As a firm proprietor for over a years, I rely on software and automation to streamline procedures and provide outcomes. So when GoHighLevel emerged on the scene few years back, it most definitely captured my focus GoHighLevel Folders.
The concept was enticing– an all-in-one client management platform with marketing, sales, and service tools incorporated together. As a business owner constantly seeking to simplify and scale my business, it seemed like a desire come true theoretically. Who would not want a solitary remedy that does it all?
But in this thorough GoHighLevel testimonial, I’ll take you inside my disastrous journey of attempting (and stopping working) to switch over 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, with any luck you can pick up from my agonizing errors and inflated assumptions.
Spoiler: I do NOT advise GoHighLevel. If you need a CRM, start with this checklist of ideal CRMs rather. I make use of Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re searching for a sales, marketing, and job administration choice to GoHighLevel, after that right here are a couple of we advise.
Backstory: Why I Thought About Switching Over from Keap
To recognize what attracted me to GoHighLevel to begin with, you require context regarding my previous configuration. For over 5 years I had been gladly relying upon Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to satisfy all my customer monitoring and automation requirements.
I discovered Keap user-friendly to use and it managed every little thing I needed– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, subscription websites, and customer assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are developed to assist small businesses maintain their clients while including new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and messages, guaranteeing leads and customers obtain the best messages at the right time. Use website and social networks kinds to simplify lead follow-up, and handle your development with simple visit organizing and lead tracking. Boost sales with automated pricing quote, invoicing, and payment handling, freeing up your time. With Keap, small businesses can save 10 hours each week and rise revenue by 39%. Start with a 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
Why we like Keap
Keap supplies a comprehensive client connection administration (CRM) and marketing automation solution customized for small companies and entrepreneurs. We value Keap’s concentrate on simplifying sales procedures and supporting customer partnerships through powerful automation devices. The system’s all-in-one technique incorporates CRM, email marketing, invoicing, and task administration, making it particularly eye-catching for businesses looking to combine their technology stack.
Essentially, it just functioned dependably with very little fuss or upkeep required. My open and click-through rates were excellent (like 35% great). Automations ran efficiently with no issues.
So why on earth was I lured to uproot my whole operational foundation from a system that functioned to attempt something unproven and untried?
In hindsight I can confess I obtained seduced by the siren call of “glossy object disorder”. You know the feeling: when everybody’s speaking about a new device that will transform your business … The grass often looks greener beyond, and I questioned whether GoHighLevel could reduce rubbing factors that I ‘d learned to tolerate for many years with Keap.
I resisted in the beginning, yet a few more aggravations led me to believe maybe it was time for an adjustment.
The Financial investment: Migrating My Firm to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I determined to start. I registered for HighLevel’s Agency plan at $297/month, investing considerably greater than the $97/month starter expense.
This had not been a choice I took lightly. I recognized switching platforms was mosting likely to call for migrating all my Keap information and basically reconstructing my whole technology infrastructure from the ground up making use of every one of the GoHighLevel integrations readily available.
Right here’s an introduction of simply a few of the initiative needed:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ e-mail client documents
- Recreating dozens of automations and workflows
- Moving customer profiles, notes, and task data to the brand-new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe payment integration
- Establishing landing pages, promotions, and sales funnels all over once again
- Learning an entirely foreign UX and interface style
All in, I spent around 30-40 tedious hours of arrangement job transitioning everything over– as well as handling lost productivity during the button.
But inevitably, it was a computed investment I agreed to make. I figured some short-term pain would pay off with GoHighLevel giving a better lasting option for my business, Dripify. Oh just how incorrect I was …
It only took me concerning a month of hands-on use to recognize I had actually made a huge error. The problems started piling up rapidly, until it got to a factor I had to cut my losses and change back to Keap completely.
Let’s go through the nightmarish troubles I encountered.
Safety Issues & Several Bugs
Given GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation system, I made sure to diligently recreate every workflow from my old Keap account.
These consisted of series for onboarding brand-new e-mail clients, onboarding brand-new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending out occasion suggestions, handling subscription expiries and a lot more.
Everything seemed to be working fine … till suddenly it had not been. One early morning, I awoke to discover 171 totally unnecessary emails had actually been sent out to users that need to NOT have received them. This took place three days straight, with a various batch of 160 individuals each day.
I desperately attempted repairing and reconstructing the automation from square one. But the trouble lingered.
When I frantically reached out to their support group, they vaguely asserted “web server issues” were at fault. Yet this description didn’t make any type of sense, considering that the errors proceeded occurring each morning like clockwork unrelated to any kind of downtime.
In my mind, this substantial failure was totally inappropriate and just really did not work for my company. I have thousands of contacts counting on my automated campaigns running smoothly.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be absolutely unstable, just how could I delegate mission-critical workflows and sensitive customer information to their innovation?
The unintuitive interface only compounded these problems …
Irritating UX
Coming from Keap where everything was seamless and intuitive, GoHighLevel’s learning contour really felt steep and difficult.
Basic tasks like editing workflows included excavating via food selection systems that were all over the place. Key setups were unexplainably scattered in absolutely different sections. Moving between functions felt disjointed or complex.
I’ll tell you what I imply by speaking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 separate settings panels to manage general, private, and product configurations. Yet for some insane reason, the links to accessibility each of these core settings were expanded on opposite sides of the screen. What!?
As somebody that values tidy, thoughtful layout, this seriously irritated me.
It reinforced that GoHighLevel still felt like a work-in-progress as opposed to a refined product all set for prime-time use. Their priorities seemed focused on cramming in every feature under the sun, with inadequate functionality as an afterthought.
And speaking of features, I soon recognized the low price tag included expensive concessions …
Misleading Pricing GoHighLevel Folders
One of GoHighLevel’s biggest marketing points is the cost effective rate for access to so many features. But I promptly learned this inexpensive base price was deceitful.
They nickle-and-dimed individuals with sporadic fees for core performance. All of a sudden my credit card statements had obscure $10 charges from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it ended up, you get billed every time you send an email through their servers. So for high quantity individuals, this added up to hundreds of dollars in unforeseen expenses.
In between these per-email charges and paying additional for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “cost effective” GoHighLevel subscription wound up setting you back significantly MORE than my Keap plan.
The low price tag was tempting, but just not sensible in practice. This bait-and-switch left a bad taste in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The final dealbreaker was seeing my very carefully nurtured email open prices plummet almost overnight after changing to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my target market involvement regularly hit 35-40% open prices in Keap month after month. But once I migrated their documents over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked promptly to a pitiful 9% open rate.
Regardless of just how much I optimized my sending out techniques or attempted every fixing trick, I could hardly nudge open prices back into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous standards GoHighLevel Folders.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and e-mails unexpectedly had horrible engagement. The only point I could believe that would be creating this was whatever was taking place behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For a company so dependent on e-mail marketing, this was a big deal.
In between the debilitating deliverability problems, hidden fees, damaged features, and awful user interface, I had actually ultimately reached my limit …
Why I Quit GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Just 45 days after moving my company to GoHighLevel, I recognized I had made a massive mistake. The disadvantages dramatically exceeded any kind of benefits.
No software application is best, but the sheer quantity of troubles was beyond acceptable.
At the end of the day, software boils down to trust fund. If I can’t trust it to handle crucial features properly or believe a supplier has my benefits in mind, after that it’s time to leave– also after spending significant time, money, and initiative moving.
So I made the difficult call to turn around program and return back to Keap entirely simply weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s discover what I gained from this debacle.
Secret Takeaways: What I Gained from My GoHighLevel Blunder
My time with HighLevel can be summarized as a pricey accident. However in knowledge, it educated me a few key lessons:
- Stick to what works. Do not disturb what’s functioning unless something is definitively much better across the board. Adjustment brings danger.
- Vet claims thoroughly. Marketing hype around new software application often covers larger underlying flaws. Deep due persistance is crucial.
- Select simpleness over features. Properly designed tools need to make your job life easier, not a lot more difficult and messy.
- Openness builds count on. Nontransparent pricing, questionable reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert problems ruins trust.
- Seek unbiased testimonials. Delighted assistance assesses indicate less if extreme issues imply bad overall use.
- Excellence is impossible. No single option can perfectly fulfill every special business need. Find the least-bad fit.
- Development over transformation. Incremental improvements typically surpass dangerous wholesale reinvention of what currently functions fine.
Basically, I learned to be more hesitant of “as well great to be real” marketing cases and much less tempted by the attraction of glossy brand-new things. The tools you utilize daily ought to earn depend on via openness and performance, not glossy advertising.