Webmasters, how are you handling the influx of change requests?

I am curious how other webmasters are handling the influx of change requests/support requests/clients given most places are now moving to digital only (meaning everyone is trying to set up e-commerce sites).

This isn’t a topic about COVID-19 itself, yes it is scary, but more the business side of things for those that build, manage, and host websites.

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This is the problem.

3 different tasks, 3 different skills, 3 different pricing models. Solve this problem and your life will be a lot easier.

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I do all three. :slightly_smiling_face:

I charge one-time fee for build, then annual fee for manage and host.

I haven’t had a lot of requests… most of my clients either already have e-commerce in place, or don’t need it anyway. One big shop wanted a simple booking system set up so they could see customers by appointment only. And I had my first online piano lesson with Robbie yesterday (using Zoom), but we spent most of the time messing around with cameras and trying to sort out sound quality.

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Thats the problem: Most people who would now need sites, and havent have invested in one, are now kinda in-between - they dont have the knowledge or experience to build their own, but also usually lack the proper knowledge of on how to aquire any kind of other options, eg. a designer (which they might deem too expensive etc.) or a simple wizard site option, or even things like microshops, setting up an ebay store etc. pp.

I do have some plans for this though - focus on the local area, get people setup with minimalist solutions (whether its a simple site + some simple payment options, eg. PayPal Buttons or PayPal Express checkout plugins and the likes, or something more complex), and offer additional services, so they can survive, while also not trying to exploit their ignorance / inexperience.

Lets see how this turns out.

cu, w0lf.

Right now the majority of my (very much increased!) change requests are from clients needing to notify of changes in status/shutdowns. I do have two new e-comm proposals out there now but I’m not sure if they’re going to move forward now that things are effectively in shutdown.

As far as handling it – I’ve been triaging my inbox daily to prioritize the most urgent requests and handing off as much work as I can to my production assistants. Even so, we’re buried right now.

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@BlueSkyPhoenix We are swamped as well! Same projects we had in process before C19, and now clients needing fast updates - both large and small. I’d say we’d be clear in a few days to add extra capacity - DM me if you still need help. I could round up some of my contractors based on availability and requirments (some of them need work right now).

At the end of the day, like Amazon shipping, clients will have to expect some delays.

Stay Healthy!

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Thank you! Weirdly enough, I’d just hired two production assistants on a trial basis just days before the C19 hit the fan here… so I’ve definitely gotten a good sense of whether or not they’ll work out :slight_smile:

I hope to have the remainder of the requests handled this week and then focus on pivoting my own business to meet the needs of the next wave – as discussed by @fwolf, there is a whole market of “in-betweeners” that now understand they have an acute need but they have little in the way of cash flow. My county actually offers technology micro-grants to small businesses here, so if I can manage to get something similar in place (simple website w/ payment options, etc.), I can help my neighbors, capture some of that funding, and stay afloat.

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About the “in-betweeners” / potential market … The current suggestion, after talking with several people who should know … goes like this: Here in Germany, there are local semi-governmental organizations, like the Chamber of Commerce … and I guess the situation isnt much different in other countries.

So one should try to reach respective persons via e-mail etc, and tell them: “Hey, we know you want to keep your members afloat - and we’d like to stay afloat as well, so why not work together? We offer this and that, and with “we”, that is, several independent people and smaller companies working together … so this isnt just a one man show, and we’re not doing this just to get rich - we want to keep all the the small sized stores, shops, locations etc. afloat, keep the diversity of our towns and cities, which else, thanks to the decreed lockdowns, would be not around in a few months. (…)”

Something along of these lines. So the board of trade / chamber of commerce, would be one option, the other is local marketing and small to midsize business networks, etc. pp.

This is the current combat plan. When the upcoming week is done, I might be able to tell a different story - if this actually worked out, is still in the process of, and so on.

cu, w0lf.

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On a strictly first-come first-served basis! Anything new goes on the todo list and each day I work through as many requests as possible, earliest-submitted first.

I’m not getting requests for new e-commerce sites (because that’s not my speciality anyway) but I am getting requests for custom payment gateway plugin development etc, as well as lots of “we need a new page for COVID updates”.

However I’m also finding that it’s harder to focus than usual and I need more breaks. Maybe that’s just a human reaction to the stressiness of the world situation and the swamping of social media.

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I completely agree with that. Even when one before was already a daily lifestyle “others apparently consider as quarantine”, the whole situation feels very oppressive and stressful. And I slowly start to loathe any kind of “the latest on Corona virus” news. I’m still keeping myself up-to-date by consuming “the latest news” at tagesschau.de once per day, but else I try to keep it to a minimum.

cu, w0lf.

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