Good support is crucial to your site’s success

When you think of support services, you probably think of security updates and bug fixes. But a great support team offers so much more than that. They help you tweak things to stay current, they add features to address the ever-changing market needs, they help solve problems in the moment, and help you plan for the future.

Think of support like buying a house. You don’t buy a house and then let it sit, static, on the block, for the rest of the time you live there. As a homeowner, you invest in strategic and tactical projects of all kinds. Some of the projects are small, like installing some shelves. Some are larger, like building a deck. Over the course of your home—or website—ownership, your needs will change, and that is when a great support services team will make all the difference.

When to Renovate

If you’re living in a one bedroom house and are expecting a baby, you might realize the time has come to convert the garage into another bedroom. Similarly, a support team can help you know when it’s time to build out your site. Like an architect and contractor in one, a good support team will have the knowledge to predict when you’ll need more features and what they might look like.

Let’s look at a couple of examples of smaller fixes that, while more complicated than simply installing an update, aren’t big renovations either. These projects make a huge difference in optimizing your site but are not as laborious as some of the more ambitious projects support teams are capable of.

“Clogged drains”—If you’re partnering with a service that brings you sales leads, a good support team can make sure those leads get where they need to be and that your funnel takes advantage of them. This eliminates the problem of having a beautiful site and a great lead building strategy but losing your customers somewhere in the middle.

“Fresh paint”—Let’s say you need to change the templates of a few of your pages. A good support team can do the backend work to make sure your content is seamlessly organized and beautifully displayed. A simple refresh can make sure you look cutting edge, but only if you make sure your valuable content is still intuitive and accessible.

[NB: Ready to talk about your project’s needs? Contact us!]

Going Further

Sometimes you need to do more than small renovations. As you see how users are interacting with your site, you might recognize a need that you hadn’t anticipated, and a more substantial change to your site is needed. Your support team can help you tackle these larger projects too.

For example, the Four Kitchens support team recently worked with a client who had an outside sponsor wanting to highlight specific content across their site. We worked with the client to create the repeatable feature allowing a curated collection of content outside of their normal feed of content so that sponsors could direct users to information pertinent to what they offer, while maintaining the structure and integrity of the rest of the site.

Another larger problem our support team tackled was keeping data current for a university website. When building the site, the university originally planned to have its research personnel directory available as a set of downloadable PDF files. They quickly realized that searching the entire document was taxing for their users, and keeping the documents updated was a constant effort. Working with this client, we realized that the information they were trying to catalog was already kept updated in a different part of their site. We built a custom, flexible, interactive directory that draws current info from their Human Resources system and makes searching fast and efficient for users.

[NB: You can read more Four Kitchens Support team case studies, here!]

Scalable Support

Even post build, small tweaks and issues always arise.  And you will likely have a need for some support services on hand for organizational tweaks or bugs in custom work resulting from ongoing updates.

Most teams will work on a retainer system so you can allocate hours for small and medium projects and plan ahead for larger ones. A great support team will help you plan for the future and can make sure you know how your site can grow and when you’ll need more substantial overhauls.

Often, a support team will address a need that only becomes noticeable after site launch, or after a period of growth. Talk with your team and with your site’s developers to know when you might need to go from a basic level of support that your internal team can provide, to a support team with a more extensive well of experience to draw from.

Stay Dynamic

Although owning a website is a lot like owning a house, the metaphor isn’t perfect—as a digital property, your website should be more dynamic than a piece of physical real estate. Partnering with a strong support team can make sure your website always has the curb appeal, inviting atmosphere, and furnished functionality your users need.

At Four Kitchens, we provide great support for the beautiful sites we build, but we also offer support services on any site. Whether you’ve got a family cottage that needs some new siding or a large Victorian ready for a fifth bathroom, we can help.

Interested in what the Four Kitchens Support Team can do for you?
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The post “Good Support is Crucial to Your Site’s Success” was co-written by Web Chef Trasi Judd and guest author Felix Morgan.