Migrate from Certainly to Zoho Desk

Certainly Flows define dialogue trees with decision branches, handoff triggers, and fallback conditions. Zoho Desk does not have a visual chatbot flow builder. We extract the Flow structure as a JSON document that captures each node, its conditions, and its actions. Your admin uses this as a reference to rebuild equivalent routing logic in Zoho Desk Workflows (automated triggers) and Blueprint stages (guided ticket processes). We flag any conditional branching that requires Zoho Desk's multi-step workflow capabilities versus simple single-action rules.

Certainly Intents are trained NLU classifications with associated training utterances. Zoho Desk's Zia AI includes intent recognition but uses a different model and training interface. We export intent names, descriptions, and full utterance lists as structured reference files. Zia will need retraining with these utterances after migration. We flag this as a two- to four-week retraining period and note that accuracy will initially be lower than in Certainly before Zia is fully retrained on your conversation history.

Certainly custom entities (slot types, regex patterns, value lists) map to Zoho Desk custom fields scoped to the relevant Department. Entity value lists become picklist or multi-select picklist fields; regex patterns require documentation for manual recreation as Zoho Desk validation rules. We preserve entity names, value synonyms, and pattern definitions in a reference export. Custom fields in Zoho Desk are department-specific, so entities used across multiple bot flows must be recreated in each department that will use them.

Certainly response texts, rich message templates, and conditional response branches map directly to Zoho Desk Macros. We export the full response content including variable placeholders, attach the exported files to the migration package, and map them to Macros with matching names. Macro actions (field updates, notifications, assignments) map to Zoho Desk workflow actions. If responses use Certainly-specific personalization tokens, we document the Zoho Desk equivalent token syntax for your admin to update before activating.

Certainly's Zendesk connector creates tickets from chatbot conversations, maps bot-extracted fields to Zendesk ticket fields, and handles handoff rules for escalation. Zoho Desk has no native Zendesk import connector; the integration must be rebuilt. We document the existing Zendesk connector settings during discovery, capture the field mappings, trigger conditions, and escalation rules, and deliver a configuration guide that your admin follows to set up Zoho Desk's workflow rules and any third-party Zendesk integration as a replacement. This is the highest-effort manual step in the migration.

Certainly end-user profiles that interacted with the chatbot map to Zoho Desk Contact records. We preserve email, name, phone, and any custom properties as Contact fields. The ContactExtId from Certainly becomes a custom field on the Zoho Desk Contact for cross-reference. If Certainly tracked customer satisfaction scores or conversation summaries, these migrate as custom fields or as the first Ticket note for that contact.

Certainly Agents assigned to handle escalated conversations map to Zoho Desk Agents. We match by email address. If a Certainly Agent has no corresponding Zoho Desk user, we hold them in a reconciliation queue for your admin to provision before the migration phase that assigns ticket ownership. Agent team assignments in routing rules map to Zoho Desk Departments.

Historical chat transcripts from Certainly export as structured data with session IDs, timestamps, agent attribution, message content, and resolution status. Zoho Desk represents conversations as Tickets with Thread entries. We map the conversation log into Zoho Desk Tickets using the original session ID as an external reference. If the destination Zoho Desk account does not have a Service Cloud license required for full conversation thread display, we archive the conversation logs as JSON alongside the primary migration so historical data remains accessible. Thread direction (inbound/outbound) requires field-level mapping since Certainly and Zoho Desk use different conventions.

Certainly's bot configurations (channel assignments, operating hours, language settings, greeting messages) map to Zoho Desk Department settings and Email Templates. We document each configuration option and its Zoho Desk equivalent location so your admin can set operating hours, department-specific SLAs, and auto-acknowledgment templates after migration. Bot on/off state requires a manual decision since Zoho Desk does not have a chatbot toggle.

Certainly bot performance metrics, intent accuracy scores, conversation volume summaries, and resolution rate data export as structured reports. Zoho Desk analytics cover ticket metrics rather than chatbot metrics. We archive the analytics export as CSV/JSON files alongside the migration package. Your team uses these as baseline references for setting Zoho Desk SLA targets and reporting dashboards. We do not migrate analytics as live Zoho Desk reports; those require manual rebuild in Zoho Desk's reporting module.

Certainly's fallback policies govern what happens when no intent is matched (default response, escalation path, human handoff trigger). Zoho Desk handles this through Workflow rules triggered on ticket creation conditions. We document each fallback policy's conditions and actions and deliver a mapping table showing which Zoho Desk Workflow rule recreates each fallback behavior. This is a manual rebuild task for your admin; we provide the specification.

Certainly's multi-channel deployment (web chat, messaging, social) maps to Zoho Desk's respective channel modules. We document which channel is connected to each Certainly flow. Zoho Desk's Email, Facebook, Twitter/X, and Live Chat modules are enabled per-department. We deliver a channel-to-department mapping guide for your admin to configure the same channel reach in Zoho Desk that existed in Certainly.