A platform migration is a significant undertaking, involving careful planning and precision to ensure all your valuable customer data and supporting operational structures move seamlessly to your new environment.
Moving from Trengo to Intercom involves navigating API compatibility and understanding conceptual data model differences, especially concerning how user records and historical conversations are handled.
This guide walks through the strategic process required to make your transition successful.
Define Your Migration Scope
Establishing a clear scope is the foundation of a successful migration. Not every piece of data transfers using a direct API call, meaning some objects require automated workarounds while others must be recreated manually in the target system.
Objects Migrated via API:
The bulk of your critical historical data and configuration settings can be moved using API methods.
This includes foundational items like Contacts (Trengo Contacts and Profiles map to Intercom Contacts), their Notes, and configuration definitions such as Custom Fields, Labels (mapping to Intercom Tags), Ticket Results (mapping to Intercom Ticket Types/States), and Help Center Articles.
Finally, your historical Tickets and their associated Ticket Messages (conversation history) will be migrated through carefully executed API sequences.
Objects Requiring Manual Configuration:
Certain structural and organizational entities lack API support for creation in Intercom, even if Trengo allows creation via API.
Therefore, Users (Admins) and Teams must be manually provisioned and configured in Intercom before any records can be assigned to them.
Additionally, Quick Replies often serve as canned responses, and since the Intercom sources provided do not detail an API for creating these, manual recreation is typically the most reliable approach for this kind of operational tool.
The overarching concept of Help Centers itself typically requires manual establishment as well.
Data for Archival and Review:
Certain operational reports and peripheral functions, like Trengo's detailed reporting metrics, user reports, ticket detail reports, and VoIP call logs, should generally be extracted and archived externally before the migration if historical data is required.
While you can retrieve this data via GET endpoints in Trengo, attempting to import reporting history directly into Intercom's live metrics systems is generally not feasible using APIs alone.
Prepare Intercom for Data Import
Before commencing the mass data transfer, you must first build the required structure in Intercom. This vital stage ensures that when customer records and tickets arrive, all dependencies are ready and relationships can be established successfully.
We begin by manually setting up Admins/Users and Teams in Intercom, verifying that the appropriate assignment rules and roles are reflected accurately.
Next, we address custom data structures. Trengo Custom Fields define critical data points for your contacts and tickets. These must be recreated as Data Attributes for contacts or Ticket Type Attributes for tickets in Intercom.
You should also migrate Labels by creating them as Tags in Intercom. Similarly, Ticket Results should be mapped to and configured as Intercom Ticket Types and their associated Ticket States. This structural groundwork ensures consistency between the two platforms.
Finally, set up your knowledge base foundation. After manually establishing the top-level Help Center, migrate the Trengo knowledge structure: categories should be mapped and created as Intercom Collections, which serve as the containers for your articles.
Migrate Objects
This section defines the precise order for data transfer, ensuring relational integrity is maintained across the new platform.
- Contacts and Profiles
The customer data is paramount. Trengo separates customer information into Contacts and Profiles. In Intercom, the primary customer record is the Contact.
Since Profiles often hold additional customer data, migrate all Contacts directly to Intercom Contacts.
The specific fields previously stored in Trengo Profiles should be incorporated into the corresponding Intercom Contact record using Custom Attributes, which is the crucial workaround for migrating this dual customer object model. Don't forget to transfer any associated Notes attached to these records. - Labels and Contact Groups
Move your organized categorization systems next. All existing Labels should be applied as Tags to the corresponding Intercom Contacts (and later, Tickets).
For Trengo's Contact Groups, dynamic groups require manual setup as Intercom Segments. Static groups can often be replicated efficiently using Tags applied to the relevant contacts during this phase. - Help Center Content
With the structural framework (Help Centers and Collections) prepared, proceed to migrate the content itself.
Export Trengo Articles and import them as Intercom Articles, ensuring they are correctly placed within the newly created Collections (Trengo Categories). This process rebuilds your knowledge base for customer self-service. - Tickets and Historical Messages
This is the most complex phase, requiring careful sequencing. - Create Tickets: Migrate the core ticket records first, using the API to create the corresponding Intercom Tickets. Ensure custom field values set in Trengo are mapped to the correct Intercom Ticket Attributes.
- Assign and Status: Apply Tags (Labels) to the newly created tickets. If possible, assign the ticket owner and team based on your preparatory manual steps. Finally, migrate the status (e.g., set to Closed or Open).
- Import History: Trengo allows the import of historical email and text messages. In Intercom, this history must be injected into the newly created Ticket using the Reply to a ticket mechanism or by creating a Conversation if necessary to establish history. This is the primary workaround for migrating message history, ensuring the chain of events is preserved within the new ticket structure.
Post Migration Configuration
Once the data transfer is complete, final configuration steps are necessary to ensure the Intercom workspace is fully operational and optimized for your team.
Recreate operational efficiencies like Trengo Quick Replies manually in Intercom's canned response system. Beyond simple content recreation, you must rebuild complex automated operational logic. This involves configuring assignment rules, setting up triggers and responses, and implementing any complex workflow automation unique to your business processes.
Insider Secrets
Having successfully executed migrations, certain nuanced points stand out as critical to avoiding delays and unexpected behavior:
- Handling Profile Duplication: Be vigilant about merging customer data. Because Trengo uses both Contacts and Profiles, you must carefully consolidate this information into a single Intercom Contact record. The simplest way to handle fields unique to a Trengo Profile is often to map them into descriptive custom attributes on the main Intercom Contact, ensuring no data is lost.
- The Velocity of Message Imports: Importing historical ticket messages requires special attention. Trengo offers API endpoints for importing text and email messages, but this process is fundamentally restricted by rate limits, sometimes explicitly set (e.g., 60 per minute for message imports). Plan for this bottleneck: history import cannot be rushed, and throttling is necessary to prevent API rejection.
- Reporting Exports Require Precise Formatting: If you decide to pull historical operational metrics or ticket details reports from Trengo, remember that date fields must strictly adhere to the ISO 8601 JSON encoded format to avoid errors during extraction.
- Understanding Admin Limitations: Unlike Trengo, where you can programmatically create Users and Teams, the Intercom API documentation provided only allows fetching or identifying Admins and Teams. This critical limitation confirms that agent and team provisioning must be done manually outside of your data migration scripts.
Summary
Successfully migrating from Trengo to Intercom relies on strategic preparation, rigorous data mapping, and adherence to a logical execution order.
By defining clear boundaries for automated API migration (Contacts, Tickets, Configuration) versus essential manual setup (Admins, Teams, Quick Replies), you can ensure a smooth transition of customer history and knowledge base content.
The careful handling of data transformation, particularly merging Trengo's Contact and Profile model, guarantees that your new Intercom environment is operational, accurate, and ready to support your customers effectively from day one.
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.