Migrate from Supportbench to Zoho Desk

Supportbench Tickets map directly to Zoho Desk Tickets with full message history, timestamps, assignee (mapped via email lookup to Zoho Desk agent), status, and priority preserved. The Supportbench thread structure (original message, replies, internal notes) migrates as Zoho Desk threaded comments. SLA metadata from Supportbench (response time, resolution time targets, breach timestamps) becomes custom fields on the Zoho Desk Ticket because Zoho Desk applies SLAs at the rule level rather than storing breach history as ticket attributes.

Supportbench Customer records map to Zoho Desk Contacts. Email address serves as the primary dedupe key. Customer tier (Standard, Professional, Enterprise), health score, and any associated company linkage migrate as custom fields on the Contact. The Supportbench customer health score migrates as a numeric custom field (health_score__c) with a static value at cutover; the Zoho Desk admin sets up any new health or satisfaction tracking independently.

Supportbench Company records map to Zoho Desk Accounts. The Company object in Supportbench syncs with Salesforce and holds licensing and contract data; this external CRM reference is preserved as a custom text field (salesforce_crm_ref__c) if the customer maintains Salesforce alongside Zoho Desk. Accounts are created before Contacts so that the Account-Contact lookup is satisfied at the moment of Contact insert.

Supportbench Agent records map to Zoho Desk Support Rep profiles. Role, team assignment, and permission set migrate by matching Supportbench role names to Zoho Desk roles (Agent, Supervisor, Admin). Supportbench Enterprise custom roles may not map 1:1 to Zoho Desk's role model; we document the gap and the admin configures Zoho Desk equivalent roles post-migration. Personal View configurations are not transferable and are noted for reconstruction.

Supportbench maintains a separate internal Knowledge Base for agent use. We export internal KB articles with category hierarchy and attachment references, then load them into Zoho Desk Help Center as restricted-access articles assigned to internal-only sections. Zoho Desk's Permissions by Section feature controls which agents see which KB content, replicating Supportbench's internal-external visibility split.

Supportbench's customer-facing external KB articles export with category taxonomy, article content, and attachment references. We load them into the Zoho Desk Help Center public portal under matching categories. Public/private visibility flags are set at the section level in Zoho Desk. Customers who used Supportbench's AI Copilot to generate KB drafts will need to re-run Zia KB suggestions or rebuild drafts manually in Zoho Desk.

Supportbench dynamic SLA policies (tiered response targets, escalation stages, resolution windows based on customer tier and case context) require translation to Zoho Desk's static SLA rule model. We export the SLA configuration as structured records and translate each Supportbench SLA rule into a Zoho Desk SLA Definition with fixed response and resolution times. Multi-stage escalation paths in Supportbench map to Zoho Desk's Next Action and Escalation rules. The admin configures SLA rules in Zoho Desk before ticket migration so that tickets receive SLA assignments on import.

Supportbench Survey responses tied to closed tickets migrate as Zoho Desk Satisfaction Ratings (CSAT) and as custom numeric fields for NPS and CES scores. Survey configuration (question text, rating scale, trigger conditions) migrates as a written inventory document because Zoho Desk's survey widget configuration (branding, timing, follow-up triggers) differs from Supportbench's. Historical response rates and distribution data migrate as a data file for the admin to reference when rebuilding surveys in Zoho Desk.

Supportbench custom fields on Tickets, Customers, and Companies export with data type, label, and picklist values. We map each to an equivalent Zoho Desk custom field, handling data type differences (date formats, multi-select picklists, numeric ranges). Enterprise-only custom field features in Supportbench (advanced validation, conditional visibility) may require Zoho Desk Enterprise-tier equivalents or manual reconfiguration.

Supportbench free-form tag vocabularies export as flat lists and re-apply in Zoho Desk as Tags on Tickets. We deduplicate tag names during export to avoid duplicate entries in Zoho Desk. Tags used for categorization and reporting migrate fully; tags used for workflow triggers are flagged in the automation inventory for the admin to rebuild in Zoho Desk Blueprint.

Supportbench file attachments referenced by URL on Tickets export as binary file content. We re-associate each file with the target Zoho Desk Ticket record using Zoho Desk's attachment API. Large file batches (over 500 attachments per import batch) are chunked to stay within Zoho API rate limits. Attachments referenced as URLs pointing to external storage in Supportbench are migrated as Zoho Desk-hosted attachments; the original URL is preserved in a custom field for reference.

Supportbench Customer health scores (computed from behavioral and support interaction signals) migrate as a static numeric custom field on the Zoho Desk Contact record. The current score at cutover is transferred; the Zoho Desk admin must configure any new health or customer success scoring independently. We do not replicate Supportbench's health computation algorithm in Zoho Desk because it relies on platform-internal signals not accessible via the API.