Zendesk to Salesforce Service Cloud Migration
A quick overview of both systems
Zendesk is a customer support platform to provide support to the customers with bunch of features and tools and helps businesses to deliver quality service to the customers, operate through self-service choices, and stand out alongside proactive involvement.
Salesforce provides a web-based customer service tool that includes every essential thing that a fast-developing company needs to provide exceptional customer service.
Why you should move to Salesforce Service Cloud?
Zendesk and Salesforce are the current leading company in the customer relationship management (CRM) platform development market. Nonetheless, there are some distinctions that set Salesforce apart from Zendesk. The following arguments explain why a company should migrate data from Zendesk to Salesforce:
| Feature | Zendesk | Salesforce |
|---|---|---|
| 360 View & Rich Analytics | Good | Better |
| Rich Customization & Integration | Less Customizable | Highly Customizable |
| Centralized Sales & Support Data | Limited | Best |
| Customer Sucess Management | Limited | Best |
Steps & Components in Zendesk to Salesforce Migration
A proactive analysis and planning before migration
While Zendesk is a reliable support tool, our decision to migrate to Salesforce stems from several reasons, including the higher level of customization available, its strong integration with Sales and Marketing functionalities, and its suitability for enterprise organizations. However, during the migration process, it is crucial to prioritize the following considerations:
- Data Migration
- Support Processes and Automation Migration
- Rebuild the Integrations and Other Customization
- Setup Users – Permissions & Securities
- Move the Help Center into Customer Portal
- User Training & Adoption
- Testing & Validation
- Post-migration Support & Enhancements
Migration Strategy
Migrating To Salesforce Service Cloud From Zendesk Requires A Deep Analysis, Planning, And Execution. The Migration Can Be Categorized Into Three Different Buckets And Corresponding Set Of Actions:
Service Process (Cloud) Migration
- Ticket management – different views, different layouts, searching capability, access control setup. Similar configuration as Zendesk but in Salesforce way.
- Different channels configuration – Email to Case, Case new page in self service customer community, Phone to Case Integration or any other channel.
- Macros & Workflow migration – Case Status Workflow, Acknowledgment, First Response, SLA (Entitlement and Milestone setup)
- Trigger and automation migration
Data Migration
- User migration along with SSO attributes
- Knowledge | Article migration
- Organization & Customer migration
- Case migration
- Case Comment migration
- Attachment migration
- Some key points:
- Case Comment in Salesforce does not support rich text, so consider feed or email message too.
- Preserve the inner linking from one case to another or Knowledgebase.
- Manage duplicate Accounts and Contacts while migration.
- Consider Audit field migration carefully – like createddate, lastmodifieddate, close date, createdby etc.
- Update required field and keep linking of Data with Customer who created it.
- Maintain the references of Knowledgebase to each other. Article referencing other article in Zendesk will require to maintain the same kind of linking in Salesforce too.
Service Portal Community) Migration
- Configure self-service portal – put standard registration form and login form.
- Transform new case form along with standard case deflection.
- Enable live chat powered by Einstein.
- Customize Article detail page and enable community 360 to gather customer insights.
DATA MIGRATION
Learn about secret of seamless data migration
Generic Data Model/Object Mapping
| Zendesk | Salesforce Service Cloud |
|---|---|
| Agent | User (Salesforce Standard License) |
| End User | User (Customer Community or Plus License) + Contact +Account |
| Organization | Account |
| Ticket | Case |
| Ticket Comment | Case Comment OR Feed Post (Whatever suits best) |
| Attachment | File |
Knowledge Migration - Key Considerations
- Linking and Cross-References:
- Check for any links or cross-references within your knowledge articles and ensure they are properly updated during the migration. Update internal links to point to the correct locations within the new knowledge base.
- Reference to other articles should be changed to new SFDC knowledge article.
- Inline Images and videos – should be hosted on Salesforce now using content version/document.
- Formatting and Styling: Consider any formatting and styling adjustments required for the migrated content. Ensure that the formatting, such as headings, lists, images, and tables, is preserved and optimized for the new knowledge base platform.
- Knowledge Data Model Mapping:
| Zendesk | Salesforce |
|---|---|
| Article | Knowledge_kav |
| Category | Data Category |
| Section | Sub Category or Topic |
| Folder | Topic or Top level Data Category |
Ticket and Comment Migration:-
When migrating tickets and comments from one system to another, there are several important considerations to ensure a successful migration. Here are some key points to keep in mind:
- Data Mapping & Object Setup: New fields on Case + Record Types, New picklist values in Status, Priority etc.
- Description in Zendesk may have images and rich content but in Salesforce you can not have images as it’s plain text area, so communicate this limit or create a custom rich text area field for the same.
- Audit Fields
- It’s very important to migrate audit fields – CreatedDate, LastModifiedDate, CreatedById, LastModifiedById and CloseDate. In order to do to that, you should have permission on user/profile as explained here: Considerations and activation of “Create Audit Fields”
- You may face issue while moving audit fields (CreatedDate, LastModifiedDate, CreatedById, LastModifiedById), so keep these values in custom fields as well if needed.
- Jira Issues and Custom Field Migration:
- We can migrate Jira Issue numbers in any Case field by making additional api call: Jira Integration API | Zendesk Developer Docs
- Custom fields are returned as custom_fields in json response for a ticket, so get it and map with Salesforce field accordingly:
"custom_fields": [
{
"id": 27642,
"value": "745"
},
{
"id": 27648,
"value": "yes"
}
]
- Zendesk comment migration
- Case Comment in Salesforce is very limited. Comment in Zendesk, supports rich text, may have inline images. So, consider to move the images into content version/document and replace the image link in plain text Case Comment.
- Feed Post can be used for the same which is pretty powerful and supports rich content.
- Attachments and Media
- Consider how attachments and media associated with tickets and comments will be handled during the migration. Determine if attachments will be transferred along with the ticket data, and ensure that the target system supports the storage and display of attachments and media files.
OTHER DATA MIGRATION CONSIDERATION
Before Migration
- While giving a migration estimate, always consider – on how many sandboxes migration will take place. Also migration will be done on sandboxes just for a set of records or full?
- Analyze resources/tools (Data loader, Batch, ETL, access to source and target system etc.) required for migration and ask for it upfront. Unavailability of any tool may impact estimates and timeline heavily.
- Volume of data must be known before providing timeline and estimate.
- Identify the fields to be migrated and let the field mapping get confirmed with stakeholders. If you miss even a single field, it may cause re-doing of everything or updating all records.
- Audit Fields: Research and prepare the list of audit fields (CreatedDate, Last Modified Date, CreatedById, CreatedByDate, CloseDate etc). Here is a Salesforce help article for the same: Considerations and activation of “Create Audit Fields”
- Do check the licenses before User migration – Feature License like Service Cloud User, Chat User, Knowledge User OR external user license.
- Maintain ExternalId: Create an ‘External Id’ field to track the external primary key of each record being migrated. Keep it unique and External in field definition.
- It’s worth brainstorming to identify the limitations (Governor Limits, Org Data Storage Limit) of migration like:
- Field Length/Size match – for example if source org has a ‘Field’ having more characters than related field in Salesforce. We have faced issues while migrating Case Description, Case Comment, Chatter Post etc
- API limit of data migration. For example, the maximum number of content versions that can be published in a 24-hour period is 5,000. </li
- Storage Limit: if any object is going to consume a lot of storage, flag it with stakeholders as Salesforce is not a data storage place and can cause huge price and performance issues.
- Date field’s timezone consideration if the dev team is in a different timezone.
- Best is to use ETL tools (Dataloader, Dataloader.io, Dell Boomi, Talend etc) instead of using manual or code based approach (batch). However, if there is no workaround, it’s ok to use code.
- Do create a strong strategy for delta migration (data created in existing system during migration window).
- Do not forget to plan the Delta Migration:
- Plan the final data migration and cutover from Zendesk to Salesforce.
- Ensure minimal downtime and data loss during the transition.
During Migration
- Keep email deliverability off.
- While moving Persons (User, Lead, Contact), make sure you invalidate the email in Sandboxes.
- If possible, deactivate the email alerts.
- Identify triggers | Flow | Workflows which are not required to run on these records being migrated and turn them off to increase the speed.
- Keep track of failed records otherwise you may lose some records in between.
- Rich Text Area or HTML Supported Field: Keep here special attention:
- Any images hosted on an existing system must be migrated to Salesforce and then the link of the image source must be updated in rich text.
- Find out inline links and replace them with new endpoint links otherwise users will get redirected to the older system when they click on the link.
- Import fields of existing system into custom fields you are unsure about. Sometimes Stakeholders ask for it though they have not asked in original requirement.
After Migration
- Do a sanity check on some records for each object.
- Pull some reports over migrated data and share with stakeholders to verify and approve it.
- New records due to migration may have triggered scheduled jobs or time based job, don’t forget to visit there and delete these jobs
-
- Time-based Workflow/Flow/Process
- Scheduled Apex
- Paused and waiting interview flows
SUPPORT PROCESS MIGRATION
Business Requirement Analysis
- Understand existing Zendesk processes, workflows, triggers and other automation.
- Define requirements for migration, including data mapping, automation, and integration needs.
- Document the changes need to be introduced in Service Cloud.
Salesforce Service Cloud Setup
- Configure different User Personas using Profile and Permission Set:
- Support Agents, Manager, Supervisor and VP
- Relevant Dashboards.
- Case Management:
- Configure Case Object and Custom Fields.
- Support Processes & Record Type
- Page Layouts and Lightning Record Page
- Support Setting
- Setup Omni-channel, Queues and Supervisor Page
Migrate Automation & Workflow
- Identify key Zendesk Trigger and migrate into Salesforce Flow and Apex Triggers.
- Migrate Workflow, Macros and other time-based action into Salesforce Flow, Email Alerts and Apex Triggers.
Migrate Integrations
- Assess the existing integration like Jira, Voice, WhatsApp, Phone or Email or any third party integration.
- Check with your Migration architect/Consultant for best way to direct the integration with Salesforce
Migrate Help Center using Salesforce Digital Site (Community)
- Migrate the support portal by creating a new Digital Site. Though Salesforce provides Site builder, a tool to configure by clicks, but you may need to build some custom components using LWC and Apex.
- Redirect the domain mapping in Salesforce.
- Enable live chat powered by Einstein.
- Customize Article detail page and enable community 360 to gather customer insights.
User Adoption Training & Support
- Business user transition is very important as they are end user of the whole implementation and they must feel comfortable with new tool.
- Convey the benefits they will get and help them to adopt it quickly.
Documentation
- Document the existing processes.
- Assess a better way to do it in Salesforce because Salesforce may have better native flow to achieve the requirement.
POSITIVE IMPACT
HARNESS THE POWER OF SALESFORCE
Omni-channel and omni-supervisor
Automated Case Assignment, Agent Performance Tracking, Support Cost Analysis
Digital Engagement - WhatsApp, SMS, Voice, Chatbot
Enable Channels - Email, phone using Amazon Voice, WhatsApp, ChatBot, SMS, Social Sites etc
Knowledgebase & Solution
Article Management + Self-service Portal + Solution
AI & Einstein Feature
Einstein Case Classification + Intelligent Routing + Einstein Article Recommendation
CSAT Survey & Other Tools
Salesforce Survey + Customer Temperature Assessment + Periodic Discussion with Customer
How can Tenetizer help companies in the process of Zendesk to Salesforce Data Migration?
As the process of migrating data to Salesforce from Zendesk is quite complex and extensive. Tenetizer helps the companies to complete the process smoothly. Apart from migration, Tenetizer provides services such as Customer Portal Implementation, Salesforce Service Cloud Features, and Einstein AI services including Recommendation, Case Classification, and Einstein Chatbot. Please reach us out here: contact@tenetizer.com.
Or take a free consultation from our Data Migration expert: ayub@tenetizer.com.