Monthly care: somebody watching before things break
Updates, backups, monitoring and a pool of hours for small changes. Website, CRM and integrations in one pool, with one person. You know who is responsible, and how fast.
What care includes
Updates
PHP, WordPress, plugins, theme, on an agreed rhythm, after a backup and on a staging copy. CRM releases: I check what changes and what affects you.
Backups with restore tests
Automatic backups of files and database, stored off the hosting. Once a quarter I check that the site can actually be restored from them. A backup nobody has tested is not a backup.
Monitoring
Is the site up, is the certificate valid, does the form arrive, is the integration passing data. An alert to me before a customer rings you.
A pool of small changes
Content, a page, a CRM field, a report, a form fix. You send an email, I do it from the pool, with no separate quote for each item.
Security
A review of accounts and permissions, two-factor authentication, unused plugins and accounts, break-in attempts in the logs.
Integrations and CRM in the same pool
No separate contract for the website, another for the CRM and a third for the integration. One pool, one person, one report.
Quarterly review
What changed, what used up time, what is worth doing next quarter. An hour of conversation, a short document.
Monthly report
A list of work done with time spent, open items, pool usage. You know what you are paying for.
How care starts
Initial review
The state of the site, CRM and integrations. Overdue updates, missing backups, accounts of former vendors. A list of things to catch up on.
Catching up
A one-off, before care begins, quoted separately. Care starts from a state that can be maintained.
Agreeing the scope
Which systems, how many hours in the pool, what response time, how you report issues. In writing, one page.
Monthly rhythm
Updates and monitoring in the background, changes on request, a report at the end of the month.
Quarterly review
A conversation about what comes next. The scope changes as the business changes.
Who care makes sense for
Yes, if: the site or shop brings in customers and downtime costs money; you have a CRM that receives data from the site; you come back with small changes every few weeks; you do not want to think about updates and backups.
Not necessarily, if: the site is a brochure you change once a year. Then a one-off review and tidy-up is better, followed by single jobs when something is needed. I will tell you plainly which option is cheaper for you.
Questions about monthly care
What is the response time?
We agree it in the contract. Typically: acknowledgement the same business day, a site or integration outage handled the same day, routine changes within a few business days.
What if we do not use all the hours in the pool?
Part of it rolls over to the next month; the rules are set out in writing. The pool is meant to cover a normal month, not to be a retainer for nothing. If hours are regularly left over, we reduce it.
What if we need more than the pool?
Bigger changes are quoted separately, before the work. I tell you before the pool runs out, not after.
Does care cover hosting and the domain?
I watch the renewal dates and settings, but the hosting and domain fees stay with you, on your account. That way nothing depends on me.
Can we cancel?
Yes, with a month’s notice. I hand back access and leave the documentation and the last report. The next person does not start from zero.
Your developer has vanished and the list of changes keeps growing? Tell me what needs doing.
I reply within one business day. The first call is free of obligation.
Describe what you need
No technical names needed. Tell me what does not work, or what you wish worked on its own. I reply within one business day.