Switching your support operations to a new platform is a significant milestone for any customer service team.
While Kustomer and Freshdesk both offer robust tools for managing customer relationships, their underlying data models differ in ways that require a thoughtful approach to migration.
This guide will walk you through the process of moving your data from Kustomer to Freshdesk, ensuring that your historical context remains intact while you set up your new environment for success.
Define Your Migration Scope
Before you begin moving data, you need to categorize every piece of information in your current Kustomer instance. A successful migration is rarely a one size fits all operation.
What to Migrate via the API
The bulk of your core data should be moved using the API to ensure accuracy and maintain complex relationships.
This includes standard objects like customers (known as contacts in Freshdesk), companies, and conversations (which become tickets).
You should also use the API to move your knowledge base, including categories, internal categories, and articles, as well as your historical messages, notes, and attachments.
Custom data stored in KObjects can be migrated into Freshdesk Custom Objects, provided you have defined the schema first.
What to Configure Manually
Some elements are more about logic than data points and are best rebuilt by hand to ensure they function correctly in the new system.
Business schedules and the specific logic within your Kustomer queues should be configured manually in Freshdesk under business hours and group routing.
Additionally, your satisfaction survey structures and the specific triggers for your workflows need manual setup because the automation engines in each platform operate on different logic.
What to Archive
Not everything needs to make the jump to your live Freshdesk instance. Kustomer search data is often limited to objects updated within the last two years, so older records are effectively archived within Kustomer already.
You may want to perform a specific archive search to identify very old custom objects or messages that can be stored in a separate data warehouse rather than imported into your new active helpdesk.
Prepare Freshdesk for Data Import
Setting up the destination is just as important as extracting the source data. You must have the structure ready to receive the information.
- Create Custom Fields: Map your Kustomer custom attributes to Freshdesk ticket and contact fields so there is a place for that data to land.
- Define Agent Roles and Groups: Recreate your team structures as groups in Freshdesk and assign appropriate roles to maintain security.
- Establish Custom Object Schemas: If you are moving KObjects, you must create the corresponding custom object schemas in Freshdesk before you can import any records.
- Set Up Knowledge Base Hierarchy: Build out your solution categories and folders so that articles can be associated with them immediately upon import.
- Configure Canned Response Folders: Prepare the folder structure for your shortcuts and snippets, which will be housed as canned responses.
Migrate Objects
Mapping Table:
Kustomer Object | Freshdesk Object |
Users | Agents |
Teams | Groups |
Companies | Companies |
Customers | Contacts |
Conversations | Tickets |
Messages | Replies |
Notes | Notes |
Attachments | Attachments |
KB Categories | Solution Categories |
KB Internal Categories | Folders |
KB Articles | Solution Articles |
KObjects | Custom Objects |
Shortcuts / Snippets | Canned Responses |
Tags | Tags |
Satisfaction | Satisfaction Ratings |
Snoozes | Ticket Status |
Business Schedules | Business Hours |
Queues | Groups / Rules |
Workflows | Automations |
The actual movement of data must follow a strict logical sequence to ensure that every object can find its parent or associated record. In the Freshdesk model, a ticket cannot exist without a contact, and a contact is often tied to a company.
First, you must migrate your users and teams. Kustomer users will become agents in Freshdesk, and teams will become groups.
This is essential because these agents will own the tickets and knowledge base articles you are about to move. Once the team is in place, move your knowledge base structure.
Categories and internal categories from Kustomer map to solution categories and folders in Freshdesk. This creates the digital library where your articles will eventually live.
Next, you move to the customer level. Kustomer companies and customers are moved into Freshdesk companies and contacts. With the people and organizations established, you can finally bring over conversations as tickets.
Each message within a Kustomer conversation is added as a reply or a note in the Freshdesk ticket timeline. Attachments must be handled during this phase, as they are associated directly with the message or note being created.
Post Migration Configuration
Once the data import is finished, you still have some fine tuning to do before your team can start answering tickets.
- Rebuild Automations: Take the logic from your Kustomer workflows and recreate it using Freshdesk's automation rules for ticket creation and updates.
- Verify SLA Policies: Ensure your service level agreements are correctly applied to the different customer tiers you have imported.
- Set Up Satisfaction Surveys: Enable your satisfaction surveys so that new ratings can be collected on your fresh tickets.
- Finalize Routing Rules: Connect your groups to the appropriate email mailboxes and chat channels to ensure tickets reach the right agents.
Insider Secrets
- Watch the Rate Limits Closely: Kustomer has very specific object rate limits. A single user can only update a specific resource like a conversation or company 50 times every 10 minutes. If you try to push updates too fast during the final sync, the API will throttle you.
- Handle Snoozes via Status: Kustomer handles snoozes as a distinct action, but Freshdesk uses ticket statuses. The best workaround is to create a custom Pending status in Freshdesk to represent snoozed tickets and set a due date for when they should be revisited.
- The Hidden Multi-Part Requirement: When you are migrating attachments, remember that Freshdesk requires these requests to be sent as multi-part form data. If you try to send them as a standard JSON body, the import will fail even if the rest of the ticket data is correct.
- Preserve Historical Timestamps: To keep your reporting accurate, make sure you are using an admin token that has the authority to set the creation and modification timestamps manually. Without this, all your migrated tickets will look like they were created on the day of the migration.
- Dealing with Redactions: If you have sensitive data that was redacted in Kustomer, those messages still exist in the API but carry a redacted flag. Ensure your migration script checks for this flag so you do not accidentally import blank or placeholder data into your new tickets.
Summary
Migrating from Kustomer to Freshdesk is a structured process that rewards careful planning. By focusing on a logical order, you can ensure a seamless transition.
While the API handles the heavy lifting of moving your data, the manual configuration of workflows and business hours is what will truly make the new system feel like home for your agents.
Pay attention to the technical nuances like rate limits and attachment formats, and you will find your team up and running in Freshdesk with all the context they need to provide excellent service.
If you’d rather focus on your revenue instead of wrestling with mapping sheets and pagination loops, ClonePartner can handle the full migration for you. Every project gets a dedicated engineer who understands the nuances of both APIs and ensures zero downtime.