Migrate from LiveChat to Zendesk

LiveChat Chats map to Zendesk Tickets with the full message thread preserved as ticket comments. We sequence messages chronologically, mapping agent messages to public comments and customer messages to public comments in the Zendesk conversation view. System events (chat started, transferred, rated) are preserved as private comments with a migration note so agents can audit thread context. Chat ID is stored in a custom field ticket_custom_field_livechat_id for cross-referencing after migration.

LiveChat Agents map directly to Zendesk Users. We match by email address, preserving display name, role, and group assignment. Agents with the Agent role in LiveChat map to Zendesk Agents; administrators map to Zendesk Admins. The customer provisions the Zendesk users before migration so that OwnerId references are satisfied at insert time.

LiveChat Requesters map to Zendesk End Users. Email, name, and any requester-level custom properties migrate directly. If the customer uses Zendesk Organizations (Accounts), we attach End Users to the matching Organization during import by matching on domain or a pre-agreed organization name field. Requester avatar URLs do not migrate as Zendesk does not support avatar import via API.

LiveChat chat tags migrate as Zendesk ticket tags. We normalize tag character set (Zendesk allows alphanumeric, hyphen, underscore, and colon only) and enforce the 100-character per-tag limit. Multi-word tags with spaces are converted to hyphen-separated strings.

LiveChat custom fields attached to chats map to Zendesk ticket custom fields. We detect widget-level field overlap during the discovery scan: if the same field name exists in multiple widgets but with different internal IDs, we consolidate to a single Zendesk custom field and map all widget-level values to it. Field type mapping follows: text inputs to text, dropdowns to dropdown, checkboxes to boolean, date pickers to date.

LiveChat requester custom properties map to Zendesk End User custom fields. These are created under Admin > People > End User Fields before migration. Field type mapping follows the same rules as ticket custom fields.

LiveChat Groups and Departments map to Zendesk Groups. Agent membership in groups migrates as Zendesk Group Membership records. If LiveChat groups share the same agent (an agent belongs to multiple groups), we create multiple Zendesk group memberships for that user.

LiveChat canned responses (workspace-level templates) map to Zendesk Macros. We extract the template body, name, and shortcut, and write them as Zendesk Macros with the same category structure if the customer uses macro categories. Variable syntax differs: LiveChat uses {{variable_name}} and Zendesk uses {{ticket.ticket_field_id}} or {{ticket.requester.name}}; we flag dynamic variables for manual reconstruction in the migration report.

LiveChat chat ratings (1-5 stars) map to Zendesk Satisfaction Ratings (offered, answered, or CSAT). If LiveChat ratings are qualitative (good/bad or thumbs up/down), we map them to Zendesk CSAT with good mapping to satisfied and bad mapping to dissatisfied. Ratings attached to closed chats only migrate if the chats are closed at migration time; open chats are flagged for rating migration post-closure.

LiveChat KnowledgeBase articles map to Zendesk Guide articles. We export article HTML body, title, and slug, and create them under the corresponding Section in Zendesk Guide. If the customer uses article categories and subsections in LiveChat, we map them to Zendesk Section and Subsection hierarchy. Embedded images from LiveChat CDN are downloaded and re-uploaded as Zendesk Guide attachments. The Help Center must be activated in Zendesk before article import begins.

LiveChat automated rules (triggered by chat events like new chat, visitor abandoned, or chat rated) do not migrate as active Zendesk triggers because the event models differ. We document every active rule in text with its trigger condition, action, and suggested Zendesk Trigger equivalent. The customer's Zendesk admin rebuilds them post-migration using Zendesk's trigger builder.

LiveChat integrations (Slack, Salesforce, Shopify connectors, and similar) are configuration-bound with no portable data format. We document the list of active integrations with their connection parameters and recommend re-configuring them in Zendesk Admin > Apps > Integrations after cutover. Email and webhook integrations that point to LiveChat webhooks require the customer to update the webhook URLs post-migration.