Migrate from Thread to Zendesk

Thread Conversations map directly to Zendesk Tickets. Each conversation's chronological message chain is flattened into Zendesk ticket comments ordered by timestamp, with the original author mapped to the Zendesk requester or agent field. Channel metadata (source platform, message type) is stored in a custom Zendesk field conversation_channel__c for reporting. Subject line is derived from the first non-greeting message in the thread or from the linked review summary.

Thread Reviews do not have a native Zendesk equivalent because Zendesk has no review aggregation object. We create a custom Zendesk field set including review_stars__c (numeric), review_source__c (text), review_id__c (string), and review_response_status__c (text). When a Thread Conversation is linked to a Review, we create the Zendesk Ticket first, then enrich it with the review custom fields. Review responses that were written in Thread become Zendesk ticket comments by the agent.

Thread User records (agents and end users) map to Zendesk End-User accounts. We extract display name, email, role, and team assignment. Zendesk end-users can be tagged with a role field; agent vs end-user distinction is preserved so that the customer's admin can assign appropriate permissions in Zendesk after migration.

Thread Teams map to Zendesk Groups. The crosswalk table created during mapping phase aligns Thread team names with Zendesk group names. Agent assignment on Thread tickets maps to Zendesk ticket Assignee with the Group pre-selected. If Thread teams carry routing priority, we store this in a custom field team_priority__c.

Thread Response Templates (canned replies) map to Zendesk Macros. Template content and shortcut codes migrate to Zendesk macro body with {{ticket.requester.name}} and {{ticket.id}} placeholder syntax substituted for Thread's variable format. Active/inactive status is preserved. Zendesk macro folders map to Thread template categories if they exist.

File attachments within Thread conversations are downloaded with conversation identifiers appended to filenames, then re-hosted as Zendesk ticket attachments. Attachment metadata (original filename, size, content type) is preserved in the Zendesk attachment record. Attachments linked to reviews rather than tickets are stored against the associated Zendesk ticket after the review-to-ticket linkage is resolved.

Thread Tags applied to tickets and reviews migrate to Zendesk Tags. We export the complete tag vocabulary and apply all tags during ticket import. Tags that exceed Zendesk's 200-character per-tag limit are truncated and flagged in the reconciliation report for the customer's admin to rename post-migration.

Thread custom fields on tickets and conversations vary by account configuration. We export the complete custom property schema alongside the data and map each field to a Zendesk custom field of equivalent type: Thread text fields map to Zendesk text, dropdowns map to dropdown, checkboxes map to true/false, and numeric fields map to integer. Zendesk requires custom fields to be created in the Zendesk admin panel before import; we document the required field creation steps and provide the field IDs for the mapping phase.

Thread Tickets that carry PSA-linked fields (when the ConnectWise integration is active) include a PSA reference field. We extract the PSA reference value and store it in a custom Zendesk field psa_reference__c. The ticket status, priority, and assignee map to Zendesk Status, Priority, and Assignee directly. If the Thread ticket is linked to a Conversation, we ensure the ticket is created before comments are added so that the comment-to-ticket relationship is intact.

Thread Integrations with HubSpot CRM, Mailchimp, and Google Sheets expose connection metadata, API credentials, and sync state. These configurations do not transfer to Zendesk. We export integration settings as a written inventory document listing each active connection, its authentication method, and its sync scope. The customer's admin uses this inventory to re-establish integrations in Zendesk or via a middleware tool such as Zapier or Make.