Web designers love to build websites and often struggle to find new clients to build for.  Today, there are increasingly more and more web designers of all skill levels available for potential clients to choose from. This makes client retention even more important than it was even a few years ago.  There are several things that a web designer can do to keep clients longer, such as providing great customer service.  However, let's talk about something that will help you retain those clients longer and at the same time improve your bottom line.

Let's face it, today there are more people who are willing and asking for the ability to maintain their own content.  This has led to the increase in the use of Content Management Systems (CMS) such as Wordpress, Joomla! and Drupal.  These systems are beneficial to the designer because they can be implemented quicker and managed easier.  Clients also benefit because they can maintain the content of their site with little involvement by the web designer.  Well that is the idea, however my experience is that while there are some clients who will dabble in CMS, the majority want nothing to do with maintaining anything on their site because they either have no time for it or are hesitant because of their lack of knowledge and feel they will "break" it.

In fact, most clients do not even care that their site is built on a CMS platform such as Joomla!.  All they want to know is that it works, looks good and does what they expect. Let's face it, that is why they hired YOU! This leads us to the question of what to do about site updates when you have completed the design and have "turned the keys over to the client". What's next when they want to update their product page, or change information on their contact page? This is where the "Website Maintenance Agreement" comes into play.

Waiting to discuss this until after the site is built is the wrong way to approach this topic with your client.  This should be part of your initial discussion with them, explaining what the design cost will cover and for how long. You then ask questions about what content will need to be udpated and how often.  Armed with this knowledge you can then give them two options. The first one being paying you hourly for updates that need to be done, when they need to be and explaining that this could be costly due to the fact that it may take 15mins, 3 hours or even longer based on what the update is.  The second option is for your customer to pay you a flat fee to maintain the site and everything that goes along with it.  This can be negotiated however you want, annually, quarterly or monthly.

By offering your client a maintenance agreement, you are offering them piece of mind knowing that their site will be taken care for a fixed cost that they can fit into their budget.  This is a great benefit to your client and also to your web business.  You  are building automatic income from a client who you will retain for many years to come.

Al Roberts
AWR Web Design, LLC
http://www.awrwebdesign.com

Share this post