As an agency owner for over a years, I rely upon software application and automation to enhance procedures and deliver outcomes. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene couple of years back, it definitely caught my attention GoHighLevel AI Tools.
The concept was enticing– an all-in-one customer monitoring system with marketing, sales, and service tools integrated together. As a business owner always wanting to streamline and scale my company, it seemed like a desire come to life theoretically. That would not desire a solitary service that does it all?
However in this comprehensive GoHighLevel testimonial, I’ll take you inside my devastating trip of trying (and failing) to switch over to this preferred new software program. You’ll find out:
If you’re thinking about whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own company demands, with any luck you can pick up from my painful errors and inflated expectations.
Looter: I do NOT advise GoHighLevel. If you need a CRM, begin with this checklist of finest CRMs rather. I use Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re trying to find a sales, marketing, and job administration option to GoHighLevel, then right here are a few we recommend.
Backstory: Why I Considered Switching from Keap
To comprehend what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you need context regarding my previous setup. For over 5 years I had actually been gladly relying on Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) to meet all my client monitoring and automation demands.
I located Keap instinctive to use and it took care of every little thing I required– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, subscription sites, and client assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are created to aid local business keep their clients while adding new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with emails and texts, guaranteeing leads and clients get the ideal messages at the right time. Usage internet site and social networks forms to improve lead follow-up, and handle your development with very easy appointment organizing and lead monitoring. Boost sales with automated estimating, invoicing, and repayment handling, freeing up your time. With Keap, local business can save 10 hours weekly and increase income by 39%. Begin with a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
Why we like Keap
Keap uses a comprehensive consumer connection administration (CRM) and marketing automation remedy customized for small companies and business owners. We appreciate Keap’s focus on improving sales procedures and supporting customer relationships with effective automation tools. The platform’s all-in-one approach combines CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and task monitoring, making it specifically appealing for companies wanting to combine their tech stack.
For the most part, it simply functioned reliably with very little hassle or maintenance required. My open and click-through rates were terrific (like 35% terrific). Automations ran efficiently without any concerns.
So why on earth was I tempted to uproot my entire operational structure from a system that worked to attempt something unverified and untried?
In hindsight I can confess I obtained attracted by the alarm telephone call of “glossy things syndrome”. You understand the sensation: when every person’s speaking about a brand-new device that will certainly transform your service … The turf commonly looks greener on the other side, and I wondered whether GoHighLevel might reduce rubbing factors that I would certainly found out to endure throughout the years with Keap.
I withstood at first, but a couple of more disappointments led me to think maybe it was time for a change.
The Investment: Moving My Company to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I chose to start. I enrolled in HighLevel’s Agency plan at $297/month, spending significantly more than the $97/month starter expense.
This had not been a decision I took lightly. I recognized switching over systems was going to call for migrating all my Keap data and essentially reconstructing my whole technology facilities from the ground up utilizing all of the GoHighLevel integrations readily available.
Below’s a summary of just some of the effort required:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ e-mail subscriber documents
- Recreating lots of automations and workflows
- Moving customer profiles, notes, and job information to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe payment integration
- Setting up landing pages, discounts, and sales funnels all over once again
- Learning an entirely foreign UX and interface design
All in, I spent around 30-40 laborious hours of arrangement work transitioning every little thing over– as well as taking care of shed performance throughout the switch.
But eventually, it was a calculated investment I was willing to make. I figured some short-term discomfort would pay off with GoHighLevel offering a far better long-term option for my company, Dripify. Oh exactly how wrong I was …
It only took me concerning a month of hands-on use to recognize I had actually made a large mistake. The problems started piling up quickly, until it got to a factor I needed to cut my losses and switch over back to Keap entirely.
Allow’s walk through the nightmarish troubles I ran into.
Protection Issues & Many Bugs
Offered GoHighLevel placed itself as an all-in-one automation platform, I made sure to carefully recreate every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These consisted of series for onboarding brand-new e-mail customers, onboarding brand-new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending out event tips, taking care of subscription expiries and far more.
Whatever seemed to be operating fine … till instantly it wasn’t. One early morning, I awoke to discover 171 completely unnecessary emails had actually been sent to individuals who ought to NOT have gotten them. This occurred 3 days in a row, with a different set of 160 individuals daily.
I desperately attempted fixing and rebuilding the automation from the ground up. Yet the problem lingered.
When I seriously connected to their support team, they slightly claimed “web server problems” were at fault. Yet this explanation didn’t make any type of feeling, because the mistakes proceeded occurring each morning like clockwork unassociated to any kind of downtime.
In my mind, this enormous failure was entirely undesirable and simply didn’t help my service. I have countless calls relying upon my automated campaigns running smoothly.
So if GoHighLevel was mosting likely to be absolutely undependable, how could I entrust mission-critical workflows and delicate client data to their technology?
The unintuitive interface just compounded these problems …
Aggravating UX
Originating from Keap where everything was smooth and intuitive, GoHighLevel’s learning curve really felt steep and challenging.
Basic jobs like editing and enhancing workflows involved digging via menu systems that were all over the place. Key settings were unexplainably scattered in completely various sections. Relocating in between functions felt disjointed or complex.
I’ll tell you what I suggest by speaking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 different settings panels to take care of overall, private, and product arrangements. Yet for some insane factor, the web links to gain access to each of these core setups were spread out on contrary sides of the screen. What!?
As somebody that values clean, thoughtful design, this seriously annoyed me.
It reinforced that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress instead of a refined item ready for prime-time use. Their priorities seemed focused on packing in every feature imaginable, with poor usability as an afterthought.
And speaking of features, I soon realized the affordable price tag came with pricey compromises …
Misleading Pricing GoHighLevel AI Tools
One of GoHighLevel’s largest selling factors is the affordable rate for accessibility to many features. But I rapidly discovered this low-cost base expense was misleading.
They nickle-and-dimed users with sporadic charges for core functionality. Instantly my credit card declarations had unclear $10 fees from GoHighLevel here and there.
As it turned out, you get billed every single time you send an e-mail through their web servers. So for high quantity customers, this added up to numerous dollars in unanticipated prices.
In between these per-email fees and paying additional for deliverability attachments like Mailgun, my “budget friendly” GoHighLevel subscription ended up costing substantially greater than my Keap plan.
The low sticker price was alluring, yet just not sensible in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor preference in my mouth.
Email Fees Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my meticulously nurtured email open rates drop nearly overnight after switching to GoHighLevel.
Formerly, my target market engagement regularly hit 35-40% open prices in Keap month after month. But once I migrated their documents over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked immediately to a worthless 9% open rate.
Regardless of how much I optimized my sending out techniques or attempted every fixing method, I might barely nudge open rates back into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous benchmarks GoHighLevel AI Tools.
Let me repeat: my exact same audience and e-mails unexpectedly had horrible involvement. The only thing I could believe that would be causing this was whatever was occurring behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For an agency so depending on email marketing, this was a big deal.
Between the crippling deliverability concerns, concealed costs, broken features, and awful interface, I had actually ultimately reached my restriction …
Why I Give up GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after moving my firm to GoHighLevel, I knew I had actually made a big mistake. The disadvantages dramatically surpassed any kind of advantages.
No software is excellent, however the sheer volume of problems was past appropriate.
At the end of the day, software boils down to trust. If I can not trust it to deal with crucial features effectively or think a vendor has my best interests in mind, after that it’s time to leave– even after spending substantial time, money, and initiative migrating.
So I made the challenging contact us to turn around program and return back to Keap completely simply weeks after going all in on GoHighLevel. Let’s discover what I learned from this debacle.
Trick Takeaways: What I Gained from My GoHighLevel Error
My time with HighLevel can be summed up as a pricey accident. But in hindsight, it showed me a couple of vital lessons:
- Stay with what works. Don’t distress what’s working unless something is definitively far better across the board. Adjustment brings threat.
- Vet claims completely. Marketing buzz around new software application usually covers bigger underlying flaws. Deep due persistance is necessary.
- Choose simplicity over features. Properly designed devices need to make your work life easier, not extra difficult and untidy.
- Openness builds count on. Opaque pricing, dubious reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert issues damages trust fund.
- Seek objective testimonials. Delighted support evaluates imply less if excessive issues suggest poor overall usability.
- Excellence is impossible. No single option can completely fulfill every unique organization need. Discover the least-bad fit.
- Development over revolution. Incremental renovations usually exceed risky wholesale reinvention of what currently functions penalty.
In short, I found out to be more unconvinced of “too great to be true” marketing insurance claims and less tempted by the attraction of shiny brand-new things. The tools you utilize daily ought to earn trust via transparency and efficiency, not glossy advertising.