How to Easily Add a Website Support Service to Your Web Design Business

Building a freelance web design business or running a small web design studio can be a rewarding career, offering freedom of time and a comfortable lifestyle. I know this first hand after running a web design studio in Park City for over a decade. But it can also be very stressful meeting deadlines and dealing with a fluctuating income stream. Adding a WordPress maintenance package as a service offering may add more work to your plate, but it can help flatten out the income stream dips.

Here are two ways to add a WordPress support service to your offerings: The Complete and Complex way, and The Easy Hands Free way:

How to Add a Full-Featured WordPress Support Service

Before you begin setting up a full-featured support service, realize that it’s not a small task. You’ll be setting up an entirely separate wing of your business that will take time and resources. But you’ve been here before, and have a successful design business to prove it.

Step 1: Figure Out Your Offerings

What kind of maintenance will you be doing for your customers? How much support will they need? List out all the support tasks and then separate them into service levels or packages. For example, you can offer a simple service for smaller sites, and a more feature rich services for sites that are more complex or require more support:

Here at Cinch we offer 4 different maintenance plans that contain varying levels of included services:

There are many ways to set up your services, be sure to determine how much time you have and how far you want to go in setting up your systems. Make it clear to your customers the differences in your offerings and help them by simplifying the decision on which plan would be best for their business.

Step 2: Set Up Your Maintenance Systems

As a web designer, you know how important systems are in getting things done. The systems you employ for a maintenance service are no less important. At a minimum you will need:

• A backup system
• A security monitoring system
• A malware cleanup service
• A software updating system
• A ticketing system

Backup System

There are quite a few backup plugins available for WordPress sites (Backup Buddy, Updraft), but most of them store backups on the same server as the site. This is less than idea for a couple of reasons: They take up a lot of resources, slowing down a site and taking up server space; And they usually take full backups rather than incremental. The ideal backup system runs and stores backups off-site, on a redundant set of servers. Take a look at services like VaultPress and Blogvault.

Security Monitoring System

Unless you’re a security wizard, a service that continually scans and monitors your customers websites will be necessary to provide adequate security services. Even if you were a wizard, relying on a specialty service means not having to know all the latest threats and more importantly not having to manually scan every file for every customer. There are a few of them out there, take a look at Sucuri, Malcare, and Sitelock.

What about WordFence?

WordFence is a popular security plugin for WordPress, and does quite a bit to secure a website. My main issue with it is that, much like on-site backup plugins, WordFence uses server resources to run its tasks. This can affect performance, and we’ve also run into plugin compatibility issues. If you’re looking for a free security option, this might be a good option.

Malware Cleanup

Hand in hand with a security scanning system is a service that will clean up a site once infected. A hack cleanup service can’t always clean up every malware infection, but they are imperative to have for quick cleanups and on-going support for the tougher hacking jobs. Again I’ll mention taking a look at at Sucuri, Malcare, and Sitelock.

Software Updating System

A system for updating and managing other aspects of your clients site is the next step in the toolbox. For this you’ll need some sort of multi-site management tool. This type of tool will help you manage sites without having to log directly into dozens or more websites. That’s a expensive use of your time. There are many systems to choose from, take a look at ManageWP, iThemes, and InfiniteWP as solid options.

Ticketing System

You will want at least one easy way for your customers to get ahold of you with questions and requests. This can be as simple as email, or more complex like a robust ticketing system. Take a look at a help desk software such as Zendesk.

Step 3: Scheduling and Process

Once you have your tools in place it’s time to create a process and schedule your tasks. Based on the services you’re providing, make sure you have a plan for completing each and every task based on the hourly, daily, or weekly schedules that each plan provides for.

The multi-site management tool is a great help here, but you’ll need to employ some of the other tools you use to manage your web design business. Task managers and project management systems such as Asana and Trello will help ensure nothing falls through the cracks.

Step 4: Add Tools and Systems As You Grow

This is just the start really. As you grow you’ll want to add more services and more systems to make your life easier and provide better support for your customers. Don’t be afraid to experiment with systems, but be sure to continually provide solid support for your clients.

How to Add a WordPress Support System the Hands-Free Way

The comprehensive plan I laid out above is rewarding, but also very time consuming. It’s perfect if you have the time, patience, and WordPress knowledge to properly support your clients. But what if that isn’t quite the case?

Many freelance web designers and small agencies have the design chops to create really nice websites, but don’t have enough WordPress knowledge to fix things when they break. They can help customers with content strategy, SEO, and connecting with their customers. Not all have the time or knowledge to also provide support. That’s where a service like Cinch can fill in the gaps.

Cinch can provide the support your customers need while also providing you with a steady stream of income. Our affiliate program for designers is a seamless way to offer a support service to your clients. We will work beside you to provide top notch support services. We can be your dedicated development and support team to be there for questions and offer advice.

Start Today, You Can’t Go Wrong

Either way you choose, setting up a WordPress support service for your customers is a great idea. Your customers will be happy to have someone there to lend a hand, and you can add another revenue stream. If you have any questions feel free to start a chat or shoot us a note.