Zoho Partner Operations Center

THE PAGE INCLUDES:

What we offer
Email template
Operations Commitment
Best practices
Escalation process
DRIs
Quicklinks

What we offer

The Partner Operations team is equipped to help you with all your non-technical issues.

Subscription Management

For assistance with activating customer subscriptions, license renewals, pricing, add-ons, plan downgrade or upgrade, and the like.

Partner Store

For any questions regarding your Partner Store; accessibility issues, Store profile updates, projects or case study uploads and approvals.

The Partner Portal

To resolve Partner Portal accessibility issues, access management, and questions or suggestions about the available Partner resources.

Customer Management

For help with customer mapping, customer un-tagging, and partner disassociation requests.

Partner Earnings

For answers to questions regarding Partner commission %, attached invoices, and commission payout follow-ups.

Complimentary and Demo accounts

For assistance with setting up complimentary and demo accounts, any clarifications about the number of accounts, and so on.

Partner Tier Updates

For clarifications concerning the annual tier evaluation process, final Partner value score, tier assignment, or the related evaluation criteria.

Partner Profile update

For clarifications regarding your Partner profile, profile updates, company name changes, and similar requests.

Customer Reviews

For any questions regarding the customer reviews section on the Partner profile or concerns over new ones.

Reselling access

To enquire about reselling opportunities for additional Zoho products, requests to enable reselling access, and follow-ups.

Partner Operations Email Template

Disclosing as much information as possible in your first contact ensures accurate analysis of the problem and supports quick resolution of the issue. We recommend using the email template below to provide all of the relevant details.

GET STARTED

Zoho Partner Operations Commitment

Each incoming ticket is classified and prioritized based on the criteria mentioned below, the severity of the request, and the Partner’s tier level.

NOTES

The Operations team is available to work on your queries 24/5. We do not work on the weekends except for specific critical cases. The time mentioned below only refers to working business days.

Basic (‌how-to) requests will be treated less urgently and dealt with as per the Zoho Partner Operations Commitment. Partners are requested to handle such basic how-to requests on their own to help our team prioritize more critical requests that could impact a customer business.

At any point in time, if too many basic requests are sent from the same partner, the Operations team will notify the corresponding Partner Account Manager to suggest ways to upskill their product expertise to be able to handle such requests independently.

SEVERITY LEVEL

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
(FIRST RESPONSE TIME)

PROBLEM DETERMINATION
OR SOLUTION

6–12 hours

8–16 hours

12–18 hours

24–48 hours

18–24 hours

2–3 days

Severity levels

The different severity levels are designed to indicate the level, extent, and impact of a problem on a customer and their business. Assigning a severity level to each query helps us determine the resources to be allocated to resolving the issue, resolution timeframe, and the escalation matrix.

Severity level 1

A show-stopper issue that can cause significant impact on the Partner or customer business will be classified as severity 1. For example, an account cancellation request from a customer or issues accessing the Partner Portal or Partner Store.

Severity level 2

Any issue that has moderate to low impact on the customer or partner business will be tagged under severity 2.

Severity level 3

A basic, how-to query that has little to no business impact on the customer or Partner will be classified as severity 3. For example, customer mapping queries, Mail Control Panel access queries, and Partner account renewal requests.

OTHER DEFINITIONS

Acknowledgement (First response time):

Average time that an agent requires to provide an initial response to a query or ticket.

Problem determination (Average response time):

Average time before subsequent follow-up messages.

Resolution time (Time taken to resolve a query):

Average time taken to resolve a problem based on its impact and complexity, as determined by the relevant teams.

Best Practices

Providing timely support for all Partners is our top priority, and the Operations team is committed to clarifying any questions or concerns you might have as a Partner. However, we’ve found that many support requests involve basic how-to questions that can be easily solved without having to await our response.

The information below will help you determine whether you can solve the issue on your own or need the Operations team to intervene.

Subscription management

As a Partner, you are expected to provide first-level support to all your Zoho customers. This includes, but is not limited to, activating and managing a customer’s Zoho subscription, user management (adding and removing users), and Zoho plan management (plan upgrade or downgrade requests). Most questions about the customer’s subscription management can be quickly resolved through the Partner Store. Refer to the Store user guide for more information.

Commission process

Once you initiate your commission payout process and upload relevant invoices for each entity, the entire amount should reach your linked bank account within 15–20 business days. Please bear in mind that the 15–20 day mark is calculated from the date when the relevant invoice is uploaded.

Payment method

As a Partner, you have the right to select the payment method—as agreed with the customer—for software license purchases. If the purchase is made under the reseller card, all invoices will be sent to you, and you will need to reach out to the customer with payment reminders before the date of renewal. Kindly note that Zoho will not interfere in this instance, and the Operations team will not reach out to the customers directly to collect any dues.

Customer disassociation and Partner switching

Customers may reach out directly to Zoho requesting to be disassociated from the Partner that they are tagged to. In such cases, the Partner Operations team will validate the request with the customer and send a disassociation confirmation email to the relevant Partner. As a Partner, you are encouraged to respond within 24–48 hours with the confirmation. Otherwise, the Operations team will proceed with the disassociation request based on the customer’s confirmation.

Zoho engagement

As a Zoho Partner, your active participation on the Zoho Partner Connect network and regular contact with your Partner Account Manager is essential to build and maintain positive relationships within the Partner community. You are encouraged to follow Zoho blogs, status pages, and the Partner Program’s social media handles to stay on top of the latest updates and get notified about downtime or outages.

Partner Operations Escalation Management

The Partner Operations escalation management process ensures you have the means to call additional attention to a problem. While our team is committed to providing exceptional support to all our Partners, there might be instances where you need to escalate your case to ensure a satisfactory resolution.

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

When should an escalation be initiated?

If you have worked through the standard processes with our team and you are not satisfied with the quality of service you received, you can escalate your case accordingly. Please note that an escalation should be initiated only when there is a tangible impact on business operations for you or your customers.

Here are a few instances when you could initiate an escalation:

You are facing a major problem with a large business impact and it is taking too long to isolate the cause.
The issue resolution time exceeds or threatens to exceed the SLA timeframe.
You are not satisfied with the severity level assigned to your request, and you believe the solution provided does not resolve your problem.

Escalation levels

ANZ
APAC and Japan
India
MEA
Americas
UK and EU

Know your Partner Account Manager

ANZ:

Thilakraj - thilakraj.v@zohocorp.com

APAC and Japan:

Vick Silva - vick.silva@zohocorp.com [APAC]

Jin san - jin.nakazawa@zohocorp.com [JAPAN]

Akira san - akira.nakai@zohocorp.com [JAPAN]

India:

Preetam Chougule - preetam.cj@zohocorp.com

MEA:

Tonia - tonia.l@zohocorp.com

Americas

East: Matt Lackey - matt.lackey@zohocorp.com

West: Connor Anderson - connor.a@zohocorp.com

Central: Diana Cruz - diana.c@zohocorp.com

Canada: Kevin - kevin@zohocorp.com

Brazil: Katherine - katherine.sallum@zohocorp.com

LATAM: Edwin - edwin.trejo@zohocorp.com

UK and EU:

Benelux and Nordics - Atya Arain (atya.arain@eu.zohocorp.com) Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark, Iceland, Finland, Sweden

France - Claire Tredez (claire.tredez@eu.zohocorp.com) France, Monaco

Rest Of Europe - Vivek Venkatraman (vivek.venkatraman@eu.zohocorp.com) Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Czech, Slovakia, Hungary, Turkey, Cyprus, Greece, Slovenia, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Armenia

Italy & Rest of Europe 2 - Francesco Orazi ( francesco.orazi@eu.zohocorp.com) Italy(San Marino + Vatican), Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Montenegro, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Serbia, Romania, Moldova