By Siddharth GangalA Gong exit is a data-and-workflow cutover, not a file-download task. A defensible migration preserves entitled recordings, transcripts and structured evidence; maintains speaker, call, user, team, CRM and coaching relationships; stops new capture at the boundary; reconciles every extraction; and proves revocation and deletion after acceptance.
This page owns Gong incumbent exit controls. It does not repeat the Gong review, comparisons or alternatives, the Gong transcript accuracy test, the general CRM migration checklist, or the conversation-intelligence buyer guide. It makes no claim that every object is bulk portable.
Official Gong documentation was reviewed on August 8, 2026. We did not execute a Gong migration or receive vendor assistance. Bind this runbook to the signed order form, data-processing terms, exit/export rights, plan and seats, assigned scopes, live API reference, tenant configuration, retention policy, integration inventory, and a written vendor response covering gaps.
Define the Gong exit boundary
Direct answer. Treat Gong as linked stores: captured media; transcript and speakers; generated summaries/actions; trackers/topics; scorecards and coaching artifacts; comments/notes; users, teams and hierarchy; CRM associations/custom fields; permissions/shares; capture consent configuration; integrations; retention; and deletion state. Each needs a source, ID, export path, target, owner, acceptance rule and deletion treatment.
Name executive, migration, Gong technical admin, Gong business admin, CRM, data, capture/calendar/telephony, privacy/legal, security, enablement/coaching, target and business-acceptance owners. Freeze the cutoff, allowed post-snapshot changes, excluded calls, legal holds, active recording stop, rollback window, deletion schedule and escalation path. Use the conversation-intelligence privacy checklist to map raw and derived artifacts before extraction.
Inventory every artifact and entitlement
| Artifact | Required fields/edges | Path to verify |
|---|---|---|
| Calls/media | Call ID, title/time/duration/provider/direction/privacy, audio/video, snippets | Call-data CSV, API metadata, permission-controlled media download, contracted bulk path |
| Transcript/speakers | Call ID, turns, speaker IDs/names/categories, timestamps, language | Transcript API; validate paging and scope |
| Summaries/actions | Generated claims, evidence, action, owner, due date, version | API/export if documented and entitled; otherwise reconstruct/unavailable |
| Trackers/topics | Definition/version, call, occurrence, timestamp/count | Call-data report and applicable API endpoints |
| Scorecards/coaching | Template/questions/weights/version, scorer, answer, evidence, review/override, assignment | API where available; confirm coaching artifacts/comments separately |
| Users/teams | Stable ID, email, status, role, manager, team/hierarchy, seat | API/admin exports; preserve inactive people |
| CRM association | Gong call/activity ID, CRM object/ID, account/contact/deal, export status | Call-data CSV, API, CRM, export-status reports |
| Governance | Permissions, shares/library, consent/notice configuration, retention, holds, deletions | Admin evidence, audit exports, contract/vendor confirmation |
Gong’s call-data report documents CSV fields including call metadata, participants, speakers, CRM associations, trackers, topics, link and privacy state. It is not documented there as a transcript, media, comment, scorecard-definition or complete coaching export. Preserve this boundary.
Inventory contract rights, export assistance, API scopes/keys, CRM data, recording storage, retention exceptions, libraries/streams, legal holds, termination deadline, post-termination access, deletion timing, backup treatment and fees. Do not wait until the final contract day to discover a rate or media bottleneck.
Label full, partial, reconstruct, and unavailable paths
For every object and relationship, label portability full only when usable fields, stable IDs, timestamps, relationships, history and semantics are preserved; partial when context is missing; reconstruct when an authorized alternate source can rebuild it; or unavailable when no evidenced path exists. Attach source, plan/scope, tested date and approver.
Gong documents a transcript endpoint keyed by date or call IDs and requiring a transcript-read scope. Its API overview describes calls, transcripts, scorecards and statistics, along with default rate limits. API availability does not imply every UI artifact has an endpoint or that media is bulk downloadable. Inspect current schemas and pagination, preserve unknown fields in raw JSON, and obtain written confirmation for gaps.
CRM is not a complete archive. Gong’s HubSpot documentation says activity data may include a call link but the transcript is not exported. CRM export timing, object mapping and duplicate behavior also vary. Use CRM activities as a separately reconciled source, never proof that Gong content migrated.
Stop recording and freeze the snapshot
Set a snapshot timestamp and append-only delta log. Freeze tracker/scorecard changes, team moves, permission edits, CRM mappings, custom fields, library changes, bulk deletion and retention changes. Export configuration before data. Record all permitted exceptions with actor and before/after state.
Stop capture across calendar integrations, conferencing systems, telephony, dialer, email capture, manual upload/mobile recording and forwarded assistants in an approved sequence. Inventory scheduled and in-flight meetings before disconnection. Reconcile eligible meetings = recorded before cutoff + approved exclusions + failed/quarantined + post-cutoff. Test late processing: a meeting that starts before cutoff but uploads after it needs an explicit rule.
Do not shorten retention to accelerate cleanup before export acceptance. Gong documents that shortened retention purges cannot be restored, that company-library calls can be exceptions unless configured otherwise, and that calls, transcripts and emails are retained under the policy. Inventory library and stream behavior separately.
Reconcile files, fields, and relationship edges
Store raw CSV, JSON and media immutably. Manifest filename/object/query/filter/scope, request and completion times, cursor range, rows, bytes, schema, operator and SHA-256 digest. NIST’s Secure Hash Standard supports detecting file change; a digest does not prove completeness or correct semantics.
| Reconciliation | Formula/test | Failure found |
|---|---|---|
| Counts | Source eligible = exported + exclusions + failed/quarantined | Missing pages, filters, scope or permission |
| IDs | Distinct call/artifact IDs versus expected unique IDs | Replay, duplication, collision |
| Fields | Type/null/distinct/enum/critical-value profiles | Truncation, coercion, missing custom fields |
| Edges | Expected edges = valid exported + exclusions + orphans | Lost speaker, user, team, CRM, scorecard or tracker links |
| Media | Manifest object, byte size, digest, playable sample and call ID | Missing/corrupt/wrong-call recording |
| Deltas | Final = snapshot + ordered creates/updates/deletes through cutoff | Change loss during extraction |
Sample every stratum: platform, language, internal/external, private/shared, library/stream, telephony/web conference, user/team, age, CRM association, scored/unscored and deleted/held. Reconcile speaker-turn call IDs, tracker definition-to-occurrence, scorecard definition/version-to-answer, user-to-manager/team, call-to-comment and call-to-CRM edges. Never silently discard orphans.
Stage the target import and archive
Decide which output belongs in the target application and which belongs in a governed archive. A target notetaker may accept media and transcript but not historical scorecards or comments. Preserve raw evidence and an index even when semantic import is impossible. Label reconstructed outputs so they are not confused with originals. Preserve coaching context using the evidence boundaries in the coaching-from-recordings guide.
Map stable Gong IDs to target external IDs. Import users/teams first, then calls/media, transcript/speakers, CRM edges and supported artifacts. Keep target capture and automated CRM writes disabled. Seed duplicate CRM contacts, multiple deals, inactive owners, private calls, merged accounts, missing participants, altered scorecard versions, overlapping speakers and deleted calls.
Use the conversation-intelligence integration guide for field authority. CRM remains authoritative for account, contact, opportunity, owner, stage, amount and close date. Imported Gong evidence must not overwrite those fields without an approved rule and review.
Dual-run safely and rehearse rollback
Dual-run capture only on a small, consented, explicitly assigned cohort; never let both systems record the whole population by accident. Define which platform owns capture, participant notice, CRM activity and deletion for every pilot meeting. Compare matched artifacts, then stop one owner before broad activation.
Inject cursor replay, out-of-order pages, HTTP 429 with Retry-After, timeout after a successful write, revoked API key, user deactivation, team move, CRM merge, retention boundary and late-upload failures. Reconcile after recovery. Gong documents default API limits and cursor paging; sustainable throughput must include retries, transformations, media and validation.
Rollback specifies trigger, owner, deadline, target capture stop, CRM-write stop, target reversals, Gong connections that may safely resume, delta replay point, notice and suppression treatment. Gates: zero unauthorized recording; no unresolved critical artifact/edge discrepancy; no wrong CRM association; verified idempotency; usable archive/export; target permissions; consent path; and tested rollback.
Revoke, decommission, and prove deletion
After acceptance and legal-hold review, revoke API/OAuth credentials, CRM and calendar integrations, conferencing and telephony connections, SSO assignments, service accounts, webhooks, shared links, support access and users. Test that old credentials fail and record timestamps. Preserve the final CRM export-status report; Gong says it distinguishes successful, failed and not-configured activity exports.
Submit a contract-scoped return/deletion request covering media, transcripts, emails, summaries, actions, comments, trackers, scorecards, coaching artifacts, user/team data, CRM data, libraries, streams, backups, logs and subprocessors. Gong’s call deletion guide says deleting a call permanently removes associated transcript/media, notes/comments, stats, tasks and its Salesforce Conversations record. Test representative deletions and do not generalize that single-call behavior to every tenant artifact.
Collect ticket, scope, requester, confirmation, exceptions, hold basis, irreversible date, backup expiry and final closure evidence. Gong’s standard retention page states former-customer data is irreversibly deleted in 30 days, but your contract and any exceptions must govern the plan. “Tenant inaccessible” is not deletion evidence.
Reproduce the worked example
Hypothetical example—not a Gong result. A source inventory has 5,000 eligible calls. Metadata export contains 4,970 rows, with 4,960 distinct IDs, 20 documented exclusions and 10 failed calls: 5,000 = 4,970 + 20 + 10, but duplicate IDs still fail uniqueness. The normalized layer retains 4,960 unique calls without altering raw evidence.
Suppose 4,800 calls are transcript-eligible; 4,760 transcripts export, 20 are documented unsupported/empty calls and 20 fail. Transcript coverage is 4,760 ÷ 4,800 ≈ 99.17%. The manifest expects 4,200 CRM edges and finds 4,190 valid, five approved exclusions and five orphans: edge recall before resolving exclusions is 4,190 ÷ 4,200 ≈ 99.76%.
These values illustrate formulas only. A single orphan tied to a regulated customer, private call or active deal can fail a hard gate. Publish exceptions, strata, hashes, configuration and denominators, not just percentages.
Calculate TCO and print the checklist
Exit TCO = contract overlap + vendor export services + API engineering + media storage/transfer + archive/search + schema mapping + reconstruction + privacy/security/legal + target implementation + QA/reconciliation + training + dual capture + rollback reserve + deletion evidence. Model low/expected/high cases for rate limits, media throughput, undocumented gaps, manual exports, archive retention, support delay and overlap.
Printable Gong export and migration checklist
- □ Bind contract, plan/seats, scopes, export rights/help, retention, termination and deletion terms.
- □ Inventory calls/media/transcripts/speakers/summaries/actions/comments/trackers/scorecards/coaching/users/teams/CRM/custom fields/permissions/consent/retention.
- □ Mark every object and edge full, partial, reconstruct or unavailable with evidence.
- □ Capture schemas, configurations, IDs, definitions, versions, relationships and authority.
- □ Freeze configuration; snapshot; start ordered delta logging; protect legal holds.
- □ Stop calendar/conference/telephony/email/manual capture; reconcile in-flight and late calls.
- □ Manifest/hash raw files; reconcile counts, IDs, fields, media and all critical edges.
- □ Stage archive/target with capture and CRM writes disabled; label reconstructed artifacts.
- □ Inject paging/rate/retry/revocation/identity/retention failures; close reconciliation.
- □ Run bounded dual capture, pass hard gates and rehearse rollback before cutover.
- □ Revoke every access/integration and collect scoped deletion/exception/backup evidence.
- □ Archive manifests, hashes, mappings, approvals, exceptions, TCO and final decision.
The defensible outcome may be a partial semantic migration plus an immutable governed archive. Explicitly documented loss is safer than a “complete” migration that quietly severs evidence and relationships.