As an agency proprietor for over a decade, I count on software and automation to improve operations and supply outcomes. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene few years back, it most definitely caught my attention GoHighLevel For Gyms.
The concept was attractive– an all-in-one client administration system with marketing, sales, and solution tools incorporated together. As an entrepreneur constantly aiming to simplify and scale my organization, it looked like a dream happened theoretically. That wouldn’t desire a single solution that does it all?
Yet in this thorough GoHighLevel testimonial, I’ll take you inside my dreadful trip of trying (and failing) to switch to this preferred new software application. You’ll discover:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your own company requirements, hopefully you can gain from my agonizing mistakes and pumped up expectations.
Looter: I do NOT suggest GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, start with this listing of best CRMs rather. I make use of Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re trying to find a sales, marketing, and job monitoring option to GoHighLevel, then right here are a couple of we advise.
Backstory: Why I Thought About Switching from Keap
To comprehend what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you need context about my previous arrangement. For over 5 years I had actually been gladly depending on Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to satisfy all my customer management and automation demands.
I discovered Keap user-friendly to make use of and it handled whatever I required– CRM, email marketing, sales funnels, membership websites, and client assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are created to help small companies maintain their clients while adding new ones easily. Automate follow-ups with emails and messages, making certain leads and clients receive the ideal messages at the correct time. Usage web site and social media sites kinds to streamline lead follow-up, and manage your growth with easy consultation organizing and lead tracking. Boost sales with automated estimating, invoicing, and payment processing, liberating your time. With Keap, local business can conserve 10 hours per week and increase profits by 39%. Start with a 14-day free trial, no credit card needed.
Why we like Keap
Keap supplies an extensive client connection monitoring (CRM) and marketing automation service customized for local business and entrepreneurs. We value Keap’s focus on streamlining sales processes and nurturing consumer connections via effective automation devices. The platform’s all-in-one method integrates CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and job administration, making it specifically appealing for services aiming to consolidate their technology pile.
For the most part, it simply worked accurately with very little hassle or upkeep required. My open and click-through rates were wonderful (like 35% great). Automations ran efficiently without concerns.
So why in the world was I tempted to uproot my whole functional structure from a system that functioned to attempt something unproven and untested?
In knowledge I can admit I obtained seduced by the siren phone call of “shiny object syndrome”. You recognize the sensation: when every person’s speaking about a new tool that will certainly transform your organization … The turf typically looks greener beyond, and I questioned whether GoHighLevel might decrease friction factors that I ‘d discovered to tolerate over the years with Keap.
I withstood initially, but a couple of more aggravations led me to assume maybe it was time for a change.
The Investment: Moving My Firm to GoHighLevel
Earlier this year I chose to take the plunge. I signed up for HighLevel’s Firm plan at $297/month, investing substantially greater than the $97/month starter price.
This had not been a decision I ignored. I understood changing platforms was going to need migrating all my Keap data and essentially reconstructing my whole technology infrastructure from the ground up utilizing every one of the GoHighLevel integrations available.
Right here’s a summary of just a few of the effort called for:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ e-mail customer documents
- Recreating lots of automations and workflows
- Moving client profiles, notes, and task information to the brand-new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe invoicing integration
- Establishing landing pages, discounts, and sales funnels throughout again
- Learning a totally foreign UX and user interface style
Done in, I invested around 30-40 laborious hours of configuration work transitioning every little thing over– and also managing lost productivity throughout the button.
Yet eventually, it was a computed investment I agreed to make. I figured some temporary discomfort would pay off with GoHighLevel providing a better long-term remedy for my service, Dripify. Oh just how incorrect I was …
It only took me concerning a month of hands-on use to understand I had made a large error. The issues began piling up rapidly, until it got to a factor I needed to reduce my losses and switch back to Keap totally.
Allow’s walk through the horrible issues I ran into.
Security Issues & Several Bugs
Given GoHighLevel placed itself as an all-in-one automation system, I took care to diligently recreate every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These consisted of sequences for onboarding new email clients, onboarding brand-new clients, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending event reminders, handling membership expiries and a lot more.
Every little thing appeared to be working penalty … up until suddenly it wasn’t. One early morning, I awoke to discover 171 totally unimportant emails had been sent to customers that should NOT have gotten them. This happened three days in a row, with a various batch of 160 individuals every day.
I hysterically tried fixing and restoring the automation from the ground up. But the trouble lingered.
When I frantically connected to their support group, they vaguely asserted “server issues” were at fault. However this explanation didn’t make any kind of sense, since the mistakes proceeded taking place each early morning like clockwork unrelated to any downtime.
In my mind, this enormous failing was entirely unacceptable and simply didn’t work for my organization. I have thousands of calls depending on my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be totally unstable, exactly how could I turn over mission-critical workflows and delicate customer data to their modern technology?
The unintuitive user interface just intensified these issues …
Discouraging UX
Originating from Keap where every little thing was seamless and intuitive, GoHighLevel’s learning contour really felt high and complicated.
Easy tasks like editing and enhancing workflows entailed digging via food selection systems that were all over the place. Key setups were unexplainably spread in absolutely various areas. Moving in between functions really felt disjointed or confusing.
I’ll tell you what I imply by discussing their funnel builder as an instance. There were 3 separate settings panels to handle total, specific, and product arrangements. Yet for some insane reason, the web links to gain access to each of these core setups were expanded on opposite sides of the screen. What!?
As somebody who values clean, thoughtful layout, this seriously annoyed me.
It reinforced that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress as opposed to a refined item prepared for prime-time use. Their priorities seemed focused on packing in every feature under the sun, with bad usability as a second thought.
And talking features, I soon recognized the small cost tag came with expensive concessions …
Misleading Pricing GoHighLevel For Gyms
One of GoHighLevel’s most significant marketing factors is the budget-friendly cost for access to so many features. Yet I quickly discovered this affordable base expense was deceitful.
They nickle-and-dimed users with occasional charges for core capability. Suddenly my credit card declarations had unclear $10 charges from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it ended up, you get charged whenever you send an email via their web servers. So for high quantity users, this added up to thousands of bucks in unexpected prices.
In between these per-email fees and paying extra for deliverability attachments like Mailgun, my “budget-friendly” GoHighLevel subscription ended up costing dramatically greater than my Keap plan.
The low price tag was alluring, however just not sensible in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor preference in my mouth.
Email Fees Suffered
The final dealbreaker was seeing my thoroughly supported e-mail open prices plunge almost overnight after switching over to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my target market engagement constantly hit 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. But once I moved their records over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked instantly to a pathetic 9% open price.
Despite just how much I maximized my sending out methods or tried every fixing technique, I can barely nudge open rates back into the teens– still a 50%+ decline from my previous criteria GoHighLevel For Gyms.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and emails all of a sudden had dreadful involvement. The only thing I could assume that would certainly be triggering this was whatever was happening behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For a firm so dependent on email marketing, this was a big deal.
In between the debilitating deliverability issues, concealed fees, busted features, and terrible user interface, I had lastly reached my limitation …
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after moving my firm to GoHighLevel, I knew I had made a huge mistake. The disadvantages dramatically exceeded any type of advantages.
No software is perfect, but the large volume of problems was beyond appropriate.
At the end of the day, software boils down to trust. If I can’t trust it to handle crucial features competently or think a supplier has my benefits in mind, then it’s time to leave– even after spending substantial time, money, and initiative moving.
So I made the hard phone call to reverse program and return back to Keap entirely just weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s explore what I gained from this ordeal.
Key Takeaways: What I Gained from My GoHighLevel Mistake
My time with HighLevel can be summarized as a costly accident. However in knowledge, it taught me a few crucial lessons:
- Stay with what works. Do not distress what’s working unless something is definitively much better across the board. Change brings danger.
- Vet asserts extensively. Marketing hype around new software application usually covers bigger underlying defects. Deep due diligence is necessary.
- Select simpleness over features. Properly designed devices should make your work life simpler, not a lot more challenging and unpleasant.
- Openness builds count on. Nontransparent pricing, questionable reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert issues ruins count on.
- Seek objective reviews. Delighted support examines imply much less if extreme concerns indicate inadequate total use.
- Excellence is difficult. No single service can flawlessly meet every distinct organization requirement. Discover the least-bad fit.
- Advancement over change. Incremental improvements generally exceed risky wholesale reinvention of what currently functions penalty.
Basically, I discovered to be extra hesitant of “too good to be real” marketing insurance claims and less attracted by the appeal of glossy new things. The tools you make use of daily must gain count on with openness and performance, not glossy advertising.