Xpand work with organisations throughout the UK to help them achieve profitable growth. We’re a full service agency offering integrated marketing consisting of strategy, design, PR & web.
In this article I’ll share with you how we go about promoting our website maintenance plans, retaining clients and delivering the service.
How do you sell website maintenance plans?
Maintenance can often easily be overlooked, especially if the website is a simple brochure website that the client wants just to have a web presence i.e. they’re not using as a lead generation tool.
I often find it helps the client understand the value when I create real world comparisons.
For example comparing website maintenance to servicing your car – just because you’ve bought it, it doesn’t mean it will stay in perfect working order for the rest of its life – it needs maintenance.
The internet involves a lot of external forces that we can’t control – maintenance helps keep your website on top of these external forces, for example security updates to avoid hackers.
The brand damage a website hack can do far outweighs the cost of monthly maintenance. It’s bit like a form of insurance.
What advice could you share on retaining maintenance clients for longer?
Communication is paramount.
And of course, the quality of the work.
In my experience, a large part of client retention comes down to the communications and quality of relationship you have with them.
Another great way to retain clients is to have regular points where you make suggestions to them on ways they could improve their website that connects with their overall business goals.
If they can see you as someone that is genuinely interested in their success, and not just their money, it will create a solid foundation for a strong business relationship.
Sometimes your suggestions may not even be something you can charge for – something like this is almost even more valuable to the client as you’re demonstrating that their success is more important to you than their money.
If they appreciate your help, when they’re ready, they’ll come back to you for additional paid work.
How do you ensure the most efficient delivery of your website maintenance service?
Again, communication is key.
To the client, that may not be that digitally savvy, something small may seem like it’s the end of the world to them, but to you, as a developer, you may know it isn’t that much of a problem.
Regular communication and reassurance that the issue is in hand is key to the success of delivering good support.
Even if you have nothing to report and you know fixing the issue will take a few days (for example), just a quick email to re-assure the client is always greatly appreciated and help them see the value in the maintenance fee they are paying.
Another important element is gaining as much information as possible from the client on any issues that may be occurring.
Things like knowing the browser version or device type that the issue is occurring on can often help get to the bottom of the problem a lot quicker.
Maybe create a prompt sheet so the client knows what they should be reporting to you rather than simply saying to you ‘the website isn’t working properly’.
The more information you can get from them and the faster you can get it, the quicker you can diagnose and fix the issue.
Why do you use Glow to help with managing your clients' websites?
Glow makes our lives a lot easier.
It’s a central platform that helps us keep all website client related communications in one place.
This saves us time, which makes us more efficient.
Increased efficiency for us means the client is serviced faster, which means they’re happy and retained for longer.
Glow creates a win win situation for all involved.
