As an agency proprietor for over a decade, I count on software application and automation to enhance procedures and deliver results. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene couple of years back, it definitely caught my attention GoHighLevel For Photography.
The idea was appealing– an all-in-one client administration platform with marketing, sales, and solution devices integrated together. As an entrepreneur constantly seeking to simplify and scale my service, it appeared like a desire happened on paper. Who would not desire a single option that does it all?
But in this in-depth GoHighLevel testimonial, I’ll take you inside my dreadful journey of trying (and falling short) to switch over to this prominent brand-new software application. You’ll find out:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own business demands, hopefully you can gain from my unpleasant errors and blew up expectations.
Spoiler: I do NOT advise GoHighLevel. If you need a CRM, begin with this list of finest CRMs rather. I utilize Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re seeking a sales, marketing, and job monitoring option to GoHighLevel, then below are a few we suggest.
Backstory: Why I Thought About Changing from Keap
To recognize what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you require context concerning my previous setup. For over 5 years I had actually been happily relying upon Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) to fulfill all my client monitoring and automation demands.
I located Keap instinctive to utilize and it dealt with whatever I needed– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, membership sites, and client assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are created to assist local business maintain their customers while including new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with emails and messages, making certain leads and clients get the appropriate messages at the correct time. Use web site and social media sites kinds to enhance lead follow-up, and manage your growth with easy visit organizing and lead monitoring. Boost sales with automated quoting, invoicing, and settlement handling, liberating your time. With Keap, small businesses can save 10 hours each week and rise earnings by 39%. Start with a 14-day free trial, no charge card needed.
Why we like Keap
Keap uses a thorough customer partnership administration (CRM) and marketing automation option tailored for small companies and business owners. We appreciate Keap’s concentrate on streamlining sales processes and supporting client partnerships through powerful automation tools. The system’s all-in-one method incorporates CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and job management, making it specifically attractive for organizations aiming to combine their tech stack.
Essentially, it just functioned reliably with marginal hassle or maintenance called for. My open and click-through rates were terrific (like 35% terrific). Automations ran smoothly without any issues.
So why on earth was I attracted to uproot my entire operational foundation from a system that worked to try something unproven and untested?
In hindsight I can confess I got seduced by the alarm phone call of “glossy things syndrome”. You know the sensation: when everyone’s discussing a new device that will certainly reinvent your company … The grass frequently looks greener beyond, and I questioned whether GoHighLevel might minimize rubbing factors that I would certainly discovered to endure for many years with Keap.
I stood up to at first, however a few even more stress led me to think maybe it was time for an adjustment.
The Financial investment: Moving My Firm to GoHighLevel
Earlier this year I chose to take the plunge. I registered for HighLevel’s Firm plan at $297/month, investing dramatically more than the $97/month starter expense.
This wasn’t a decision I ignored. I understood switching over platforms was mosting likely to call for migrating all my Keap information and basically restoring my entire technology facilities from scratch using every one of the GoHighLevel integrations readily available.
Here’s an introduction of just some of the initiative required:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ e-mail subscriber records
- Recreating dozens of automations and workflows
- Relocating client accounts, notes, and task data to the brand-new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe payment integration
- Setting up landing pages, discounts, and sales funnels throughout once again
- Learning a completely international UX and user interface layout
All in, I spent around 30-40 tedious hours of configuration job transitioning every little thing over– not to mention handling shed performance during the switch.
Yet ultimately, it was a calculated investment I was willing to make. I figured some temporary pain would certainly repay with GoHighLevel providing a better lasting remedy for my organization, Dripify. Oh just how wrong I was …
It just took me concerning a month of hands-on use to understand I had made a huge error. The problems started accumulating swiftly, until it reached a point I needed to reduce my losses and change back to Keap totally.
Allow’s go through the nightmarish issues I experienced.
Safety Issues & Many Bugs
Given GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation platform, I made sure to carefully recreate every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These consisted of sequences for onboarding new email customers, onboarding brand-new customers, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending out event tips, taking care of membership expirations and far more.
Everything seemed to be functioning fine … until instantly it had not been. One early morning, I woke up to locate 171 completely unnecessary e-mails had actually been sent to users who ought to NOT have gotten them. This happened three days in a row, with a various set of 160 people every day.
I anxiously attempted repairing and reconstructing the automation from scratch. But the problem continued.
When I seriously reached out to their support group, they vaguely claimed “web server concerns” were responsible. But this explanation really did not make any type of sense, given that the mistakes proceeded happening each early morning like clockwork unconnected to any kind of downtime.
In my mind, this substantial failing was totally unacceptable and simply didn’t work for my business. I have hundreds of calls relying on my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be absolutely unreliable, how could I hand over mission-critical workflows and delicate customer data to their innovation?
The unintuitive user interface only compounded these concerns …
Irritating UX
Originating from Keap where everything was smooth and user-friendly, GoHighLevel’s learning contour really felt steep and difficult.
Straightforward jobs like editing workflows included excavating via food selection systems that were all over the place. Key settings were unexplainably spread in entirely different sections. Moving between features felt disjointed or complex.
I’ll inform you what I indicate by talking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 different setups panels to take care of general, specific, and product configurations. Yet for some insane factor, the web links to accessibility each of these core setups were expanded on opposite sides of the display. What!?
As a person that values tidy, thoughtful design, this seriously irritated me.
It strengthened that GoHighLevel still felt like a work-in-progress rather than a sleek product ready for prime-time use. Their top priorities appeared concentrated on cramming in every feature under the sun, with bad functionality as a second thought.
And talking features, I soon understood the low price tag featured expensive concessions …
Misleading Pricing GoHighLevel For Photography
One of GoHighLevel’s most significant selling factors is the budget-friendly cost for accessibility to many features. Yet I quickly discovered this low-cost base expense was deceitful.
They nickle-and-dimed customers with erratic fees for core performance. Suddenly my credit card statements had vague $10 charges from GoHighLevel here and there.
As it turned out, you obtain billed whenever you send out an email via their web servers. So for high volume customers, this added up to numerous dollars in unforeseen costs.
In between these per-email fees and paying additional for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “budget-friendly” GoHighLevel subscription ended up setting you back significantly MORE than my Keap plan.
The low price tag was tempting, yet just not practical in practice. This bait-and-switch left a bad preference in my mouth.
Email Fees Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my carefully supported e-mail open rates plummet practically over night after changing to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my target market interaction continually hit 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. Once I moved their documents over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked instantly to a worthless 9% open price.
Despite just how much I maximized my sending techniques or tried every troubleshooting trick, I can hardly push open rates back into the teens– still a 50%+ decline from my previous benchmarks GoHighLevel For Photography.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and e-mails all of a sudden had awful engagement. The only point I might believe that would certainly be causing this was whatever was occurring behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For a company so dependent on email marketing, this was a big deal.
Between the crippling deliverability concerns, hidden charges, damaged features, and terrible user interface, I had actually ultimately reached my limit …
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after migrating my agency to GoHighLevel, I recognized I had actually made a massive mistake. The disadvantages significantly exceeded any kind of benefits.
No software is ideal, but the large quantity of problems was beyond appropriate.
At the end of the day, software boils down to depend on. If I can’t trust it to handle crucial features capably or think a supplier has my benefits in mind, then it’s time to walk away– even after investing considerable time, money, and effort migrating.
So I made the hard phone call to reverse program and return back to Keap entirely just weeks after going all in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s explore what I gained from this debacle.
Key Takeaways: What I Picked up from My GoHighLevel Blunder
My time with HighLevel can be summarized as an expensive ill fortune. Yet in hindsight, it taught me a couple of vital lessons:
- Stick to what works. Don’t upset what’s functioning unless something is definitively better across the board. Adjustment brings danger.
- Vet claims completely. Marketing hype around brand-new software program usually obscures larger underlying defects. Deep due diligence is crucial.
- Pick simplicity over features. Properly designed tools must make your work life easier, not extra complex and unpleasant.
- Transparency builds depend on. Nontransparent pricing, unethical reseller terms, and finger-pointing to escape troubles ruins trust fund.
- Seek impartial evaluations. Delighted assistance evaluates imply much less if too much issues indicate bad overall functionality.
- Perfection is difficult. No single option can completely meet every distinct company requirement. Find the least-bad fit.
- Evolution over revolution. Step-by-step renovations typically surpass high-risk wholesale reinvention of what already works penalty.
Simply put, I learned to be extra skeptical of “as well excellent to be real” marketing cases and less lured by the attraction of shiny new items. The tools you utilize daily ought to gain depend on with transparency and efficiency, not slick advertising.