Migrate from Chat2Desk to Gorgias

Chat2Desk Client records map to Gorgias Customer records. The Client's full name, phone number, email (if collected), messenger handles (WhatsApp, Telegram, Instagram), and custom fields migrate directly. The messenger handle becomes the Customer's external_id for deduplication. Chat2Desk custom fields on Clients require pre-migration schema mapping to Gorgias Customer attributes or custom fields. Note: Chat2Desk warns that bulk creation of Clients who have never messaged the business may result in WhatsApp account blocking; we flag any scope with bulk client ingestion and apply rate-limited, gradual creation to avoid suspension during the migration window.

Chat2Desk Messages are conversation records attached to a Client and a Channel. We reconstruct each message thread as a Gorgias Ticket, with the first message becoming the ticket body and subsequent messages appending as ticket replies. Message timestamps, direction (inbound/outbound), and message type (text, image, file, location) migrate as ticket activity entries. The Chat2Desk start_id cursor is handled internally for pagination during export; the migration script iteratively fetches message batches until the full history per client is exported.

Chat2Desk Channels (WhatsApp Business API, Telegram bot, Instagram, Viber, online chat widget) do not have a direct Gorgias equivalent because Gorgias derives channel assignment from the integration connection rather than a Channel object. We map each Chat2Desk channel to a Gorgias Tag (e.g., #whatsapp, #telegram, #instagram) and apply it to the migrated Ticket. If the customer uses Gorgias's channel-specific email addresses or forwarding rules, we document the channel-to-tag mapping for the admin to configure post-migration.

Chat2Desk Operators map to Gorgias Agents. We resolve by email match: each Operator's email address is matched against a Gorgias Agent record, and any Operator without a matching Gorgias Agent is placed in a reconciliation queue for the customer's admin to provision before record import. Operator role and department assignments from Chat2Desk map to Gorgias Agent permissions and Team membership. If Chat2Desk departments are used for routing, we document the department-to-Team mapping for post-migration configuration.

Chat2Desk Sales Funnels are pipeline-style workflow objects that track leads through configurable stages. Gorgias does not have a native Sales Funnel object. We map funnel stage names to a combination of Tags on the migrated Ticket and a custom Ticket field (e.g., funnel_stage__c) that the customer configures in Gorgias before migration. The customer defines the target field during scoping. If the customer uses Chat2Desk funnels for sales pipeline tracking rather than support triage, we recommend a separate CRM integration (Shopify native CRM, HubSpot, or Salesforce) as the destination for funnel data.

Chat2Desk Knowledge Base articles export with title, body content, category assignment, and article metadata. Gorgias Help Center articles use a different content schema with article sections, public/private visibility, and associated tags. We export Chat2Desk articles as structured JSON and transform them to Gorgias Help Center format during import, mapping categories to Help Center sections and preserving article body as rich text. Any article IDs referenced in Chat2Desk bot automations are flagged for manual review because Gorgias Help Center articles have different internal IDs.

Chat2Desk Message Templates (macros, auto-reply templates, and response templates) are exported as text content with dynamic variable placeholders. Gorgias Macros provide dynamic response templates with similar variable substitution. We map Chat2Desk template content to Gorgias Macro bodies, replacing Chat2Desk variable syntax (e.g., {{client.name}}) with Gorgias variable syntax (e.g., {{customer.name}}). WhatsApp Business API templates in Chat2Desk require separate Meta Business verification to be used in Gorgias; we export the template content and advise the customer to register the templates in Meta's Business Manager for use in Gorgias outgoing messages.

File attachments (images, documents, audio) sent within Chat2Desk conversations are downloaded during export and re-uploaded to the corresponding Gorgias Ticket. File names, MIME types, and upload timestamps are preserved. We handle attachments in a separate pipeline from message content because attachment re-upload is slower and can be retried independently. If the migration volume exceeds 1 GB of attachment data, we apply batched upload with exponential backoff to avoid rate limits on both the source export and destination ingest.

Chat2Desk Tags applied to conversations or clients map directly to Gorgias Tags. We preserve the full tag vocabulary from Chat2Desk, normalize any non-URL-safe characters (e.g., spaces replaced with hyphens), and import the tag list into Gorgias before ticket migration so that tags are available for application during ingest. Tag naming collisions (tags with identical names across different Chat2Desk contexts) are resolved by prefixing with the Chat2Desk object type (e.g., client_urgent vs conversation_urgent).

Chat2Desk Departments organize Operators and conversation routing rules. Gorgias Teams serve the same organizational function. We map department names to Team names, preserving any routing logic that depends on department assignment as a documented configuration checklist. Note: Gorgias routing rules are set up in Settings > Routing and differ from Chat2Desk's department-based routing; the customer configures Gorgias routing rules post-migration using the Chat2Desk routing logic as a reference.

Chat2Desk chatbot builders, auto-reply logic, and Python script automations are platform-native configurations that cannot be exported as structured records. The chatbot decision trees, conditional branching, and webhook integrations tied to these automations are specific to Chat2Desk's bot runtime and have no equivalent export format. We do not migrate chatbot configurations. We export a documented inventory of every active chatbot rule, auto-reply trigger, and Python automation script with screenshots, flow descriptions, and the Chat2Desk UI path where each rule is configured, so the customer's implementation team has a complete checklist for rebuilding in Gorgias Automate or Rules.

Chat2Desk custom fields on Clients and any custom properties added to Sales Funnel Pipelines require pre-migration schema design. We enumerate every custom field discovered during API scoping, map each to the equivalent Gorgias field type (text, number, date, dropdown, checkbox), and create the destination custom field in Gorgias before any data migrates. Custom fields that have no Gorgias equivalent (e.g., fields specific to Chat2Desk's funnel model) are mapped to a generic text custom field or flagged for the customer to redesign in Gorgias during post-migration setup.