Moving customer support data between platforms can feel daunting, but with a thoughtful plan, you can ensure your transition from Tidio to Help Scout is smooth and complete.
Tidio is excellent for real-time chat, but when you transition to Help Scout, you are leveraging its robust conversation management system.
This guide details a structured approach for migrating your help desk, ensuring nothing is left behind or overlooked during this essential process.
Define your migration scope
Successful migration requires defining clear boundaries: what data moves automatically, what structure must be manually rebuilt, and what legacy features should be archived.
Migrated via API (Core Data):
The vast majority of your core customer data can and should be moved using the API.
This includes Contacts and their associated data. Tidio contacts, identified by their email, name, or phone number, can be retrieved along with their customized data properties.
These seamlessly map to Help Scout’s Customers and their corresponding properties. Crucially, all Tickets and Conversation Messages must be migrated via API.
Tidio tickets, which often include complex or lengthy interactions with operators, must be pulled and restructured into Help Scout’s Conversations and Threads.
Configured Manually (Structural Data):
Structural components, which are essential for Help Scout’s operational flow, require manual creation and mapping before data migration begins.
This includes Tidio’s Departments, which need to be rebuilt as Help Scout Inboxes or Teams. Similarly, Tidio’s Operators must be manually created as Help Scout Users or Team Members, even though you can retrieve the full list of operators via the Tidio API.
This initial manual setup ensures the migrated conversations are assigned to the correct teams and agents.
Workaround Manual Migration (Contextual Data):
Some contextual data requires a combination of API retrieval and manual appending. For instance, Viewed Pages History, which Tidio captures for contacts over the last 30 days, lacks a direct ingestion endpoint in Help Scout for historical activity.
This information can be retrieved via the Tidio API but must be added manually as notes or metadata to the corresponding Customer or Conversation records in Help Scout.
Archived/Excluded Data:
Tidio-specific configuration objects, such as Project Info or the data related to Lyro and Product Recommendations, are proprietary features that do not map to Help Scout and should generally be archived on the Tidio side or excluded entirely from the migration scope.
Prepare Help Scout for data import
Before initiating any data transfer, you must establish the foundational structure in Help Scout. This preparation ensures that when the data arrives, it has the correct homes and owners.
- Establish Agent and Team Identities:
Start by setting up your team. While the Tidio API allows you to retrieve a complete list of Operators, you will need to manually create these accounts in Help Scout.
Once created, keep a secure map connecting the old Tidio Operator IDs to the new Help Scout User IDs. Next, review the Departments retrieved from Tidio and manually configure the corresponding Inboxes and Teams in Help Scout.
This mapping ensures conversations are routed correctly upon import. - Define Custom Customer Properties:
Customer property fields in Tidio, which can be defined by specific types like text, email, or number, must be defined in Help Scout before importing contact data.
Use the Tidio API to retrieve the complete list of defined Contact Properties. Then, manually create the matching Customer Property Definitions in Help Scout.
This preparation prevents data loss during the transfer of contact details.
Migrate objects
The migration should proceed in a strictly logical sequence, ensuring that foundational objects (Customers) exist before relational objects (Conversations) are created.
- Customer Data Model (Contacts):
Tidio defines Contacts as site visitors identified by information such as email, name, or phone. These contacts can be retrieved in batches or individually.
You can also update them individually or in groups. In Help Scout, these Tidio Contacts become Customers.
We utilize the Help Scout Customer endpoints to create new customers or update existing ones, transferring the core demographic data and the previously mapped custom properties.
It is vital to use the available bulk creation and update endpoints for efficient data transfer, given the Help Scout rate limits you will encounter. - Conversation Data Model (Tickets and Messages):
This is the most intricate phase. In Tidio, a complex customer interaction is recorded as a Ticket. You can retrieve a ticket’s details, including the full message history, using the Tidio API.
Conversations also include messages exchanged between the contact and operators or chatbots.
For each Tidio Ticket, you must create a new Conversation object in Help Scout. The real work lies in reconstructing the message history.
The Tidio messages (retrieved via the ticket details or contact messages endpoints) must be transformed into Help Scout Threads. - If the original message was from the customer, it becomes a Customer Thread.
- If it was a reply from an agent, it becomes a Reply Thread.
- If the conversation originated as a real-time chat, you might use a Chat Thread to maintain that context.
You must map the original Tidio Operator ID to the new Help Scout User ID to correctly attribute the replies within the thread. Additionally, information like ticket status, priority, and assignment retrieved from Tidio must be reflected when creating or updating the Help Scout Conversation.
Post Migration Configuration
Once the historical data is safely loaded into Help Scout, you must rebuild the operational structure and automation manually.
Workflows and Automation: Help Scout allows for defining Workflows to automate tasks based on conversation triggers. Any automated actions, routing rules, or organizational processes that were present in Tidio (such as auto-replies or conditional assignments) must be recreated manually as new Workflows in the Help Scout platform.
Saved Replies: If your Tidio operators utilized canned responses, you must manually recreate these as Saved Replies in Help Scout. While the Help Scout API allows listing, creating, and updating Saved Replies, the text and structure of these responses must be ported over by your team.
Security and Permissions: Any specific operator permissions or security settings defined in Tidio need to be replicated manually within the Help Scout administrative interface.
Insider Secrets
Having successfully executed this migration involves knowing where the subtle complexities lie, ensuring a smooth transition beyond the basic transfer steps.
- ID Mapping is Non-Negotiable:
The relationship between Operators and Departments in Tidio and Users and Inboxes in Help Scout is critical.
You must maintain a master lookup table that permanently links the old Tidio IDs (for operators, contacts, and departments) to the new Help Scout IDs (for users, customers, and inboxes).
Without this map, you cannot accurately link conversations to their historical owner. - Managing Rate Limits:
Help Scout imposes rate limits on API requests when migrating large volumes of Contacts or Tickets. You must build exponential backoff and retry logic into your migration scripts.
Ignoring the rate limits will lead to HTTP 429 error responses, potentially stalling your migration for extended periods. Monitoring the `X-RateLimit-Remaining` header is essential to pacing your transfer. - Handling Tidio Contact Duplicates:
When retrieving contacts from Tidio, recognize that creating a new contact in Tidio will always add a new record, even if the email or distinct ID exists, meaning no data is overwritten.
When moving to Help Scout, you must develop a strategy for merging these potential duplicates into a single Customer record, likely prioritizing unique identification via email address.
Help Scout offers endpoints to create new customers or overwrite existing ones, giving you the control necessary to manage merging contact histories. - Viewed Pages Context:
Remember that Viewed Pages History only covers the last 30 days in Tidio. If you require older browsing history, you may need a separate archival method.
For the recent data, pull it alongside the contact data and structure it as a clean note or metadata field within the Help Scout Customer record to maintain valuable context for agents.
Summary
Migrating from Tidio to Help Scout is an organized process that relies on careful preparation and methodical API transfer.
By first establishing your core organizational structure (Users and Inboxes) and defining custom fields, you pave the way for a smooth transfer of bulk data.
The successful migration hinges on accurately mapping Tidio Contacts to Help Scout Customers and reconstructing Tidio Tickets and Messages as sequential Help Scout Conversations and Threads.
By paying close attention to these data models and managing technical details like ID mapping and API rate limits, you ensure a complete transition of your valuable customer support history.