Zoho SalesIQ

Zoho SalesIQ Setup: Live Chat, Chatbots, CRM and Desk

By Harikrishnan, Founder & Chief Zoho Consultant, Flowpeak · 10+ years in Zoho · Published 2026-11-03 · Last updated 2026-11-03

To set up Zoho SalesIQ, create a brand, add the tracking code to your website, configure departments and routing, build a Zobot in the codeless bot builder, connect Zoho CRM so visitors become leads or contacts, and connect Zoho Desk so chats become tickets. Turn on the cookie banner and consent settings before going live.

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This guide is for marketing, sales and support leads who want their website chat to do more than say hello. Zoho SalesIQ combines live chat, visitor tracking and chatbots, and it connects natively to Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk. You will learn how to install it, how to build a no-code bot that qualifies visitors, how leads reach CRM, how support chats become Desk tickets, and which consent settings matter for visitors in the UK and EU. The steps follow Zoho's own help documentation.

What does Zoho SalesIQ do?

SalesIQ is Zoho's customer engagement app for websites and mobile apps. It covers four jobs:

Live chat on your website, in mobile apps through the Mobilisten SDK (Android, iOS and React Native), and on messaging channels.
Visitor tracking, showing who is on the site, which pages they view and how they arrived, with visitor and lead scoring.
Chatbots, built with the codeless bot builder or with code, deployable on the website and on WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Telegram and LINE.
Integrations, including native links to Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk.

SalesIQ is sold in Free, Basic, Professional and Enterprise plans. Feature limits differ by plan, so check the official Zoho SalesIQ pricing page for your region before you design around a specific feature.

How do you install SalesIQ and set up routing?

If you use Zoho CRM, the quickest route is to start from CRM, because the integration is configured at the same time. Otherwise sign up for SalesIQ directly and follow the same order.

SalesIQ setup order and where to find each setting
Step	What to do	Where
1	Create or link the SalesIQ account	Zoho CRM: Setup > Channels > Chat > Get Started
2	Choose whether visitors are pushed as Leads or Contacts	Manage your lead generation pop-up, or Settings > Manage Lead Generation in CRM
3	Copy the code and add it to every page you want to track	View Code; clear Allow customers to chat if you want tracking without the chat icon
4	Create departments and add operators	SalesIQ settings
5	Set routing rules so the right operators get the right visitors	Routing rules, with a rule for visitors who match none
6	Add triggers, such as a proactive message on the pricing page	Settings > Triggers
7	Configure the chat window, branding and cookie management	Brand settings, chat window configuration

Test on a staging page first. Check that the chat widget loads after your cookie banner, not before, if you serve visitors in the UK or EU.

How do you build a no-code chatbot (Zobot)?

Zobot is SalesIQ's chatbot. The codeless bot builder lets you design the conversation as a flow of cards without writing Deluge.

Go to Settings > Bots > Zobot > Add, name the bot and choose where it runs.
Start with a greeting and a short menu: sales question, support question, existing order.
Use input cards to capture the visitor's need, such as product interest or company size.
Use visitor info cards to collect name and email only when the visitor is ready to share them.
Add an Add Lead card so qualified visitors are sent to your CRM.
Add a handoff to a human operator in the right department, with an offline message for out-of-hours visits.
Test every branch, then publish to the website before adding WhatsApp or Instagram.

If you run Zoho Desk, Zoho documents publishing the Desk Answer Bot through SalesIQ chat and Zobot, so the bot can answer from your knowledge base before passing a visitor to an agent.

How do SalesIQ chats reach Zoho CRM and Zoho Desk?

With the CRM integration, new visitors are created as Leads or Contacts when they visit or start a chat, based on your lead generation setting. CRM records each visit with pages viewed, referrer, time spent, browser and search details, attaches chat transcripts, and stores the SalesIQ score in a Visitor Score field. Summary fields such as Number of Chats and First Visited URL support reporting and workflows. One CRM org can link up to five SalesIQ portals.

For support, connect Zoho Desk in SalesIQ under Settings > Developers > Integrations > Zoho Desk. The SalesIQ and Desk accounts must use the same email. You can then:

Convert a chat to a ticket by hand, or auto-convert all chats, attended chats or missed chats.
Map each SalesIQ department to a Desk department, set it to read-only, or choose on demand.
Show the visitor's recent Desk tickets, SLA and contract details in the chat sidebar.
Sync Desk knowledge base articles into SalesIQ so they appear in the chat window.

Ticket conversion needs the visitor's email, so make sure your bot or pre-chat form collects it for support chats.

What privacy and consent settings matter for GDPR and the UK?

Visitor tracking uses cookies, so for visitors in the UK and EU you need consent before non-essential tracking runs. In the UK that falls under PECR as well as UK GDPR; in the EU, under the ePrivacy rules and GDPR. SalesIQ gives you these controls, according to Zoho:

A cookie consent banner with separate essential, performance and analytics groups.
Privacy APIs so your existing consent platform can include SalesIQ cookies, avoiding two banners.
Tracking consent, so visitors can allow or block tracking.
Chat consent before chat information is stored and processed.
IP address masking and credit card masking in chats.
Password protection on exported transcripts, leads and reports.

For the USA, review state privacy laws that apply to you, such as the CCPA in California. For India, map chat data under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023. In every market, update your privacy notice to name SalesIQ and say chats may be stored in CRM and Desk.

What mistakes should you avoid?

Pushing every visitor into CRM as a lead, which floods the pipeline. Push on chat or form submission instead.
Building a long bot that asks for an email first. Ask for the need first.
Leaving routing rules without a catch-all, so some chats reach nobody.
Setting up the Desk integration under an admin who may leave. Ticket actions are recorded under that admin.

Flowpeak sets up SalesIQ with Zoho CRM and Desk as part of a wider implementation, remotely, and quotes it in writing after a free scoping call.

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Frequently asked questions

Is there a free version of Zoho SalesIQ?

Yes. Zoho lists a Free plan alongside Basic, Professional and Enterprise. Limits on operators, chats, bots and integrations differ by plan, so compare them on the official Zoho SalesIQ pricing page for your region before you commit to a design that depends on a paid feature.

Do I need to code to build a SalesIQ chatbot?

No. The codeless bot builder lets you design a Zobot from cards for questions, visitor details and actions such as adding a lead to CRM. Developers can still write bot logic in Deluge or connect external platforms when a conversation needs more complex logic or data lookups.

Can SalesIQ create leads in Zoho CRM automatically?

Yes. With the CRM integration you choose whether visitors are created as Leads or Contacts, and when. Visits, chat transcripts and the visitor score are recorded against the record, and you can run CRM workflows when a visit is created to assign or follow up.

Can a chat become a Zoho Desk ticket?

Yes. After connecting Zoho Desk, operators can convert a chat to a ticket, or you can auto-convert all chats, attended chats or missed chats. The visitor's email is required, and you choose whether new tickets start as open or closed.

Will SalesIQ's cookie banner make my site GDPR compliant?

It helps but does not make you compliant on its own. You still need a lawful basis, a privacy notice that mentions SalesIQ, a process for access and erasure requests, and a check that tracking only starts after consent. Many sites connect SalesIQ to their existing consent platform.

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