Overview

 

You can trigger a custom SMS using webhooks from your Zoho CRM. This article will run you through the steps to setup SMS automation using webhooks. You can customise these webhooks to interact with specific modules and what SMS templates to be sent. Workflow rules will be able to use these newly created webhooks as actions.

Setting up webhooks for SMS Automation 

1. In Zoho CRM, click on the Settings icon located on the top right. Go to Setup > AUTOMATION > Actions. Click on Actions.
   
   
   
2. Click on Webhooks
   

Webhooks works as a bridge between Zoho CRM and third-party applications, in this case ClickSend SMS

3. Click on Configure Webhook to create a new webhook.
   
4. Type in a name of the webhook
   
   
   
5. For URL to Notify you need to go to the ClickSend SMS Settings module. 
   
   Then copy and paste the URL from Personalized SMS URL at the bottom. Discard everything after the "execute?". We will be appending them in step 8.
6. Method = Get
   
7. Select the Module for which you want to Automate SMS.
   
8. On URL parameters type the Parameter Name as recordIds . For parameter value select the Module and the select the id field.
   
9. Go to Custom Parameters and add a new line. Here you will enter the Parameter names: auth_type, zapikey, moduleName and smsTemplateId. Add their respective parameters from the Personalised SMS URL.
   
   
   

Do not include = or & in the parameters

10. For smsTemplateID, you can find the ID in the URL of their respective SMS Templates.
    
    
    Templatestemplate.
    
    
    
11. Click Refresh under Preview URL, confirm that it looks similar to the Personalised SMS URL only with the new parameters as defined in the webhook and click Save. Your webhook has been created and now we need to create some rules to trigger it.
    
    
    
    

Setting up Workflow Rules to trigger Webhooks

1. Under the Automation section in the side bar, click Workflow Rules. You can also access this through Settings->Automation->Workflow Rules
   
2. Click the Create Rule button
   
3. Select the module the webhook was created for in the previous steps. For this example we are using the Leads module
   
   
   
4. Enter a rule name for this workflow. Eg 'Workflow rule for an SMS lead'.
   
5. Enter a description if you like then press Next
   
6. From here you can create a workflow. Here is more information on workflows
   
7. Once you have set your workflow's trigger and conditions you can assign an action. The actions can be instant or scheduled. For this example, we chose Instant Actions and selected Webhook.
   
   
   
8. Select the webhook you want associated with this workflow then click associate
   
   
   
9. Press Save
   
10. Congratulations, you have made your first automated SMS
    

Conclusion

We have covered how to do automation with our Zoho CRM 2 ClickSend SMS extension using webhooks and workflow rules. By setting up SMS templates for specific modules, a webhook can be customised to send the request, and finally workflow rules are used to trigger the webhook under specified conditions.