Zoho - Partner with Zoho

Support guidelines

These Partner Support Guidelines walk you through a streamlined process of support and various SLA levels. It includes:

Our expectations of Partners
Sample support email template
How are requests handled?
Partner support offerings
Zoho-Partner Master Service Level Agreement
Partner Support Escalation Management

*Get your organization ready for success at every turn!

Our expectations from partners

Partners must perform the first level of support for the products sold to the end customer. Basic debugging steps should be performed. They are expected to write scripts, perform migrations with the help of their developers, technical team, and reach out to us for issues with the execution within Zoho Services—e.g. third-party app integrations through API/scripts, custom function requirements, migrations.

Please use your registered domain email address to raise support requests in exceptional cases, besides using the suggested ASAP feature in the portal/store—e.g. Zoho.com and not generic address like, gmail, yahoo, etc. It otherwise becomes nearly impossible to track requests, set severity and automation, and report analytics for internal purposes.

Active participation in the Zoho Partner network and dedicated product groups, to raise feature suggestions and discussions across products, is expected. Follow Zoho blogs, status pages, and social media handles to stay on top of the latest downtime or outage occurrences.

We strongly suggest using the format shown below to maintain uniformity. Email consent is required from the customer for account disputes and admin-level changes in the backend for security reasons and validation. It will avoid back and forth email exchanges to get the required details and provide an accurate analysis for an agile resolution.

We strongly suggest using the ASAP feature to raise and track requests in the Partner store/portal. Please avoid other communication channels (Cliq, etc.) for a better experience, as it is challenging to track those enquiries and work internally with teams and meet SLAs.

Communicate and set the right expectations for the end customer about requests. For example, differentiating bugs from feature limitations, or advanced versus extended support requirements from Zoho.

You can screen record your debugging or steps performed to isolate customer-reported issues and send it across to the team attached in the request.

Each user from customer-facing roles in the company must undergo product/feature training, using the available product resources, LMS, and our training & certification team.

Email template

Customer email address

Email address with reference to the raised request.

Type of support request

Preset Values ( Technical Support, Payments Renewal, Trial Extension, Store Related, Upgrades, Invoice changes, Commission Payment, Product Management Related, Sales Discussions)

Able to reproduce the problem?

Yes or No (Elaborate)

If yes, please include additional details (user ID, super admin email, customization name (e.g. workflow, function name, etc.), date & time in relevance to the issue raised, pre-enabling support access if the product requires it).

Zoho product name

Ex - Zoho CRM, Zoho Desk, etc.

Description of the issue/question

(50 words)

Troubleshooting steps performed

If any

Screenshots/screen cast, if relevant

Can be attached with the email when sent.

How are requests handled?

Zoho-Partner Master Service Level Agreement

Each incoming ticket is triaged and priority evaluated according to the criteria defined below, based on severity of the request and Partner tiers. The following matrix covers Support Incidents, Requests, and Questions.

* We do not work on weekends except for certain critical cases (downtime, outages, login issues). The time mentioned below includes only working days in a week.

* Basic (‌how-to) requests will be treated less urgently and dealt with as per the SLA. At any point in time, if too many basic requests are sent from the same partner, the support team will notify their respective Partner Account Manager to relay the message about the situation. They will suggest that they up-skill their product expertise to be self-competent in handling such requests. This allows our team to prioritize more critical requests that have a business impact on customers.

Severity Level Acknowledgement (First Response Time) Problem Determination
1 1-3 hours 2-8 hours
2 6-12 hours 24-48 hours
3 16-24 hours 2-3 days

Severity level & other definitions

The severity designation listed indicates the level, extent, and impact on the customer. Once assigned, it will be used to determine the resources allocated for resolving the ticket, timelines for resolution, and escalation matrix. The product limitations and feature requests are exempted from this agreement.

Severity Level 1

(Critical Business Impact) The Zoho service or feature does not work as expected and does not function without a fix being applied. The problem has a significant effect on customer revenues or business operations. E.g. showstopper production issue affecting all users; system unavailability; no access to an account; data integrity issues; service downtime; slowness, etc.

Severity Level 2

(Moderate Business Impact) The Zoho service can function, although the functions are providing incorrect results or its performance is inconsistent with the performance described in the documentation.

Severity Level 3

(Minimal Business Impact) The functionality of the Zoho service is not affected by the problem or can be achieved by using other features of the Zoho service. E.g. These requests can be solved with available online documentation (how-tos and help pages) or by their own team’s product/development expertise (writing functions, scripts, configurations, integrations, etc.).

Acknowledgement

(First Response Time):The average amount of time taken for an agent to provide an initial response to an inquiry or support ticket.

Problem Determination

(Average Response Time):The problem determination time between subsequent responses, which ensures that Partners aren’t left waiting for a reply or update.

Resolution Time

The time taken to resolve an issue completely. The resolution/restoration time is based on the impact and complexity of the problem, and is determined by our product teams and severity.

Partner Support Escalation Management

Our Partner support escalation management process ensures our partners are provided with the means to give an issue broader attention. We are committed to delivering high quality support to all our Partners. If you need to escalate a case, our technical team is ready and available to help you quickly bring your issue to closure.

Our efficient escalation management process is designed to keep you informed of your escalated case status at every step of the way. A lead and/or manager is assigned to every escalation to oversee the case from a holistic viewpoint. This person is responsible for evaluating the situation, facilitating the issue, and acting as an advocate on your behalf.

Escalation process overview

When Should an Escalation be Initiated?

For Partners who hold a valid support services contract, an escalation may be initiated any time after the SLA response time. If you have worked through our standard support processes, and with our teams, and you are not satisfied with the level or timeliness of the service you received, you can escalate accordingly. Additionally, an escalation should be initiated when there is a tangible impact on your production environment, or there is high risk to business operations.

Here are some examples of reasons to initiate an escalation:

Management of a major problem, especially where the impact on business is high and it’s taking too long to isolate the cause of the incidents
A prolonged outage that exceeds or threatens to exceed the SLA or timeframe
Frequently recurring or multiple, related high-priority incidents where the priority is related to business impact and urgency
Security breaches identified or reported by a customer—without a workaround that is mutually agreed upon—that risk potential or actual damage to the customer’s or provider’s reputation, or data loss or risk of potential data loss

What is the Process for Escalating My Case?

Escalation procedure

1st level - Contact the Partner Support Escalation department, at partnersupport-escalation@zohocorp.com

2nd level - Regional Partner Support Lead Sakthi Priya - sakthi.g@zohocorp.com (Partner Support Lead - ANZ)