Why isn’t web support more proactive?

Providing website support is generally a reactive rather than proactive process: why is this the case?

When you engage a WordPress support service, you usually get just that: support.

Support usually refers to the assistance, help, or resources provided to someone in response to a need, issue, or challenge.

In a business or service context, it often means addressing problems, providing guidance, or resolving existing difficulties that have already or recently arisen.

Why support is often reactive, not proactive.

Support is inherently reactive because it typically comes into play after encountering an issue or problem with your site.

It responds to requests, problems, or failures rather than preventing them.

This distinguishes it from proactive support, which aims to anticipate and mitigate issues before they occur.

For example:

  • IT support reacts to system failures or user issues rather than preventing them.
  • Customer support addresses complaints or difficulties after they arise.
  • Technical support helps troubleshoot problems that users report.

By contrast, proactive approaches, such as system monitoring, user education, or preventive maintenance, aim to reduce the need for support by preventing issues from occurring.

Another reason why website support is usually reactive is the budget.

If you pay a WordPress support agency for 100 minutes of support time per month, you expect that time to be available when needed.

If you put in a ticket to request an update to your site and are told that the agency has already used your time on tasks they felt needed addressing, so there’s no time for your request, you’d feel a little miffed.

This is the main reason why, especially on smaller support contracts, agencies don’t simply go ahead and use your support time proactively; it can lead to potential issues.

What WordPress support tasks should be part of your reactive support?

Specific tasks should be baked into your WordPress support as proactive.

These include the following:

  1. WordPress Core Updates
  2. WordPress Plugin Updates
  3. Renewing any SSL certificates
  4. Auto-renewal of any hosting accounts
  5. Site downtime

The tasks above should be done each month or at least in line with your support contract agreements.

These are proactive tasks that need to be done often. If your site goes down, we assume that’s a priority and not something you would mind us using your time for.

So, how do you get proactive WordPress support?

Proactive ‘support’ is less about support and more about a retained service.

To provide our clients with retained WordPress services, the first port of call is to agree on the monthly deliverables and their time frame.

For example, here’s an agreement with have with one client.

Monthly tasks.

  1. Update WordPress and plugins every two weeks.
  2. Run a site audit once per month and fix any issues raised in the audit.
  3. Check the internal linking, image ALT tags, and metadata on all posts published in the month and fix any issues.
  4. Check any significant keyword position changes and provide a report.

This is a defined list of clear deliverables that we take action on every month, and we do this at a set monthly fee.

What can be the challenges of proactive WordPress support?

When you ask an agency to be proactive with your website, you must give the team some autonomy over the website and its content.

For example, in the task above, Checking image ALT tags, there needs to be an understanding of how exactly this will work.

  1. Do you want us to find missing ALT tags and tell you where they are?
  2. Do you want us to find the missing tags and provide the missing content for approval?
  3. Do you want us to find and fix the missing tags and fix them based on our understanding of best-practice ALT tags?

Point one is a reporting task that can lead to points two and three needing action.

Point three is a task where something is found and actioned.

Points 1, 2, and 3 require much more time than point three alone, so it’s very important to be clear on exactly how proactive you want your agency to be.

Something else to consider is that although WordPress is famously easy to update, issues can arise after clicking that blue Update button, which can sometimes take additional time to fix.

I would not have done it like that.

This can be an issue with proactive support: the team has done something you would have done differently.

This could be a different ALT tag or a different preference for an internal link anchor text.

These small issues need to be understood and mitigated. It’s impossible to assign someone autonomy on a task and then have it redone as you would have done it differently; well, it is possible, but redoing it all takes up more of your time.

Whilst an external WP support team can feel like part of your team, they are not on your payroll, so time is money.

Trust and experience are crucial for retained proactive WordPress services. You 100% need a team that knows what it’s doing.

What are the benefits of proactive WordPress support?

If you find a WordPress support team you trust to have autonomy on your site, you can leave them to get on with it all and get on with something else.

It can be a huge time-saver and work out more cost-effectively in the long run, as WordPress experts can often complete tasks quicker than you can.

The more time spent improving your site, the higher it will rank and the more new business leads it will generate.

It doesn’t just have to be about fixing and tweaking stuff either; here at Toast, we have in-house developers, designers, copywriters and thinkers so that we can help with much more than just the more minor stuff.

How much does proactive WordPress support cost?

That depends on the work that’s required.

We’ll need a list of the monthly requirements for the site, and then we can price it accordingly.

Proactive web support is charged the same as our SiteCare services, which is £60 + VAT per hour. Once we know what you want done each month, we can agree on the time we need to deliver each element and the recurring charges.

David Foreman

David Foreman

Dave is the Managing Director at Toast and has been working with websites for over 25 years. He's a WordPress expert and has built 100s of WP sites. He now mainly works in improving organic SEO for clients.

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