Migrate from Channel Talk to Zendesk

Channel Talk Managed Users map to Zendesk End Users. We preserve name, email, phone, and all standard contact fields. Custom contact properties (text, number, date, multi-select) map to Zendesk user custom fields which we pre-create in the Zendesk Admin schema before migration. Any Channel Talk contact without an email address is flagged as a partial record requiring manual resolution because Zendesk requires an email for user identification.

Each Channel Talk conversation thread maps to one Zendesk Ticket with the original message history preserved as Ticket comments. The Channel Talk conversation ID is stored in a custom field for reconciliation. Customer messages become public Ticket comments; agent responses and internal notes become private Zendesk comments. We chunk long threads (>100 messages) into sequential comment batches to stay within Zendesk's comment-per-ticket limits.

Channel Talk Team Chats are internal collaboration threads separate from customer Conversations. Because Zendesk does not have a native Team Chat equivalent, we export team chat channels as flat activity log records and attach them as internal notes to the relevant Zendesk User profiles for reference. The customer chooses whether to include historical team chat during scoping.

Tags applied to Channel Talk Contacts and Conversations migrate as flat label arrays reassigned to Zendesk Tags on the corresponding Ticket. We preserve the full tag vocabulary and validate that tag names comply with Zendesk's tag character restrictions (alphanumeric, hyphens, underscores, max 35 characters). Tags that exceed Zendesk's limit are truncated and flagged for the customer's admin.

Custom contact properties on Channel Talk MUs map to Zendesk user custom fields. We handle type conversion: Channel Talk text properties become Zendesk text fields; number properties become Zendesk integer or decimal fields; date properties become Zendesk date fields; multi-select properties become Zendesk tag fields or multi-select custom fields depending on usage pattern. All custom fields are pre-created in Zendesk Admin before any contact data loads.

Channel Talk Documents (knowledge-base articles used for bot intents and internal reference) migrate to Zendesk Guide articles. We export article content, categorization, and metadata, then reformat to Zendesk's article HTML structure. Section and category hierarchy from Channel Talk maps to Zendesk's Section and Category structure in the Help Center. Articles tied to specific chatbot intents are flagged separately so the customer can map them to Zendesk's Article suggestions or Answer Bot.

Channel Talk chatbots are tied to specific workflows and document sources. We map bot configuration and intent rules to Zendesk's Answer Bot settings and Article suggestion thresholds. Because chatbot conversational flows are platform-specific in their branching logic, we document each bot's intent hierarchy and FAQ coverage as a Zendesk Answer Bot configuration guide rather than attempting a direct migration of the conversation tree.

Channel Talk Workflows trigger on conversation events, contact updates, and bot interactions. Zendesk Triggers use a similar event-condition-action model but with different syntax and available placeholders. We document every active Channel Talk Workflow as a step-by-step sequence diagram with trigger events, conditions, and actions listed. The customer's Zendesk admin rebuilds each as a Trigger or Macro based on our inventory. Complex multi-branch workflows with bot interactions may require simplification.

Channel Talk operator accounts (basic and operator roles) map to Zendesk Agents. We export user profiles including name, email, and role designation. Channel Talk's role hierarchy (basic vs. operator) maps to Zendesk's Agent role permissions which the customer configures in Zendesk Admin post-migration. Active operator accounts are migrated; deactivated accounts are held in a reconciliation queue.

Channel Talk conversation metadata (channel source, first response time, resolution status, assigned team) maps to Zendesk Ticket fields. We extract the channel identifier (web, mobile, bot-initiated) and store it as a custom ticket field. First response time and resolution time from Channel Talk become custom numeric fields on the Zendesk Ticket for reporting continuity if the customer has historical SLA data to preserve.