Hello everyone! I am hoping for some feedback regarding website updates and billing. We maintain about 300 websites and include minor updates (under 10 minutes per month) for our hosting customers. I have many clients who call or email "updates" that are not minor such as converting a video for their website, logo design, adding a "few" keywords, etc.

 

how do you let your clients know there is a charge for this type of stuff? I do not want to be rude but do a lot of freebees when people think updates are free.

 

Once I emailed a person back and said, "No problem, this shouldn't take long, probably under an hour. I will send your bill at the end of the month" And he said BILL? For what? His website had been up for over a year and he never asked for update. People take advantage.

 

I'm wondering how others handle this type of problem. I hired a full time person just to do updates on our websites. But it seems a lot of this should be billed and isn't. I know it's my fault but I am wondering how others handle this tactfully with their clients when they get emails and requests for something that obviously is billable hours.

 

Thanks in advance for any help

I quote for any maintenance work based on what the client tells me. If its adding a few bits of news each month, then I quote, say £50 a month. I then bill them 3 months upfront for this work. Anything over and above what I have quoted for is then charged or quoted for individually and the client has to send an approval email agreeing to the price I have quoted. This is then billed at the end of the job. I tend to view this kind of work as extras and if I offend people by asking for money up front, I don't really care.

Welcome to WDF!

 

Always bill for your time, even 10 minutes! One approach would be to have a minimum fee then bill by 15/20/30 minute increments. If you don't do this then with 300 sites you could easily start spending half your day doing work for nothing.

 

Personally when I build a new site I allow a short grace period after the site goes live for misc tweaks if they are needed - in reality this cost is already factored into my original quote. After that all updates are charged at an hourly or fixed rate.

This goes in every estimate I send out, just below the costings table...

 

After launch, any required bugfixes will be undertaken free of charge, however any enhancements or other new work not part of the original specification will attract my standard rate of EUR XX per hour, invoiced quarterly.

Small updates are included in my AMP (Annual Maintenance Plan), like text and picture replacements, anything more major is billed at my hourly rate.

Welcome to WDF.

 

When we design sites for our clients, we get them to sign an agreement which states we will fix any bugs free of charge, but any additional work will be considered maintenance and therefore be charged separately as and when the need arises - we also make them aware of this verbally before anything is signed so that everyone knows where they stand.

 

Our clients are 100% happy with the above - after all you have a living to make and it stops any cheeky buggers taking the p*ss.