As a company owner for over a years, I rely on software application and automation to streamline procedures and deliver outcomes. So when GoHighLevel emerged on the scene few years back, it certainly captured my focus GoHighLevel Roofing Snapshot.
The idea was appealing– an all-in-one client management system with marketing, sales, and service devices integrated with each other. As an entrepreneur constantly looking to simplify and scale my service, it appeared like a desire come true theoretically. Who wouldn’t desire a single solution that does it all?
But in this in-depth GoHighLevel testimonial, I’ll take you inside my disastrous trip of trying (and failing) to switch over to this popular brand-new software application. You’ll discover:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own business demands, with any luck you can pick up from my agonizing mistakes and inflated expectations.
Spoiler: I do NOT advise GoHighLevel. If you need a CRM, start with this list of finest CRMs instead. I utilize Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re trying to find a sales, marketing, and job monitoring choice to GoHighLevel, after that here are a few we recommend.
Backstory: Why I Took Into Consideration Changing from Keap
To comprehend what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you require context concerning my previous configuration. For over 5 years I had been gladly counting on Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to satisfy all my customer monitoring and automation demands.
I discovered Keap user-friendly to make use of and it managed whatever I required– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, subscription sites, and client assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are designed to help small companies keep their clients while adding brand-new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with emails and messages, guaranteeing leads and clients obtain the best messages at the right time. Use web site and social media sites forms to improve lead follow-up, and manage your growth with very easy consultation scheduling and lead monitoring. Boost sales with automated quoting, invoicing, and settlement processing, liberating your time. With Keap, small businesses can conserve 10 hours weekly and rise revenue by 39%. Beginning with a 14-day free trial, no charge card required.
Why we like Keap
Keap offers a thorough consumer relationship monitoring (CRM) and marketing automation remedy customized for small companies and business owners. We value Keap’s focus on enhancing sales processes and supporting customer partnerships through powerful automation devices. The platform’s all-in-one approach combines CRM, e-mail marketing, invoicing, and task management, making it particularly eye-catching for organizations aiming to combine their tech pile.
Generally, it just worked dependably with minimal fuss or upkeep needed. My open and click-through rates were terrific (like 35% excellent). Automations ran smoothly without issues.
So why in the world was I lured to uproot my entire functional foundation from a system that functioned to try something unverified and untried?
In knowledge I can admit I obtained seduced by the alarm telephone call of “shiny object disorder”. You understand the feeling: when every person’s discussing a new tool that will certainly change your organization … The lawn usually looks greener beyond, and I wondered whether GoHighLevel might reduce friction points that I would certainly learned to endure over the years with Keap.
I resisted initially, however a few more frustrations led me to assume possibly it was time for a modification.
The Financial investment: Moving My Agency to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I determined to start. I signed up for HighLevel’s Firm plan at $297/month, spending dramatically greater than the $97/month starter expense.
This had not been a choice I took lightly. I recognized switching over systems was going to require moving all my Keap data and basically rebuilding my entire tech facilities from scratch making use of all of the GoHighLevel integrations readily available.
Here’s an introduction of simply some of the initiative required:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ email client documents
- Recreating loads of automations and workflows
- Relocating client profiles, notes, and job data to the brand-new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe payment integration
- Setting up landing pages, promotions, and sales funnels throughout once again
- Learning an entirely foreign UX and interface style
Done in, I spent around 30-40 tiresome hours of setup job transitioning every little thing over– and also dealing with shed productivity throughout the switch.
However inevitably, it was a calculated investment I was willing to make. I figured some short-term pain would certainly pay off with GoHighLevel offering a better long-term remedy for my organization, Dripify. Oh just how incorrect I was …
It only took me concerning a month of hands-on use to recognize I had made a big mistake. The concerns began accumulating rapidly, up until it reached a point I needed to cut my losses and switch over back to Keap totally.
Let’s go through the horrible problems I encountered.
Security Issues & Lots of Vermin
Given GoHighLevel placed itself as an all-in-one automation system, I took care to meticulously recreate each and every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These included series for onboarding new e-mail subscribers, onboarding new clients, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending out occasion tips, taking care of subscription expiries and much more.
Every little thing appeared to be operating fine … until suddenly it wasn’t. One early morning, I awoke to locate 171 totally unnecessary emails had been sent out to users who need to NOT have actually gotten them. This took place three days in a row, with a various set of 160 individuals each day.
I anxiously attempted repairing and reconstructing the automation from scratch. However the issue lingered.
When I seriously connected to their support group, they slightly claimed “server issues” were to blame. However this explanation really did not make any type of sense, since the mistakes proceeded occurring each early morning like clockwork unrelated to any kind of downtime.
In my mind, this large failure was completely inappropriate and simply really did not help my service. I have countless calls depending on my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was mosting likely to be totally unstable, how could I delegate mission-critical workflows and sensitive client information to their technology?
The unintuitive interface just compounded these issues …
Irritating UX
Originating from Keap where whatever was seamless and instinctive, GoHighLevel’s learning contour felt steep and complicated.
Simple tasks like modifying workflows involved excavating via food selection systems that were all over the place. Key settings were unexplainably scattered in totally various sections. Relocating in between features felt disjointed or complicated.
I’ll inform you what I indicate by speaking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 different settings panels to handle general, individual, and product configurations. Yet for some insane factor, the web links to accessibility each of these core setups were spread out on contrary sides of the screen. What!?
As someone who values clean, thoughtful style, this seriously frustrated me.
It reinforced that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress rather than a polished product ready for prime-time use. Their priorities seemed focused on stuffing in every feature under the sun, with bad use as an afterthought.
And talking features, I quickly recognized the low cost tag featured expensive compromises …
Misleading Pricing GoHighLevel Roofing Snapshot
Among GoHighLevel’s most significant selling factors is the budget-friendly cost for accessibility to so many features. But I rapidly discovered this inexpensive base price was deceitful.
They nickle-and-dimed users with occasional costs for core functionality. Unexpectedly my bank card statements had obscure $10 fees from GoHighLevel here and there.
As it ended up, you obtain charged each time you send an e-mail through their web servers. So for high volume users, this added up to hundreds of bucks in unexpected costs.
Between these per-email costs and paying extra for deliverability attachments like Mailgun, my “budget-friendly” GoHighLevel registration ended up costing dramatically MORE than my Keap plan.
The reduced sticker price was appealing, however just not realistic in practice. This bait-and-switch left a negative taste in my mouth.
Email Fees Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my thoroughly supported e-mail open prices plunge almost over night after switching to GoHighLevel.
Previously, my target market engagement regularly hit 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. But once I moved their records over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked instantaneously to a useless 9% open rate.
Regardless of just how much I maximized my sending practices or tried every troubleshooting method, I can barely nudge open rates back right into the teens– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous benchmarks GoHighLevel Roofing Snapshot.
Let me repeat: my exact same target market and e-mails suddenly had horrible engagement. The only thing I could think that would certainly be causing this was whatever was occurring behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For a company so based on email marketing, this was a big deal.
Between the debilitating deliverability problems, hidden fees, busted features, and horrible user interface, I had actually lastly reached my limit …
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Just 45 days after migrating my company to GoHighLevel, I recognized I had actually made a substantial mistake. The cons dramatically exceeded any kind of benefits.
No software application is excellent, however the sheer volume of troubles was past acceptable.
At the end of the day, software application comes down to trust fund. If I can not trust it to deal with vital features effectively or think a vendor has my benefits in mind, then it’s time to walk away– also after spending substantial time, cash, and initiative migrating.
So I made the hard phone call to reverse training course and return back to Keap totally simply weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s discover what I gained from this ordeal.
Secret Takeaways: What I Picked up from My GoHighLevel Mistake
My time with HighLevel can be summarized as a costly accident. But in hindsight, it showed me a couple of vital lessons:
- Adhere to what works. Do not distress what’s working unless something is definitively better across the board. Adjustment brings threat.
- Veterinarian declares extensively. Marketing buzz around new software commonly covers bigger underlying imperfections. Deep due persistance is important.
- Choose simpleness over features. Properly designed tools should make your work life much easier, not much more complicated and messy.
- Openness constructs count on. Nontransparent pricing, unethical reseller terms, and finger-pointing to evade issues ruins trust fund.
- Look for impartial reviews. Pleased assistance assesses mean less if extreme problems indicate poor total use.
- Perfection is impossible. No single option can flawlessly satisfy every unique service demand. Discover the least-bad fit.
- Development over change. Incremental enhancements usually surpass dangerous wholesale reinvention of what already works penalty.
Basically, I found out to be much more cynical of “also great to be real” marketing cases and much less attracted by the appeal of glossy new items. The devices you utilize daily need to earn trust with openness and efficiency, not glossy advertising.