Rule popup.
Choose the module: Leads.
Give a rule name: Send trip details.
Select description: Send email to travel prospects.
In the When section, choose On a record action: Create.
Click Next.
In the Condition 1 section, enter the following:

Lead Source is Webform.
When do you want to travel is This Month.
Travelling with isn't Solo.

The Criteria Pattern will register as ( ( 1 and 2 ) and 3 ).
So, the rule will be triggered when all the three conditions are satisfied by a record.
Create Instant Action : Email Notification.

Select Email Template: Welcome to Zylker Travels.
Click Associate.

Assign a task to your Sales Rep to call the prospective customer.
Select Task.
Select New Task.
In Subject, write Make Call to the Prospect.
In Due Date, select Workflow Rule Trigger Date plus 0 days.
Click Save and Associate.
Click Tag,
Select Add Tag and name it as High Priority.

Condition 2

In Add another Condition, enter the following:

Lead Source is Webform.
Travelling with is Solo.

Select Done.
Add an Instant Action - Webhook.
Select the Webhook that you had created.
Select Associate.
Click Save.

Automatically assign leads from a particular source to selected reps

Edition: Professional and above | Industry: Travel and Tourism | Feature: Assignment Rule

Scenario

Zylker Moments is a travel agency. They wish to automate assignment of imported leads, based on the following criteria.

Rule Name: Assignment Rule based on Lead Source

Criteria: If Lead Source is,

Cold Call: Assign to Martha Hills
Trade Show: Assign to Raghav Rao
Advertisement: Assign to Amelia Burrows.

For each user, assign a follow-up task called “Send Travel Preferences Survey”.

Expected Result

Solution

Go to Setup > Automation> Assignment Rules.
Choose the module: Leads.
Click Create New Lead Assignment Rule.
Enter the Rule Name: Assignment Rule based on Lead Source.
Click +Create Rule Entry
Under the Criteria section, enter the required conditions: Lead Source is Cold Call.
Under the Ownership section, choose the required user: Martha Hills.
Under Follow up Task, select the Add a Follow up Task to the record owner option.
Add new workflow task: Send Travel Preferences Survey
Under the same assignment rule, click +Create Rule Entry.
Under the Criteria section, enter the required conditions: Lead Source is Trade Show.
Under the Ownership section, choose the required user: Raghav Rao.
Under Follow up Task, select the Add a Followup Task to the record owner option.
Choose existing task by clicking the search icon: Send Travel Preferences Survey.

Repeat adding rule entries as required in a similar manner for the Advertisement leads as well.

Now the Lead Assignment Rule based on Lead Source has been configured.

Points to note

Ownership may be assigned based on specific users or on a round-robin pattern.
If you do not wish to specify criteria, you may have the criteria section empty.

Manage case assignment in a law firm

Edition: Enterprise | Industry: Law firm | Features: Customization, Views, Workflow Rules

Scenario

Leotta Dillard is the office administrator at a law firm that specializes in cases against corporations that behave unethically towards their employees, customers, and other businesses. The attorneys take on a variety of cases ranging from unpaid overtime to class action lawsuits. Since each case is unique, the firm trusts the attorneys to choose the cases they are interested in working on and the cases that are not taken on by the attorneys are assigned to the partner, Tresa Sweely, who reviews each case and gets in touch with the client if the case cannot be taken. For cases that have been chosen, the attorneys need a system to track all the interaction, documents, and information acquired throughout the case life cycle.

Requirements

Leotta is handling the CRM implementation and she wants the CRM to:

Capture all the cases in one place
Allow attorneys to view and choose the cases based on their area of expertise.
Automatically assign the unassigned cases to the partner, Tresa Sweely, after a few days.
Track case-related communication, case history, and documents and maintain a backup as per the compliance guidelines.

Solution

To personalize their CRM, Leotta has renamed the Leads module to New Cases and the Contacts module to Clients.

Capture case details

Leotta first sets up a web form that collects case-related information from website visitors and pushes it into the New Cases module in CRM. All the incoming cases are assigned to the partner, Tresa Sweely, by default and a tag 'New Case' is assigned to each record. Until the attorneys choose a case and convert it into a client, Tresa is the case owner.

Enable attorneys to choose cases

Leotta has created a custom view that lists all the records that have the 'New Case' tag. The attorneys simply click on the custom view to see the cases. Since Leotta has enabled read/write permission for the New Cases module for all attorneys, they can change the case owner from Tresa to assign it to themselves. They also convert that case into a Client, which moves the record to the Clients module.

Assign cases not chosen by anyone to the partner

Some cases are not chosen by any of the attorneys. To review and close these cases, Leotta has set up a workflow rule that is triggered 3 days after a case is added to the New Cases module and triggers the following actions:

The 'New Case' tag is removed
The Case Status field is updated to Not Chosen
The partner receives an email notification about the case

Workflow configuration:

Module	New Cases
Rule name	Not Chosen Cases
Description (optional)	Alert the partner about cases that have not been chosen by an attorney
When to execute	On a date/time > 3 days after created time > Recur once

Which records the rule should apply to?	New cases matching certain condition
Criteria	Tag is 'New Case'
Instant action	Field update > Case Not Chosen
	Remove tag > New Case
	Email notification > Case not chose

Back up case documents and track all case activities in one place

Since CRM provides 360-degree customer information, the attorneys can find all notes, tasks, calls, emails, documents, and other information related to a specific record in the Record Details page. The attorneys use the native attachment field to add documents, screenshots, etc. This helps them track all the case-related activities. Leotta has enabled the auto backup feature, which backs up all CRM data right away.

Associate a contact with multiple companies or accounts

Edition: Enterprise and above | Industry: Applicable for all industries | Features: Multi-select Lookup Field and Module Customization

Scenario:

A wealth and asset management consultancy helps customers connect with a suitable financial advisor in their area. Depending on the clients portfolio, they may require more than one advisor to manage their assets. In these cases, one client will be connected to multiple advisors and, at the same time, one advisor will be connected to multiple clients. In order to recommend the right advisor, the consultancy needs to have a holistic view of its advisors and the clients they are currently engaged with.

Requirements:

The firm has to establish a connection between the clients and advisors, such that:

One client is associated with multiple advisors
One advisor is associated with multiple clients

Solution:

Jonas is the account manager and CRM administrator at the consultancy. He needs to connect the advisors and clients so that they can see the list of advisors that are associated with a client and vice versa. To do this, he needs to:

Customize the CRM account: Rename the Accounts and Contacts modules to Advisors and Clients, to store details of the clients and advisors the firm does business with.
Establish many-to-many-relationship: Add a multi-select lookup field to the Clients layout.

To add a multi-select lookup field do the following:

Go to Modules and Fields, select the Clients module and then the Standard layout.
Drag and drop the multi-select lookup field onto the layout and enter the following values:

Field name	Value
Field label	Advisors
Select related module	Advisors
Field label in related module	Associated advisors

Check Allow creating relationship-specific module and click Done.

This will allow the agents to:

View the list of advisors that a client works with in the related list.
For example, in the image below, Paul Smith is the client who is associated with the following advisors: John, Nathan, Alicia, and Kevin.
View the list of clients that an advisor is dealing with in the related list.
For example, in the image below, Nathan Brooks is the advisor who is associated with the following clients: Paul, Phill, and Albert.
Get all the details of the client, the advisors they work with, and all related activities in the linking module.
Enter criteria in the advanced filter to find records quickly.
Generate a report to summarize the number of managed and held-away assets, the number of pending assets, the average number of clients managed by each advisor, the asset type that generates the most revenue, and more.

Create a system-defined, guided sales process for a step-by-step lead conversion

Edition: Enterprise | Industry: Real Estate | Feature: Blueprint

Scenario

An Ohio-based real estate firm lists residential properties for sale and rent. The buyers approach the company through marketing activities, agents or brokers, social media channels, and referrals.

They have a typical sales process, where the rep contacts the interested prospect, procures details, arranges a site visit, negotiates the price, and finalizes the deal. Sometimes the reps have to go through several rounds of follow-up before the buyer decides to buy or rent the property.

They also generate reports every quarter to see the number of sales in each area and, they adjust their marketing funds based on the results.

In the past few reports they noticed major gaps in the conversion rate:

An unexpected decrease in the conversion rate
A huge difference in the number of leads that were generated compared to the number of deals that were closed
An increase in customer complaints due to delayed responses to their inquiries

Requirements

Build a system that will guide the reps to complete one stage and proceed to the next stage within a stipulated time.
Standarize the way sales follow-ups and lead conversions are performed.
Mandate important activities like follow-ups, sending quote details, gathering client details, etc.
Automate actions like updating the status after the completion of each stage.

The table below shows the different stages in the sales process, the activities performed at each stage, and by whom.

Sales stages	Actions performed at each stage	Who should perform these actions?	Actions performed after the stage is completed
Sending email and catalogue	Send email to the interested prospects along with the property catalogue.	Sales rep * you can allocate reps by area using the lead assignment rule	Update lead status to "Requirement collection"
Requirement collection	Call the prospects Collect property requirements mentioned in the checklist Attach mandatory proof of documents	Sales rep	Send the confirmed date of the site visit to the prospect via email and SMS Update lead status to "Site Visit Scheduled"
Scheduling site visit	Enter the date of site visit (mandatory).	Sales rep	Send the confirmed date of the site visit to the prospect via email and SMS Update lead status to "Site Visit Scheduled"
Site visit completion	Add notes from site visit (mandatory).	Sales rep	Update lead status to "Site visit completed"
Price negotiation	Call the prospect and negotiate the amount Regular follow-ups Send the final quote to the prospect	Sales rep	Update lead status to "Negotiation canceled" or "Revised quote sent"
Interested or Lost lead	Interested: Collect mandatory payment and other related documents from the prospect. Lost: Send email to the prospect informing them of cancellation of the deal.	Record owner	Update lead status to "Interested" or "Lost"

Solution:

A blueprint of the sales process can provide them with the desired results. They can recreate the above sales process in CRM to:

Create a step-by-step guideline that will help the sales reps identify the next step in the Lead Conversion process.
Assign and mandate completion of activities at each stage to bring uniformity to the follow-up process.
Mandate actions like follow-ups and collection of documents.
Automate certain actions to reduce manual work.

Here is what the blueprint for the above lead conversion process will look like:

(Marked in blue are the common transitions)

Prerequisites

I. Create the following picklist fields in the Leads module:

Field name	Picklist Values
Property type	Purchase Rent
Lead status	Email sent Contacted Not reachable Requirements collected Site visit scheduled Awaiting site visit Site visit completed Negotiation Site visit incomplete Create booking Lost lead

Blueprint Configuration

1. Go to Setup > Process Management > Blueprint > Create Blueprint.

2. Enter the following details:

Blueprint Name	Lead Conversion
Module	Leads
Choose Layout	Standard
Choose Field	Stages for Lead Conversion
Criteria (optional)	Property type is Purchase

3. Create the following states and transitions:

Read the Blueprint glossary to learn more about the terms used here.

From state	Transition				To state
From state	Details	Before Transition	During Transition	After Transition	To state
Start	Name: Send email Description: Send an introduction email and catalogue to the interested buyer	Who will execute this transition? Record owner	Add > Associated item > Task - Create task as associated item - Validate the task status as "Completed"	Update lead status to "Email Sent"	Email Sent
Email Sent	Name: Call prospect (common transition) Description: Call the buyer to collect details	Who will execute this transition? Sales rep	Mandatory notes: What was the call result?	Update Lead status to "Contacted"	Contacted
Email Sent	Same as above	Same as above	Add > Associated item > Field Validate call status as "Not Contacted"	Update Lead status to "Re-contacted"	Not reachable * if the re-contact attempt fails the lead will move to lost state.
Contacted - Number of days the record can stay in this state = 5 business days - On 6th day, send SLA alert to immediate manager	Name: Collect details Description: Collect proof of documents from the buyer	Who will execute this transition? Sales rep	Add > Associated item > Checklist 1. Prepare this checklist: - Property type - Budget - Amenities - Bank details 2. Make attachment mandatory Message: Attach the documents for items in checklist	Update Lead status to "Requirement Gathered"	Site visit scheduled
Site visit scheduled	Name: Fix site visit Description: Schedule the site visit and receive confirmation from buyer	Who will execute this transition? Sales rep	Add > Associated item > Call - Create call as associated item - Validate the call status as "Completed" - Make attachment of call transcript mandatory	- Update Lead status to "Site visit scheduled" - Send email notification to confirm the date of the site visit	Awaiting site visit
Awaiting site visit	Name: Complete site visit Description: Make sure site visit details are captured	Who will execute this transition? Record owner	- Make notes about: site visit details - Make attachment of site plan mandatory	- Update Lead status to "Site visit completed" - Send SMS to the buyer acknowledging completion of site visit	Site visit completed
Site visit completed	Name: Negotiation Description: Check the price quoted by the property owner and the buyer	Who will execute this transition? - Record owner	- Make attachment of buyer's and property owner's quote mandatory	Update Lead status to "Negotiation"	Negotiation
Negotiation	Name: Finalize price Description: Finalize the property amount and send the quote	Who will execute this transition? - Sales manager	Add > Associated item > Field - Validate property negotiation field as "completed" - Make attachment of negotiated amount mandatory	Update Lead status to "Negotiation finalized" - Send email notification to the buyer stating negotiation complete	Create booking (* At this stage the lead will be converted and deal follow-up process will begin)
Negotiation	Name: Finalize price Description: Finalize the property amount and send the quote	Who will execute this transition? - Sales manager	Add > Associated item > Field - Validate property negotiation field as "Rejected" - Make attachment of rejection of negotiated amount mandatory	Update Lead status to "Lost"	Lead lost

4. Create the following common transitions:

These transitions can be executed from multiple states, for example a lead can move to the Lost state from the following states: Negotiation (if the negotiation is rejected), Send email (if email is unanswered), Contacted (if the buyer doesn't answer the call or is not interested). Read more about common transitions.

From state	Common Transition	To state
Email sent	Call prospect	Not reachable The record will show the "Call prospect" transition. This will ensure the buyer is re-contacted.
Site visit scheduled	Fix site visit	Rescheduled The rep will have to contact the buyer and reschedule the site visit.
Contacted Site visit scheduled Awaiting site visit Site visit completed Negotiation	Cancel booking	Site visit scheduled Awaiting site visit Site visit completed Negotiation Create booking If the buyer is not interested or cancels site visit, the booking will be canceled and the lead will be moved to the "Lost" state

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Field Name	Field Type	Field Value
Call Recording	URL	-
Contact	Lookup	-
Call Type	Picklist	- Inbound - Outbound
Call Duration	Single Line	-

Function Name	Call Quality
Display Name	Call
Description (optional)	Create a new record in the module
Category	Automation

Rule Name	Create Call Quality
Module	Calls
Description (optional)	Create new record
When to execute	On a record action > Create

Which calls will the rule apply to	All Calls
Instant Action	Functions > Call Quality

Rule Name	Rate Call Quality
Module	Call Quality
Description (optional)	Rating and Feedback
When to execute	On a record action - Create

Which call quality will the rule apply to	All call quality
Instant Action	Email Notification > Survey Form

Use Cases

Use Cases

Associating lead referrals to the respective contacts

Streamlining the vendor management and contract signing process in a travel industry

Scenario

Requirements

Solution

I. Blueprint for vendor onboarding

II. Blueprint for the contract signing process

Managing multiple services in Non-Profit Organizations

The Requirement

The Solution: Multiple Page Layouts

Creating layouts

Layout based workflow rules

Layout-based assignment rules

Layout based Blueprints

Layout based Reports and Dashboards

Automate donor generation and retention activities in Non-Profit Organizations

The Requirement

Requirement—Solution Mapping

Setting up webforms to capture donor details from their website

Setting up an automated acknowledgement email whenever a new contributing donor enters CRM

Setting up automated reminder emails for donor retention

Generating reports and dashboards to gain insight into top donors for each service category

Streamlining business processes in a Non-Profit Organization

The Requirement

Requirement—Solution Mapping

Blueprint Configuration

Blueprint results — Process Execution (Illustrated with screenshots)

Sales process: Closing deals

Sales process: Lead generation

Sales process: Lead engagement

Initiate an approval request when the loan applicant has a low credit score

Identify duplicates between leads and contacts modules

Schedule annual notifications for subscription renewals

Assess the outgoing call quality of the sales agents

Setting up organization details

Customize a health insurance proposal form and track its stages

Send automatic notifications to the third-party providers

Automatically assign leads from a particular source to selected reps

Manage case assignment in a law firm

Associate a contact with multiple companies or accounts

Create a system-defined, guided sales process for a step-by-step lead conversion

Related Articles

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Troubleshooting

Introduction to Zoho CRM

Manage CPQ Permissions

Configure Chat window