As an company proprietor for over a decade, I depend on software program and automation to streamline operations and ship outcomes. So when GoHighLevel emerged on the scene few years again, it undoubtedly caught my consideration (truly simply known as “HighLevel” however discovered at “GoHighLevel.com”) .
The concept was interesting – an all-in-one shopper administration platform with advertising, gross sales, and repair instruments built-in collectively. As an entrepreneur at all times trying to simplify and scale my enterprise, it appeared like a dream come true on paper. Who wouldn’t need a single answer that does all of it?
However on this in-depth GoHighLevel assessment, I’ll take you inside my disastrous journey of attempting (and failing) to change to this standard new software program. You’ll be taught:
- The backstory of why I made a decision emigrate to GoHighLevel
- How a lot money and time I invested within the transition
- The myriad points that emerged as soon as I used to be totally onboarded
- How poor help left considerations unresolved
- Why I in the end regretted ingesting the GoHighLevel Kool-Assist
For those who’re contemplating whether or not GoHighLevel is true in your personal enterprise wants, hopefully you’ll be able to be taught from my painful errors and inflated expectations.
Spoiler: I do NOT advocate GoHighLevel. For those who want a CRM, begin with this record of greatest CRMs as an alternative. I exploit Keap.
- Watch out for Shiny Object Syndrome: Keep away from the temptation to change to new, unproven software program platforms just because they appear extra thrilling. Follow what’s working except a brand new answer provides clear, across-the-board enhancements.
- Prioritize Simplicity: Select well-designed instruments that simplify your work life quite than complicate it. An intuitive and user-friendly interface is essential for effectivity.
- Demand Transparency: Search for transparency in pricing and phrases. Be cautious of hidden charges and unclear reseller fashions, as these can erode belief within the software program supplier.
- Search Unbiased Critiques: Depend on unbiased, complete opinions and testimonials when evaluating software program. Take note of the general usability and performance quite than simply help opinions.
Backstory: Why I Thought-about Switching from Keap
To know what attracted me to GoHighLevel within the first place, you want context about my earlier setup. For over 5 years I had been fortunately counting on Keap (previously Infusionsoft) to fulfill all my shopper administration and automation wants.
I discovered Keap intuitive to make use of and it dealt with every part I wanted – CRM, electronic mail advertising, gross sales funnels, membership websites, and shopper help.
Keap
Keap’s CRM and gross sales and advertising automation are designed to assist small companies hold their purchasers whereas including new ones effortlessly. Automate follow-ups with emails and texts, making certain leads and purchasers obtain the precise messages on the proper time. Use web site and social media kinds to streamline lead follow-up, and handle your development with simple appointment scheduling and lead monitoring. Increase gross sales with automated quoting, invoicing, and cost processing, liberating up your time. With Keap, small companies can save 10 hours per week and enhance income by 39%. Begin with a 14-day free trial, no bank card required.
Why we like Keap ‣
Keap provides a complete buyer relationship administration (CRM) and advertising automation answer tailor-made for small companies and entrepreneurs. We respect Keap’s give attention to streamlining gross sales processes and nurturing buyer relationships by way of highly effective automation instruments. The platform’s all-in-one strategy combines CRM, electronic mail advertising, invoicing, and activity administration, making it significantly engaging for companies trying to consolidate their tech stack.
Keap Professionals & Cons ‣
Professionals:
- Sturdy automation capabilities for advertising and gross sales processes
- Consumer-friendly interface designed for small enterprise house owners
- Built-in CRM, electronic mail advertising, and e-commerce instruments
- Sturdy buyer help and onboarding assets
- AI-powered options to reinforce productiveness
Cons:
- Studying curve could be steep for some customers
- Pricing is MUCH larger in comparison with its rivals
- Some superior options solely obtainable in higher-tier plans
- Reporting capabilities may very well be extra complete
- Restricted customization choices for bigger or extra advanced enterprise
For probably the most half, it simply labored reliably with minimal fuss or upkeep required. My open and click-through charges have been nice (like 35% nice). Automations ran easily with no points.
So why on earth was I tempted to uproot my total operational basis from a system that labored to strive one thing unproven and untested?
In hindsight I can admit I bought seduced by the siren name of “shiny object syndrome”. You recognize the sensation: when everybody’s speaking a couple of new instrument that can revolutionize your enterprise… The grass typically appears to be like greener on the opposite facet, and I questioned whether or not GoHighLevel may scale back friction factors that I’d realized to tolerate through the years with Keap.
I resisted at first, however a couple of extra frustrations led me to assume perhaps it was time for a change.
The Funding: Migrating My Company to GoHighLevel
Earlier this 12 months (2023) I made a decision to make the leap. I signed up for HighLevel’s Company plan at $300/month, investing considerably greater than the $97/month starter price.
This wasn’t a choice I took frivolously. I knew switching platforms was going to require migrating all my Keap knowledge and primarily rebuilding my total tech infrastructure from scratch.
Right here’s an summary of simply a few of the effort required:
- Manually exporting 20,000+ electronic mail subscriber information
- Recreating dozens of automations and workflows
- Transferring shopper profiles, notes, and mission knowledge to the brand new CRM
- Reconfiguring my Stripe billing integration
- Organising touchdown pages, promos, and gross sales funnels yet again
- Studying a wholly international UX and interface design
All in, I invested round 30-40 tedious hours of setup work transitioning every part over – to not point out coping with misplaced productiveness throughout the swap.
However in the end, it was a calculated funding I used to be keen to make. I figured some short-term ache would repay with GoHighLevel offering a greater long-term answer for my enterprise, Dripify. Oh how fallacious I used to be…
It solely took me a couple of month of hands-on use to comprehend I had made a giant mistake. The problems began piling up rapidly, till it reached some extent I needed to lower my losses and swap again to Keap totally.
Let’s stroll by way of the nightmarish issues I encountered.
Safety Points & A number of Bugs
Given GoHighLevel positioned itself as an all-in-one automation platform, I took care to meticulously recreate each single workflow from my previous Keap account.
These included sequences for onboarding new electronic mail subscribers, onboarding new purchasers, automating follow-ups for webinar registrations, sending occasion reminders, managing membership expirations, and rather more.
Every part gave the impression to be functioning high quality…till instantly it wasn’t. One morning, I awoke to search out 171 fully irrelevant emails had been despatched to customers who ought to NOT have acquired them. This occurred three days in a row, with a unique batch of 171 folks every day.
I frantically tried troubleshooting and rebuilding the automation from scratch. However the issue persevered.
Once I desperately reached out to their help workforce, they vaguely claimed “server points” have been in charge. However this clarification didn’t make any sense, for the reason that errors continued occurring every morning like clockwork unrelated to any downtime.
In my thoughts, this huge failure was fully unacceptable and simply didn’t work for my enterprise. I’ve hundreds of contacts counting on my automated campaigns working easily.
So if GoHighLevel was going to be completely unreliable, how may I entrust mission-critical workflows and delicate shopper knowledge to their know-how?
The unintuitive interface solely compounded these points…
Irritating UX
Coming from Keap the place every part was seamless and intuitive, GoHighLevel’s studying curve felt steep and complex.
Easy duties like enhancing workflows concerned digging by way of menu techniques that have been in every single place. Key settings have been unexplainably scattered in completely totally different sections. Transferring between capabilities felt disjointed or complicated.
I’ll inform you what I imply by speaking about their funnel builder for example. There have been 3 separate settings panels to handle general, particular person, and product configurations. But for some loopy motive, the hyperlinks to entry every of those core settings have been unfold out on reverse sides of the display screen. What!?
As somebody who values clear, considerate design, this significantly aggravated me.
It strengthened that GoHighLevel nonetheless felt like a work-in-progress quite than a sophisticated product prepared for prime-time use. Their priorities appeared centered on cramming in each characteristic beneath the solar, with poor usability as an afterthought.
And talking of options, I quickly realized the low price ticket got here with pricey compromises…
Deceptive Pricing
One among GoHighLevel’s greatest promoting factors is the inexpensive worth for entry to so many options. However I rapidly realized this low cost base price was misleading.
They nickle-and-dimed customers with sporadic charges for core performance. Immediately my bank card statements had obscure $10 fees from GoHighLevel right here and there.
Because it turned out, you get charged each time you ship an electronic mail by way of their servers. So for top quantity customers, this added as much as a whole lot of {dollars} in surprising prices.
Between these per-email charges and paying further for deliverability add-ons like Mailgun, my “inexpensive” GoHighLevel subscription ended up costing considerably MORE than my Keap plan.
The low sticker worth was tempting, however simply not life like in follow. This bait-and-switch left a foul style in my mouth.
E-mail Charges Suffered
The ultimate dealbreaker was seeing my fastidiously nurtured electronic mail open charges plummet virtually in a single day after switching to GoHighLevel.
Beforehand, my viewers engagement persistently hit 35-40% open charges in Keap month after month. However as soon as I migrated their information over to GoHighLevel, efficiency tanked immediately to a pathetic 9% open fee.
Irrespective of how a lot I optimized my sending practices or tried each troubleshooting trick, I may barely nudge open charges again into the teenagers – nonetheless a 50%+ decline from my earlier benchmarks.
Let me repeat: my EXACT SAME AUDIENCE AND EMAILS instantly had terrible engagement. The one factor I may assume that might be inflicting this was no matter was occurring behind the scenes at GoHighLevel. For an company so depending on electronic mail advertising, this was a giant deal.
Between the crippling deliverability points, hidden charges, damaged options, and horrible interface, I had lastly reached my restrict…
Why I Stop GoHighLevel after 45 Days
Simply 45 days after migrating my company to GoHighLevel, I knew I had made an enormous mistake. The cons dramatically outweighed any advantages.
No software program is ideal, however the sheer quantity of issues was past acceptable.
On the finish of the day, software program comes all the way down to belief. If I can’t belief it to deal with vital capabilities competently or consider a vendor has my greatest pursuits in thoughts, then it’s time to stroll away – even after investing vital time, cash, and energy migrating.
So I made the robust name to reverse course and return again to Keap totally simply weeks after going all in on GoHighLevel. Let’s discover what I realized from this debacle.
Some GoHighLevel Alternate options
For those who’re in search of a gross sales, advertising, and mission administration different to GoHighLevel, then listed below are a couple of we advocate:
Key Takeaways: What I Realized From My GoHighLevel Mistake
My time with HighLevel could be summed up as an costly misadventure. However in hindsight, it taught me a couple of key classes:
1. Keep on with what works. Don’t upset what’s working except one thing is definitively higher throughout the board. Change brings threat.
2. Vet claims completely. Advertising and marketing hype round new software program typically obscures greater underlying flaws. Deep due diligence is important.
3. Select simplicity over options. Effectively-designed instruments ought to make your work life simpler, no more sophisticated and messy.
4. Transparency builds belief. Opaque pricing, shady reseller phrases, and finger-pointing to evade issues destroys belief.
5. Search unbiased opinions. Glad help opinions imply much less if extreme points indicate poor general usability.
6. Perfection is unattainable. No single answer can completely meet each distinctive enterprise want. Discover the least-bad match.
7. Evolution over revolution. Incremental enhancements sometimes outweigh dangerous wholesale reinvention of what already works high quality.
Briefly, I realized to be extra skeptical of “too good to be true” advertising claims and fewer tempted by the attract of shiny new objects. The instruments you employ every day ought to earn belief by way of transparency and efficiency, not slick promoting.
Lesson realized.
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