Managed Hosting client workflow
(→Sign up processing) |
Current revision (21:50, 4 February 2010) (view source) (→Default Task List) |
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* Create and send unsigned contract | * Create and send unsigned contract | ||
* Create account on WebFaction or Slicehost | * Create account on WebFaction or Slicehost | ||
| + | * Send introductory email and initial survey | ||
* Set up initial site sandbox | * Set up initial site sandbox | ||
* Schedule initial WordPress orientation | * Schedule initial WordPress orientation | ||
Current revision
This is a living document for how we work new Managed Hosting clients into our services.
Contents |
Questions
Before signing up, a potential partner may have questions they want answered about our services. The potential partner will either contact us through the contact form, or email us at services@.
Goal: Respond to all questions within one working day. Sooner is better.
Main contact: Most likely Daniel but could be any team member.
Initial sign up
For instances where we answer all initial questions through email we will send along the signup form which captures:
- Name of the publication
- Name and contact information (phone and email) of the person representing the publication
- Current content management system (if any)
- How soon do you want to get started, and how soon do you want to launch?
- How did you hear about us?
The services they are interested in will be calculated from the buttons they pick on the sign up form/pricing sheet.
They hit submit and CoPress starts to process the new client.
For clients that we trade a couple emails with but have most of the initial conversation with over the phone or Skype we will incorporate the sign up form questions into that conversation.
Main contact: Daniel or Andrew
Sign up processing
When the client submits the initial sign up form, the information from that form will be emailed to CoPress.
Goal: Act upon the signup form in a day or less during the business week.
Steps:
- Create an invoice using the "Invoice Template" in CoPress Team -> Financial
- Create a contract dependent on the services they're signing up for.
- Add invoice and contract information to spreadsheets and Basecamp
- Add default task list to Basecamp as a ToDo list (more information below)
- Create new column for client on "Integrated Client Information" spreadsheet
- Assign CoPress team member to client and note in "Integrated Client Information"
- Email invoice, contract, and "New client survey" to client, as well as the standard introduction copy
Main contact: Daniel or Andrew will generally take care of integrating new clients
Default Task List
After receiving the initial sign up for Daniel will create a default task list in Basecamp to make sure we cover all aspects of site preparation. This will include:
- Create and send unsigned contract
- Create account on WebFaction or Slicehost
- Send introductory email and initial survey
- Set up initial site sandbox
- Schedule initial WordPress orientation
- Hold initial WordPress orientation
- Add launch date to calendar and two week check-in as a milestone to Basecamp
- Ensure that MX records and other DNS settings are set up properly
- Point domain at WebFaction DNS
- Add publication to list of clients on our site
New client survey
When we're taking on a new client for Managed Hosting, we'll want to capture a bit of information at the point when they're filling out the contract and preparing a purchase order. The intent of this survey is to better understand where they're coming from so that we can gear our orientation and education services to their specific needs.
A working list of the information we want to capture in this survey:
Questions pertaining to logistics
- What domain do you intend to use with your new website? Have you requested control of your domain from College Publisher? If not, you should do that soon...
- Do you have any software other the main website to transfer to the new server?
- Have you requested your database yet from College Publisher? If so, when do you expect to get it? If not, you should do that soon...
- Who in the newsroom will be going to take ownership of the redesign process? What is their contact information?
- What WordPress theme do you have in mind?
- What plugins would you like installed at the very beginning? (Check off from a list)
- Do you have email addresses associated with your domain currently? Do you want to mirror those in Google Apps or cPanel?
- Do you have any subdomains set up? We'll need to make sure we record those so that the transfer is seamless
- Do you have any logistics questions for us?
Questions about the newsroom, education and proficiency
- What is the size of your newsroom staff?
- How many people do you have for a dedicated online staff?
- Do you have a web-first workflow? Are you 24/7 online and/or do you publish separately from print? If not, do you have interest in a web-first workflow?
- Do you have any experience with HTML/CSS, PHP, WordPress, MySQL or server administration? (We'll ask each of these separately and will have them respond on a scale)
- What skills are you interested in learning? (Another checklist)
Goal: We're hoping for a response within a week for all of this information.
Main contact: Daniel or Andrew
First payment
First payment is generally required to start the project.
When we get the first payment from a client, Daniel will email the client to report that we've gotten the payment, and then give the go ahead to the assigned team member to get started with the sandbox and schedule an orientation.
Goals: Email client within a day of receiving the check, start sandbox within three days (somewhat arbitrary) and schedule and orientation within a week.
Main contact: Daniel
Initial orientation
After receiving at least the signed contract and ideally the initial payment, we'll schedule an initial orientation with the client. The content and length of the orientation will generally depend on the information from the first survey.
Format:
- Basic introductions to CoPress and the services that we offer. Talk about:
- Support philosophy. Also, your welcome to contact us on email or phone. We're here to help you.
- Requests will be handled within a day during the week and hopefully the same on the weekends
- Best email is support@. You'll get a response from either Andrew, Daniel, or Miles.
- What we will do and what we want to help you do
- Introduction to WordPress. Topics covered (based on knowledge):
- Creating a new page, post, or category
- The different features you're presented with when creating either
- Creating new users
- Managing media and other content
- Installing, activating, and configuring plugins
- Introduction to the plugins we've installed as a part of their base package
- General settings of WordPress (including permalinks, commenting, etc.)
- Introduction to FTP and accessing your files. Might want to mention recommended software.
- Starting a redesign and making theme modifications
- Introduction to WebFaction Panel, the various options, and what you probably need to pay attention to
- How to create an application
- How to add a domain to the Panel
- How to edit CNAME and MX records for a domain
- Ask for their involvement in the wiki and the forum, and inform them of the best ways to get in touch and ask questions
The initial orientation is also where we should be explicit in the type of help we offer for free vs. the type of help we have to charge for. We should reiterate what's on the contract so that we don't have hurt or awkward feelings midway through the actual work.
Main contact: Daniel or Andrew
Theme modifications and setting the site up
Goal: Respond to client questions and inquiries about their design process within a working day (less is always preferable).
Once the orientation has been completed, the client will take on the responsibility of setting the rest of the website up while occasionally asking questions.
Main contact: Daniel, Andrew, Will, Sam, or Lauren
Website launch
Goal: Walk the client through changing the nameservers for their domain, make sure that all essential services are mirrored, and launch the website with minimal hiccups
A week before the website is scheduled to launch, we'll want to schedule a time to initiate the launch with the partner.
Important: Because DNS takes a bit of time to propagate across the interwebs, we'll want to schedule the launch of the website at least two days before the client intends to start publishing and promoting their website. The ideal website launch date is probably a Thursday or Friday.
Checklist for initiating a launch:
- Nameservers for the domain are pointed appropriately to either CoPress (Hosting) or WebFaction (Mark II)
- Email settings, if applicable, are mirrored in the new cPanel.
- If the client has decided to move to Google Apps, make sure that is set up appropriately
- Subdomains are mapped to proper places
- All plugins and WordPress are up to date, and settings are good to go
- Google Analyticator is installed and configured properly
- WP Super Cache is installed and configured properly
- Pretty permalinks are in use
- Google can index the website (i.e. noindex is not in use in the header)
Main contact: Daniel or Andrew, depending on whom is assigned or available
Two week post-launch follow up
Goal: Two weeks after launching a new website, CoPress should schedule a meeting with the client to run through all of the website settings, make sure that things are configured properly, and that the client doesn't have any current questions.
Two weeks after the client's website has been launched, there are a couple of things we want to do.
First, we should send them a link to our post-launch survey. We want to get their input on how to improve the launch process while it's still fresh on their mind.
Secondly, we want to do a 15 to 20 minute two week check in to make sure that they're on their way, using WordPress wisely and securely, and that they're not accidentally setting themselves up for issues further down the line.
The check-in should include
- Having a conversation about the launch including:
- How did everything go? Did you run into any issues in the days/week after launch?
- Is there anything you wished you had known before hand that would have made the process easier?
- Ask about their workflow with WordPress, and where they're noticing efficiencies and hangups
- Asking whether they intend to use the server space as a file server and, if so, helping them set that up
- Ensure that Google is properly indexing their website
- Checking plugins for proper configuration:
- Google Analyticator
- WP Super Cache
- WP-DB-Backup
- Akismet
- Google XML Sitemap
- Configure SMTP (for WebFaction accounts)
The check-in is ideally over iChat screenshare or Skype, and any notes from the meeting should be sent to the rest of the team for digestion.
Link: Survey form for post-launch follow up
Main contact: Daniel or Andrew, depending on who is the assigned contact for the client.
