As a firm owner for over a decade, I rely upon software application and automation to enhance operations and supply results. So when GoHighLevel emerged on the scene few years back, it certainly caught my focus 3CX GoHighLevel.
The concept was appealing– an all-in-one client management system with marketing, sales, and solution tools integrated together. As an entrepreneur always aiming to simplify and scale my service, it seemed like a dream come to life on paper. Who would not want a solitary option that does it all?
But in this extensive GoHighLevel testimonial, I’ll take you inside my disastrous trip of trying (and failing) to switch to this prominent new software application. You’ll find out:
If you’re taking into consideration whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own business requirements, ideally you can gain from my excruciating errors and pumped up expectations.
Looter: I do NOT advise GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, start with this listing of best CRMs rather. I make use of Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re searching for a sales, marketing, and job administration option to GoHighLevel, then here are a few we suggest.
Backstory: Why I Took Into Consideration Changing from Keap
To understand what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you require context concerning my previous configuration. For over 5 years I had been gladly relying on Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) to satisfy all my client management and automation requirements.
I discovered Keap user-friendly to use and it took care of whatever I needed– CRM, email marketing, sales funnels, membership sites, and client assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are made to aid local business keep their customers while including new ones easily. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and texts, ensuring leads and customers obtain the best messages at the right time. Use web site and social media types to improve lead follow-up, and manage your growth with very easy consultation organizing and lead tracking. Boost sales with automated pricing quote, invoicing, and repayment processing, maximizing your time. With Keap, local business can save 10 hours per week and rise revenue by 39%. Begin with a 14-day free trial, no bank card called for.
Why we like Keap
Keap offers a thorough customer connection management (CRM) and marketing automation service customized for local business and entrepreneurs. We appreciate Keap’s concentrate on streamlining sales procedures and nurturing client partnerships through powerful automation tools. The platform’s all-in-one technique incorporates CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and job administration, making it particularly eye-catching for services seeking to consolidate their tech pile.
Generally, it just worked dependably with minimal hassle or maintenance required. My open and click-through prices were wonderful (like 35% fantastic). Automations ran smoothly with no concerns.
So why on earth was I tempted to uproot my entire functional foundation from a system that functioned to attempt something unverified and untested?
In knowledge I can confess I obtained attracted by the alarm phone call of “glossy object syndrome”. You recognize the sensation: when every person’s speaking about a new tool that will transform your company … The grass frequently looks greener on the other side, and I asked yourself whether GoHighLevel may reduce rubbing points that I ‘d found out to tolerate over the years with Keap.
I stood up to at first, however a few more frustrations led me to think possibly it was time for a modification.
The Investment: Moving My Agency to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I made a decision to take the plunge. I enrolled in HighLevel’s Company plan at $297/month, investing dramatically greater than the $97/month starter expense.
This wasn’t a choice I ignored. I knew switching over platforms was going to need migrating all my Keap data and essentially rebuilding my whole tech framework from scratch utilizing all of the GoHighLevel integrations available.
Right here’s a summary of just some of the initiative called for:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ e-mail subscriber documents
- Recreating lots of automations and workflows
- Moving customer profiles, notes, and job data to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe payment integration
- Setting up landing pages, promotions, and sales funnels all over once again
- Learning a totally foreign UX and user interface style
Done in, I invested around 30-40 laborious hours of setup job transitioning everything over– and also dealing with lost productivity during the button.
But eventually, it was a computed financial investment I agreed to make. I figured some temporary pain would certainly pay off with GoHighLevel providing a better long-lasting remedy for my organization, Dripify. Oh how incorrect I was …
It only took me concerning a month of hands-on use to realize I had actually made a large error. The concerns began accumulating swiftly, till it got to a point I needed to reduce my losses and switch over back to Keap completely.
Let’s walk through the horrible troubles I came across.
Safety And Security Issues & Many Vermin
Offered GoHighLevel placed itself as an all-in-one automation system, I took care to thoroughly recreate every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These included series for onboarding new email customers, onboarding brand-new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar enrollments, sending out occasion reminders, managing subscription expirations and far more.
Every little thing seemed to be operating penalty … until unexpectedly it had not been. One morning, I woke up to discover 171 totally unnecessary emails had actually been sent out to customers who need to NOT have actually gotten them. This occurred three days in a row, with a various batch of 160 individuals daily.
I anxiously tried fixing and restoring the automation from scratch. But the trouble lingered.
When I frantically connected to their support team, they slightly declared “server problems” were responsible. But this description really did not make any feeling, because the errors continued taking place each early morning like clockwork unconnected to any kind of downtime.
In my mind, this huge failing was totally inappropriate and simply didn’t help my service. I have thousands of get in touches with relying upon my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be completely undependable, exactly how could I turn over mission-critical workflows and sensitive client data to their technology?
The unintuitive interface only worsened these concerns …
Frustrating UX
Originating from Keap where whatever was smooth and intuitive, GoHighLevel’s learning curve felt high and challenging.
Simple jobs like editing workflows involved excavating via food selection systems that were all over the place. Secret setups were unexplainably scattered in totally various sections. Moving between functions really felt disjointed or complex.
I’ll tell you what I indicate by talking about their funnel builder as an instance. There were 3 separate setups panels to take care of total, specific, and item setups. Yet for some crazy reason, the links to accessibility each of these core setups were spread out on contrary sides of the display. What!?
As someone who values tidy, thoughtful layout, this seriously frustrated me.
It enhanced that GoHighLevel still felt like a work-in-progress instead of a sleek product ready for prime-time usage. Their concerns seemed focused on stuffing in every feature imaginable, with bad use as an afterthought.
And speaking of features, I quickly understood the low cost tag included pricey compromises …
Misleading Pricing 3CX GoHighLevel
One of GoHighLevel’s most significant marketing points is the cost effective cost for accessibility to so many features. However I promptly discovered this inexpensive base price was misleading.
They nickle-and-dimed users with erratic charges for core capability. Suddenly my credit card statements had unclear $10 costs from GoHighLevel here and there.
As it ended up, you get billed every single time you send out an e-mail with their servers. So for high volume customers, this added up to numerous dollars in unexpected costs.
Between these per-email charges and paying added for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “budget-friendly” GoHighLevel subscription wound up costing dramatically MORE than my Keap plan.
The low sticker price was tempting, however just not reasonable in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor preference in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The final dealbreaker was seeing my meticulously nurtured email open rates plummet virtually over night after switching to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my audience engagement continually struck 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. Once I moved their documents over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked immediately to a worthless 9% open price.
Despite how much I optimized my sending out methods or attempted every troubleshooting technique, I could hardly push open rates back into the teens– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous standards 3CX GoHighLevel.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and e-mails unexpectedly had dreadful interaction. The only point I might think that would certainly be triggering this was whatever was happening behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For an agency so depending on e-mail marketing, this was a big deal.
In between the debilitating deliverability issues, hidden fees, busted features, and horrible interface, I had ultimately reached my restriction …
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Just 45 days after migrating my firm to GoHighLevel, I knew I had actually made a massive error. The cons substantially exceeded any kind of benefits.
No software is perfect, but the sheer quantity of troubles was beyond appropriate.
At the end of the day, software comes down to depend on. If I can’t trust it to manage crucial functions properly or think a vendor has my best interests in mind, then it’s time to leave– even after investing considerable time, cash, and initiative migrating.
So I made the hard contact us to reverse training course and return back to Keap entirely just weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s discover what I gained from this ordeal.
Trick Takeaways: What I Learned From My GoHighLevel Mistake
My time with HighLevel can be summarized as a costly ill fortune. But in knowledge, it instructed me a few crucial lessons:
- Adhere to what jobs. Do not disturb what’s working unless something is definitively far better across the board. Adjustment brings threat.
- Vet claims thoroughly. Marketing buzz around brand-new software program typically covers bigger underlying imperfections. Deep due diligence is vital.
- Pick simpleness over features. Well-designed devices must make your work life simpler, not more complex and untidy.
- Transparency constructs trust. Nontransparent pricing, questionable reseller terms, and finger-pointing to escape troubles destroys count on.
- Look for honest evaluations. Satisfied assistance evaluates imply less if excessive concerns indicate inadequate total functionality.
- Excellence is impossible. No solitary service can perfectly satisfy every unique company requirement. Locate the least-bad fit.
- Advancement over revolution. Incremental enhancements commonly surpass high-risk wholesale reinvention of what already functions fine.
Simply put, I discovered to be extra doubtful of “also great to be real” marketing cases and much less attracted by the appeal of shiny new items. The tools you make use of daily need to make trust fund with openness and efficiency, not slick advertising.