This article covers the major upgrades on the SMS-Magic Interact extension of Zoho CRM as a part of November 2020 Release.

Key Features

The November 2020 Release is focused mainly on the Converse Desk to help businesses establish a dialogue with their customers. We also have a new channel added to your communication options – WhatsApp!

Converse Desk

Converse Desk provides an intuitive, easy-to-use Inbox style user interface; making it simple for you to start one-on-one messaging with little or no training. Connect with your leads, contacts, and phone numbers in your custom modules without having to leave the Zoho CRM. The Converse Desk features intelligence that guides users to effectively manage and respond to any number of messaging conversations.

Key Converse Desk Features Include:

1. Converse Desk in Zoho CRM – One-click access to launch conversation with customers from standard and custom modules within the Zoho environment.
2. Multi-channel Support – Reach out to customers on the channel of their preference. Send text and media messages on both SMS and WhatsApp.
3. User Friendly Inbox – The new and improved Inbox provides an intuitive interface to access messages, track conversations and quickly respond to messages. 
4. Initiate Conversations with Your Zoho CRM Records – You no longer need to go to SMS-Magic Web Portal to send one-on-one messages. Now, you can send messages to Zoho CRM Leads, Contacts, and phone numbers in your custom modules directly from Zoho CRM.
5. New Chat Window for Interactive Conversations – Converse with your customers in a familiar way; using the new chat window that mimics texting on your phone.
6. Team Inboxes – Admin can monitor their teams’ conversations.
7. Assign Customer Conversations to Team Members – Admin users can easily assign conversations to any team member.

Communication over WhatsApp

Introducing WhatsApp support; a new channel for you to reach out to your customers from the SMS-Magic Web Portal.  Use the same familiar interface to message your customers in WhatsApp!

Establish Communication over WhatsApp:

1. Record Your Customer Consents – Record your customer consent to reach out to them on WhatsApp.
2. WhatsApp Conversations – With the same simplicity as SMS, you now can have one-to-one conversations with your customers on WhatsApp. Your customers can initiate conversations directly, or you can initiate conversations via a registered WhatsApp message template.
3. Send Text or Media via WhatsApp – With WhatsApp, you can send text and media messages to your customers. And you can personalize your messages with emoticons too.

Functional enhancements

Bulk SMS to Custom List Views

Send SMS to Custom List Views – This feature allows you to send messages to more than 100 records at one time directly from Zoho CRM using the Custom List Views of the CRM modules.

Technical Enhancements

SSO to SMS-Magic Web Portal from Zoho CRM

No more Login screens!  Using Single Sign On, you will be able to directly navigate to the Send Bulk Messages user interface directly from the Zoho CRM when you click the Send SMS button. 

Removed Email Dependency for Sales Signal Notifications

An Email ID is no longer required in order to receive incoming message notifications for Sales Signal Notifications.

Related documentation

For more information on the above-mentioned features and latest enhancements on SMS-Magic Web Portal please refer to the below links:

SMS-Magic Interact for Zoho User Guide
Release Notes of SMS-Magic Portal – November 2020 Release
SMS-Magic Portal User Guide