List the information you need to keep
Decide which parts of the work belong in your own records: question wording, groups, captured answers, source links, dates, locations and reports. Some exports provide only a summary. Ask for an example file before buying and inspect it with the person who will use it. A feature labelled export may be perfectly adequate for a presentation while unsuitable for analysing individual answers or moving your question set to another service later.
Test an ordinary export
Run a small representative project and export the results yourself. Check whether labels are clear, special characters remain intact and dates include enough context. Compare the file with what the interface shows. If important details are missing, ask whether another export or access method exists and whether it costs more. Keep the example file with your evaluation. This gives your team concrete evidence of what it can retain instead of relying on a promise in a sales conversation.
Confirm ownership and access
Establish who controls the account, who can invite colleagues and who can remove access. For agencies, confirm what happens when a client leaves or asks for its data. Avoid placing an organisation’s only account under an address nobody else can recover. Ask how stored information is handled after cancellation and whether access continues for a stated period. These questions should be answered while the relationship is straightforward, before a deadline or personnel change makes them urgent.
Understand what cannot be carried over
Two providers may use different methods, question handling and definitions. Exporting history does not mean a new tool can reproduce or import it. Ask the new provider which information it accepts and how it presents older results. Expect some break in comparability when the measurement changes. Preserve a dated copy of the old method and report. This helps colleagues understand why a new chart may look different without assuming the brand’s underlying position suddenly changed.
Run a limited overlap
When switching, use a short shared period with the same question set and clearly recorded settings where practical. Inspect the differences instead of trying to force the headline numbers to agree. Collection methods can produce different answers. Use the overlap to learn the new workflow and explain the change to report recipients. Keep the exercise bounded so it does not become an expensive attempt to prove that two different products produce identical observations in every situation.
Switching without losing your history
- Before you startExport answers, sources and reports from the old tool.
- Week 1Recreate the same questions, platforms and rival list in the new tool.
- Weeks 2–4Run both. Note where the numbers differ and why.
- Last weekKeep a dated copy of the old data, then cancel.
Leave a usable record
Finish with the files, question definitions, source context and cancellation confirmation your team needs. Remove access that is no longer appropriate and update recurring reporting notes. Confirm that no automated work continues unintentionally. Write a short explanation of when the new method began and how future reports should be read. Planning this at the buying stage makes a later transition less disruptive and can reveal whether a provider’s data access is suitable before you depend on it.