Connecting Zoho CRM to Baat

The Zoho CRM integration works in both directions. Contacts, leads and deals from Zoho come into Baat, where a change can start a WhatsApp message or journey. In the other direction, Baat can add WhatsApp contacts and orders to Zoho, and log the messages your customers send as notes.

Before you start

• Zoho CRM is part of the Business plan. You can also try it during the free trial

• You need a connected WhatsApp channel in Baat

• You need permission to connect apps to your Zoho CRM account

• Know which Zoho data centre your account was created in. Your Zoho address shows it, such as zoho.in for India or zoho.com for the United States

Connecting your Zoho account

• Go to Settings → Integrations → Zoho CRM

• Under Zoho data centre, pick the region your Zoho account was created in

• Click Connect Zoho CRM

• Sign in to Zoho if asked, and approve the access it asks for. You are returned to Baat

• The page shows Connected, with two sections: Sync into Baat and Push to Zoho

Sync into Baat

Contacts, leads and deals from Zoho come into Baat automatically. Zoho contacts and leads both become contacts in Baat. Name, email and phone come across on their own.

To bring in other Zoho fields, map them to custom fields:

• Create the custom fields you need first, under Settings → Custom Fields

• Under Field mapping, click Add mapping

• Choose a Zoho field and the Baat custom field it should fill

• Click Save Settings

Push to Zoho

Pushing to Zoho is off until you turn it on. Switch on Send Baat contacts and orders to Zoho, then choose the options below and click Save Settings.

• New WhatsApp contacts become Leads or Contacts in Zoho. Leads is the default, because a new WhatsApp enquiry is usually not yet a customer

• Orders from your connected store become deals in Zoho, named “Order” followed by the order number, with the order amount. They start at the Qualification stage, and the order status is written in the deal’s description

• Log WhatsApp conversations as notes is Off by default. Set it to One note per message, and each text message a customer sends you is added as a note on their record in Zoho. Your team’s replies are not logged

• Lead source on new records is “Baat.ai” by default, so your sales team can tell WhatsApp enquiries from other sources

• Lead status on new leads is “New” by default. Use a value that exists in your Zoho Lead Status list

Lead source and lead status are set only when Baat creates a record. Baat never changes them on a record that already exists in Zoho.

A record that has just come from Zoho is not sent straight back, so the two systems do not keep updating each other in a loop.

Sending WhatsApp messages from Zoho events

Baat listens for these events from Zoho:

• A contact is created or changes in Zoho

• A lead is created or changes in Zoho

• A deal is created, changes or moves stage in Zoho

To act on one of these events, go to Automations → Create your own:

• Choose An automation for a single step. It can send a template, send a message, add or remove a tag, update the contact, or start a WhatsApp Flow

• Choose A journey for several steps over time, such as a message, a wait and a reminder. A journey can start when a contact or lead is created, when a deal is created, or when a deal moves stage

A deal event carries the deal’s name, stage, amount and pipeline, and Baat messages the contact linked to the deal.

Templates come first

WhatsApp only lets a business start a conversation with an approved message template. A message triggered by a Zoho event usually reaches someone who has not written to you in the last 24 hours, so the first message should be a template. See Managing message templates.

Disconnecting

Click Disconnect on the Zoho CRM integration page. This stops all sync and removes the connection and its settings. You can connect again later, but you will need to set up your field mappings again.