Two kinds of support
Content Support
Even though you may wish to edit your site yourself, there are times when you don't. Maybe:
- If it's a big update.
- Or a large number of products.
- Or you have to change your prices right across the store.
- Or even if you're away on holiday basking in sun and want us to do it.
Whatever the case, we'll be happy to do the amends for you. If it's a regular thing, we can work out a monthly spread fee for you. Or, you can just pay as you go. We charge an admin rate of £45.00/hour and that includes any photoshop/image work, category image generation and, of course, adding/editing text.
Technical Support
Technical support is completely different. As with any software, unscrupulous people will try and hack web shops. The reason for this is because they think that credit card information may be stored in the shop. We never build stores where this is the case... but it doesn't stop them trying.
Like on your PC, you get Microsoft Windows Updates or Norton Security Updates to keep your PC safe. ZenCart (the makers of the shop software) release security updates regularly as well. However, your shop is sitting on a webserver which, for security reasons itself, is not going to allow a website to start downloading update code by itself. So, regretfully, at this time, it is still a manual job to add in these security patches to client's sites.
As well as this, just like your PC, your store needs backing up regularly. That means the database AND the files.
It is difficult to sell 'support' without sounding like a scare mongerer or a dodgy second had car salesman but the threat of attack is very real. If a site is hacked and rude messages or products are then entered into the site, not only can it be offensive to your customers, but it can take days to clean out. As well as this, the hacker normally leaves a 'back-door' access to your hosting which is almost impossible to find in the 1766 files within the 267 folders in the ZenCart software. This file enables them to then plunder your site at any time they wish.
The very best way to rectify this is to clean off the site entirely and install a back up of the files and database. This alone is 2-3 hours work and not something most clients want to do themselves.
In short, a technical support contract is crucial. Please consider this as an important, genuine investment - not an expense. Obviously, we could never give a 100% guarentee that we will be able to prevent every single attack that is made on a site from breaking through. But we can be there to install the security updates and minimise the likelihood of it happening...... and we can be there to fix the mess that's caused should someone get through.
Our monthly support fee is £35.00+VAT per month. This covers emergancy response as well as installing any relevant updates distributed by ZenCart and taking backups of your site+data every month.
