This guide walks you through moving your helpdesk from Zendesk to BIK. We import your recent tickets first so your team can start working in BIK on day one, then backfill up to a year of history in the background.
How long does this take?
From the moment you click Start Migration, your last 14 days of tickets are usually live in BIK within minutes to a few hours. The full year of history runs in the background at roughly 5000 tickets per hour, so very large accounts can take a few days. Your team does not need to wait for history to finish — they can start working in BIK as soon as the recent window completes.
Who runs this?
You do, with our team alongside you. The migration itself is self-serve from your BIK Helpdesk Settings, but your dedicated CSM will guide you through the kickoff, the cutover window, and validation.
1. What we migrate (and what we don’t)
1.1 What comes over
Item | Migrated | Notes |
Tickets | Yes | Up to 1 year of history. ID, status, priority, channel, assignee, customer, ticket form, tags, and timestamps. |
Conversation | Yes | Public replies and private notes; conversation order preserved. |
Customers | Yes | Only customers who appear on a migrated ticket. Name, email, phone, tags. |
Agents and admins | Yes | Mapped by email (case-insensitive). Suspended users come over hidden. |
Teams (Zendesk groups) | Yes | Each Zendesk group becomes a BIK team. |
Tags / labels | Yes | Tags applied to migrated tickets become BIK labels. Tag values from dropdown fields stay as field values, not labels. |
Ticket forms + fields | Yes | Form layout, field types, dropdown options, and ticket field values. |
Channels | Yes (metadata) | Email only |
1.2 What does not come over in V1
Important: These are not in the V1 migration. We will help you rebuild what you need during onboarding.
Attachments on tickets and conversations
Macros, automations, triggers, and SLAs
Knowledge base articles
Email import history (only emails attached to tickets are imported)
1.3 One-time migration
Important: The migration runs once per Zendesk account and cannot be restarted by you. Please review the prerequisites carefully before clicking Start Migration. If something goes wrong, contact your CSM — a reset requires backend support.
2. Before you start
Use this checklist to make sure you’re ready. We recommend doing this together with your CSM on the kickoff call.
2.1 Permissions you need
Zendesk Administrator or Account Owner access
Zendesk API access enabled (Admin Center → Apps and integrations → Zendesk API)
A Zendesk API token you can generate (Admin Center → Apps and integrations → Zendesk API → Settings)
A BIK user with Account Admin permission in BIK Helpdesk
2.2 Information to gather
Your Zendesk subdomain (the part before .zendesk.com)
The admin email you log into Zendesk with
Your generated API token
The channels you currently use in Zendesk (Email, Live Chat, WhatsApp, Voice, API, Web)
Any email forwarding rules that send mail to Zendesk (Gmail routing, Outlook rules, MX records). These will need to be turned off during cutover
2.3 Decisions to make
Cutover window: the time when you switch live channels from Zendesk to BIK. Plan a low-traffic window if possible.
Email domain change? If your support email used a different domain in Zendesk, share old → new email mapping with your CSM before kickoff. This will enable reply.
Tip: If you have more than 50,000 tickets, plan the migration over a multi-day window. Phase 1 (last 14 days) finishes quickly so your team isn’t blocked, but the full year backfill takes time.
3. How the migration works
The migration runs in three stages, all driven by the same connection. You don’t need to do anything between stages — they run automatically.
3.1 The three stages
Stage | What happens | How long |
Phase 1 — Active data | Imports the last 14 days of tickets, plus the agents, customers, tags, ticket forms, and fields used in those tickets. | Minutes to a few hours |
Phase 2 — Historical data | Backfills up to 1 year of older tickets, oldest first. Your team can already work in BIK during this stage. | Hours to several days |
Phase 3 — Catch-up | Picks up anything that landed in Zendesk during the gap before you cut over channels. | Minutes to a few hours |
3.2 The migration dashboard
Throughout the migration, you can watch progress at:
Helpdesk → Settings →Beta Features → Zendesk to BIK migration
The dashboard shows:
Current status: Running, Paused, Completed
Counters: tickets imported, customers imported, conversations imported
Phase progress: Phase 1 completed/running, Phase 2 percent complete
Started-at and completed-at timestamps
Error count (number of tickets that failed and are being retried)
4. Step by Step: running the migration
4.1 Generate a Zendesk API token
Sign into Zendesk as an Administrator or Account Owner
Go to Admin Center → Apps and integrations → Zendesk API
Confirm Token access is enabled
Click Add API token, give it a label like “BIK Migration,” and copy the token (you will not see it again)
Store the token securely — share with your CSM through your encrypted channel of choice (1Password, secure note), not over open chat
4.2 Add Zendesk integration in BIK
Go to https://dashboard.bik.ai/integrations and find Zendesk integration.
Enter the following details
Zendesk API token
Zendesk subdomain
Zendesk email address
Then save the integration.
Once connected successfully, Zendesk will appear as an active integration inside BIK.
4.3 Start the migration
Go to https://dashboard.bik.ai/settings/beta-features & locate "Zendesk to BIK migration"
2. Configure Optional Email Mapping & Start Migration :
Before migration starts, you can optionally replace old Zendesk email IDs with new BIK email IDs.
Example
Zendesk Email | Replace with BIK Email |
This helps preserve agent ownership and reply mapping after migration.
3. View Migration Progress
Once started:
Phase 1 begins immediately. The dashboard counters will start moving within a minute. Last 14 days of tickets start importing.
When Phase 1 finishes, you’ll receive an email confirming recent tickets are available, and Phase 2 starts automatically
The migration page shows real-time migration progress.
Metric | Description |
Running Status | Current migration state |
Tickets Imported | Total migrated tickets |
Customers Synced | Imported customers |
Conversations Messages | Imported conversations |
Errors | Failed imports or retries |
Phase Progress | Current migration phase |
However:
Phase 3 is triggered separately from the backend
There are currently no frontend indicators for Phase 3 progress
Your GSM/CSM coordinates the final catch-up phase
5. The cutover window
Important: This is the only step that requires precise coordination. Do this with your CSM on a call.
Confirm Phase 2 shows complete in the dashboard
Enable each channel in BIK (Email currently)
Disable the same channels in Zendesk at the same moment — a channel cannot be active in both systems simultaneously
Disable any email forwarding to Zendesk — Gmail routing rules, Outlook rules, or MX records pointing at your Zendesk address. This is the #1 cause of duplicate tickets and we cannot detect it automatically
Trigger Phase 3 (14 days catch-up) — your CSM will do this for you
5.1 After the migration
Your imported tickets are immediately searchable in BIK Helpdesk
Your CSM will schedule a 30-day post-migration check-in to review counts, label cleanup, and any rebuild work for macros/automations
Status and priority mapping
Your Zendesk ticket statuses and priorities map cleanly into BIK:
Zendesk status | BIK status |
new, open, pending, hold | Open |
solved, closed | Closed |
Zendesk priority | BIK priority |
urgent | Urgent |
high | High |
normal | Medium |
low | Low |
Channel Migration Guidelines
How BIK Decides the Ticket Channel During Migration
During migration, BIK determines whether a Zendesk ticket should be created under the Email channel or Tasks channel using the following logic:
Tickets become Email Channel tickets when:
Zendesk channel is
emailThe recipient contains a valid email address
These tickets are migrated into BIK Email conversations and handled through SMTP/email workflows.
Tickets become Tasks when:
The original Zendesk channel is not email
OR the email recipient cannot be resolved into a valid email address
Examples include:
Voice tickets
Chat tickets
Twitter/social tickets
API-created tickets
Web-generated tickets
Invalid/missing recipient email tickets
These are migrated under Tasks inside BIK.
Important Notes
Email tickets without a valid inbox address cannot be mapped to SMTP/email channels
Non-email Zendesk channels currently default to Tasks during migration
This behavior helps preserve ticket visibility even when a direct communication channel cannot be recreated
If you disconnect from Zendesk and connect directly to BIK, and a new email is received on an existing Zendesk thread, then a different thread ID will be generated in BIK.
As a result:
The historical conversation migrated from Zendesk will appear as one ticket
The newly received email in BIK will appear as a separate ticket
So both conversations will exist as different tickets in BIK because the thread IDs do not match.
6. What your team will notice
6.1 Things that will look familiar
Ticket numbers and IDs preserved as searchable references
Conversation order, including private notes, kept intact
Customer profiles and ticket assignments map to the same agents (when emails match)
Ticket forms and custom fields render in BIK with the same names and dropdown options
6.2 Things that may differ
Suspended Zendesk agents appear hidden in BIK. Tickets they were assigned to are marked unassigned so you can re-route
Unresolvable assignees are routed to a system-created “Zendesk Migrated Agent” so the ticket isn’t lost. You can reassign at any time
Field-derived tags (tag values that come from dropdown fields, like dept_sales) stay as the field value rather than becoming separate labels
Every migrated Zendesk ticket will contain a private note with the corresponding Zendesk Ticket ID for reference and traceability.
Important Points About Zendesk → BIK Migration
Currently only email channel is supported for migration
We do not have a continuous real-time sync between Zendesk and BIK during migration.
Current migration flow:
Merchant clicks Migrate
Last 14 days of tickets are migrated first
Then migration of the last 1 year of tickets starts automatically
Best-case scenario:
Merchant disconnects from Zendesk and fully moves to BIK before starting migration.
In this case, once migration is triggered, tickets start appearing in BIK quickly and chances of data conflicts are minimal.If the merchant disconnects Zendesk and moves to BIK while migration is still in progress, it still works, because all future updates will start coming into BIK.
However, there is an important caveat:Some tickets may have received updates in Zendesk during the migration window.
When Phase 3 runs, Zendesk data received during sync can overwrite the corresponding ticket data in BIK.
The same risk applies if:
Phase 1 and Phase 2 are completed
Merchant starts actively using BIK
But Zendesk is disconnected only before Phase 3
In such cases, if updates were made on the same ticket in both Zendesk and BIK, Zendesk data may overwrite BIK data in certain scenarios during Phase 3.
Strong recommendation:
Merchant should completely stop using Zendesk, disconnect it, and fully move to BIK before asking their GSM to initiate Phase 3.If Zendesk continues receiving updates even after Phase 3 execution, those later Zendesk updates will not be migrated again, which can lead to loss of those updates in BIK.
Merchant should completely stop using Zendesk, disconnect it, and fully move to BIK before asking their GSM to initiate Phase 3.
7. Frequently asked questions
How much history can I migrate?
Up to 1 year in the V1 migration. Older tickets are not imported.
Can I run the migration more than once?
No — the migration runs once per Zendesk account and cannot be restarted by you. If you hit an issue, your CSM can request a backend reset.
Will this slow down my Zendesk?
No. We respect Zendesk’s rate limits (around 150–300 requests per minute, with automatic backoff on rate-limit errors). Your Zendesk operations will not be degraded.
What if I cancel my Zendesk subscription mid-migration?
The migration will stop immediately. Keep your Zendesk account active until the migration shows Completed and you’ve validated the imported data.
Can I keep using Zendesk during the migration?
Yes. That’s the point of continuous sync. Your team can keep handling tickets in Zendesk, and new activity is brought into BIK using migration.
This is not recommended though. Ideal case is disconnecting from zendesk and connect to bik before starting migration, and the tickets should start showing up in bik in few minutes so you can work here.
What happens to attachments?
Attachments are not migrated in V1. The text of the conversation comes through; the attached files do not. Your CSM can advise on options if attachments are critical for your workflow.
What about macros and automations?
Not migrated in V1. Your CSM will help you rebuild the macros and automations you actually use in BIK during onboarding. We’ve found most teams streamline their automations during this rebuild.
How do I know it’s really done?
Your dashboard will show Migration Completed with Continuous Sync Active. You’ll also receive emails at the end of Phase 1 and Phase 2. We recommend spot-checking 10 random tickets across phases to confirm conversation order, customer linkage, and channel correctness.
My tickets show duplicate copies after cutover. What happened?
Almost always this is because email forwarding is still pointing at Zendesk, or the same channel is still active in both systems. Have your IT team audit Gmail/Outlook routing rules and MX records, and confirm Zendesk channels are fully disabled — then contact your CSM.
Can I test on a sandbox first?
Not in V1. The migration runs once on your real account. We mitigate risk by running Phase 1 on the recent 14 days first — if anything looks off, we pause before Phase 2 or cutover.
For further assistance or to raise feature requests related to Zendesk to BIK migration, please contact [email protected]