Comments on: Taking Care Of Website Clients AFTER Their Websites Are Finished

By: luis pereira

luis pereira — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 17:27:52 +0000

we are living in a new world!!! it is amazing. i have some websites for my professional business. (www.dyncr.com is one of them) and at some point all the web hosting and web maintenance was a total mess!… i was paying a lot of money every month for web hosting and maintenance, and the presence on engine searchers started to go down!!!… i talked with the company and they – looks like – they only want my monthly fee. So i started to search on internet for this services. that was how i found Jill, and all my business life changed!!!!!.. now im paying less per year than i pay per month, my webs are better and with someone who is concern about my issues… and i live and work in Costa Rica, and thanks this new world we were able to solve this better, faster and cheaper than years ago!!!

Thanks Jill, people like you makes this world a better place to live!!!!

By: fred

fred — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 01:08:36 +0000

i’ve also seen car dealers basically steal from their customers but it’s probably not gonna happen at your local BMW dealership.

in my experience (over 12 years with several firms) the good developers implement content management systems, even if their clients don’t THINK they want to make changes to their site themselves. All but twice that turned out to NOT be the case, the logistics of making changes in a few minutes v.s the time and cost associated with hiring a developer always seems to have a way of convincing clients they should follow Nike’s lead and JUST DO IT.

Even if they don’t use it, a designer/developer can make the required changes in a fraction of the time (we do phone call support with new users all the time where the changes are made with them on the phone and NetMeeting). Fast, easy and painless.

Just my opinions, of course -I get calls on a weekly basis from clients that want us to take over projects from designers/developers who either disappear with their money and just fall short of hitting deadlines after deadlines -doesn’t mean ALL designers/developers do this. In my experience having a data center and the ability to manager everything from IP addresses to name server settings internally has been a HUGE convenience to both my firm AND my client.

Fred

By: Jill Olkoski

Jill Olkoski — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 20:02:25 +0000

Hi Fred,
Implementing a content management system isn’t free – it adds substantial cost to websites, and not all clients want to make these changes themselves. They might make changes to infrequently that a CMS isn’t practical for them.

And not all CMS systems are easy to use – I have clients who use Expression Engine, Mambo and Joomla – who frequently call me to help them work with their website changes – so just having a CMS system is no guarantee that folks will be able to use it, especially if they make changes infrequently.

I use a content management tool (WebYep) for clients who want to update their own website – but again, not all clients want to do this themselves.

I don’t recommend folks do their website hosting with their web design companies – because over and over again I have folks who have had issues with their web designers and their website files are now under the control of someone they’re having a conflict with.

And again, remember, I’m speaking from a position of having people call me who are in trouble – this is how my opinion is based – I’m sure their are reputable web designers who also do hosting – but there are plenty of others who leave folks and their websites in jeopardy – and hence this blog article.

By: fred

fred — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 17:10:10 +0000

I have to ask: why aren’t these clients being put on a Content Management System to make the updates themselves? I put my clients on a CMS *AND* we host about 95% of our website in our own datacenter -have done so for 4 years and counting with no issues; why do you recommend clients do not use a company that offers both services?

Fred

By: Jill Olkoski

Jill Olkoski — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:39:53 +0000

Thanks to all for the comments – it’s nice to know there are other designers out there who intend on supporting clients after they finish their websites.

While I agree with Derrick – that sometimes maintenance charges exceed the original design, in my business, this is the rare exception to the rule. For most sites, the vast majority of the cost is in the initial design – and I do believe this short sighted profit motive is one of the reasons designers ignore clients after the initial design is completed.

Thanks for all your comments, they are much appreciated!

By: Derrick

Derrick — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 16:21:31 +0000

I concur if you are going to design the website please make sure you will be around for updates. I design websites personally and have had many people come up to me asking for me to update what their primary designer won’t do, can’t do, or like you said in the post takes to long to do. I understand that some website design firms are smaller than others but my tip to them all is know what you are getting your self into. PS maintenance at an hourly rate is sometimes more lucrative then the design itself.

By: Web Designer

Web Designer — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 04:27:27 +0000

Yes, I agree with you. Web designers should pay attention or take good care of their clients needs after done doing it their sites. They shouldn’t just live their clients behind.

By: Alphabetix

Alphabetix — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 23:31:02 +0000

Great post, and cool site. I agree, the designer and the hosting company should be separate. Web Design firms should be in it for the long haul, and I never have any issues helping customers after a launch. One of my best clients requires tons of updating, and I love it, because it’s an easy residual income for me, since I charge them by the hour.

Smiles.

By: Jill Olkoski

Jill Olkoski — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 21:56:56 +0000

Aww shucks Katie
J

By: Katie Kay

Katie Kay — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 19:41:04 +0000

Thank goodness I do not have to worry about this (I have enough to worry about just trying to make it in the vast pool of online stores). Aldebaran Web Design is my original and only web design service and I always feel like I am a priority for even the smallest tweaks to my website. YAH! for me and Aldebaran…