As an agency owner for over a decade, I rely upon software application and automation to enhance procedures and deliver results. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene few years back, it most definitely caught my focus GoHighLevel Triggers.
The idea was appealing– an all-in-one client administration system with marketing, sales, and service tools incorporated with each other. As a business owner always looking to streamline and scale my company, it looked like a dream come to life theoretically. Who would not desire a single solution that does it all?
But in this in-depth GoHighLevel testimonial, I’ll take you inside my devastating trip of trying (and falling short) to switch over to this prominent new software application. You’ll discover:
If you’re taking into consideration whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own business demands, hopefully you can pick up from my unpleasant blunders and inflated expectations.
Spoiler: I do NOT suggest GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, begin with this list of ideal CRMs rather. I make use of Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re searching for a sales, marketing, and job monitoring alternative to GoHighLevel, then below are a couple of we recommend.
Backstory: Why I Took Into Consideration Changing from Keap
To understand what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you need context concerning my previous configuration. For over 5 years I had been happily depending on Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to satisfy all my customer management and automation needs.
I discovered Keap instinctive to use and it took care of everything I needed– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, membership websites, and client assistance.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are designed to help small businesses maintain their customers while including brand-new ones easily. Automate follow-ups with emails and messages, guaranteeing leads and clients get the ideal messages at the right time. Use web site and social media sites types to simplify lead follow-up, and manage your growth with simple consultation scheduling and lead monitoring. Boost sales with automated pricing estimate, invoicing, and settlement processing, maximizing your time. With Keap, small companies can save 10 hours weekly and increase revenue by 39%. Begin with a 14-day free trial, no bank card required.
Why we like Keap
Keap supplies a thorough consumer connection management (CRM) and marketing automation service tailored for local business and business owners. We value Keap’s focus on streamlining sales procedures and nurturing consumer connections through powerful automation devices. The system’s all-in-one method combines CRM, email marketing, invoicing, and job administration, making it particularly attractive for businesses aiming to combine their technology stack.
Essentially, it simply worked dependably with very little hassle or maintenance called for. My open and click-through rates were fantastic (like 35% excellent). Automations ran efficiently with no concerns.
So why on earth was I attracted to uproot my whole operational structure from a system that functioned to try something unverified and untested?
In hindsight I can confess I obtained seduced by the alarm telephone call of “shiny object disorder”. You understand the sensation: when everyone’s speaking about a brand-new device that will certainly transform your business … The turf usually looks greener on the other side, and I wondered whether GoHighLevel could reduce rubbing factors that I would certainly found out to tolerate throughout the years with Keap.
I resisted initially, yet a couple of even more aggravations led me to think possibly it was time for an adjustment.
The Financial investment: Migrating My Firm to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I chose to start. I enrolled in HighLevel’s Agency plan at $297/month, spending substantially greater than the $97/month starter price.
This wasn’t a choice I ignored. I knew changing systems was going to call for migrating all my Keap data and essentially rebuilding my entire technology facilities from scratch using all of the GoHighLevel integrations available.
Here’s an introduction of simply some of the effort required:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ e-mail subscriber records
- Recreating loads of automations and workflows
- Moving customer profiles, notes, and task information to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe invoicing integration
- Establishing landing pages, promotions, and sales funnels throughout once again
- Learning an entirely international UX and user interface style
Done in, I spent around 30-40 tiresome hours of configuration job transitioning everything over– and also taking care of shed performance throughout the switch.
But inevitably, it was a computed investment I agreed to make. I figured some temporary pain would certainly repay with GoHighLevel giving a better lasting service for my company, Dripify. Oh exactly how wrong I was …
It just took me concerning a month of hands-on use to understand I had actually made a large blunder. The concerns began piling up rapidly, up until it reached a factor I needed to cut my losses and switch back to Keap totally.
Allow’s walk through the horrible troubles I encountered.
Safety Issues & Numerous Bugs
Provided GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation platform, I took care to carefully recreate each and every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These included series for onboarding brand-new email subscribers, onboarding new clients, automating follow-ups for webinar enrollments, sending out event tips, taking care of membership expiries and much more.
Whatever appeared to be operating penalty … until instantly it had not been. One morning, I awoke to discover 171 entirely irrelevant emails had been sent to users who must NOT have actually obtained them. This occurred 3 days straight, with a different batch of 160 individuals daily.
I desperately attempted troubleshooting and restoring the automation from the ground up. Yet the trouble persisted.
When I frantically reached out to their support team, they slightly asserted “web server problems” were to blame. But this description really did not make any feeling, considering that the mistakes proceeded taking place each morning like clockwork unassociated to any type of downtime.
In my mind, this enormous failure was entirely undesirable and just didn’t help my business. I have thousands of calls relying on my automated campaigns running efficiently.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be totally undependable, how could I turn over mission-critical workflows and delicate client information to their innovation?
The unintuitive user interface just compounded these problems …
Aggravating UX
Coming from Keap where every little thing was seamless and instinctive, GoHighLevel’s learning curve really felt steep and complex.
Basic jobs like editing workflows involved excavating via food selection systems that were all over the place. Key settings were unexplainably scattered in totally different sections. Relocating between features really felt disjointed or complex.
I’ll tell you what I mean by talking about their funnel builder as an instance. There were 3 separate settings panels to handle total, individual, and item setups. Yet for some insane reason, the links to gain access to each of these core setups were spread out on opposite sides of the screen. What!?
As somebody that values tidy, thoughtful style, this seriously upset me.
It reinforced that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress as opposed to a refined item prepared for prime-time use. Their concerns appeared concentrated on packing in every feature under the sun, with poor use as a second thought.
And speaking of features, I quickly realized the low cost tag included expensive compromises …
Deceptive Pricing GoHighLevel Triggers
One of GoHighLevel’s largest marketing points is the inexpensive price for accessibility to many features. But I swiftly discovered this cheap base price was deceptive.
They nickle-and-dimed individuals with occasional fees for core functionality. All of a sudden my charge card statements had obscure $10 costs from GoHighLevel here and there.
As it ended up, you obtain charged whenever you send an e-mail via their servers. So for high quantity customers, this added up to hundreds of bucks in unexpected prices.
Between these per-email charges and paying added for deliverability attachments like Mailgun, my “economical” GoHighLevel registration wound up setting you back significantly greater than my Keap plan.
The low price tag was tempting, yet simply not practical in practice. This bait-and-switch left a poor preference in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The final dealbreaker was seeing my very carefully supported email open rates drop almost overnight after switching over to GoHighLevel.
Formerly, my target market interaction constantly hit 35-40% open prices in Keap month after month. Once I moved their records over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked instantaneously to a worthless 9% open price.
Despite just how much I optimized my sending methods or attempted every repairing technique, I can barely nudge open rates back right into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous benchmarks GoHighLevel Triggers.
Let me repeat: my exact same audience and emails suddenly had awful involvement. The only thing I might think that would be creating this was whatever was taking place behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For a company so based on e-mail marketing, this was a big deal.
In between the crippling deliverability issues, concealed charges, busted features, and awful interface, I had actually finally reached my limitation …
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Simply 45 days after moving my firm to GoHighLevel, I recognized I had actually made a huge blunder. The cons drastically exceeded any kind of benefits.
No software application is excellent, yet the sheer volume of troubles was past acceptable.
At the end of the day, software boils down to trust. If I can not trust it to deal with crucial features capably or believe a supplier has my best interests in mind, after that it’s time to walk away– even after spending significant time, cash, and initiative migrating.
So I made the tough phone call to reverse program and return back to Keap totally just weeks after going all in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s discover what I gained from this fiasco.
Key Takeaways: What I Picked up from My GoHighLevel Mistake
My time with HighLevel can be summed up as an expensive accident. Yet in knowledge, it taught me a couple of vital lessons:
- Stick to what works. Do not disturb what’s functioning unless something is definitively much better across the board. Modification brings threat.
- Veterinarian declares completely. Marketing buzz around brand-new software program frequently covers larger underlying flaws. Deep due persistance is necessary.
- Choose simplicity over features. Well-designed tools ought to make your job life simpler, not a lot more difficult and messy.
- Openness builds count on. Nontransparent pricing, unethical reseller terms, and finger-pointing to avert problems damages trust fund.
- Seek objective evaluations. Delighted assistance reviews imply less if extreme problems imply poor total use.
- Perfection is impossible. No single solution can perfectly satisfy every one-of-a-kind organization demand. Locate the least-bad fit.
- Development over change. Step-by-step enhancements generally exceed high-risk wholesale reinvention of what currently functions fine.
In other words, I discovered to be a lot more hesitant of “too great to be true” marketing cases and less tempted by the appeal of shiny brand-new items. The devices you make use of daily ought to earn count on with transparency and efficiency, not glossy advertising.