Why Your Emails Are Taking Forever and How to Fix It in HighLevel

You built the funnel. You connected the form. You wrote the follow-up emails.

A lead comes in, and then… crickets. 😑

No email. No confirmation. Just a silent delay that makes you look like you forgot about your new customer.

This came up recently in a Zoom troubleshooting session I hosted with Mario Aldayuz, Head of Partnerships at HL Pro Tools, and if you’ve seen weird delays in your HighLevel workflows—you’re not imagining it.

Let’s break down what’s really going on, how to fix it, and how to stop blaming yourself for things that are clearly HighLevel having a moment. 😉

The Problem: Emails Taking Their Sweet Time

So here’s what users were noticing:

“My form works, but the follow-up email takes 3-5 minutes to show up… sometimes longer.”

Now, if you’ve got a wait step built in—cool, that’s expected. But several people weren’t using wait steps at all. Still, the emails were dragging their feet.

Not ideal when someone just submitted their info and is sitting there going, “Did it work?”

What’s Actually Happening?

According to Mario (and he’s seen everything inside HighLevel), these delays aren’t normal—but they do happen.

Here’s why:

• Sometimes the system just queues tasks a little slower (usually during peak traffic times).
  
• Other times, there’s a glitch in the workflow itself—like a misconfigured trigger or action.
  
• And occasionally, your workflow is firing fine… but your email setup isn’t verified or warmed up properly.

The result? A delay that makes you look like a slacker, even though your workflow is technically working.

The Fix: Test Like a Pro

Mario’s go-to solution is simple but effective:

🧪 Use HighLevel’s “Test Workflow” feature.
Run it step-by-step to see exactly where the lag is happening.

If the delay shows up there? That’s your signal to dig deeper—or escalate to support.

If it runs fine in testing but still lags live? Could be your SMTP settings or an issue with email warm-up. Either way, don’t just let it slide. Slow automations = lost trust.

🔥 Pro tip: Add a brief wait step (like 1 minute) on purpose—so the user expects a slight delay. That tiny buffer can make your automations feel more natural and less bot-like anyway.

Cool Free Thing: The Testimonial Workflow We Use (and You Should Too)

Before someone opens your emails, joins your list, or buys your offer… they need to trust you.

The fastest way to build that trust? ⭐️ Testimonials.

In the spirit of giving away stuff that actually helps, here’s our internal Testimonial Workflow—free to swipe and deploy.

✅ Collect client testimonials
✅ Clean them up so they actually sound good
✅ Organize them so you’re not digging through Slack messages at midnight

👉 Grab the walkthrough here

Want More HighLevel Fixes Like This?

If this saved you even five minutes (or helped you avoid one angry client email), you’ll want to check out everything else we’ve got at:

👉 hlprotools.com

We’ve got done-for-you tools, snapshots, trainings, and behind-the-scenes tricks from the trenches.

Let’s make HighLevel easier (and faster) for you.