As a freelance web developer, you have the opportunity to solve all your client’s problems. Well, their technical problems anyway. You can be their single point of contact for all things technical.
How many times has a client called in a panic about an email they’ve received about domain registration, and it turns out to be spam? Or worse, they’ve already sent off a check to some unnamed domain prince and are just letting you know it’s taken care of?
Oh honey, no. You’re the expert. You should be in charge of all things technical.
How Does It Work?
You can make this part of your WordPress maintenance services. Emphasize that you will be the single point of contact for your client. You’ll take care of anything technical, and they can focus on their business.
- If they have any technical questions, you’ll answer them.
- If they need to pay for any technical service, you handle it and bill them.
- If they have any service that needs to be renewed, upgraded or updated in anyway, you take care of it.
The end result should be that your client doesn’t have to worry about anything technical. No more lost emails that shut a site down because a domain wasn’t renewed or money thrown out the window on something the client didn’t actually need.
If it sounds like a great deal for your client, it’s also a great deal for you. You can charge for the service. It makes you invaluable.And the best part? It takes your client out of the equation and minimizes the chances of them messing up their own site.
Do You Really Want to Do This?
Offering to be the single point of contact for your clients is a serious commitment. You’re taking on a burden for them and allowing them to focus on their work. So make sure you’re serious. This is full-service, detail-oriented customer service. Don’t offer it if you can’t deliver.
It can be a huge win, but also a huge fail if you drop the ball. It’s not for everybody.
What Can You Include?
Serving as the single point of contact for a client can cover all sorts of things. Just remember that if you’re going to pitch it as being the “single point of contact,” then you need to cover everything and actually be a single point of contact. Don’t let your clients deal with anything technical.
- Support questions
- Domain registration
- Website hosting
- Email hosting
- DNS hosting
- WordPress, plugin & theme payments/updates
- Security, backup & monitoring services
- Payment services for ecommerce
Some of these things might require transitioning over time, especially if a client set it up themselves. That’s OK. Just be sure to communicate effectively with your client.
Single Point of Contact
Nontechnical people shouldn’t have to deal with technical stuff. Save them from the hassle, and be their hero.
Great article Kevin, thank you so much!
I am just embarking on a WordPress Support Plan for my clients, but I didn’t think of the single point of contact. It’s kinda hard to estimate what the effort for this would be and how much I should charge for this,
especially for those client that don’t do hosting with me.
What do you charge for this service, excluding all other support tasks?
I guess there needs to be a written contract/fine print to make it very clear what exactly is included and what is the response time if there is an issue? (eg. we cannot cover the user’s home internet connection issues)