Nice stuff, just tweeted it out.

“I like to give clients a menu of hosting / support options – each one clearly defining what they get for that price band.” would love to hear more about this kind of thing

Mat.

Thanks again for chipping in

Joel

Or I might be using the word hosting differently than you. I charge for WP updates and issues surrounding it (I’m looking at you, 3.7) and any edits unless they’re my mistakes and were made during the course of a project that’s already been paid for – and for the last one, even years later I’ll fix my own mistakes. So that sort of thing falls under support for me and, for the clients who are on ongoing contracts, that’s charged on an hourly basis. I did try having a yearly contract with one client which worked out ok, but I’m going to propose a rolling contract similar to the others this year.

I’ve never had a problem with support expectations either. I don’t have a huge client list and generally have an ongoing relationship with my clients, even the ones who might be considered “former clients”. Rather than it being something I’ve done right, I think it’s just that it’s dumb luck that it’s worked out. It helps that I work part time so tend to have time to fit things in as needed. Again, nothing ever has gone urgently wrong except the 3.7 update (a stupid thing I did years ago which shouldn’t have worked then, did work for years but stopped working in 3.7) but luckily I had the time to fix it. I do block out time for fixing any issues with updates because I’m somewhat paranoid (I think 3.5 gave me problems, too) but that took a bit longer than planned.

Actually, it’s probably a combination of the dumb luck I mentioned and the fact that I don’t work full time that’s kept me from having any real issues! Also, I have a group of clients (which includes my largest sites) that all work together and have vested interests in the others’ sites which makes things much easier, too.

So I guess my advice is to be lucky. :) (I do realise this is not good advice, which is why I’m so interested in these things!)

Do you make any distinction between hosting & support?

How do you ring fence when is and what isn’t included in your support?

How do you manage client’s support expectations? (I.e. they always expect it NOW!)
Thanks again

Joel

p.s. thanks for Freshdesk tip; I do need to look at them all again

Currently I’m mainly charging by the hour. This is working very well for me – most of my work at the moment is of the “how long is a piece of string” variety. I charge a little over cost for hosting and have never had a problem with it – both ICDsoft and WP Engine have excellent support. (ICDsoft’s support is slightly more responsive, most tickets are answered and solved within minutes.)

I have an agreement with what type of work I do (community management and tech support to users as well as tech support and development) and try to be completely open about how much time / money things will take.

I am looking for someone to cover holidays too – that’s been a concern of mine… And Joel, I use Freshdesk which has worked very well for me but I use it mainly for community management and tech support to site users (not the site owners). Otherwise I use email for clients as it’s simple to search and easier to file. I’d love to read about other ticketing systems!

“I can’t see how you can make any decent margin unless the volume is high”
I hear you but you make money but having very, very clear guidelines as to what IS and what is NOT covered. I stumbled into hosting and made the mistake of expecting people to be ‘reasonable’ but that was foolish; you live and learn

I like to give clients a menu of hosting / support options – each one clearly defining what they get for that price band. It’s then their choice.

Joel

These days we point them at a trusted supplier (no kickback) get them to pay the bill and then we’ll set it up on *their* kit, if the client wants it we then charge a small retainer to be their bridge to the hosting company should something go wrong *during office hours*. It keeps the lines of communication clear, we still get to add value with the skills that we have and the hosting company get to do what they are best at.

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