15 Must Ask Questions Before Choosing Your Website Maintenance Agency

Introduction

It is not only important to build a high-quality website that provides visitors with excellent content, but also important to see the website is working properly or not, it needs continuous maintenance at every level. Otherwise, you risk losing customers and bringing into question your professionalism. This article will make you wise enough to choose the right maintenance agency.

To guarantee that your website is in the best possible hands, you need to ask the Website Management services the following questions:

1. Do you have a predefined onboarding & ongoing process for Website Maintenance? If yes, please explain.

An agency providing website maintenance services must have a predefined process for all phases of the service journey. Predefined processes ensure that the deliverability will not be compromised in any scenario and the approach must be towards the safety and security of the project.

A Predefined Onboarding Process must contain below:

• How the Support team will initiate the project?
• What initiation tasks will be done?
• What Reports will be sent upon completion of the initiation process?

A Predefined Ongoing Process must answer the below questions:

• At what frequency and what are the scheduled activities that will be carried out?
• How it will be reported to the customer?

2. Is your onboarding & ongoing process for website maintenance transparent to customers?

This question is to know how you would be aware of the activities that are carried out during the program. The answer must contain reports, dashboards, customer areas, etc.

3. Do you have a dedicated support team? If yes, what are their capabilities and strengths?

This is to know who will be serving you. If they are not dedicated, you will get delayed service leading to the loss of your brand reputation and security. You must ask about their experience, their core expertise, etc.

4. What is your TaT (Turn around Time)?

Turnaround Time Refers to the period required to perform and complete a submitted request. Here you must know if you placed a request for change or support, and how soon you will get it done. Usually, the system must confirm or acknowledge the submission, it should allocate to an executive and the task must get completed within the stipulated time unless informed.

5. Do you have an escalation matrix?

An escalation matrix is a ladder to reach the highest responsible person in the worst-case scenario. A reputed organization must have an escalation matrix for their customer to ensure the quality of service before it gets worse.

6. Do you have a Specialized CRM for Website Maintenance & Management?

This is a very important question to ask. In the era of digital, an agency must adopt a CRM system to ensure deliverability and scalability. Here you must ask, how the CRM will help to hand in various activities of the maintenance program such as tickets, usage, renewal, exit, etc.

7. Do you provide a detailed activity report of monthly scheduled maintenance? And what other reports will I get from your team?

Generally, monthly security and updating activity on a website is recommended. Even some experts recommend doing it weekly. With that said, your agency must answer how they handle monthly activities and whether you will get a detailed report or not. Apart from the activity report what other reports you will get i.e. website audience report, website load time report, website performance report, etc?

8. What value additions do you provide apart from Website Maintenance (without any additional cost)?

An agency must provide value additions for its long-term customer retention. We encourage you to ask this question to any of the representatives communicating with you from team Aarav Infotech. We have a long list of value additions to our website maintenance program.

9. Do you provide a mobile app to raise and manage support requests?

People nowadays are seeking all the facilities at their fingertips. Hence if an agency is mature in the field of website maintenance, it must provide a mobile app as an additional source of support.

10. Who are your top brands under website maintenance services?

This question is for you to ensure that the service you are going to opt for is proven and adopted by the others too. You can evaluate this by checking some of their website maintenance client video testimonials if they do have them on their website. If you wish, you can call their website maintenance clients randomly to inspect the level of service they provide.

11. How do you manage your backup system?

Is it automatic or manual? How frequently do they take backups? How do they store and restore backups? Is their process aware of the backup system? These questions also would be an addition to your quest. The purpose is to know how safe you are in the hands of the agency you are opting for.

12. How do you manage if my website got hacked or infected, unfortunately on Holiday or non-working hours?

We all know the team will be there in case of unfortunate situations of hacking and malware. What if your website got hacked during non-working hours? Will the agency support the situation? If yes how soon it would be?

13. How do you manage and secure my credentials?

Does the agency have a password management policy in place? How do they share and manage important passwords and information? This question is to ensure your right to privacy.

14. Will I get a SPOC for my website maintenance services?

A SPOC is necessary to ensure the clarity of communication and to maintain customer relationships humanly. Hence, you must ask if will they provide you with a Single Point of Contact for your website maintenance.

15. What is your exit process for Website Maintenance Customers?

In addition, a mature Website Maintenance program must consider the impact of the exit process on Google PageSpeed. Ensuring a seamless transition involves not only the handover of information, passwords, and backups but also maintaining or improving the website's PageSpeed during the transition.

16. What are the key factors that contribute to the overall website maintenance costs in India?

The website maintenance costs in India can be influenced by various factors. Some of the primary considerations include the complexity of your website, the frequency of updates, the size of your website, and the specific features and functionalities it incorporates. Additionally, factors like the level of customization, security requirements, and the need for ongoing technical support can impact the overall maintenance expenses.

Key Takeaways

• You should choose your website maintenance agency according to your business needs.
• An agency with a detailed onboarding and ongoing process will ensure the uncompromised deliverability of your website.
• The transparency of the agency can be checked by their reports on the activities done to your website.
• Make sure that the support team has experienced professionals with a good reputation.
• Check the TAT (Turn Around Time) of the agency which will tell about the time taken by the company to process the requests of their customers.
• The agency should have an escalation matrix for a worst-case scenario.
• A specialized CRM helps in different maintenance and management activities like
• The agency must report to you regularly about the audience, load time, performance, security, and update reports of your website.
• You should ask about the value additions the company provides apart from the website maintenance program.
• A mobile app can be more convenient for you.
• Check the testimonials of the clients of the agency before trusting in it.
• You must know the frequency of their backups and whether they are manual or automatic.
• You must know how supportive the team will be if your website gets attacked during non-working hours.
• You should be aware of the password and information management policy of the company.
• A SPOC should be there for your clarity of communication.
• The website maintenance company must have a clear exit process that will ensure the smooth handover of all the information, passwords, backups, and other stuff to your new agency.