As an agency proprietor for over a years, I depend on software program and automation to enhance operations and provide outcomes. So when GoHighLevel emerged on the scene couple of years back, it most definitely caught my attention GoHighLevel Appointment Notes.
The idea was attractive– an all-in-one customer management platform with marketing, sales, and solution devices incorporated together. As an entrepreneur constantly aiming to simplify and scale my service, it looked like a desire happened theoretically. Who wouldn’t want a single service that does it all?
But in this comprehensive GoHighLevel testimonial, I’ll take you inside my tragic trip of attempting (and failing) to switch to this popular new software program. You’ll learn:
If you’re thinking about whether GoHighLevel is right for your own organization needs, hopefully you can gain from my agonizing mistakes and inflated expectations.
Spoiler: I do NOT suggest GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, start with this list of ideal CRMs instead. I make use of Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re trying to find a sales, marketing, and job administration alternative to GoHighLevel, then below are a few we recommend.
Backstory: Why I Took Into Consideration Switching from Keap
To comprehend what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you require context regarding my previous arrangement. For over 5 years I had been happily relying upon Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to fulfill all my customer management and automation needs.
I found Keap user-friendly to make use of and it dealt with every little thing I needed– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, membership sites, and customer assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are created to help small companies keep their clients while including brand-new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and texts, guaranteeing leads and customers obtain the appropriate messages at the correct time. Usage website and social networks types to streamline lead follow-up, and manage your development with simple visit scheduling and lead monitoring. Boost sales with automated pricing estimate, invoicing, and settlement handling, maximizing your time. With Keap, small businesses can conserve 10 hours each week and boost profits by 39%. Beginning with a 14-day free trial, no charge card needed.
Why we like Keap
Keap provides a comprehensive customer partnership monitoring (CRM) and marketing automation option customized for small companies and entrepreneurs. We value Keap’s focus on streamlining sales processes and supporting customer relationships with powerful automation tools. The platform’s all-in-one technique incorporates CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and task management, making it specifically attractive for companies seeking to combine their technology stack.
For the most part, it just worked reliably with minimal fuss or maintenance required. My open and click-through rates were wonderful (like 35% fantastic). Automations ran smoothly without problems.
So why on earth was I attracted to uproot my entire operational structure from a system that worked to attempt something unproven and untried?
In hindsight I can admit I obtained attracted by the alarm telephone call of “shiny object syndrome”. You recognize the sensation: when every person’s discussing a brand-new tool that will certainly change your organization … The turf usually looks greener on the other side, and I wondered whether GoHighLevel could lower rubbing points that I would certainly found out to endure throughout the years with Keap.
I withstood at first, however a couple of even more stress led me to believe maybe it was time for a change.
The Investment: Moving My Agency to GoHighLevel
Earlier this year I decided to start. I registered for HighLevel’s Firm plan at $297/month, investing substantially more than the $97/month starter expense.
This had not been a decision I took lightly. I understood switching over systems was going to call for migrating all my Keap data and essentially restoring my entire technology infrastructure from square one making use of every one of the GoHighLevel integrations available.
Below’s an overview of simply some of the initiative called for:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ email customer documents
- Recreating lots of automations and workflows
- Moving client accounts, notes, and job data to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe payment integration
- Establishing landing pages, promos, and sales funnels around once again
- Learning a totally foreign UX and interface design
All in, I invested around 30-40 tiresome hours of configuration work transitioning whatever over– not to mention managing lost performance during the switch.
However ultimately, it was a computed financial investment I wanted to make. I figured some temporary discomfort would certainly settle with GoHighLevel offering a far better long-lasting service for my service, Dripify. Oh how incorrect I was …
It just took me regarding a month of hands-on use to understand I had made a large blunder. The problems started piling up rapidly, until it reached a point I needed to reduce my losses and switch over back to Keap completely.
Let’s go through the horrible issues I encountered.
Safety And Security Issues & Many Bugs
Offered GoHighLevel placed itself as an all-in-one automation system, I took care to carefully recreate every workflow from my old Keap account.
These included series for onboarding new email subscribers, onboarding brand-new clients, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending occasion pointers, handling subscription expiries and much more.
Every little thing seemed to be functioning fine … till unexpectedly it wasn’t. One morning, I awoke to locate 171 totally unnecessary emails had been sent to individuals who should NOT have received them. This happened three days in a row, with a various set of 160 individuals every day.
I anxiously attempted repairing and reconstructing the automation from scratch. But the problem continued.
When I frantically connected to their support team, they slightly declared “server issues” were responsible. However this explanation really did not make any type of feeling, given that the errors continued occurring each early morning like clockwork unassociated to any type of downtime.
In my mind, this enormous failure was totally unacceptable and simply didn’t benefit my organization. I have hundreds of get in touches with relying upon my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be completely unstable, exactly how could I hand over mission-critical workflows and sensitive client information to their innovation?
The unintuitive user interface only intensified these issues …
Discouraging UX
Originating from Keap where whatever was seamless and intuitive, GoHighLevel’s learning contour felt high and difficult.
Simple jobs like modifying workflows entailed excavating via food selection systems that were all over the place. Key setups were unexplainably scattered in totally different sections. Moving between features felt disjointed or complicated.
I’ll inform you what I imply by talking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 separate setups panels to take care of general, private, and item arrangements. Yet for some insane reason, the links to accessibility each of these core setups were spread out on contrary sides of the screen. What!?
As a person who values clean, thoughtful style, this seriously upset me.
It reinforced that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress instead of a refined product ready for prime-time usage. Their concerns appeared concentrated on cramming in every feature imaginable, with poor usability as an afterthought.
And talking features, I soon recognized the low price tag featured costly compromises …
Deceptive Pricing GoHighLevel Appointment Notes
One of GoHighLevel’s most significant marketing factors is the economical rate for accessibility to so many features. However I quickly discovered this cheap base cost was misleading.
They nickle-and-dimed users with sporadic charges for core capability. Suddenly my bank card statements had vague $10 charges from GoHighLevel here and there.
As it turned out, you obtain charged every single time you send out an email with their servers. So for high quantity users, this added up to hundreds of dollars in unexpected prices.
In between these per-email fees and paying added for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “cost effective” GoHighLevel subscription wound up setting you back considerably MORE than my Keap plan.
The low price tag was appealing, but simply not reasonable in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor preference in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my very carefully supported email open rates drop nearly overnight after changing to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my audience involvement constantly hit 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. Once I moved their documents over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked instantaneously to a pitiful 9% open price.
Despite how much I maximized my sending techniques or tried every fixing technique, I can hardly nudge open prices back right into the teens– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous benchmarks GoHighLevel Appointment Notes.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and emails suddenly had terrible interaction. 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 based on email marketing, this was a big deal.
In between the crippling deliverability issues, concealed costs, broken features, and horrible interface, I had actually ultimately reached my limit …
Why I Quit GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after moving my agency to GoHighLevel, I understood I had actually made a huge blunder. The disadvantages significantly exceeded any kind of advantages.
No software program is perfect, yet the large quantity of problems was beyond acceptable.
At the end of the day, software application boils down to trust fund. If I can’t trust it to take care of essential functions effectively or think a vendor has my best interests in mind, then it’s time to leave– also after spending significant time, cash, and initiative moving.
So I made the hard contact us to reverse training course and return back to Keap entirely just weeks after going all in on GoHighLevel. Let’s explore what I picked up from this debacle.
Secret Takeaways: What I Learned From My GoHighLevel Blunder
My time with HighLevel can be summed up as a pricey misadventure. However in hindsight, it showed me a couple of crucial lessons:
- Adhere to what jobs. Do not disturb what’s functioning unless something is definitively much better across the board. Modification brings risk.
- Veterinarian claims completely. Marketing hype around brand-new software application typically obscures larger underlying imperfections. Deep due persistance is important.
- Select simplicity over features. Well-designed devices need to make your work life easier, not extra complicated and unpleasant.
- Transparency builds trust fund. Nontransparent pricing, dubious reseller terms, and finger-pointing to evade issues ruins trust.
- Seek impartial testimonials. Happy assistance examines mean much less if excessive issues indicate poor general functionality.
- Excellence is impossible. No solitary solution can flawlessly fulfill every one-of-a-kind organization demand. Find the least-bad fit.
- Advancement over revolution. Incremental renovations normally outweigh high-risk wholesale reinvention of what already functions penalty.
Simply put, I found out to be a lot more cynical of “as well excellent to be real” marketing cases and much less attracted by the attraction of shiny new things. The tools you utilize daily ought to make count on via transparency and performance, not glossy advertising.