As an agency proprietor for over a decade, I depend on software application and automation to simplify operations and supply outcomes. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene couple of years back, it certainly caught my interest GoHighLevel Calendly Event Importer.
The idea was enticing– an all-in-one client administration platform with marketing, sales, and service tools integrated together. As an entrepreneur always looking to simplify and scale my business, it appeared like a dream come true theoretically. That would not want a solitary service that does it all?
However in this in-depth GoHighLevel review, I’ll take you inside my dreadful trip of attempting (and falling short) to change to this preferred new software application. You’ll learn:
If you’re taking into consideration whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own company requirements, ideally you can pick up from my agonizing errors and blew up assumptions.
Spoiler: I do NOT advise GoHighLevel. If you need a CRM, begin with this list of best CRMs rather. I utilize Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re seeking a sales, marketing, and project administration choice to GoHighLevel, after that right here are a few we advise.
Backstory: Why I Considered Switching from Keap
To recognize what attracted me to GoHighLevel to begin with, you require context about my previous arrangement. For over 5 years I had been gladly relying upon Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to satisfy all my customer administration and automation demands.
I discovered Keap user-friendly to use and it took care of every little thing I required– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, membership sites, and client support.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are designed to help small companies keep their clients while including brand-new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with emails and messages, guaranteeing leads and customers get the best messages at the right time. Use internet site and social networks forms to improve lead follow-up, and manage your growth with simple consultation organizing and lead tracking. Boost sales with automated pricing estimate, invoicing, and repayment handling, freeing up your time. With Keap, small companies can save 10 hours each week and increase earnings by 39%. Beginning with a 14-day free trial, no bank card required.
Why we like Keap
Keap uses a thorough customer partnership management (CRM) and marketing automation remedy tailored for local business and entrepreneurs. We appreciate Keap’s focus on streamlining sales processes and supporting client partnerships via powerful automation devices. The platform’s all-in-one approach integrates CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and task management, making it especially appealing for businesses looking to consolidate their technology pile.
Generally, it simply functioned accurately with marginal fuss or upkeep needed. My open and click-through rates were fantastic (like 35% great). Automations ran efficiently without issues.
So why in the world was I attracted to uproot my whole operational structure from a system that worked to try something unverified and untried?
In hindsight I can confess I obtained seduced by the siren phone call of “shiny item syndrome”. You know the feeling: when everybody’s speaking about a new device that will certainly transform your service … The yard usually looks greener on the other side, and I questioned whether GoHighLevel could lower rubbing points that I ‘d learned to endure over the years with Keap.
I withstood in the beginning, yet a couple of more frustrations led me to believe possibly it was time for a modification.
The Financial investment: Moving My Agency to GoHighLevel
Earlier this year I determined to start. I registered for HighLevel’s Company plan at $297/month, investing substantially greater than the $97/month starter expense.
This wasn’t a choice I ignored. I knew switching systems was going to call for migrating all my Keap information and basically restoring my entire technology infrastructure from square one using every one of the GoHighLevel integrations offered.
Below’s an introduction of simply several of the effort called for:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ email subscriber records
- Recreating dozens of automations and workflows
- Relocating customer accounts, notes, and project data to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe billing integration
- Setting up landing pages, discounts, and sales funnels all over again
- Learning a completely foreign UX and interface style
Done in, I spent around 30-40 tiresome hours of configuration work transitioning every little thing over– and also dealing with lost productivity during the switch.
But eventually, it was a calculated investment I wanted to make. I figured some short-term discomfort would certainly repay with GoHighLevel offering a better long-lasting option for my company, Dripify. Oh exactly how wrong I was …
It just took me regarding a month of hands-on usage to realize I had made a big error. The concerns started piling up rapidly, till it reached a factor I had to reduce my losses and switch over back to Keap completely.
Let’s walk through the nightmarish problems I ran into.
Safety Issues & Numerous Bugs
Provided GoHighLevel placed itself as an all-in-one automation system, I made sure to thoroughly recreate each and every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These included sequences for onboarding new e-mail clients, onboarding new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar enrollments, sending out event tips, handling membership expirations and far more.
Everything appeared to be working fine … until suddenly it wasn’t. One morning, I woke up to find 171 completely irrelevant emails had been sent out to individuals who should NOT have actually gotten them. This occurred three days in a row, with a various set of 160 individuals daily.
I anxiously attempted fixing and restoring the automation from the ground up. However the problem persisted.
When I desperately reached out to their assistance group, they vaguely declared “server issues” were to blame. However this explanation didn’t make any sense, because the errors proceeded happening each morning like clockwork unassociated to any type of downtime.
In my mind, this massive failing was entirely unacceptable and simply really did not benefit my company. I have countless calls relying upon my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be totally unreliable, just how could I hand over mission-critical workflows and delicate customer information to their technology?
The unintuitive user interface only worsened these problems …
Frustrating UX
Coming from Keap where whatever was seamless and instinctive, GoHighLevel’s learning curve felt high and difficult.
Easy jobs like editing and enhancing workflows included digging via menu systems that were all over the place. Secret settings were unexplainably scattered in absolutely various sections. Relocating in between features felt disjointed or complicated.
I’ll inform you what I suggest by discussing their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 separate setups panels to take care of overall, specific, and item setups. Yet for some crazy reason, 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 layout, this seriously upset me.
It reinforced that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress rather than a refined product prepared for prime-time usage. Their priorities seemed focused on cramming in every feature under the sun, with poor usability as a second thought.
And talking features, I quickly realized the low price tag featured expensive compromises …
Misleading Pricing GoHighLevel Calendly Event Importer
One of GoHighLevel’s most significant marketing points is the budget friendly rate for access to a lot of features. Yet I swiftly learned this cheap base cost was deceptive.
They nickle-and-dimed customers with occasional costs for core performance. All of a sudden my credit card statements had obscure $10 fees from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it turned out, you get billed whenever you send an e-mail via their servers. So for high volume individuals, this amounted to thousands of bucks in unanticipated costs.
Between these per-email charges and paying extra for deliverability attachments like Mailgun, my “inexpensive” GoHighLevel registration wound up costing significantly greater than my Keap plan.
The low sticker price was tempting, however simply not sensible in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor taste in my mouth.
Email Fees Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my carefully nurtured email open rates plunge almost overnight after changing to GoHighLevel.
Formerly, my audience engagement continually hit 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. But once I moved their documents over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked promptly to a worthless 9% open rate.
Regardless of how much I optimized my sending out practices or tried every repairing technique, I could barely push open rates back right into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous criteria GoHighLevel Calendly Event Importer.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and emails all of a sudden had terrible interaction. The only point I might think that would certainly be triggering this was whatever was taking place behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For an agency so depending on e-mail marketing, this was a big deal.
Between the debilitating deliverability issues, concealed charges, damaged features, and awful 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 substantial blunder. The cons considerably exceeded any kind of advantages.
No software application is ideal, yet the large volume of problems was beyond appropriate.
At the end of the day, software program boils down to trust fund. If I can’t trust it to take care of essential functions properly or believe a vendor has my benefits in mind, then it’s time to walk away– also after investing substantial time, cash, and initiative moving.
So I made the challenging contact us to reverse program and return back to Keap totally simply weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s discover what I gained from this ordeal.
Trick Takeaways: What I Gained from My GoHighLevel Mistake
My time with HighLevel can be summarized as a pricey accident. But in hindsight, it showed me a few essential lessons:
- Stick to what works. Don’t disturb what’s functioning unless something is definitively far better across the board. Change brings danger.
- Vet claims completely. Marketing hype around new software application commonly obscures bigger underlying problems. Deep due diligence is essential.
- Select simplicity over features. Well-designed tools must make your job life simpler, not more complex and unpleasant.
- Openness builds count on. Nontransparent pricing, questionable reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert issues destroys trust.
- Seek honest reviews. Delighted support evaluates mean less if too much concerns imply inadequate overall usability.
- Excellence is impossible. No solitary option can perfectly satisfy every special service requirement. Discover the least-bad fit.
- Advancement over transformation. Step-by-step enhancements typically exceed dangerous wholesale reinvention of what currently works penalty.
Simply put, I discovered to be much more unconvinced of “too good to be true” marketing insurance claims and less attracted by the allure of shiny new things. The devices you utilize daily should make count on through transparency and performance, not slick advertising.