How to Migrate from Zendesk to Bublly Without Downtime
Switching support tools is high-stakes — one missed channel cutover and customers fall through the cracks. Here's the migration plan we've run with 100+ teams.
Bublly Team
February 18, 2026 · 12 min read
Pre-Migration Audit (Week -2)
Don't migrate what you don't use. Inventory:
- Active channels (email aliases, chat widgets, social handles)
- Macros and saved replies (count + last-used date)
- Triggers and automations (most go stale and don't transfer cleanly)
- Custom ticket fields (the ones agents actually fill)
- Integrations and webhooks
- Identity / login configuration
- Custom branding (logo, colors, custom domain)
Anything unused in 90 days: drop it. Migration is your chance to declutter.
Data Export from Zendesk (Week -1)
Zendesk's data exports are slow. Start day 1:
- Tickets export: Admin → Settings → Account → Data Exports. Choose JSON format for richer structure. Expect 24–72 hours.
- Users export: Same flow. Includes contact data, tags, and organization mapping.
- Help-Center articles: Use the Zendesk Guide API or a tool like Make.com to extract.
- Macros + saved replies: Manual export via UI (no bulk API in standard plans).
- Triggers + automations: Document each, you'll rebuild in Bublly's workflow editor.
Bublly Setup (Week -1)
While exports run:
- Create workspace, invite admins
- Configure login (email + password, or Google Login)
- Set up email forwarding (don't change MX records yet — forward to Bublly inbound address)
- Train Bub AI on your knowledge base (paste help-center URLs)
- Rebuild critical automations as workflows
- Import users and tag with their Zendesk role
Channel Cutover (Week 0)
The risky 48 hours. Do this in order:
Day 0: Internal-only test
- Cut a test ticket via each channel
- Verify it routes correctly in Bublly
- Confirm Zendesk still receives prod traffic
Day 1: Email cutover
- Change MX records to point at Bublly
- Keep Zendesk forwarding ON for 7 days (catches anything in flight)
Day 2: Chat widget swap
- Replace Zendesk widget snippet with Bublly widget on your site
- Monitor conversation volume hour-by-hour
Day 3: WhatsApp + Social (when those channels ship on Bublly)
- WhatsApp Business API, Instagram, and Facebook are on the Bublly channel roadmap, not live yet
- Until they ship, keep these channels on your existing BSP/social tools and route notifications into Bublly via webhooks or email-forwarding
- Plan to consolidate during a follow-on cutover when the native channels are available
Day 4–7: Monitor
- Watch for tickets stuck in Zendesk's pipe
- Audit response times daily
Team Rollout (Week 1)
A 30-minute training session, recorded:
- Inbox UX walkthrough (10 min)
- Saved replies + workflows (10 min)
- Reporting + analytics (5 min)
- Q&A (5 min)
Pair new agents with a Zendesk-veteran "buddy" for week 1. They'll catch UX confusion before it becomes a ticket-handling delay.
Post-Migration Audit (Week 2)
Two-week retrospective:
- Response time before/after
- CSAT before/after
- Agent satisfaction (anonymous form)
- Cost savings (annualize the per-seat math)
- Open issues from agent feedback
Most teams see a 1–2 week dip in productivity, then recovery + improvement by week 4.
Rollback Plan
Hopefully you never use it. But keep Zendesk active (read-only access for existing tickets) for 30 days. Cost: pro-rated month of Zendesk vs the risk of forced rollback.
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