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Zoho Desk to HubSpot Service Hub Migration: How to Move Smarter, Not Just Faster

Written by uspeh | Aug 13, 2025 10:04:10 AM

Migrating your help desk from Zoho Desk to HubSpot Service Hub is a golden opportunity to upgrade your customer service — but only if it’s done right.
The goal isn’t just to move data. It’s to improve data, streamline workflows, and ensure your team is equipped with the tools and visibility they need from day one.

Why Businesses Outgrow Zoho Desk

Zoho Desk is functional and affordable, but scaling businesses often run into roadblocks:

  • Data silos — Service data isn’t tightly connected to sales, marketing, and operations

  • Limited automation — Manual SLA tracking, ticket routing, and follow-up steps

  • Integration gaps — More complex setup to sync with other business-critical systems

  • Reporting limitations — Service metrics often sit in isolation from revenue and lifecycle data

Why HubSpot Service Hub Is the Next Step

  • One platform for all customer-facing teams — Sales, marketing, and service data in one place

  • Advanced automation — Auto-assign tickets, trigger follow-ups, and keep SLAs on track

  • Customisable customer portal — Real-time updates for customers without manual emails

  • Full customer visibility — Every interaction stored against a single, unified record

  • AI-powered features — Faster replies, smarter routing, and data-driven insights

Benefits of a Strategic Migration

Migrating to HubSpot is a chance to:

  • Clean your data — Remove duplicates, outdated records, and irrelevant history

  • Optimise processes — Redesign your pipelines and SLAs for better efficiency

  • Automate intelligently — Build workflows that remove manual bottlenecks

  • Unify your customer journey — Give your teams the same, complete view of every customer

Our Zoho → HubSpot Migration Framework

We combine Help Desk Migration automation tools with expert-led oversight to deliver a migration that’s fast, accurate, and strategically aligned to your business needs.

1. Discovery & Scoping

  • Audit Zoho Desk tickets, contacts, companies, custom fields, and SLAs

  • Identify dependencies (integrations, reporting needs, automations)

  • Define success metrics and go-live requirements

2. Data Quality & Cleansing

  • Identify and remove duplicates, outdated tickets, and incomplete records

  • Standardise formats and naming conventions

  • Apply quality rules to ensure only relevant, valid data moves across

3. Data Mapping & Transformation

  • Map Zoho Desk fields to HubSpot ticket, contact, and company properties

  • Define transformation rules for mismatched formats or structures

  • Create necessary custom fields in HubSpot prior to migration

4. Automated Migration Workflows

  • Schedule migrations during low-activity windows

  • Use automated extraction, mapping, and load tools for speed

  • Monitor migration progress in real time

5. Test Migration

  • Run a small-scale migration into a sandbox or test portal

  • Verify ticket associations, contact links, and property accuracy

  • Refine mapping rules before final migration

6. Full Migration & Validation

  • Execute either Big Bang or Phased migration

  • Validate migrated records against original data for completeness and accuracy

  • Track tickets, attachments, and historical notes for full continuity

7. Post-Migration Optimisation

  • Configure ticket pipelines, SLAs, and automations

  • Set up the customer portal and knowledge base

  • Train your team on the new workflows and features

Common Migration Pitfalls to Avoid

  • “Lift and shift” mindset — Simply copying everything, including bad data, into the new system

  • Incomplete mapping — Losing ticket context because fields weren’t aligned properly

  • Neglecting historical data decisions — Migrating everything can slow your system down

  • No test run — Discovering mapping errors after going live

  • Ignoring user readiness — Teams untrained in HubSpot risk slower adoption and more errors

Typical Migration Timeline

While every project varies, most Zoho Desk → HubSpot migrations take 2–6 weeks:

  • Week 1–2: Discovery, mapping, and data cleansing

  • Week 3: Test migration and review

  • Week 4–5: Full migration and validation

  • Week 6: Optimisation, automation, and training

Why Partner With a HubSpot Specialist

With over a decade of HubSpot expertise, we:

  • Automate without losing control — Save time while maintaining accuracy

  • Minimise downtime — Your team stays productive throughout

  • Improve your data — Better data going in means better results coming out

  • Deliver a ready-to-use system — Pipelines, SLAs, and automation built for your goals

Ready to migrate?
Let’s move your help desk to HubSpot the right way — cleaner data, smarter workflows, and zero downtime.
Book your migration consultation today.