Migrate from knock-ai to Zoho Desk

Knock AI captures anonymous site visitors identified by company and role during conversation initiation. We map identified visitors to Zoho Desk Contact records, preserving the enrichment fields (company size, role, intent signals) as custom fields on Contact. The corresponding company data becomes a Zoho Desk Account record, linked via the Contact-Account relationship. Anonymous visitors with no email are held in a staging table for manual review since Zoho Desk Contacts require an email or phone for deduplication.

Knock AI conversation logs (full chat history, timestamps, participant info) map to Zoho Desk Ticket records with Thread entries. Each buyer message becomes a Thread (classified as incoming) and each agent or AI response becomes a Thread (classified as outgoing). We set the Ticket subject from the conversation's first message or Knock Link reference, and we preserve the original Knock AI conversation ID in a custom field knk_conversation_id__c for reconciliation. Note that Zoho Desk Thread records do not natively distinguish between AI-generated and human-generated messages; we add a custom field thread_source__c to carry this metadata.

Knock AI qualification status (passed/failed, scoring dimensions) maps to custom Contact fields and Ticket priority. The AI qualification score and qualifying criteria (company size, role, budget, intent) migrate as read-only custom fields on the Contact. If a qualified lead triggered an immediate meeting booking or demo request, we map that signal to the corresponding Ticket's Priority or custom escalation field. Qualification status does not map to a native Zoho Desk field — we create custom fields knk_qualification_score__c and knk_qualifying_criteria__c during schema setup.

Knock AI's intelligent routing assigns leads to reps or teams based on configurable conditions. Routing logic is not exposed via API for bulk export. We document the full rule tree during scoping (conditions, priority order, fallback rep assignment) as a structured routing specification document that your team or implementation partner uses to rebuild equivalent logic in Zoho Desk's Workflow Rules (Setup > Automation > Workflow Rules). Routing rules map to Zoho Desk actions: Assign Agent, Set Department, Set Priority, or Send Email.

AI Intent Agent configurations — guardrails, approved answers, auto-booking trigger conditions, and fallback behaviors — are stored as Knock AI platform settings and are not exportable via API. We extract a human-readable configuration summary covering all configured topics, trigger conditions, and response templates. Full reimplementation is manual in Zoho Desk's Zia Skills module (available at Professional tier and above), where your team configures intent classifiers and auto-reply rules based on our summary document.

Scheduled meetings include buyer details, meeting type, and booking status. We export these as Zoho Desk Event records linked to the corresponding Contact and Account, with Event title, start/end time, and meeting type preserved. Meeting booking status (confirmed, cancelled, no-show) migrates to a custom field knk_booking_status__c since Zoho Desk Event does not have a native booking-status field.

Prospect enrichment from Knock AI includes company info, role, intent signals, and CRM status pulled in real time. Each enrichment property becomes a custom field on the Zoho Desk Contact (for person-level data like role and title) or Account (for company-level data like company size, industry, and revenue signals). We flag any enrichment fields that conflict with existing Zoho Desk standard fields (for example, Title vs. Designation) and apply the mapping during scoping.

Knock AI maintains a sync log showing what data was pushed to HubSpot or Salesforce. We use this log to identify contacts and companies that were previously enriched and synced. During Zoho Desk migration, we check the sync log to avoid creating duplicate Contact or Account records for contacts that already exist in the customer's HubSpot or Salesforce instance. If a contact appears in the sync log with a successful push marker, we flag it for deduplication review before final import.

Each Knock Link is a configurable entry point with its own routing and branding settings. We export the link configuration including destination routing, display settings, and the channel source (website, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Slack). The originating Knock Link ID migrates as a custom field knk_chat_link_id__c on the Ticket, allowing your team to trace which Knock Link generated each ticket and rebuild channel-specific routing rules in Zoho Desk's multi-channel intake settings.

LinkedIn outreach sequences triggered by Knock AI are stored in LinkedIn Sales Navigator, not in Knock AI itself. We do not migrate active LinkedIn sequences. These remain in LinkedIn Sales Navigator or your LinkedIn Campaign Manager. If LinkedIn outreach continues post-migration, your team can re-enable sequences in LinkedIn Sales Navigator with updated CRM contact references pulled from Zoho Desk.

Knock AI exports the buyer-facing conversation log but does not expose internal rep notes or supervisor annotations attached to a conversation. If your team uses internal notes as part of the qualification or follow-up process, those must be captured separately from a direct export and manually associated with the corresponding Contact or Ticket record during migration. We flag this gap in the pre-migration data audit and provide a template for manual note entry.

Knock AI rep accounts referenced in conversation routing map to Zoho Desk Agent records. We resolve each Knock AI owner by email against the Zoho Desk agent list. Agents without a matching Zoho Desk account are placed in a reconciliation queue for your admin to provision before the main record migration begins. Note that Zoho Desk Agent records are department-scoped; agents assigned to multiple departments require multi-department provisioning.