Setup Twilio SMS in Zoho CRM in a few steps
About
Zoho CRM is one of the best cloud-based Customer Relationship Management software which makes the entire working of the sales team easy. It is utilized and used in large numbers from small to medium-sized businesses. This CRM helps engage customers faster and keeps an update of all the information.
Twilio provides cloud-based communications via API. Twilio Messaging uses its API to allow users to send and receive SMS and MMS. Hence Twilio and Zoho CRM are integrated to make customer communication easier and faster. Ultra Twilio WhatsApp SMS MMS for Zoho CRM have intelligent features so that the messages reach the end users and make them comfortable without losing communication.
Pre -requisites for app installation
Should have Zoho CRM account
Should have a Twilio account
Should have Twilio number
Should have approved templates to initiate the conversation.
Features
Send single SMS to leads, contacts, deals, and accounts module
Send Bulk SMS to leads, contacts, deals, and accounts module
Create and manage templates
View the history of Twilio messages
Send automated messages through workflows
View all the conversations made through the Twilio account under Twilio Inbox.
Application Installation
Step 1: Go to Zoho marketplace and install the extension following the below steps.
Step 2: Select the check box by agreeing to the terms and conditions and click Continue.
Step 3: Choose the profiles to whom you want to install the application in Zoho CRM and click Continue.
Step 4: Now your extension is successfully installed.
Authorization
Step 1: To authorize the extension go to your "Leads" Module and open any of the leads. Inside your Lead click on the "Send Twilio Message" Option.
Step 2: Initially you have to authorize your Zoho CRM. Click on "Authorize Now" option.
Step 3: Once your Zoho CRM is successfully authorized, you have to log in to proceed further. You can either use the "Sign in with email" option or else you can use the "Sign in with Google" option.
Note: The sign-in mail doesn't have to be your Twilio login mail. You can use your Zoho CRM mail for signing in.
Step 4: Now you have to authorize your Twilio account by entering your Twilio credentials. You can use the "Get here" option to get your Twilio credentials.
Step 5: Once you click on the "Get here" option you will be re-directed to the Twilio console page, where you can copy your Twilio SID and Twilio Auth token and paste it into the given space inside your Zoho CRM and click Authorize now option.
Now you have sucessfully authorized your Zoho CRM and Twilio account.
How to add Twilio Numbers?
Step 1: Once you have successfully authorized your Twilio account and Zoho account, you will be prompted with the option to add Twilio Numbers. Click on the "Add Numbers Now" option.
Step 2: You will be re-directed to the Twilio page to add your senders. Click on the "Add senders" option.
Step 3: Now select your Sender type from the drop-down and then click "Continue".
Step 4: Now select the phone number which you wish to connect with your Zoho CRM account for sending messages and then "Add phone Numbers" option.
Step 5: Now your Twilio number is successfully assigned to the Ulgebra service for sending messages. Now go back to your Zoho CRM.
Step 6: Once the numbers are successfully configured, you can enable the incoming messages feature. When a new message is received to your Twilio number, you can select the module under which you want to save the respective record inside your Zoho CRM. You can select the module from the drop-down option. Before creating a new customer in Zoho CRM, it will be checked with the existing clients in the CRM under the selected modules. If an existing client is found, then the incoming message will be synced with the existing client's profile.
Your Twilio numbers are successfully configured and you are all set to send messages using your Twilio Number from CRM.
How to add additional senders?
Step 1: Go to any of the Zoho CRM leads/contacts --> Click the "Send Twilio Message" option from the top-right drop-down. Selec the "Choose sender" option and then select "Add New Sender".
Step 2:
Select your Sender channel whether it is SMS or MMS channel.
Enter your Sender Id at the provided space.
Enter the display name of your Sender Id.
Set the visibility of your Sender Id whether you are creating for all your users or you are creating this for your own.
After entering all the details click the "Save Sender"
Now you can able to view the additional sender you have added. You can able to send messages to your customers using both the sender Id.
Now the configuration of extension is successfully done and you are all set to send messages using the Twilio extension.
How to send Twilio Messages from Zoho CRM?
Send Twilio SMS Messages from Zoho CRM:
Step 1: Go to the Leads module and open any of the Leads to whom you want to send the message. And then click the "Send Twilio Message" option.
Step 2:
Select your Twilio Sender Id.
The values in your both phone field and mobile field will be automatically fetched in the Pop-up. You can select the option to which number you wish to send messages by clicking on the respective phone number field.
Enter your default country code value. Which will be used for sending messages to numbers that don't have any country code in them.
In the case of sending SMS you can either type your own customized messages or else you can select the template for sending.
For initiating WhatsApp conversations you are only allowed to send Twilio-approved Templates to your customers.
After entering Message click "Send".
Step 3: You will be notified once your Message is successfully sent to your customers.
Step 4: Under the Twilio Messages option inside your Lead you can able to view the History of messages you have sent and received to that particular lead.
Chat view inside your Leads.
Inside the lead on your left panel, you can able to view the "Twilio inbox" option. Click on that and from the drop-down, you can select the chat view option.
Select your Sender Id and select your recipient number. Now you can able to view all the messages you have sent and received from the particular lead using the sender Id.
You can also make one - one conversations from the chat view with the specific Lead.
Note: Same as Leads you can also send messages from the Contacts, Deals and Accounts Module.
Send Twilio SMS Messages in bulk from Zoho CRM
Step 1: To send Bulk SMS messages go to the Leads list view and select one or more leads to whom you want to send bulk SMS messages. After selecting the leads click the "Send Twilio Message" option.
Step 2: Select your Sender Id.
i)Configure your Mobile number field, to which phone number field you wish to send messages.
ii)Configure your default country code option. You have multiple options for configuring the country code.
Do not add Country code - If you have a country code for all your existing records in your CRM, you can select the ignore option.
Add for all phone numbers - If all your existing records in your CRM doesn't have any country code you can select this option which will country code for all your numbers.
Add if phone number starts with 0 - In case you have phone numbers in your existing records was saved with 0 (usually applies for abroad numbers) you can select this option.
Add if phone number does not start with country code - In case some of your records in CRM doesn't have any country code in it you can select this option which will add country code only for the numbers which doesn't have a country code in it and ignore the ones which already have country code in it.
iii)Enter your Message and then click "Send SMS".
How to send Twilio SMS Messages to a specified Filter of leads in Zoho CRM?
Step 1:
Open any of your Leads and click on the "Send Twilio Message" option.
Select your Sender Id.
And click on the "Add recipients" and select the filter of leads to whom you want to send the messages by selecting the drop-down.
You can add the numbers by searching them from the leads using the "Search from Leads" option or else you can manually add the number.
Step 2:
After selecting the lists, enter the message you wish to send to your customers. You can either type your personalized message or else you can use the template message. You can also insert emoji's of your choice in your message.
After entering the message click "Send SMS".
Note: Same as Leads you can able to send Bulk SMS messages from the Contacts, Deals and Accounts Module. You can send message to specified list for other modules as well.
Other additional features
Go to any of the Zoho CRM leads/contacts/deals/accounts modules and click the "Send Twilio Message" option on the top right corner.
Click your profile at the top right to view the additional features.
Get the workflow webhook URL and parameters.
Get desktop notifications of the messages.
Manage the app usage for users.
How to create template Messages?
Step 1: To create templates go to your Leads module and open any of your Zoho CRM lead. And then click the "Send Twilio Message" option.
Step 2: Click on the "Insert Template" option.
Step 3: Select the "Add New Template" option for creating new templates.
Step 4: Enter the name for your Twilio template and enter the message which you wish to save as template Messages. You can also insert the User's field and the Lead's field for sending personalized messages. You can also copy and paste the content of your Twilio-approved templates and save it inside your Zoho CRM.
Step 5: After entering the Message you have to set the visibility of your Template. You can either make the template visible for all users in your Zoho CRM or else you can create the template for your own without sharing it with other users.
Step 6: Click on the "Save Template" option
Step 7: Once you have successfully created your template you can able to view them under the drop-down which can be used for sending it to your customers.
View all the conversations made through the Twilio account inside your Zoho CRM:
Conversations view
Go to the "Twilio Inbox" module inside your Zoho CRM and select the conversations view from the drop-down.
Under the conversations view, you can able to view all the messages you have sent and received using your Twilio number under a single roof.
On the left side of the conversation view, you can able to see that the conversations have been differentiated into two different colors one is Grey and another one is White.
The Grey color indicates that the last message to the conversation was sent from your side, which means the chat was handled by any of your agents and the reply has been sent from your side.
The white color indicates that the customer has sent you a message and you haven't sent any reply yet which means the chat was unattended still. Once you sent a reply to the chat the color will be changed from White to Grey.
Select any conversation and view all the messages you have sent and received to the specific user.
You can send replies directly from the conversation view and make one to one conversations with your customers. You can also able to send attachments and add emojis along with your messages.
In WhatsApp conversations you can able to view "Read" status and "Delivered" status of your messages.
In SMS you can able to view the "Delivered" status of your Messages.
WhatsApp and SMS is differentiated with their specific chat icon.
Notify customers with Twilio messages using workflows
Step 1: Go to any of the Zoho CRM leads/contacts --> Click the "Send Twilio Message" option from the top-right drop-down --> Click the profile picture --> Click "Workflows". Copy the webhook URL.
Step 2:Copy parameters from the desired section.
Step 3:Click Settings --> Automation --> Workflow rules --> Create rule. Enter the workflow name, Module name for setting up the workflow for that particular module. Enter and fill in the necessary details required in the workflow and use webhook for invoking the workflow.
Step 4:Give a name for the Webhook and select the method as POST. Paste the webhook URL in the space provided which you have already copied from the extension configuration page.
Step 5:Under "Body", select the Type as "Raw" and Format as "JSON". Paste the parameters in the space provided and replace the "FILL_HERE" option with the required values.
SMS Parameters
"from" - Enter the Twilio Sender ID or SMS phone number
"To" - Enter the phone number field of the client (Click "#" and select the placeholder to fetch the value from the Zoho CRM field.)
"Body" - Enter the message content
"module" - Enter the API name of the Zoho CRM module which you can get from the "Developer Space".
"Channel" - SMS
"recordId" - It can be, for example, Lead ID (Click "#" and select the placeholder to fetch the value from the Zoho CRM field.)
MMS Parameters
"from" - Enter the Twilio Sender ID or SMS phone number
"To" - Enter the phone number field of the client (Click "#" and select the placeholder to fetch the value from the Zoho CRM field.)
"Body" - Enter the message content
"Mediaurl" - Enter the media URL of the image you want to send
"module" - Enter the API name of the Zoho CRM module which you can get from the "Developer Space".
"Channel" - MMS
"recordId" - It can be, for example, Lead ID (Click "#" and select the placeholder to fetch the value from the Zoho CRM field.)
WhatsApp Parameters
"from" - Enter the Twilio Approved WhatsApp number.
"to" - Enter the phone number field of the client (Click "#" and select the placeholder to fetch the value from the Zoho CRM field.)
"Body" - Enter the approved message content.
"Mediaurl" - Enter the media URL if you have any. Or else, remove this parameter
"module" - Enter the API name of the Zoho CRM module which you can get from the "Developer Space".
"recordId" - It can be, for example, Lead ID (Click "#" and select the placeholder to fetch the value from the Zoho CRM field.)
Once entered all the values, click the refresh option so that you will get the preview URL. Now, click the "Save and Associate" option to save the webhook.
Note: If you don't have country code to the leads inside the CRM you can configure the country code value in the workflow. You can add them in the workflow parameter "To".
Example: "To": "+91${Leads.Phone}".
Step 6:Now that your workflow is successfully created, whenever a lead meets the desired workflow condition the workflow will be triggered and a Twilio message will be sent to the customer.
Twilio SMS History inside your CRM
Step 1: Click on the "Three dots" on the top panel and select the "Twilio Message History" option.
Step 2:You can able to view the list of all messages you have sent and received using your Twilio account. You can also use the Manage columns option to add additional columns and view detailed History. The history will be added for the automated messages as well.
How to share Twilio Credentials with other Zoho CRM users?
Step 1: Go to any of the Zoho CRM leads/contacts --> Click the "Send Twilio Message" option from the top-right drop-down --> Click the profile picture --> Click "Manage App users". If you are an Zoho CRM admin you can share your Twilio credentials with Zoho CRM users so that they can use your Twilio account for sending messages.
On the admin system:
You can add the Zoho CRM users whom can use your Twilio account for sending messages.
You can able to view the list of all Zoho CRM users and you can add them using the "Add' button.
On the user system:
The user while re-authorizing the Twilio account, they can either use the account shared by their admin or else they can use their own account for sending messages. To configure their own account click on the "Use another account" option.
How to enable incoming notifications on your Desktop?
Configuration on the admin system:
Step 1:
Go to any of the Zoho CRM leads/contacts --> Click the "Send Twilio Message" option from the top-right drop-down --> Click the profile picture --> Click "Message notifications".
Step 2:
Enter the mail Id of the user to whom you want to receive the incoming notifications for the messages on their desktop at the given space.
After entering the mail click "Add user".
Note: Enter the CRM mail Id of the user they have used for signing in to Ulgebra account in the previous process.
Step 3: After adding the user you can copy the "Subscriber invite link" and share it with the respective user for configuring the incoming message notifications on their desktop.
Configuration on user system:
The user has to copy the link and paste it into their chrome browser.
Sign in to Ulgebra using the mail Id invited by the admin to receive notifications.
Once signed in using your CRM mail Id, enable the option "Receive local notifications" option.
And click "Start receiving notifications on this browser".
Once it is done you can able to receive notifications for the incoming messages inside your browser.
If you click on the desktop notification you will redirected to the specific lead associated with that number in your CRM.
Inside the specific lead you can use Twilio inbox option to make one to one conversations.