As an agency owner for over a decade, I rely on software application and automation to improve procedures and supply outcomes. So when GoHighLevel arised on the scene couple of years back, it definitely caught my interest GoHighLevel WooCommerce Integration.
The concept was enticing– an all-in-one client monitoring platform with marketing, sales, and solution devices integrated with each other. As a business owner always aiming to streamline and scale my business, it felt like a dream come true on paper. That would not want a solitary solution that does it all?
Yet in this comprehensive GoHighLevel testimonial, I’ll take you inside my tragic journey of attempting (and falling short) to switch to this preferred new software program. You’ll learn:
If you’re considering whether GoHighLevel is right for your very own business demands, with any luck you can pick up from my uncomfortable errors and blew up assumptions.
Looter: I do NOT suggest GoHighLevel. If you require a CRM, begin with this checklist of ideal CRMs rather. I utilize Keap.
Some GoHighLevel Alternatives
If you’re looking for a sales, marketing, and project monitoring option to GoHighLevel, then here are a couple of we advise.
Backstory: Why I Considered Switching from Keap
To recognize what attracted me to GoHighLevel in the first place, you need context concerning my previous configuration. For over 5 years I had actually been gladly relying on Keap (formerly Infusionsoft) to meet all my client administration and automation needs.
I located Keap instinctive to use and it handled every little thing I required– CRM, e-mail marketing, sales funnels, subscription sites, and customer support.
Keap’s CRM and sales and marketing automation are created to aid local business keep their customers while including new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with e-mails and messages, guaranteeing leads and clients get the best messages at the right time. Use web site and social networks forms to streamline lead follow-up, and manage your growth with easy consultation organizing and lead tracking. Boost sales with automated pricing quote, invoicing, and repayment handling, freeing up your time. With Keap, small businesses can save 10 hours weekly and increase profits by 39%. Begin with a 14-day free trial, no bank card needed.
Why we like Keap
Keap provides a thorough client relationship administration (CRM) and marketing automation option 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 platform’s all-in-one strategy integrates CRM, email marketing, invoicing, and task administration, making it specifically eye-catching for companies looking to combine their technology stack.
For the most part, it simply worked dependably with minimal difficulty or maintenance needed. My open and click-through rates were wonderful (like 35% great). Automations ran smoothly without any concerns.
So why in the world was I lured to uproot my whole operational structure from a system that functioned to attempt something unverified and untested?
In hindsight I can confess I obtained attracted by the alarm phone call of “shiny things syndrome”. You know the sensation: when everyone’s talking about a brand-new tool that will certainly reinvent your business … The grass usually looks greener beyond, and I questioned whether GoHighLevel may minimize friction points that I would certainly learned to tolerate throughout the years with Keap.
I withstood in the beginning, yet a couple of more irritations led me to think maybe it was time for a change.
The Financial investment: Moving My Firm to GoHighLevel
Previously this year I chose to start. I enrolled in HighLevel’s Firm plan at $297/month, investing dramatically more than the $97/month starter price.
This had not been a choice I ignored. I knew changing platforms was mosting likely to call for moving all my Keap data and essentially restoring my entire technology framework from the ground up making use of every one of the GoHighLevel integrations readily available.
Here’s a review of simply some of the effort called for:
- By hand exporting 20,000+ email client records
- Recreating dozens of automations and workflows
- Relocating client profiles, notes, and job data to the new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe payment integration
- Establishing landing pages, coupons, and sales funnels throughout again
- Learning an entirely international UX and interface style
All in, I invested around 30-40 tedious hours of configuration work transitioning everything over– not to mention managing shed efficiency throughout the button.
Yet ultimately, it was a calculated financial investment I was willing to make. I figured some temporary discomfort would certainly settle with GoHighLevel providing a far better lasting service for my organization, Dripify. Oh how wrong I was …
It only took me concerning a month of hands-on usage to realize I had actually made a large error. The issues began piling up swiftly, until it reached a point I needed to reduce my losses and switch back to Keap totally.
Let’s go through the horrible problems I ran into.
Security Issues & Several Vermin
Given GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation platform, I made sure to meticulously recreate every single workflow from my old Keap account.
These consisted of series for onboarding brand-new e-mail customers, onboarding brand-new clients, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending out occasion suggestions, managing subscription expiries and far more.
Whatever seemed to be working penalty … until suddenly it had not been. One morning, I awoke to discover 171 entirely unimportant emails had actually been sent to individuals who ought to NOT have actually gotten them. This happened 3 days in a row, with a various set of 160 people daily.
I hysterically tried troubleshooting and reconstructing the automation from square one. Yet the issue continued.
When I desperately connected to their support team, they vaguely declared “web server issues” were at fault. Yet this explanation really did not make any kind of sense, since the errors continued taking place each early morning like clockwork unassociated to any kind of downtime.
In my mind, this large failure was totally unacceptable and just really did not help my company. I have countless contacts relying upon my automated campaigns running smoothly.
So if GoHighLevel was mosting likely to be entirely unstable, just how could I hand over mission-critical workflows and delicate client information to their innovation?
The unintuitive interface just compounded these concerns …
Aggravating UX
Originating from Keap where every little thing was seamless and user-friendly, GoHighLevel’s learning contour really felt steep and complicated.
Straightforward jobs like editing workflows entailed digging through food selection systems that were all over the place. Key setups were unexplainably spread in absolutely different sections. Relocating between features felt disjointed or complex.
I’ll inform you what I suggest by speaking about their funnel builder as an example. There were 3 separate settings panels to handle total, private, and item configurations. Yet for some insane reason, the links to accessibility each of these core settings were spread out on opposite sides of the display. What!?
As a person who values tidy, thoughtful design, this seriously frustrated me.
It enhanced that GoHighLevel still seemed like a work-in-progress as opposed to a sleek product ready for prime-time usage. Their priorities appeared focused on stuffing in every feature imaginable, with poor use as an afterthought.
And speaking of features, I soon recognized the affordable price tag included expensive compromises …
Misleading Pricing GoHighLevel WooCommerce Integration
Among GoHighLevel’s greatest marketing factors is the economical rate for access to a lot of features. However I quickly learned this cheap base price was deceptive.
They nickle-and-dimed users with erratic charges for core capability. Instantly my charge card statements had unclear $10 costs from GoHighLevel occasionally.
As it ended up, you obtain billed every time you send out an email with their servers. So for high volume customers, this amounted to thousands of bucks in unforeseen prices.
Between these per-email charges and paying extra for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “budget-friendly” GoHighLevel membership ended up costing significantly MORE than my Keap plan.
The reduced sticker price was appealing, however just not reasonable in practice. This bait-and-switch left a bad preference in my mouth.
Email Rates Suffered
The last dealbreaker was seeing my thoroughly supported email open rates plunge nearly over night after changing to GoHighLevel.
Formerly, my target market involvement continually hit 35-40% open rates in Keap month after month. Once I moved their records over to GoHighLevel, performance tanked promptly to a pitiful 9% open price.
Despite how much I enhanced my sending out techniques or tried every fixing technique, I can barely push open rates back right into the teenagers– still a 50%+ decrease from my previous benchmarks GoHighLevel WooCommerce Integration.
Let me repeat: my exact same audience and e-mails unexpectedly had awful engagement. The only thing I can assume that would certainly be causing this was whatever was occurring behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For an agency so dependent on email marketing, this was a big deal.
In between the debilitating deliverability concerns, hidden fees, damaged features, and awful user interface, I had actually finally reached my restriction …
Why I Give up GoHighLevel after 37 Days
Just 45 days after migrating my firm to GoHighLevel, I recognized I had made a huge error. The disadvantages significantly surpassed any type of advantages.
No software is perfect, but the large quantity of problems was past appropriate.
At the end of the day, software application boils down to depend on. If I can not trust it to manage vital features properly or believe a supplier has my benefits in mind, then it’s time to walk away– also after investing significant time, cash, and initiative moving.
So I made the challenging phone call to turn around program and return back to Keap entirely simply weeks after going done in on GoHighLevel. Allow’s discover what I gained from this debacle.
Trick Takeaways: What I Gained from My GoHighLevel Blunder
My time with HighLevel can be summed up as an expensive accident. However in hindsight, it showed me a couple of vital lessons:
- Stay with what jobs. Do not disturb what’s working unless something is definitively far better across the board. Adjustment brings danger.
- Veterinarian asserts extensively. Marketing buzz around new software commonly obscures larger underlying problems. Deep due diligence is important.
- Choose simpleness over features. Properly designed tools should make your job life less complicated, not extra complex and unpleasant.
- Openness builds trust. Opaque pricing, unethical reseller terms, and finger-pointing to evade troubles damages depend on.
- Seek unbiased testimonials. Happy support evaluates suggest less if extreme concerns suggest poor total usability.
- Excellence is difficult. No solitary option can completely satisfy every unique organization requirement. Find the least-bad fit.
- Development over change. Step-by-step renovations commonly outweigh high-risk wholesale reinvention of what currently functions fine.
In other words, I found out to be a lot more doubtful of “too great to be real” marketing insurance claims and much less attracted by the appeal of shiny brand-new objects. The tools you utilize daily must gain trust with transparency and efficiency, not slick advertising.