Getting Ready for Freshdesk Import

What Should You Know about the Freshdesk Migration Process

Whether you own a company, product, or service, work with individuals or big businesses, and the experiences you provide make you successful. Your customer support department should cater to those experiences to amaze and delight your customers.

Why so? Your customers shape an integral part of your brand. You may have everything a successful company needs: a detailed customer satisfaction strategy, loyalty program, advanced help desk platform, and professional support agents. That, however, doesn’t mean you see the whole picture of how to make all these tools work for you efficiently.

Any brand strategy should answer the critical question: How to keep your business growing? The success consists of different factors, and customer support software and its value to the end-users are among them. If you use a shared inbox for running your customer services, consider switching to a help desk tool.

The help desk migration requires preparations and proper settings to be completed. If you need to import your data to a help desk platform or move records to a support tool, the upgraded process will help you optimize your customer support performance.

This is no time for getting upset due to the wrong job done with your data migration. You may have a somewhat unclear picture of the whole process. The required actions like

• preparing your customer support records
• finding the way to move data
• migrating your support service records
• training your team for the changes

Where to start, and what to do next? In this detailed guide, you find workable tips on migrating your data to Freshdesk. Also, you can get some tips on how to make it fast and save your effort.

Take Air Force Risk Management to Your Help Desk Migration

Before diving into all those hows, let’s look at the help desk data migration from an unusual perspective – the Air Force Risk Management process. How does this relate to changing your help desk platform? The approach helps you to plan and execute this task properly.

Here are the steps you should take:

1. Determine the risks
2. Inspect risk control steps
3. Evaluate risk levels
4. Consider risk decisions
5. Arrange risk precautions

If you are thinking of switching your help desk platform, you have already passed the first stage by finding the weak point of your current software.

The second stage is far away, too, as you find Freshdesk's solution as a good fit for your business requirements.

Now what? Our helpful guide will help you cope with the following stages: the third, fourth, and fifth. Our guidance will cover the details of help desk records import. This information comes in handy when making decisions, building a plan, preventing future risks. So you learn:

• how to plan your actions 
• what obstacles you may face
• how to manage all the tasks efficiently

The Value of the Documented Plan

Now you understand why it is high time for your company to migrate to Freshdesk, but you shouldn't forget about the importance of proper planning. Effective planning is the key to your success. Don’t forget about the maintenance budget and upfront expenses if you know your destination platform. Make sure your plan is written down and available to all your departments.

Now let’s clarify what should be included in your Freshdesk migration plan. Be should answer the following three questions:

• Who is in charge of Freshdesk data migration?

The help desk switch process will affect the whole company. Some departments more, while others feel less impacted. But no matter what, you should have a manager responsible for that project fully.

• What data should be migrated?

You should start with reviewing the existing customer service records as you may not need to transfer them all to the new help desk. Your targeted help desk platform is a tabula rasa, so you should only bring what matters.

• How much time do you need for migration?

When you set up clear deadlines for all the processes and the timing on preventing any failures. That way, you meet deadline dates and budget waste.

Next, you have to choose the appropriate tool for records transfer; either it is a third-party data migration service or Freshdesk importing tool. You may also need to hire a development team to handle the required tasks efficiently.

What Are the Key Differences of Data Import and Data Migration Service?

Data import is a tool that helps import your help desk records via CSV files into a desired help desk system. But before that, you need to export your data into CSV files with proper formatting for your future help desk to avoid messing up with records.

Data migration service is the SaaS solution for moving help desk records between different help desk platforms in an automated, secured way. You just need to connect your help desk systems to the migration service, do some data mapping, and run your migration to Freshdesk with zero effort from your side.

What Are the Data Import Features?

• If you are planning to import your backup data from your old help desk platform to Freshdesk, you may need to change the structure of your files or even re-import your records.
• When switching your current platform to the new one, you may need to follow a particular order when uploading the files to save record relations.
• The process of data import frequently permits using custom entities.
• When importing your data, you can only upload one file per time; no multiple files are allowed.
• The quality of the data you import to Freshdesk depends on the quality of the files you downloaded from your old help desk software.

What Are the Data Migration Service Features?

• There is an option for uploading multiple files.
• You can use your existing custom entities and fields even if Freshdesk doesn’t have corresponding fields – you can create them during data mapping.
• You save time and ensure data transfer security when opting for API-based data migration.
• If you don’t review and cleanse your existing database, you may get poor-quality records.

Whether you are just getting ready for Freshdesk import or your project is already in progress, these useful tips on help desk record migration and data import will help you stay on the right track.

Why Opt for Freshdesk Import?

It is a widespread problem for any help desk software — your company is growing, so is your customer base and queries. Besides, your support agents get too many routine tasks to complete.

What to do in such a case?

The optimal choice is to opt for a reliable and, most importantly, scalable help desk solution that meets any of your business needs.

Helping your customers to fix their problems with fast, reliable resolutions is the main goal of any customer service, for sure. An advanced help desk system can help you easily organize all the customers’ queries, improve your communication channels, and give you a glimpse of customers’ satisfaction metrics. Besides, with a well-featured customer service tool like Freshdesk, all the customer interactions are in the same place.

What Are Major Features of Freshdesk?

As stated by its developers, Freshdesk is designed to exceed customers’ expectations. It was built in 2010 when its founders first understood the market’s need for an efficient and flexible help desk solution. This SaaS app delivers everything your agent needs for seamless interaction with customers in a single place.

Furthermore, Freshdesk was built with usability and customization in mind, and it has a variety of useful features – to name a few: multichannel support service, automation, ticket routing, gamification to engage support reps, and many more.

Ticketing System

Freshdesk offers its users a fully automated ticketing system to manage and sort the customer queries into tickets and assign them to qualified support agents. It works based on the SLA policy with pre-defined criteria for different workflows. This ticketing system also has a Ticket Lab to set your own ticketing rules and filters.

With the Freshdesk tool, you can easily transform your emails into support tickets. Your corporate emails will be created to respond to customers’ requests, letting them know that their requests have been processed and will be responded to shortly. Furthermore, you can set specific workflow patterns for customer queries to sort them out, prioritize or assign to a specific agent group.

Self-Service Portal

Freshdesk has an easy-to-navigate self-service portal that works for internal purposes – support reps can find the quick answers and a knowledge base for customers to find quick answers to common questions or issues. Besides, it helps you store important documents like handbooks, articles, brochures, fact sheets, etc.

If it suits your business needs, you can also create a forum on Freshdesk. That’s a simple way to encourage customer peer-to-peer information sharing, problem reporting, requesting features, and developing a loyal community of current and soon-to-be customers.

Multichannel Support

Freshdesk is an advanced help desk software that can easily automate your tasks and handle tickets with multiple communication channels. It also has an Email to Knowledge Base feature that easily transforms your ticket responses into articles. Such emails will be saved as drafts that you can be edited and publish in your company’s knowledge base.

Freshdesk also supports social media integration with Facebook and X so that you get a notification on the activity on your social media and can instantly send a reply to your customers.

Freshdesk Messaging

Freshdesk has its live chat called Freshdesk messaging with AI-based chatbot Freddy for your website. The bot evolves itself and gives your customers direct answers to their questions instead of some article recommendations from your knowledge base.

Detailed Reporting System

You can easily measure customer service productivity with the Freshdesk reporting system. It also includes time tracking to analyze the first response time, average response time, ticket resolution time, and so on.

The At-a-Glance reporting feature of Freshdesk allows you to see the big picture by getting an overview of the activity of your entire company, including your helpdesk, support agents, and customers.

Gamification

One of the superb features of Freshdesk is Freshdesk Arcade. It allows you to improve your support and service team productivity within the help desk platform. The Arcade helps you set up activities and a leaderboard to motivate your agents to outperform their everyday work and earn some points. That enhances the rewarding of the well-performing support reps and engaging your team to perform better.

Smart Notification

Freshdesk has an advanced notification system. You won’t be mistaken when one of your support agents has already taken a ticket because there’s be a pen icon popping up on your screen. And if the ticket is updated, there will be a refresh icon.

The Ticket Watchers will notify you about the customer tickets that you might find interesting. For instance, if it deals with your area of expertise or has already helped this very customer before.

What About Freshdesk Pricing?

Freshdesk has two major pricing plans, each with sub-plans and respectful features.

Support Desk Pricing Plan

Support Desk is a pricing plan that consists of a ticketing system, self-service, and reporting. Depending on the features offered, it is divided into:

• Free - $0/unlimited agents (for those who just started)
• Growth - $18 agent/month (for those who need to scale fast)
• Pro - $59 agent/month (if you search for high performance)
• Enterprise - $95 agent/month (for large companies)

Omnichannel Pricing Plan

The omnichannel pricing plan fits those who have numerous communication channels and want to route them all in one place. According to the offered features, there are the following pricing tiers:

• Growth Omnichannel - $35 agent/month (for those who need instant growth)
• Pro Omnichannel - $71 agent/month (for high performance) 
• Enterprise Omnichannel - $119 agent/month (for large companies)

Freshdesk also offers discounts if you pay annually, has a free trial period and paid add-ons.

Freshdesk Alternatives: What Are the Other Options?

Today’s customer service market offers a variety of choices and there are a bunch of good alternatives to Freshdesk out there. Let’s have a quick review of the most popular help desk systems:

Freshdesk vs Zendesk

The key role of any help desk tool is to enhance and optimize the workflow of the customer support department. Both Freshdesk and Zendesk have their peculiarities. But in comparison to Zendesk, Freshdesk

• is the simpler and cheaper customer service software
• that can be used on its own, and together with other Freshdesk products,
• provides support agents with useful features and enhances team collaboration 

Freshdesk vs Help Scout

Help Scout has everything modern customer support needs: a ticketing system that consists of different mailboxes which help manage and sort out your tickets. Like Freshdesk, it provides multichannel customer support. Help Scout easily integrates with other third-party apps and business ecosystems.

In its turn, Freshdesk has a feature called Views which allows users to filter the tickets and share them between different teams (a unique feature). This sharing feature allows support reps to enhance ticket management.

Freshdesk vs Jira Service Management

Both Freshdesk and Jira Service Management belongs to the help desk category.

Freshdesk works across multiple channels and helps ‘refresh’ the way agents support customers daily. It has numerous integration options, gamification mechanisms, self-service, a built-in phone system, and live chat.

Whereas Jira Service Management is an ITSM solution with specific functionality for the efficient running of tech or IT departments.

Freshdesk vs HubSpot Service Hub

Compared to Freshdesk, HubSpot Service Hub has competing functionality and can be a better choice of meeting specific business needs. Apart from the rich-featured functionality, HubSpot has a well-developing ecosystem of various tools, apps, and integrations that help you to improve your customer service and make it more personalized.

5 Easy Steps How to Convince Your Team to Change the Help Desk Solution

Changes in any business are necessary to succeed. That is why when your business is scaling, you should move from a shared inbox or a basic help desk software to a more advanced tool. This step will help you skyrocket your productivity and efficiency, improve the working processes, and take the burden of manual and routine work from your agents’ shoulders.

Usually, the failure of any help desk migration process lies in the team that doesn’t want to change the current system. So, be ready that your company won’t welcome Freshdesk import. That is why you need to advocate for this step and make the process of its implementation clear as much as it is possible. Here are our five easy steps that will help you out:

#1 Become an Advocate of Help Desk Adoption or Change

The first thing you need to do when switching your help desk system or implementing your first customer service solution is to

• find out as many details about the software
• learn every aspect of the process of data import as you can

Be ready and patient to answer numerous questions from your team as they might not know why this is important for the business. Become an advocate for the help desk app and convince everyone about the value and actual benefits of this change. And, of course, the key to success is to believe in its value yourself; otherwise, you will fail to convince others.

#2 Discuss the Changes Beforehand

If you want your team to understand the change value, you should discuss it in advance. This way, you will involve them in a decision-making process and get their mutual support. However, stay prepared and get valuable feedback (even negative) as there may be some resistance to the help desk software change, so don’t be afraid to speak up.

#3 Describe the Business Value of the Freshdesk Import

When you opt for a new help desk solution, always start with explaining all the benefits and value this solution will bring to your team and how it will facilitate the workflows. And make sure everyone understands you. In case it doesn’t work, you can also show the examples of the past issues you have had and how you can fix them with Freshdesk in the future.

#4 Stick to Your Audience

When delivering your message, always keep in mind the audience you are talking to. If you want to succeed, keep in mind the following points:

• stick the communication style of your audience
• select the time most suitable for them
• choose a location where your team feels safe and comfortable

#5 Receive Approval

When you have delivered your message, answered all the questions your team had, and got their suggestions, it is time to receive approval. No vague responses accepted, make sure you heard a clear answer yes or no. If you fail, you should start over again from step three of our list.

How to Successfully Prove the Value of Help Desk Solution?

Make sure your team understands all three points why the Freshdesk import is important and valuable for your business. Those might be the following:

• Issues regarding the time tracking and ticket routing
• Reducing the workload and automating most of the manual tasks
• Getting rid of all inconsistencies with the ticket assignment

Be sure to highlight the benefits that this change will bring — an internal forum or knowledge base that will help to train new agents and support reps faster and more efficiently, downloadable materials to help both agents and customers upgrade their skills, and many more.

You can also praise your team for using the help desk solution and make them feel valuable to the company. This way, they will feel more loyal and attached to the company. You can also leverage gamification (which is a great and unique feature of Freshdesk) and implement it in the working processes so that your employees get some reward for achieving significant results.

Helpful Checklist on How to Get Started with Data Import

This easy checklist will help you out, no matter if you don’t know how to get started at all or just need small guidance. At this stage of data migration, you should already run a data audit, analyze all the processes, and define the necessary scope of work:

• setting the needed timelines for each stage of the data import and informing the team about all the tasks and their deadlines
• having all of your goals described in detail, and your team having a mutual understanding of the project
• getting the communication plan ready for all the parties — your team, different departments of the company, the leader, and stakeholders (if any) so that all of them are on the same page
• conducting an audit regarding the company’s data and the quality of the records. Searching for the duplicates and deleting the irrelevant ones
• creating training documentation so that your team will easily switch to Freshdesk help desk 

There are three key aspects that you should carefully study and do:

Get your company ready for Freshdesk import

The transition process will touch the nearly entire company, so it is essential to make sure that everyone involved in this process is on the same page: know the goals and deadlines. Be sure to keep everyone updated on all the steps. In this case, a detailed communication plan will help you a lot.

Get all the materials ready

Make sure all the data, including the records and various files, are ready because they are not only crucial for support teams, but for other departments as well. So, keep all the materials consistent and of the highest quality.

When you are preparing the records for the import, always check if you have:

• set the header in the first row
• mapped the rows to records and column headers to fields
• checked your data for duplicates before exporting your CSV files
• created data backup

Then you should compare all the files you have to the Freshdesk requirements of mass import and sort your data into files and columns.

Set up Your Freshdesk

Before getting started with the import, you need to prepare your Freshdesk for the uploading data, too. If you need to use some custom fields, it is time to create them, or you might have some issues when mapping.

7 Tips on How to Convince Your Boss to Move to Freshdesk

Don’t give up when you hear ‘No’ from your boss when talking about the Freshdesk migration. It only shows the lack of proof you presented. Of course, the new help desk system is quite an expensive and complex process but it pays off in terms of service quality and team productivity. Here are our seven tips that will help you support your initiative for your boss.

#1 Be prepared

Staying prepared is halfway to success. Thoroughly study your company’s goals and make sure they align with the processes of Freshdesk import. If necessary, you can ask for reviewing the current performance and productivity of the support team. And remember that numbers speak louder than any words, so to convince your boss, you have to show what value (in numbers) you will get when opting for the new help desk.

#2 Forget about ambitions

The main goal of any business leader is to ensure business growth, and not the ambitions of their employees. So, before actually presenting your proposal, make sure it shows how:

• the work will be improved
• the number of all the tickets that usually fall through the crack will be diminished
• how self-service and knowledge base can help the work of the agents and support reps
• such metrics as ticket resolution time and agents’ performance will be improved

#3 Become an advocate

As we all know, oftentimes all the changes are directly approved by C-level managers. So, your main aim is to become the advocate of changes and present your boss or other leaders with information on how this solution can help fight the problems, save costs, and improve overall productivity.

#4 Describe additional benefits

Okay, now that you described all the benefits in numbers, you should talk about the additional benefits the changes will bring. They are the increase in team morale, higher level of satisfaction among employees, and reduced rate of staff turnover. These are the less important benefits, but they are still attractive to the leaders.

#5 Be ready for objections

As we have already told you, you have to thoroughly study all the pros and cons of migrating to another help desk platform or adopting your customer service system. Having done so, you will meet head-on any questions or objections from your boss. You can also write down all the answers so that anyone who has the same to avoid losingly get an answer.

#6 Choose the right time and place

Choosing the right time is paramount if you want to be heard and not to hurry. Choose the time in your boss’s schedule that will fit you and is enough to discuss all the details.

#7 Create a sales pitch

The sad truth is that no one wants to work extra; neither does your boss. Furthermore, why invest some extra money if everything works well as it is?

That is why you need to transform into a sales rep and present your ideas so that they fit the company’s requirements. And do not forget about showing your own commitment to make your idea work.

To get a positive answer from your boss, you should well understand all the challenges the changes will bring, as well as the key goals of your company. Make sure you have created a systematic approach that consists of creation, presentation, and defense of your ideas. This way, the chances for success are much higher.

Data Migration Checklist for Freshdesk

Data migration is nothing more than moving your records from one place to another. Sounds quite simple, right? However, it is not so. Usually, this process includes the change of the storage place. And that is when you may face the first obstacle as you have to create a top-notch strategy on how to make the process of data migration to Freshdesk seamless and painful.

The crucial factors you need to consider before any data migration are:

• Get the in-house teams and all the working processes ready for the migration. Check whether everyone is on the same page and know all the goals and deadlines. And do not forget to regularly update them on what is going on.
• Calculate and set the budget, timeframes, and deadlines needed for preparation to make a switch, actual data migration process, and testing of the results.
• Run an audit and find out the quality and the structure of all your records. This will help you avoid any issues when conducting data migration.
• Get rid of duplicate and irrelevant records. If you have some issues with them, resolve them before making a data migration. At this stage, you may need some extra software from third-party providers; everything depends on the amount of work you have. 
• Make a backup (!) of your company’s data
• Unlink all the integration you currently have, including social media, email alias, etc.
• Create detailed guidance and training documentation for your support agents. There, you should clarify all the terminology, workflows, and automation changes, details on how to handle tickets in Freshdesk, and other important information. This will make a shift more seamless for your support reps. 
• If the migration affects your customers, too, you should notify them about this in advance by sending emails with upcoming changes and their timeframes. 
• Find out the end date of your subscription to the current help desk and plan your Freshdesk migration one or two weeks before this date so as not to lose money. 
• Take care of all the Freshdesk settings before conducting migration. Check the number of licenses for your support reps, create custom fields if necessary, and API if you use it for ticket import. 

A Detailed Recap

As you may already understand, both data import and data migration take more effort from your side than simply downloading a file. However, Freshdesk data migration is worth investing your money and time.

And here are our five whys:

1. Freshdesk is easy to set up and use so you do not need to be a technician to start working with it. This help desk system allows your support reps to advance and personalize the communication with the customers, ease all the workflow, and track performance – all in a single space.
2. Freshdesk offers various pricing plans, so even the pickiest clients can select the one that fits their business requirements best. The higher the pricing is, the more features you get. Besides, you can always opt for a free trial period or save money by paying annually. Worth mentioning that Freshdesk supports a free plan with limited functionality for those who do not need basic help desk features.
3. Freshdesk has different adds-on, integrations, and apps to facilitate the work and increase customer service productivity. Besides, it has its own in-built telephony and a live chat.
4. Freshdesk gamification mechanism encourages your support agents to perform better and introduce a hint of a quest with rewards into their daily tasks.
5. Freshdesk allows you to create outstanding self-service with FAQ blocks, forums, articles, and a knowledge base. Besides, you can use the knowledge base both for customers and your internal teams. 

That is not a full list of Freshdesk benefits that prove this help desk platform is an excellent option for any business — from SMBs to SMEs. This customer support solution will provide you with all the necessary options for advancing productivity. Freshdesk is a smart choice.

If you have already chosen Freshdesk, now you have two things to do.

• First, you need to become an expert on this technology and convince your team about its worthiness.
• Second, more difficult, you have to make your boss believe in the value of changes. However, having all the numbers and our guide in hand, you will succeed in no time.

Now you need to create a preparation checklist that works well whether you opt for data import or data migration service:

• create your project Freshdesk import plan, set deadlines, and describe your goals
• announce the upcoming changes to your staff
• make sure everyone is on the same page and regularly update them at all the stages
• conduct an audit of the company’s data, create a backup, and get rid of duplicates and irrelevant records
• notify your customers about the changes if the process of data migration impacts them in any kind
• create a detailed guide for your Freshdesk support reps
• set up your work on Freshdesk platform

Part 2. Importing Data to Freshdesk: Where and How to Start Part 3. What to Do After the Freshdesk Migration? Checklist to Follow