Nine components of a successful digital agency support model
The ongoing support you get from your digital agency is critical in establishing a successful website. However, this support is not always regarded as being as important or given as much attention as the agency work that it is delivered as part of a project.
In our experience an agency’s support model is just as critical as it project work, and is integral to ongoing improvement, and also ensuring there is a strong working relationship between digital agency and client.
If you are selecting a digital agency you will want to ensure that it has a good support model, Not all support models are equal or the same, and it can be point of differentiation. In this post we’re going to explore some of the components of a support model that we’ve found contribute to success, and ultimately impact the service you receive. Here we’ll be referencing some of the ways 3Chillies has evolved and improved our support over the last two to three years.
- Clarity over contracts, prioritisation and service levels
Clarity is at the centre of a good support model. Clarity in contracts and service-level agreements so that clients know what to expect in terms of response times and the service they receive. Clarity in the processes that we carry out internally to deliver the best possible support service, as well as the way clients report issues. And clarity around the prioritisation of which issues need to be dealt with urgently.
Like most digital agencies we work on a three-level priority system – P1s, P2s and P3s. Having clarity on the most urgent Priority 1 issues where a website is down or not functional is key. Our focus is always “keeping the lights on” and urgently getting a website back up and running. We’re proud that the majority of P1 issues we encounter are solved in under an hour and a half.
- Proactive maintenance
Over the past few years here at 3Chillies we’ve moved from a more traditional “Time and Materials” based support agreement which drew down on a set number of support hours, to a support service based on proactive maintenance.
Proactive maintenance means we’re less of a reactive approach and instead carrying out monitoring and regular checks to prevent issues happening before they actually occur. The advantage of this is not reduced bugs and issues, but ultimately it saves time and means we can run a tighter and more responsive helpdesk that adds value.
Every month we’re going into the back end and checking in on a range of monitoring tools, watching out for known issues, and occasionally making optimisations. Undertaking proactive maintenance also means we get to know our customer’s environments and infrastructure very well so we can also more closely watch areas where there are potentially issues.
Overall, this proactive and preventative approach has proved popular with 3Chillies clients, and we believe has considerably improved our support. We can now offer a package of support that maintains site health, support compliance and allows us to respond to any issues that may arise and any questions a team may have without the limit of draw down on hours.
- Comprehensive monitoring
Having robust monitoring tools In place is important for a successful proactive maintenance approach. For example, one of the tools we use for uptime monitoring is Pingdom which checks if a homepage or a particular webpage is up and running every minute or so. If there is an issue we can be immediately alerted and then act quickly if a website is down. Monitoring tools take into account other performance aspects.
However, our approach to monitoring is not just about setting up a range of automated tools, because we also carry out more manual checks. These are not just about website performance, but also about compliance too, for example checking through Content Security Policies (CSPs) on your website, as well as aspects around compliance. Of course, monitoring is process-led but its also requires a mindset which is thorough and efficient.
- Having a warranty in place for project work
At 3Chiliies of course we undertake a lot of development work during our projects. This work actually comes into support because it comes with a period of warranty, usually 30 days. If there is something we’ve developed and it isnt’ working past the project warranty period, we will fix it as part of our support model. This gives clients peace of mind and also ensures we are accountable for the quality of our coding.
- Manage additional services and issues depending on your site
A support model isn’t just about looking at your core CMS and your production environment. It will also cover staging and UAT environments and depending on your web environment, we will monitor, maintain, resolve issues and answer questions on different areas including e-commerce, a cookie platform (CookieBot) and more. This means that in terms of support, one size absolutely doesn’t fit all.
- Bespoke service, simple pricing
Some agencies try to shoehorn different clients into different levels of support – bronze, silver or gold – but that might not necessarily be what they need. Because the scope of a web environment is so different and what kind of support is required can differ, we now create a bespoke support package for every client. For example, most clients are happy with support to cover office hours, but there are others who require around the clock support.
The introduction of our proactive monitoring approach also means that we are able to offer each custom support package at a simple, predictable price. This will be agreed when we are onboarding you, with a detailed audit of your site and environment and the relative scope and complexity influencing the level of payment.
- A robust ticketing system
A robust ticketing platform is a prerequisite for effective support allowing:
- Options for a customer to log an issue or ask a question, including directly by email
- Effective triage of the issue to the right person at the agency
- Allow everyone at an agency access a full record of the issue and actions taken to enable continuity of service and provide full context.
At 3Chillies we use Freshdesk, a popular help desk solution, that we’ve found has worked very well and allowed us to build our support model. It also enables us to search through previous tickets to identify and uncover trends, persistent issues and previous approaches that have worked. A good helpdesk solution and ticketing system is both a communication platform and a system of record.
- Accessing all our knowledge
Within any agency there is a going to be a range of different expertise and specialisms. As part of our support service, we draw on all our collective knowledge across our developers, getting the right people involved to solve particularly challenging issues. We’ll even get Bryan our CTO involved now and then if an issue needs escalating. Some agencies tend to ring fence project devs and support resource and keep them apart as much as they can, but we leverage all our expertise to deliver the best possible support.
- Strong relationships and great communication the right mindset
The mindset of the support team does make a difference in delivering the strong working relationships that underpin good support. At the centre of this is not just having people who care and take pride in delivering excellent support, but also having great communication. Having honest and open conversations, keeping customers updated regularly, being visible, and hoping on a call where appropriate are all some of the ingredients of the strong communication that leads to equally strong support. It’s another example of the customer-first and service-oriented culture at 3Chillies.
Get the IT support you deserve
Your digital agency’s support model makes a real difference, in this post we’ve detailed some of the key components that have allowed us to provide strong support to our clients. If you’d like to discuss how you could be better supported, then get in touch!
