Moving Off Gorgias? How to Plan Your Switch to Chatbase

Moving off Gorgias means changing how your team works while customer support keeps running. Before you switch, you need clear answers: Can you keep your ticket history? Will agents still have the customer and order details they need? Which workflows will you have to rebuild?

Plan your move to Chatbase around those questions. Identify the records you need to preserve, the data you can import, and the support tasks that must work before launch. Then decide how to handle open tickets and when to move each channel, so your team knows where to respond throughout the transition.

Gorgias-to-Chatbase migration checklist

A safe Gorgias migration follows seven stages:

Audit: Identify the channels, customer data, workflows, integrations, and open tickets your team relies on.

Export: Download the available ticket metadata and message content from Gorgias, then verify the exported files.

Configure: Add your support knowledge, import contacts, connect Shopify or other required tools, and enable the actions your agent needs.

Rebuild: Recreate essential routing rules, team ownership, escalation conditions, and human handoffs in Chatbase.

Test: Use real support scenarios to check answers, customer verification, connected actions, and escalation paths.

Switch: Move one channel at a time while existing Gorgias tickets remain with a clear owner.

Validate: Monitor unanswered requests, routing errors, failed actions, response times, and open tickets before cancelling Gorgias.

Preserve your Gorgias archive, then contact Chatbase to confirm the best path for any historical records you want available in your new workspace.

What can you move from Gorgias to Chatbase?

Customer records, support content, and ticket history need different treatment. Before setting a switch date, separate what you can import from what you need to recreate or retain elsewhere.

Customer contacts and support content

You can upload contacts into Chatbase using CSV or XLSX files. Map names, email addresses, phone numbers, and custom attributes to the matching fields. Each contact needs an External ID, so prepare your records before uploading.

Existing FAQs, policies, and help-center content can supply the agent’s knowledge through websites, files, text, or Q&As. Adding those sources trains the agent; it does not recreate your public help center’s layout, categories, or URLs.

Open tickets and historical conversations

Give every unresolved Gorgias ticket a clear destination: finish it in Gorgias or recreate the issue in Chatbase with enough context for an agent to continue.

For a custom transfer, the Helpdesk API can create tickets with customer details, a first message, status, priority, team, and assignee. A developer would need to map your exported data to those fields.

That is different from importing complete conversation history. Confirm support for original messages, timestamps, attachments, and internal notes before relying on a historical import. Keep an accessible archive of the records your team needs.

Rules, saved replies, and routing

Plan to review and rebuild the workflows you still use. Separate the answers inside Gorgias macros from the actions they perform, such as assigning a team or changing a ticket’s status. Bring forward the useful content and logic. Leave behind outdated replies, unused rules, and views your team no longer needs.

Check your must-have workflows before committing

Start with recent support requests, not a feature checklist. Pick examples your team handles often, plus exceptions that need careful handling: a missing order, a damaged item, a billing dispute, or a customer asking for a person.

Identify the required information and action

For each request, record the information the agent needs, such as order details, previous messages, account data, or a policy. Then define the expected outcome: answer a question, update a record, or send the request to a person.

Check the systems and human owner

List every tool involved, including Shopify, a returns app, subscription software, or a custom integration. Assign the team responsible for exceptions, including requests that arrive outside working hours.

Check the exact action you need in Chatbase. An integration that retrieves order details does not, by itself, confirm support for refunds, cancellations, or your returns provider. Include the reason you want to leave Gorgias in this check. If cost is the concern, compare the expected bill at your normal volume and during busy periods. If automation is the concern, test whether the replacement completes the task rather than simply answering the question.

If you are still comparing replacement platforms, review the leading Gorgias alternatives by automation, support channels, pricing, and human-handoff options before setting a migration date.

Before setting a switch date, give each essential workflow an owner and a clear outcome: supported, needs configuration, needs custom development, or remains unresolved. Any unresolved requirement should have an agreed workaround before you move the affected channel.

Export your records and account for open tickets

Before changing channels, save the records your team needs. Gorgias allows account owners, admins, and leads to export tickets.

Export ticket details

1. Open the top-left dropdown and select Inbox.

2. Choose a view from the sidebar.

3. Select the tickets. For the whole view, select the header checkbox, then select all tickets in the view.

4. Open the three-dot menu and choose Export tickets.

5. Download the CSV using the emailed link, which expires after 14 days.

This export contains metadata, not message bodies, and supports up to one million tickets.

Export message content

1. Open the top-left dropdown and select Analytics.

2. Choose a report with an exportable drill-down.

3. Click a metric to open its ticket list.

4. Select Export → Export with message content.

5. Download the file from the email.

This includes public messages for the most recent 30 days of the selected period, up to 100,000 tickets. Internal notes, ticket events, and certain social content are excluded. If you need additional records, request a custom export using the options in Gorgias’s export documentation.

Check the files before switching

Open sample records from different dates and channels. Check that you have the actual information your agents need, not just links that require access to Gorgias. Track unresolved tickets separately, with an owner, next action, and the system where each will be handled. Record the export date so you can account for requests created or updated afterward.

Set up Chatbase before moving customer traffic

Build the new support setup while Gorgias is still active. Start with the information and customer context Chatbase needs to answer correctly.

Add the knowledge your agent should use

In Build → Data sources, add your website, sitemap, files, text, Q&As, or Notion pages. Use current policies and support content, not an unreviewed dump of old macros.

If your store runs on Shopify, add the store’s /sitemap.xml as a data source and review the fetched URLs. Exclude outdated or irrelevant content. See the data-source setup options.

Chatbase can sync closed support tickets directly from Zendesk or Salesforce as training sources. The documentation does not list Gorgias for this feature, so do not assume your exported Gorgias tickets can be uploaded as a ticket source.

Import the contacts you need

Open your agent’s Contacts page and upload a CSV or XLSX file. Map the External ID, name, email, phone number, and any custom attributes you want to retain. External ID is required. Files are limited to 1,000 rows and 5 MB per upload, so larger contact lists need to be split or created through the API. Review blocked duplicates and failed rows before treating the import as complete. Follow the contact import requirements.

Connect Shopify and check customer context

Connect Shopify from Integrations before testing ecommerce requests. Then enable only the actions your agent should be allowed to perform. Depending on your setup, Shopify Actions can support product search, cart changes, order creation, exchanges, order lookup, order tagging, account activation, and customer-profile updates. Test each action with a signed-in and signed-out customer. Confirm what the agent can do, what requires authentication, and what should be sent to a human.

Rebuild routing and human handoffs

Preserve the Gorgias workflows that protect revenue and customer trust, then rebuild them in Chatbase. Start with refunds, payment disputes, damaged or missing orders, account changes, repeated failed answers, and requests to speak with a person.

Define when the AI agent should escalate

Prioritize refunds, payment disputes, suspected fraud, damaged or missing orders, account changes, and repeated failed answers. Escalate when language signals urgency or negative sentiment, and whenever the customer directly asks to speak with a person.

Use Chatbase’s human escalation action to define what triggers the handoff and what information the agent should collect first.

Choose where your team will receive escalations

You have two practical options during the move:

Keep Gorgias as the temporary escalation destination: Connect Gorgias to Chatbase so the AI agent can create a Gorgias ticket containing an issue summary and relevant Chatbase conversation context.

Move escalations into Chatbase Helpdesk: Assign tickets to the right team or agent, manage their status and priority, add internal notes, draft replies with AI, and return resolved conversations to the AI agent when appropriate.

The Gorgias integration supports a phased migration by keeping Gorgias as the temporary destination for human escalations. If you need historical records inside Chatbase, contact the Chatbase team to review your requirements and confirm the best migration path.

Recreate ownership and coverage rules

Map each important Gorgias workflow to its replacement. Decide which team owns each issue type, who receives unassigned tickets, and what happens outside support hours. Define which cases need immediate human attention and when a person can return the conversation to the AI agent.

Test these rules with real support scenarios before moving a live channel. Every escalated case should reach the intended queue with enough context for an agent to respond without asking the customer to repeat the issue.

Test answers, actions, and handoffs

Do not judge the new setup with a few simple questions. Test the conversations that create the most risk for your team. Build a test set from recent Gorgias tickets. Include common requests, unusual cases, unclear questions, and situations that must reach a person.

Check answer quality

For each test, confirm that the AI agent:

• Uses the correct policy or product information
• Does not invent missing details
• Asks for clarification when the request is unclear
• Refuses actions it cannot complete
• Gives the same answer across different wording of the same question

If an answer is wrong, fix the underlying source or instruction. Do not rely on adding more wording to the response prompt when the source itself is outdated.

Test connected actions

Run each action with realistic customer states. For Shopify workflows, test signed-in and signed-out customers, missing orders, multiple orders, and requests outside the configured policy. Confirm that the agent retrieves the right record, verifies the customer when required, and completes only the actions you enabled. A successful order lookup does not prove that refunds, cancellations, exchanges, or account changes will also work.

Test the complete human handoff

Trigger every escalation rule and check that:

• The ticket reaches the correct team or agent
• Its priority and status are correct
• The customer’s issue is summarized accurately
• The Chatbase conversation context is available
• The agent knows whether to reply in Chatbase or Gorgias
• The customer does not receive duplicate responses

Include tests during business hours and outside your normal schedule. Move a channel only after its common requests, high-risk actions, and escalation paths pass.

Switch channels without missing customer replies

Avoid moving every support channel at once. Start with one channel that has predictable volume and workflows, then use what you learn before moving the next.

Set one system as the owner of each channel

For every channel, record:

• The date and time it will move
• Where new conversations will appear
• Who will monitor them
• Where agents must reply
• How open Gorgias tickets will be handled

Do not let agents answer the same channel from both platforms. Parallel testing is useful, but ownership must remain clear to prevent duplicate or conflicting replies.

Keep existing tickets in Gorgias until they close

A clean cutover is usually safer than rebuilding every open thread. Let agents finish existing Gorgias tickets there while new conversations from the migrated channel enter Chatbase. If an open case must move, recreate only the information the agent needs: customer details, issue summary, current status, prior commitments, and the next required action. Keep the original Gorgias record available for reference.

Monitor the first live conversations

During the initial rollout, check:

• Whether new conversations reach the expected inbox
• Whether customer identity and context appear correctly
• Whether Shopify or other connected actions return the right data
• Whether escalations reach the correct team
• Whether replies are delivered through the intended channel
• Whether any conversations remain unanswered or appear twice

Keep a rollback path until the channel performs reliably. Move the remaining channels in stages instead of treating launch day as an irreversible switch.

Confirm the new setup before closing Gorgias

Do not cancel Gorgias as soon as the last channel moves. Keep access until your team has processed enough live conversations to expose routing, answer, and integration problems. Track the measures that show whether support is working:

• New and solved ticket volume
• Unassigned or unanswered tickets
• First response time
• Escalation volume
• Failed actions or incorrect answers
• Reopened issues and the customer satisfaction signals you already use

Compare the results with your previous baseline, but expect some numbers to change. For example, a higher escalation rate may be acceptable during launch if it prevents the AI agent from taking unsafe actions.

Use clear exit conditions

Close Gorgias only when:

• Every live channel has a confirmed owner
• New requests no longer enter Gorgias unexpectedly
• Priority workflows work in Chatbase
• Human handoffs reach the correct team
• Open Gorgias tickets are resolved or assigned a documented owner
• Required exports have been downloaded and checked
• Agents know where to work and how to handle exceptions
• Billing and cancellation timing have been confirmed

Store your Gorgias exports according to your retention and security requirements. Export files may contain customer information, so restrict access and document who owns the archive after cancellation.

Frequently asked questions

Can Chatbase import all my Gorgias ticket history?

Preserve a verified Gorgias archive for complete ticket history. Standard exports include ticket metadata, while analytics exports can include public messages for a defined period. If historical access inside Chatbase is essential, contact the Chatbase team before switching to review the specific records and fields you need.

Can I use Chatbase with Gorgias during the transition?

Yes. You can connect Chatbase to Gorgias and configure human escalation so the AI agent creates a Gorgias ticket with an issue summary and relevant Chatbase conversation context. This can support a phased move. It is an escalation workflow, not a method for importing historical Gorgias tickets.

What Gorgias data can I move to Chatbase?

You can import customer contacts into Chatbase from CSV or XLSX files. You can also add support knowledge from websites, sitemaps, files, text, Q&A, or Notion. Rules, macros, routing logic, views, and complete ticket history do not transfer through the contact importer. Review and rebuild the workflows you still need.

Should I cancel Gorgias before launching Chatbase?

No. Keep Gorgias available while you test Chatbase with live support traffic and finish open tickets. Cancel only after new requests reach the correct inbox, agents know where to reply, required records have been exported, and your priority workflows and handoffs work reliably.

Move without leaving your support team exposed

A Gorgias migration should not force you to choose between keeping support online and improving how it works. Start building your Chatbase agent, test it with real customer requests, and move each channel only when its answers, actions, and human handoffs are ready.