Importing Customers from Zendesk

Moving from Zendesk to cStar? This guide walks you through importing your customers (users) and preserving your organization structure.

What You Can Import

  • Users → Customers (name, email, tags, notes, custom fields)
  • Organizations → Converted to org: tags for easy filtering

Before You Start

Export your data from Zendesk:

  1. Go to Admin Center → Account → Tools → Reports
  2. Click Export and select:
    • Users (JSON format recommended)
    • Organizations (optional, but recommended)
  3. Download the export files

Import Steps

Step 1: Open Platform Import

  1. Go to Settings → Platform Import
  2. Click the Zendesk button

Step 2: Upload Users File

  1. Drag and drop your users.json file (or click to browse)
  2. cStar automatically detects customer data
  3. Review the preview showing sample records

Step 3: Add Organizations (Optional)

If you want to preserve company groupings:

  1. In the preview step, find Organizations File (optional)
  2. Click Upload and select your organizations.json file
  3. cStar shows how many organizations were loaded
  4. Customers with organization_id will get an org:company-name tag

Example: A user in "Acme Corporation" (org ID 57542) gets the tag org:acme-corporation

Step 4: Configure Options

  • Skip duplicates: Customers with matching emails are skipped
  • Create anyway: Creates new customers even if email exists

Step 5: Import

Click Import X customers to start. Progress is shown in real-time.

What Gets Imported

Zendesk Field cStar Field
name Name
email Email
tags Tags
notes / details Notes
user_fields Custom Fields
organization_id Tag: org:org-name

What Gets Skipped

  • Agents and admins - Only end-users are imported
  • Suspended users - Inactive accounts are skipped
  • Users without name or email - Invalid records are flagged

After Import

Your imported customers appear in the Customers page. Use the tag filter to:

  • Find customers by original tags
  • Filter by organization using org: tags
  • Identify imported customers (they have _zendesk_id in custom fields)

Tips

  • Large imports: cStar processes in batches of 100 customers, so imports of thousands work smoothly
  • Test first: Try with a small export file to verify the mapping
  • Organization tags: Use these for bulk actions or filtering, just like Zendesk organizations

Related Articles:

  • Grouping Customers with Tags
  • Managing Customer Tags
  • Filtering and Searching Customers