As a firm proprietor for over a decade, I depend on software application and automation to improve operations and supply outcomes. So when GoHighLevel emerged on the scene couple of years back, it absolutely caught my interest GoHighLevel For Doctors.
The concept was enticing– an all-in-one client administration platform with marketing, sales, and solution devices incorporated together. As a business owner always wanting to simplify and scale my business, it seemed like a desire come true theoretically. Who would not want a single option that does it all?
Yet in this in-depth GoHighLevel testimonial, I’ll take you inside my devastating journey of trying (and falling short) to switch to this preferred brand-new software application. You’ll find out:
If you’re thinking about whether GoHighLevel is right for your own service needs, ideally you can pick up from my excruciating blunders and inflated expectations.
Looter: I do NOT advise GoHighLevel. If you need a CRM, start with this checklist of best CRMs rather. I make use of Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re trying to find a sales, marketing, and task management choice to GoHighLevel, after that here are a couple of we recommend.
Backstory: Why I Took Into Consideration Switching from Keap
To understand what attracted me to GoHighLevel to begin with, you need context regarding my previous configuration. For over 5 years I had been gladly depending on Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to satisfy all my client monitoring and automation demands.
I discovered Keap user-friendly to use and it handled every little thing I needed– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, membership websites, and customer support.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are designed to help local business keep their clients while adding new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with emails and messages, guaranteeing leads and customers receive the ideal messages at the correct time. Usage site and social networks kinds to simplify lead follow-up, and manage your development with easy consultation organizing and lead tracking. Boost sales with automated quoting, invoicing, and repayment handling, freeing up your time. With Keap, small companies can conserve 10 hours each week and rise income by 39%. Start with a 14-day free trial, no bank card required.
Why we like Keap
Keap supplies a comprehensive client partnership administration (CRM) and marketing automation solution customized for small businesses and business owners. We appreciate Keap’s focus on enhancing sales processes and supporting client relationships via powerful automation tools. The system’s all-in-one approach integrates CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and task management, making it specifically attractive for organizations aiming to consolidate their tech stack.
Generally, it just worked dependably with minimal fuss or upkeep required. My open and click-through prices were terrific (like 35% excellent). Automations ran smoothly without problems.
So why on earth was I tempted to uproot my entire functional foundation from a system that worked to try something unverified and untested?
In hindsight I can confess I obtained attracted by the siren phone call of “shiny item disorder”. You know the sensation: when every person’s discussing a brand-new tool that will certainly change your business … The turf often looks greener beyond, and I asked yourself whether GoHighLevel may minimize rubbing points that I ‘d found out to endure over the years with Keap.
I stood up to at first, yet a few even more disappointments led me to assume maybe it was time for a modification.
The Financial investment: Migrating My Agency to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I chose to start. I registered for HighLevel’s Company plan at $297/month, investing considerably more than the $97/month starter cost.
This wasn’t a decision I ignored. I recognized changing systems was going to need moving all my Keap information and basically rebuilding my whole technology facilities from scratch making use of every one of the GoHighLevel integrations offered.
Below’s a summary of just several of the effort needed:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ e-mail subscriber records
- Recreating dozens of automations and workflows
- Relocating client accounts, notes, and job data to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe invoicing integration
- Establishing landing pages, discounts, and sales funnels all over once again
- Learning a completely foreign UX and interface design
Done in, I spent around 30-40 tiresome hours of setup work transitioning every little thing over– and also dealing with shed productivity throughout the switch.
But ultimately, it was a calculated financial investment I wanted to make. I figured some short-term pain would certainly settle with GoHighLevel providing a far better long-lasting remedy for my company, Dripify. Oh just how wrong I was …
It only took me regarding a month of hands-on use to realize I had made a large mistake. The problems started piling up promptly, until it got to a factor I needed to cut my losses and switch back to Keap completely.
Let’s walk through the horrible problems I experienced.
Security Issues & Many Bugs
Offered GoHighLevel placed itself as an all-in-one automation platform, I took care to thoroughly recreate each and every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These included sequences for onboarding new e-mail customers, onboarding brand-new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending occasion reminders, managing membership expiries and far more.
Whatever appeared to be working penalty … till suddenly it had not been. One morning, I awoke to discover 171 entirely pointless emails had actually been sent to users that must NOT have actually received them. This happened 3 days straight, with a various batch of 160 individuals each day.
I hysterically tried repairing and reconstructing the automation from square one. But the issue lingered.
When I frantically connected to their assistance team, they vaguely asserted “web server problems” were at fault. But this description really did not make any type of sense, given that the mistakes proceeded taking place each early morning like clockwork unconnected to any type of downtime.
In my mind, this large failing was totally inappropriate and simply really did not help my business. I have hundreds of contacts relying upon my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was mosting likely to be entirely unreliable, exactly how could I turn over mission-critical workflows and delicate client information to their technology?
The unintuitive user interface just worsened these issues …
Irritating UX
Originating from Keap where every little thing was smooth and user-friendly, GoHighLevel’s learning contour felt high and difficult.
Straightforward jobs like editing workflows included digging with food selection systems that were all over the place. Key setups were unexplainably scattered in completely various sections. Relocating between features really felt disjointed or complicated.
I’ll inform you what I indicate by speaking about their funnel builder as an instance. There were 3 different setups panels to manage total, individual, and product setups. Yet for some insane reason, the links to access each of these core settings were spread out on opposite sides of the display. What!?
As someone who values clean, thoughtful layout, this seriously frustrated me.
It reinforced that GoHighLevel still felt like a work-in-progress as opposed to a refined product all set for prime-time usage. Their priorities seemed focused on stuffing in every feature under the sun, with poor usability as an afterthought.
And talking features, I quickly recognized the low price tag included pricey concessions …
Misleading Pricing GoHighLevel For Doctors
One of GoHighLevel’s greatest selling factors is the economical price for access to many features. But I quickly learned this inexpensive base expense was deceitful.
They nickle-and-dimed users with occasional charges for core functionality. Instantly my credit card statements had obscure $10 charges from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it ended up, you obtain charged every single time you send out an e-mail with their web servers. So for high quantity customers, this added up to numerous bucks in unforeseen prices.
In between these per-email costs and paying additional for deliverability attachments like Mailgun, my “inexpensive” GoHighLevel membership wound up costing significantly MORE than my Keap plan.
The low sticker price was appealing, however just not realistic in practice. This bait-and-switch left a bad preference in my mouth.
Email Fees Suffered
The final dealbreaker was seeing my carefully nurtured email open prices drop practically over night after changing to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my audience engagement continually hit 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. Once I migrated their documents over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked quickly to a pitiful 9% open rate.
Despite how much I maximized my sending out techniques or attempted every repairing technique, I can barely nudge open rates back right into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous standards GoHighLevel For Doctors.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and emails instantly had horrible interaction. The only thing I could believe that would be triggering this was whatever was occurring behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For an agency so dependent on e-mail marketing, this was a big deal.
In between the debilitating deliverability concerns, hidden costs, damaged features, and terrible interface, I had actually ultimately reached my limit …
Why I Quit GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after migrating my firm to GoHighLevel, I recognized I had actually made a huge error. The disadvantages substantially outweighed any type of advantages.
No software is ideal, however the large volume of issues was beyond acceptable.
At the end of the day, software application comes down to trust fund. If I can’t trust it to manage critical features competently or think a vendor has my benefits in mind, then it’s time to leave– even after spending considerable time, money, and effort moving.
So I made the tough phone call to reverse course and return back to Keap completely just weeks after going all in on GoHighLevel. Let’s explore what I learned from this fiasco.
Key Takeaways: What I Gained from My GoHighLevel Error
My time with HighLevel can be summarized as a costly misadventure. But in knowledge, it instructed me a few essential lessons:
- Stay with what jobs. Do not distress what’s working unless something is definitively better across the board. Change brings risk.
- Vet declares completely. Marketing hype around new software frequently obscures larger underlying defects. Deep due diligence is essential.
- Choose simplicity over features. Properly designed tools must make your job life less complicated, not a lot more complex and untidy.
- Openness constructs trust. Nontransparent pricing, dubious reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert problems ruins depend on.
- Look for honest evaluations. Pleased support evaluates suggest less if too much concerns indicate inadequate total usability.
- Excellence is difficult. No single service can flawlessly meet every one-of-a-kind organization requirement. Discover the least-bad fit.
- Development over transformation. Incremental renovations commonly outweigh high-risk wholesale reinvention of what currently works penalty.
In short, I discovered to be more cynical of “also great to be true” marketing cases and much less tempted by the allure of glossy new objects. The tools you use daily ought to gain trust with openness and efficiency, not glossy advertising.