Migrate from Herodesk to Zoho Desk

Herodesk Customers (the primary contact records linked to webshop orders) map to Zoho Desk Contacts. Email, name, phone, and any custom fields transfer directly. We preserve the Herodesk Customer ID as zoho_contact_id__c in a custom field for reference. If the customer uses Herodesk's Shopify or WooCommerce integration to attach order context, we carry order reference numbers and totals into Zoho Desk custom fields on the Contact rather than a separate Orders object, because Zoho Desk does not have a native eCommerce order object.

Herodesk does not have a dedicated Company or Organisation object, but if the source account uses Herodesk to track business accounts (B2B support context), we create Zoho Desk Accounts from the Customer records where a company name is present. For pure B2C eCommerce accounts, we skip Accounts and migrate all records as Contacts only. The decision is confirmed during discovery based on data audit.

Herodesk Tickets map to Zoho Desk Tickets. Subject, status (open, pending, resolved, closed), priority, assignee, created time, and last modified time transfer directly. The Herodesk ticket ID is preserved in a custom field herodesk_ticket_id__c for reconciliation and cross-referencing during the hypercare window.

Herodesk message threads (the chronological list of customer and agent replies) map to Zoho Desk Threads with Comments. We apply thread-direction preservation: Herodesk inbound messages (customer-initiated) become Zoho Desk Comments with Direction=Incoming; agent replies become Comments with Direction=Outgoing. Author attribution (agent name or customer email) maps to the Comment Author field, resolved against the Contact or Agent record in Zoho Desk. If an agent is not provisioned in Zoho Desk at migration time, the comment is attributed to the admin user who initiated the migration.

Herodesk Inboxes (which aggregate channels and control agent access) map to Zoho Desk Departments. Each Herodesk inbox becomes a Zoho Desk department with its own SLA, working hours, and agent roster. On Herodesk Lite (single inbox only), we create one Zoho Desk department matching the inbox name and assign all agents to it. Multiple inboxes on Herodesk Plus map to multiple Zoho Desk departments with inter-department ticket transfer rules documented for your admin to configure post-migration.

Herodesk supports Email, Facebook, Instagram, and Chat channels per inbox. Zoho Desk supports Email, Phone, Live Chat, Facebook, Twitter (X), and Instagram natively. Herodesk Email channels map to Zoho Desk Email; Facebook and Instagram map directly; Herodesk Chat maps to Zoho Desk Live Chat. Any Herodesk channel without a Zoho Desk equivalent (for example, a deprecated Instagram DM integration) is flagged during scoping and documented as a channel to retire or reconfigure in the destination.

Herodesk Users (agents and admins) map to Zoho Desk Agents. We extract name, email, and role from Herodesk and create or match Zoho Desk Agents by email. Herodesk roles (admin, agent) map to Zoho Desk Agent roles, though Zoho's permission model is department-scoped rather than global, so a Herodesk admin with cross-inbox access may need multiple department roles in Zoho Desk.

Herodesk Tags (applied manually or by auto-tagging rules) map to Zoho Desk Tags. Tag names transfer directly. Note that Zoho Desk's native Zwitch migration tool does not transfer tags, which is one reason we use the API-led approach — tags that drive ticket routing or reporting must survive the migration intact.

File attachments on Herodesk tickets and messages (images, PDFs, documents) migrate to Zoho Desk Attachments. We download from Herodesk via the API and upload to Zoho Desk using the /api/v1/attachments endpoint, preserving original filenames and MIME types. Inline images embedded in message bodies are handled as attachments with the image URL updated to point to the Zoho-hosted URL post-migration.

Order data from Herodesk's Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, or Prestashop integrations appears inside Customer and Ticket context but is not a standalone object. We carry order number, total, status, and product line items into Zoho Desk custom fields on the relevant Contact and Ticket records. The customer should confirm whether Zoho Desk or a Zoho Creator extension will be the long-term home for order data; we do not create a standalone Orders module in Zoho Desk as that requires custom object configuration outside the standard migration scope.

Herodesk Workflow Automations (routing rules, auto-tagging, auto-reply triggers) have no export representation in the Herodesk API. During discovery we audit every active automation, document its trigger, conditions, and actions, and deliver a Zoho Desk Workflow Rule specification that your admin rebuilds in Setup > Automation > Workflows post-migration. Zoho Desk Workflow Rules support record-triggered, time-based, and formula-based conditions with actions including field updates, task creation, email alerts, and custom functions.

Herodesk AI Agent configurations (reply rules, translation settings, routing logic) live in Herodesk's rules engine and cannot be extracted via API. We audit the active AI Agent settings during discovery, document the automated reply templates and language settings, and provide a written handoff for your Zoho Desk admin to configure equivalent Zia Skills in Zoho Desk. Zia Skills (AI classification, sentiment analysis, auto-reply) are available as an add-on on Zoho Desk Professional and Enterprise.

Herodesk auto-tagging rules apply tags based on conditions (channel, keywords, customer tier). We preserve the resulting tags on migrated tickets, but the conditional logic requires manual recreation. We document each auto-tagging rule in the migration specification, map it to a Zoho Desk Workflow Rule with the equivalent trigger and tag action, and flag where the condition type has no direct Zoho Desk equivalent (for example, Herodesk keyword-based auto-tagging may require a Zoho Desk custom function instead of a standard workflow filter).