Migrate from Supportbench to Zendesk

Supportbench Tickets map directly to Zendesk Tickets. We preserve ticket ID (stored as a custom field for cross-reference), status, priority, subject, description, assignee (mapped via agent email to Zendesk User), requester (mapped via customer email to Zendesk User or End User), tags, SLA metadata, and all message thread history as ticket Comments. Attachments on ticket comments export as file content and re-associate as Zendesk attachments. Original ticket timestamps preserve via Zendesk's created_at and updated_at fields set during import.

Supportbench Customer records map to Zendesk End Users. The Customer's name, email, phone, tier, health score (as a static custom field), and any associated Salesforce linkage reference migrate. Zendesk End Users are created before the ticket import so that requester relationships are resolved at insert time. Customers without a valid email address are flagged in the reconciliation report and held for admin resolution.

Supportbench Agent records map to Zendesk Agents by email match. Role, team assignment, and permission flags from Supportbench map to Zendesk Role (Light Agent, Agent, Admin), Group membership, and custom field values for team or department. Enterprise-tier unlimited custom roles do not have a direct Zendesk equivalent; we map to the nearest Zendesk role and document any permission gaps in the reconciliation report.

Supportbench Company records map to Zendesk Organizations. The Company name, domain, contract tier, and any Salesforce sync reference export. Organizations are created before Customer and Ticket imports so that the Organization lookup is satisfied at the moment of record insert. If Supportbench Company records carry multi-tier account hierarchies (parent-subsidiary), these map to Zendesk Organization parent-child relationships where the destination org's structure supports it.

Supportbench's internal Knowledge Base exports separately from the external KB. Internal articles, category hierarchy, and visibility restrictions map to Zendesk Guide sections with permission settings scoped to Agent roles and internal user segments. We run one export pass for internal KB content and apply visibility flags (internal-only) that Zendesk Guide enforces via user segment access controls. Internal article metadata (author, created date, last modified) preserves during import.

Supportbench's customer-facing Knowledge Base exports as a second pass into Zendesk Guide. Article titles, body content (HTML or markdown), category hierarchy, and attachment references migrate. Zendesk Guide requires activation and initial configuration (Help Center theme, branding, locale settings) before article import; we coordinate this setup step with the customer's admin. Article visibility defaults to public unless the article references internal-only categories, in which case user segment restrictions apply.

Supportbench tiered SLA policies with escalation stages, response targets, and resolution windows export as structured records. We map Supportbench SLA tiers to Zendesk SLA Policies scoped by Organization or Tag. Zendesk SLA policies use first reply time and next agent reply targets; Supportbench's dynamic SLA conditions (adapting based on customer tier and case context) require Zendesk admins to replicate as separate SLA policy rules rather than a single dynamic policy. We document the Supportbench SLA configuration in the admin rebuild guide.

Supportbench custom fields on Tickets, Customers, and Companies migrate as Zendesk custom ticket fields and user/organization fields. We pre-create Zendesk field definitions with matching data types (text, textarea, dropdown, date, numeric, checkbox) before bulk import. Dropdown values and multi-select options require explicit value mapping between Supportbench option labels and Zendesk dropdown values. Validation rules in Zendesk Admin Center must be reviewed and potentially disabled during migration to prevent field-required rejections on imported records.

Supportbench stores attachments as URL references on ticket comments. We export the file content and re-associate it with the target Zendesk Ticket Comment as a Zendesk Attachment. Files exceeding Zendesk's 50 MB attachment limit require chunking or alternative hosting with a link inserted in the comment. We validate a sample of attachment re-associations post-import to confirm link integrity and file readability.

Supportbench free-form tag vocabularies on tickets migrate to Zendesk Tags. We export tag values as a flat list, deduplicate naming collisions (case-insensitive), and apply the resulting set to Zendesk Tickets at import time. Zendesk tags are lowercase with hyphens replacing spaces; we normalize the vocabulary during the transform step. Note that Zendesk also copies custom dropdown field values to tags automatically; we coordinate to avoid duplicate tag creation.

Supportbench customer health scores migrate as a static numeric custom field on the Zendesk User record (health_score__c). The score is a point-in-time value captured at export time. Supportbench's proprietary health scoring algorithm—based on behavioral signals, support interaction frequency, and predictive CSAT/CES—does not transfer because it is a platform-internal computation. Teams should treat the migrated score as a baseline for manual re-calibration against any customer success scoring the team implements in Zendesk (native or third-party).