Migration Guide for SaaS Companies
Converge Team
Part of the Zendesk Chat migration guide
SaaS-specific migration guide for moving from Zendesk Chat, covering ticket workflows and integrations.
SaaS Company Migration from Zendesk Chat
SaaS companies use Zendesk Chat for in-app support, onboarding assistance, and real-time troubleshooting. The chat widget is typically embedded in the SaaS product itself, often with visitor identification so agents see which customer is chatting. Migrating requires updating the widget integration in your product and recreating your chat workflows.
Replacing the In-App Chat Widget
SaaS teams often use Zendesk Chat's JavaScript API (zE() or the legacy $zopim API) to identify logged-in users by passing their name, email, and account ID to the chat widget. When switching, locate every instance of the Zendesk widget API in your frontend code — check your app's layout component, help center, and any pages where chat is embedded. Replace with your new widget's script and equivalent identification API. Most modern widgets accept user identification via JavaScript, so the integration pattern is similar.
Chat Department Routing to Auto-Routing
Zendesk Chat uses departments to route chats to specific agent groups (e.g., "Billing", "Technical Support", "Sales"). In your new platform, recreate this with auto-routing rules. If you used the widget API to pre-select a department based on which page the customer is on (e.g., billing page routes to billing team), you can achieve the same with tag-based routing or by setting up separate widget configurations per section of your app.
Pre-chat Form to Profile Collection
If you use Zendesk Chat's pre-chat form to collect visitor name, email, and issue type before starting a conversation, configure your new widget's profile collection settings to require the same fields. For SaaS products where users are already logged in, you may not need a pre-chat form at all — pass the user's identity via the widget API and skip the form entirely for a faster support experience.
Chat Triggers for SaaS Workflows
SaaS teams commonly use Zendesk Chat triggers for onboarding (pop chat on first login), feature adoption (offer help when a user visits a new feature), and churn prevention (engage users who haven't logged in recently). Document your trigger rules — specifically the URL conditions, time-on-page thresholds, and the messages displayed. Some can be recreated with your new widget's popup message feature; others may require adjusting to auto-reply rules or custom event tracking.
API and Webhook Updates
Check your SaaS backend for Zendesk Chat API integrations. Common patterns include: creating support tickets from your app via the Zendesk API, sending chat transcripts to your CRM, or using webhooks to trigger internal workflows when chats start or end. Identify all API calls referencing chat.zopim.com, zopim.com/api, or {subdomain}.zendesk.com/api/v2/chat and update them to your new platform's API endpoints.
Migration timeline for SaaS: Budget 3-5 days. Day 1: set up the new platform and connect channels. Day 2: update widget integration in your product codebase, deploy to staging, test user identification. Day 3: deploy to production, run both widgets briefly, then remove Zendesk. Days 4-5: monitor and fine-tune routing, auto-replies, and team workflows.
Need the full migration guide?
This page covers migration guide for saas companies specifically. For the complete step-by-step migration process:
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