1. Zoho CRM Kiosk Studio Enhancements
Zoho has dropped a couple of handy enhancements to Kiosk Studio.
First up, the new Add Note action allows you to add notes to CRM records during the kiosk flow. It also includes functionality to pre-fill the note content and title fields using merge fields, making it dynamic and more standardised, which is great for teams that need consistent record-keeping as part of a guided process.
The second enhancement is dynamic availability. Previously, when you published a kiosk to a record detail page, it showed up for every record in that module. Now you can set field-based conditions to control when the kiosk is visible. So if a kiosk is only relevant for certain deal types, it's only shown when required.
2. Zoho Bookings Appointment Distribution
Zoho Bookings has introduced Appointment Distribution, a new way to control how bookings get assigned to team members.
There are four methods to choose from:
- Default: evenly splits appointments when nothing specific is configured.
- Round Robin: rotates bookings sequentially through your team in an order you define.
- Load-Based: assigns proportionally using weight percentages, so higher-capacity staff receive more bookings.
- Priority-Based: allocates based on tiers, from highest to lowest priority.
Setting it up is straightforward: open an event, edit it, and select the Appointment Distribution method that suits your team. Round Robin is a standout option for teams with similar roles and capacity, and it works a treat in practice.
3. Zoho Forms Change URL
Here's a neat quality-of-life addition to Zoho Forms: Custom Form Link Names.
By default, your form's URL is based on the title you gave it when you first created it. The catch is that if you rename the form later, the URL doesn't update, which makes sense, because changing it would break any links already distributed. But it did mean you were stuck with whatever name you started with.
With this feature, you can now update your form's permalink whenever you need to, so it stays professional, relevant, and actually reflects what the form is for. The classic example: you're testing a new form version and name it "TEST - New Contact Us Form", that ends up in your URL. Now you can clean that up to simply "Contact Us".
One important thing to note: if you delete a custom form link that's already been distributed, those links will break. Name it carefully and you shouldn't need to change it again.
4. Zia AI Now Available in CRM Professional Edition
Writing custom functions in Zoho Desk just got a little easier, at least in theory. Zoho has added Zia-powered script generation, meaning you can now describe what you want your automation to do in plain English, and Zia will write the Deluge script for you.
For example, you could type "If the ticket contact has the type of VIP then tag the ticket as Urgent," and Zia will interpret that and attempt to produce a working script. In practice, during our testing it consistently struggled to produce a complete, working script. Where it fared better was generating smaller snippets of code that you then piece together manually, though even that had its moments, including attempts to use deprecated methods. It's a first release, and it's good to see Zoho moving in this direction. But for anything beyond simple scripts, it's still got a way to go.
To enable it: head to Setup > Zia > Generative AI. Under the Feature Preferences tab, toggle on Zia Deluge Assistant.
Stay Updated
That's it for Episode 8 of The Zoho Report! We hope these updates help you work smarter with your Zoho applications.
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