As a company owner for over a decade, I count on software program and automation to simplify operations and deliver outcomes. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene couple of years back, it most definitely caught my attention GoHighLevel For Contractors.
The concept was appealing– an all-in-one client administration platform with marketing, sales, and service devices incorporated with each other. As an entrepreneur constantly aiming to streamline and scale my company, it felt like a desire become a reality on paper. Who wouldn’t want a single remedy that does it all?
But in this in-depth GoHighLevel testimonial, I’ll take you inside my devastating trip of attempting (and falling short) to switch over to this preferred brand-new software. You’ll find out:
If you’re thinking about whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own company requirements, ideally you can learn from my painful mistakes and pumped up expectations.
Spoiler: I do NOT suggest GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, start with this list of best CRMs instead. I use Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re searching for a sales, marketing, and task monitoring alternative to GoHighLevel, after that right here are a couple of we recommend.
Backstory: Why I Considered Switching from Keap
To recognize what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you require context concerning my previous arrangement. For over 5 years I had been happily counting on Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) to satisfy all my client monitoring and automation requirements.
I discovered Keap user-friendly to use and it took care of whatever I needed– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, membership sites, and client support.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are made to aid local business keep their customers while including new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and texts, making certain leads and customers obtain the ideal messages at the correct time. Usage website and social media types to improve lead follow-up, and manage your growth with very easy consultation organizing and lead monitoring. Boost sales with automated estimating, invoicing, and payment processing, maximizing your time. With Keap, small businesses can conserve 10 hours each week and increase revenue by 39%. Beginning with a 14-day free trial, no charge card needed.
Why we like Keap
Keap supplies a comprehensive client relationship monitoring (CRM) and marketing automation remedy tailored for small businesses and entrepreneurs. We appreciate Keap’s focus on simplifying sales procedures and nurturing customer partnerships with effective automation devices. The system’s all-in-one method integrates CRM, email marketing, invoicing, and job monitoring, making it particularly attractive for businesses looking to settle their technology pile.
Essentially, it just functioned dependably with marginal difficulty or upkeep called for. My open and click-through prices were fantastic (like 35% excellent). Automations ran smoothly without concerns.
So why in the world was I attracted to uproot my whole operational structure from a system that functioned to attempt something unverified and untested?
In hindsight I can admit I got seduced by the alarm call of “glossy things disorder”. You recognize the feeling: when everyone’s speaking about a new tool that will certainly change your service … The yard commonly looks greener on the other side, and I wondered whether GoHighLevel might decrease rubbing factors that I would certainly discovered to endure for many years with Keap.
I resisted in the beginning, yet a couple of more disappointments led me to think maybe it was time for a change.
The Financial investment: Migrating My Firm to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I made a decision to take the plunge. I enrolled in HighLevel’s Firm plan at $297/month, investing dramatically greater than the $97/month starter cost.
This wasn’t a decision I ignored. I knew changing systems was going to need moving all my Keap data and basically reconstructing my entire tech framework from square one utilizing all of the GoHighLevel integrations offered.
Here’s a review of simply several of the effort needed:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ email client records
- Recreating lots of automations and workflows
- Relocating client accounts, notes, and job information to the brand-new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe billing integration
- Setting up landing pages, discounts, and sales funnels throughout once more
- Learning an entirely international UX and interface layout
All in, I spent around 30-40 tiresome hours of configuration job transitioning every little thing over– in addition to handling lost efficiency during the button.
Yet eventually, it was a calculated financial investment I agreed to make. I figured some temporary pain would certainly pay off with GoHighLevel providing a far better long-term remedy for my business, Dripify. Oh exactly how wrong I was …
It only took me regarding a month of hands-on use to recognize I had actually made a large blunder. The concerns started accumulating rapidly, till it reached a point I needed to cut my losses and change back to Keap totally.
Let’s walk through the horrible troubles I ran into.
Safety Issues & Several Bugs
Provided GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation system, I made sure to carefully recreate every workflow from my old Keap account.
These included series for onboarding new e-mail customers, onboarding new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar enrollments, sending out occasion tips, managing subscription expirations and a lot more.
Every little thing appeared to be working penalty … till all of a sudden it had not been. One morning, I awoke to locate 171 entirely pointless e-mails had been sent to customers that should NOT have gotten them. This took place three days straight, with a various set of 160 individuals every day.
I desperately tried repairing and rebuilding the automation from scratch. However the issue persisted.
When I frantically connected to their assistance group, they slightly asserted “server problems” were responsible. However this description really did not make any kind of feeling, because the errors continued happening each early morning like clockwork unassociated to any type of downtime.
In my mind, this massive failure was entirely undesirable and just didn’t help my company. I have countless calls counting on my automated campaigns running smoothly.
So if GoHighLevel was mosting likely to be entirely unreliable, just how could I entrust mission-critical workflows and delicate client information to their technology?
The unintuitive user interface only worsened these issues …
Frustrating UX
Originating from Keap where every little thing was smooth and intuitive, GoHighLevel’s learning contour really felt steep and difficult.
Basic jobs like modifying workflows entailed digging via food selection systems that were all over the place. Trick setups were unexplainably scattered in totally different sections. Relocating in between functions really felt disjointed or confusing.
I’ll inform you what I mean by discussing their funnel builder as an instance. There were 3 separate setups panels to manage overall, individual, and product arrangements. Yet for some insane factor, the web links to accessibility each of these core setups were expanded on opposite sides of the display. What!?
As somebody that values tidy, thoughtful layout, this seriously annoyed me.
It strengthened that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress rather than a sleek product prepared for prime-time use. Their concerns appeared focused on stuffing in every feature imaginable, with inadequate use as an afterthought.
And talking features, I quickly realized the small cost tag included expensive compromises …
Deceptive Pricing GoHighLevel For Contractors
Among GoHighLevel’s biggest selling points is the inexpensive price for access to many features. But I rapidly discovered this low-cost base expense was deceitful.
They nickle-and-dimed customers with erratic costs for core performance. All of a sudden my bank card statements had unclear $10 costs from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it ended up, you obtain billed every single time you send an e-mail via their web servers. So for high volume customers, this amounted to thousands of bucks in unanticipated costs.
In between these per-email fees and paying extra for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “budget friendly” GoHighLevel registration wound up costing significantly MORE than my Keap plan.
The reduced price tag was appealing, but simply not realistic in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor preference in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The final dealbreaker was seeing my thoroughly supported e-mail open prices plummet almost over night after switching over to GoHighLevel.
Formerly, my audience interaction consistently struck 35-40% open prices in Keap month after month. Once I moved their records over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked quickly to a pitiful 9% open price.
Regardless of just how much I optimized my sending out methods or attempted every repairing method, I can barely nudge open prices back right into the teens– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous standards GoHighLevel For Contractors.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and emails unexpectedly had dreadful involvement. The only thing I can assume that would certainly be triggering this was whatever was taking place behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For an agency so depending on email marketing, this was a big deal.
In between the crippling deliverability problems, hidden charges, broken features, and terrible interface, I had ultimately reached my restriction …
Why I Give up GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after moving my agency to GoHighLevel, I knew I had actually made a massive blunder. The cons significantly surpassed any advantages.
No software application is best, but the large volume of problems was past acceptable.
At the end of the day, software application comes down to trust. If I can not trust it to deal with crucial features competently or believe a supplier has my best interests in mind, after that it’s time to walk away– also after spending substantial time, cash, and initiative moving.
So I made the hard contact us to reverse program and return back to Keap completely simply weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s explore what I picked up from this debacle.
Key Takeaways: What I Learned From My GoHighLevel Error
My time with HighLevel can be summed up as a pricey misadventure. But in knowledge, it taught me a couple of key lessons:
- Stick to what works. Don’t disturb what’s functioning unless something is definitively far better across the board. Change brings risk.
- Veterinarian declares completely. Marketing buzz around brand-new software frequently obscures bigger underlying defects. Deep due diligence is vital.
- Pick simplicity over features. Properly designed tools must make your work life easier, not a lot more complex and unpleasant.
- Openness builds count on. Opaque pricing, dubious reseller terms, and finger-pointing to evade problems ruins count on.
- Seek impartial evaluations. Delighted assistance examines imply much less if too much concerns suggest inadequate overall usability.
- Excellence is impossible. No single solution can completely satisfy every distinct business requirement. Find the least-bad fit.
- Advancement over revolution. Incremental improvements commonly outweigh high-risk wholesale reinvention of what currently works fine.
Basically, I discovered to be extra skeptical of “too great to be real” marketing cases and less tempted by the appeal of glossy brand-new items. The tools you make use of daily need to gain count on through transparency and efficiency, not slick advertising.