What happens after the website goes live?
Real customers start using it, and they find what nobody tested. Someone has to keep an eye on it: you with a short list, or people who stay with the business.
What do the first customers show you?
The questions your site doesn't answer, which nobody finds on launch day.
On launch day, the only people who've used the site are the ones who built it. Customers open it on an old phone with the text size turned up, and ask what you thought the home page answered.
By the first ten customers you'll know more, like whether they all ask about delivery areas or phone rather than fill in a long form. Put the areas where people look first, and cut the form to a name and a number.
Who answers an enquiry that comes in after hours?
Decide before launch, because that customer is comparing you with someone else tonight.
An automatic reply
It says the message arrived and when a person will answer. Every form should do at least this.
An assistant that answers
Trained on your products and policies, it answers the common questions and leaves the rest for a person in the morning. It always says it's a bot.
AI assistants for your businessA message to a phone
The enquiry goes to WhatsApp on the phone of whoever's on call, so a keen customer hears from a person the same evening.
Test the one you pick late at night, from a phone that isn't yours.
Why does a website form stop working when nobody touched it?
Because something it hands enquiries to has changed, like the CRM's settings or the email password.
The site still says “Thanks, we'll be in touch”, so nobody notices until a customer phones to ask why you never replied.
The fix is dull and it works. Send a test enquiry through every form now and then, or have an automation do it and message you when one doesn't arrive.
What comes up in the first year?
Mostly small changes, in no fixed order:
- A change to what you sell, and every page that mentions it.
- A festival offer on the home page, and someone to take it down afterwards.
- A connected tool that changes its rules, so something has to be set up again.
- Questions customers keep asking, which the FAQ or the assistant should start answering.
- The next thing the business needs, like a follow-up automation or a second language.
What happens if we look after it?
You get 30 days of free fixes after launch, then optional care billed monthly.
We watch the site and what it's connected to, and make the small changes as they come up. Each month there's a short note on what we did.
You can stop whenever you like. The domain, hosting and code have been in your name since the first day, so there's nothing to hand back.
Can I look after the website myself?
Yes, as long as a few things are written down where the whole team can find them:
- Who checks that each form still delivers, and how often.
- Where the domain and hosting renewal reminders go, and whether anyone reads that inbox.
- Every login the site depends on, in the business's name, with a second person who can get in.
- What's connected to what: the form to the sheet, the sheet to the CRM, the CRM to WhatsApp.
- Who changes the words when an offer ends.
Who's looking after yours?
Send us the site's address, and say where an enquiry from it ends up. We'll tell you what we'd check first.