A web designing project does not end once the site is published online. No matter how nice a site you have created, how rich content you have put, there will always be bugs and scope of improvement. Your client will have some edits soon, some links may be broken and new text might want some space in the page. It is just the beginning of your after sales service or site maintenance as we call it.
The professionalism of a web designing company is judged not only by the creativity it shows in doing the website but also the way it handles the after sales service. Websites are custom made products and intangible in nature. So the after sales support can be complicated. It is not something you can pre-define as in case of other products you sell. As a result the pricing of this service is also something difficult to forecast.
The complexity of after sales service varies with the nature of the website. If the website is a simple one, the maintenance will be easier. For complex websites the edits will be much difficult and time consuming. The nature of edits from your client can also vary. The content related edits can be simple and easy to achieve. But there can be some major edits pertaining to the core template of the entire site or some major code reworking for the website functionality. These are something which will be time consuming and will need lot of hard work from the design team.
Many web designers offer free after sales service for the first three months or six months. But these generally include minor tweaks and edits. For major rework they charge extra. In case of budget web design service, the maintenance is chargeable right from day one after the site is online. There should be a clear contract between the designer and the client mentioning what is included in the after sales service and the price. Fixing the price is a tricky job. You can either charge on an hourly rate or a monthly rate. For low budget clients you can also charge based on the volume of edits.
No matter how much you charge, ultimately what matters is how well you handle your client’s website after sales service. If you are prompt with your service and charge reasonably for the maintenance work, you are sure to develop a great relationship with your client. It will mean more repeat projects and good word of mouth. What more can you ask for your web design business?
