9 Signs You’re a WordPress Care Plans Expert

Introduction

Becoming a WordPress Care Plans expert isn’t just about managing updates or tweaking plugins, it’s about mastering a service that prioritises client support, keeps websites secure and fast and that continuously delivers value for the client.

If you’re an agency managing multiple WordPress sites, excelling in your delivery of ongoing support and maintenance can really set you apart, boost client retention, and significantly increase your revenue.

Whether you’ve already built a reputation or you’re on the path to perfecting your offering, here are nine key signs that show you’ve got it nailed.

1. You prioritise support

Here’s the thing: most clients don’t understand the technical ins and outs of WordPress maintenance.

But every client understands the difference between good and bad support.

And if there’s one thing that triggers a client to consider leaving you, it’s bad support. It’s not that you’ve chosen to update their plugins fortnightly instead of weekly or some other maintenance-related reason.

Of course maintenance is important and you should get good systems in place for doing this work.

But prioritise your support systems and getting absolutely awesome at looking after your clients.

If you do this, they’ll have no reason to leave.

2. Tracking work is easy

At any moment, you should be able to see exactly what work has been done on any of your clients’ websites and by who.

This shouldn’t be a challenge. 

Keeping a record of activity is a vital element of any good WordPress support and maintenance system.

There’s plenty of activity log plugins to choose from and even better than that, some WordPress management software like Glow, come with in-built activity log style features, like Timeline.

3. You consistently prove the value of your service

In terms of importance, next to being really good at support is consistently proving the value of your service.

Clients invest with you to ensure they get support when they need it and that their website is always secure, fast and reliable.

But they won’t just keep spending money with you for years if you don’t keep reminding them what that money is actually going towards, ie. the value they’re getting.

It’s true that WordPress support and maintenance can be an amazing service in the way that agencies don’t often get bombarded by clients for things left, right and centre. However if you just rely on that and don’t do anything to prove value, your clients will eventually leave. It’s as simple as that.

And there’s no excuse these days. There’s so many WordPress management tools to choose from to help you with proving the value of your service. So find a good one and get it in place now if you haven’t already.

4. You create digestible, value-led reports for your clients on a regular basis

WordPress maintenance reports is an interesting topic. Some agencies swear by them, others don’t. Some think they’re a vital part of client retention, others think clients never read them so it’s pointless sending them.

My take?

I think they’re a non-negotiable.

You should always send reports to your clients, even if they don’t read them. The very act of you sending the report (and your client receiving it) is a touch point the client is very often happy with. It’s definitely better than not sending them any kind of update at all.

How the reports are structured is also important. 20 pages of technical information, whether that’s blocks of text or lists, is pretty pointless. Most clients won’t understand the detail and can even end up being more confused than satisfied by the end of reading it.

So there’s a couple of key characteristics of a good WordPress maintenance client report:

1. Digestible - Keep them brief so that the client can very quickly realise the value you’re providing
2. Value-led - Don’t focus just on what you’ve done (eg. plugin updates). Instead, focus on mixing the ‘what’ with the ‘why’ … ie. why are you performing plugin updates, why are you monitoring uptime etc.

You can download our sample website maintenance report here.

5. You’re able to easily communicate the value of a care plan during your sales process

A big part of successfully selling WordPress maintenance is being able to demonstrate the value your potential client is going to receive.

If you don’t do a good job of this, clients will just see it as another cost and they’ll not sign up or walk away from you entirely.

So, just showing them a price list isn’t going to cut it.

Sure, show them the different plans you offer but have a conversation with them about which one might be most suitable for their needs and why.

Take the time to explain the importance of support and maintenance and why you mandate it with all projects.

Once you’ve done that, go into detail on the different aspects of support and maintenance that you’ll provide, taking any questions they might have along the way.

If you focus on value, it’ll be very hard for clients to say no.

6. You include your care plan options in your website proposals

Don’t leave the maintenance sales conversation for after you’ve built their website.

Actively include it as part of the website proposal (assuming you build sites; if you’re a support/maintenance only business then skip this step and move onto the next one).

If you’re doing web design proposals right, you’ll be presenting them to the client in person (or by video call). This meeting is your time to shine. If your potential client is this far into the process with you then they’re seriously considering working with you. So it’s a huge opportunity to sell, not just the project but maintenance as well.

Then, when it comes to the end of the project and you explain the steps to the client for getting the support and maintenance stuff setup, they won’t be surprised. They’ll be fully expecting it.

7. Clients can easily contact you for support whenever they need to (and get a really quick reply)

This should be a given but many companies let themselves down with the levels of support they provide clients.

If there’s one thing that influences how long a client remains a client, it’s the quality of your ongoing support.

It’s not how often you update plugins or how long you keep backups running for.

When your clients reach out to your for help, they expect a quick, efficient response. If they don’t get that, and your slow (or no) response times become a pattern, they’ll leave. Simple as that. Whether you’ve got the best process in the world for updating plugins, they’ll leave.

So get a great support system in place that you and your team can easily work with. 

Email doesn’t cut it. Ticket systems are great. Even better, get a WordPress management tool that has a ticket system built in.

8. You don’t use email for handling client support requests

I alluded to this one in the previous point: email doesn’t cut it for handling website support requests.

Sure, when you’re managing a couple of sites, you can get away with it. However, if you’re an agency that’s serious about growing, you need a ticket system.

There’s so many reasons why a ticket system is better than email: team collaboration is easier, your workflow is more streamlined and it can even make client reports more impactful.

9. You have a great WordPress management tool

Good WordPress management tools help you be more efficient with things like WordPress updates, uptime monitoring and backups.

Great WordPress management tools go much further and give you the ability to run your entire support and maintenance service from one dashboard.

Glow is a good example. All of the maintenance features you expect are included, as well as a support ticket system for handling client requests, time tracking, team collaboration as well as powerful automated reporting.

With the right WordPress management software in place, you and your team will be more organised, more efficient and able to better service your clients.

Conclusion

If you’ve found yourself nodding along to these nine signs, you’re likely already reaping the benefits of WordPress support and maintenance in your agency. 

But even if you have a few gaps to fill, remember that true expertise is about continuous improvement and adaptation.

By focusing on client support, clear communication and having the right systems in place, you can transform WordPress care from a task list into a major growth driver for your business.