Care plans are the foundation of our support services and allow us to quickly jump in and immediately begin troubleshooting when an issue arises. Our care plans are also meant to be preventative; we’re able to avoid many issues because we’re monitoring and taking a proactive approach to sites.
We know the line between care plans and support can be confusing.
We generally cover the first 15–30 minutes of troubleshooting an issue under the website’s care plan. In that time, we can typically determine if it’s a global issue or a problem specific that website.
- Global issues, such as plugin problems, updates, etc., often affect many clients at the same time. In this case, the resolution falls under the care plan and is carried out for everyone, even if some affected clients aren’t aware there is an issue.
- Website-specific problems tend to arise from the particular combination of elements and features of a single site. Once we determine that a problem is site-specific, we’ll move forward by asking for approval to move to hourly support for the resolution.
At a glance: categorizing common issues
There’s a more detailed breakdown of this information below the table 😊
Troubleshooting: You may need to scroll to the side to see all the columns.
Issue | Typically covered by care plan | Triaged under care plan | Covered if hosted with Valerian | Typically a support request | It depends 😅 |
Domain registration expiration | ✅ | ||||
Hosting issues | ✅ | ✅ | |||
SSL errors | ✅ | ✅ | |||
Site hacks | ✅ | ||||
Preventing plugin or theme vulnerabilities | ✅ | ||||
Replacing vulnerable plugins and themes | ✅ | ||||
Adding or removing users | ✅ | ||||
Login issues | ✅ | ||||
Contact changes | ✅ | ||||
Post SMTP and Postmark errors | ✅ | ||||
Regular email delivery issues | ✅ | ||||
Shopify email delivery issues | ✅ | ||||
DNS changes or questions | ✅ | ✅ | |||
Redirects | ✅ | ✅ | |||
Site functionality problems | ✅ | ✅ | |||
“I have a quick question…” | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ||
Complex troubleshooting or broken styles | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ||
Content or functionality changes | ✅ | ||||
Consultations and training | ✅ | ||||
Complex email/DNS/redirect changes | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ||
Third-party integrations | ✅ |
Included in care plans
Uptime monitoring
When a website is offline, it’s typically due to 3 issues.
We try to prevent these issues as much as possible, but in the event that it does happen, we do what we can to resolve the issue.
- Domain Registration Expiration We are alerted 3 days before an expiration. If we can cannot verify that the client has auto-renew enabled or a valid payment method on file, we will reach out to the client with instructions to renew their domain before it becomes an issue.
- Hosting Issues 99% of hosting issues we see occur with third-party hosting. Typically these are the result of a billing issue or global outage that provider is experiencing. We will do our best to triage the issue and alert the client of any action they need to take to bring their site back online.
If a site is hosted with Valerian, we will resolve any hosting issues as part of their hosting service with us.
- SSL Errors This happens less and less but is more common with third-party hosting or certificates. It can also be a local issue where clients don’t have their clock set correctly which invalidates the SSL. We will provide initial support for these issues.
If the client has SSL/hosting with us, we will provide full support as part of the hosting plan.
Hacks and vulnerabilities
- Site Hacks It’s rare for a site with a care plan in place to be hacked, but it can still happen. Typically, this is the result of a plugin/theme that is no longer being maintained and cannot be updated. We can clean the site and remove the hack, but the plugin/theme will need to be disabled and/or replaced if it cannot be remediated.
Replacing plugins/themes is not covered by care plans.
- Plugin/theme vulnerabilities Each day, we receive a list of vulnerable plugins or themes and apply any available patches (i.e. updates) to sites to ensure there is a minimal amount of time where the site is exposed to that vulnerability. This greatly decreases the risk of a site getting hacked. We can also temporarily add Patchstack to the site to patch in the event that an update is not yet available.
Patchstack is not a long-term solution if a plugin has been abandoned by the developer and won’t ever be updated to prevent vulnerabilities. In this case, the plugin will have to be replaced as a support request.
Website user requests
- Adding/removing users If an approved contact reached out with a request to either add or remove a user from the site, we can complete this as part of the care plan.
- Login issues We can assist users with login issues via password reset or answering any questions/issues with 2FA.
Contact changes
Keeping our portal up to date with the correct contacts ensures we can provide the best and fastest support and resolves emergency issues as quickly as possible. If a client emails in contact changes for their organization, we’ll ensure the portal and our systems get updated with the new information.
Email delivery issues
- Post SMTP and Postmark errors If we receive an alert that there is a issue with a site’s email delivery we will investigate and alert the client of any action they may need to take. If a client is having issues receiving an email from their site, we can also help investigate to ensure the PostMark and PostSMTP configuration is set up correctly.
- Regular Email Delivery We provide limited support for Google Workspace or other email providers under the care plan: we will check the DNS records to ensure MX, DKIM, and DMARC exist and valid.
We can provide additional Google Workspace help under billable hourly support.
- Shopify Email Delivery If clients are reporting issues with their transactional Shopify emails not being received, we will investigate the configuration and DNS records to ensure the site is set up and configured properly.
DNS changes or questions
We can provide initial support for DNS changes or questions. However, this typically only includes the initial time reviewing the problem and forming a plan, not the implementation of the solution.
In cases where the client can provide clear records to us or the request is very simple, we can accommodate this under the care plan.
Redirects
If a simple redirect is requested and part of the site domain, we will implement it under the care plan. Otherwise, we will triage under the care plan and then advise on implementation steps that would fall under support.
Functionality issues or questions
If a site is experiencing an issue or the current functionality is failing, we will investigate up to 30 minutes. If it’s possible to resolve the issue in that time, we will do so; otherwise, we will provide the next steps for resolution under support.
See Complex troubleshooting and broken styles below for limits of these requests.
“I have a quick question…”
Many times, clients reach out with a “quick question” that falls into one of three scenarios:
- We have created documentation for them already and can direct them there.
- The answer is simple enough that it only takes us a couple of minutes to respond.
- It’s a question we get asked all the time and we have a saved response we can send.
For these scenarios, we’ll reply as part of the care plan.
See Content or functionality changes and Consultations and training for the limits of these requests.
Not included in care plan
We’ve outlined the common requests that are not included below, but this is not a full list. Our support covers more requests than the following items; these are just a few that could be ambiguous in their categorization of care plan or support request.
The final call if an issue falls under a care plan or support is left up to our discretion.
Complex troubleshooting and broken styles
If we find that a site if having a unique issue and it requires complex troubleshooting (typically due to a third-party plugin/app or custom code), we’ll spend the initial 30 minutes of care plan coverage identifying and planning a path forward.
If troubleshooting requires more than 30 minutes of attention, it will not be covered under the care plan, and we will coordinate approval of billable hours to continue troubleshooting and resolving the issue.
Content or functionality changes
While we’re happy to assist with content changes, new pages, and admin management, these tasks are not included in the care plan and fall under billable support.
Consultations and training
Live support consultations or additional training videos are not included with our care plans.
Complex email, DNS, or redirect changes
If we can help a client with these issues or changes within 15–30 minutes, we will typically jump in and resolve them. However, many times these issues/changes require more time so we spend the the initial 15-30 minutes identifying the need and planning a path forward, at which point these tasks become billable hours.
Third Party Integrations
We’re happy to assist with these, but they are not covered under the care plan. Some examples include (but are not limited to):
- Google Analytics
- Google Tag Manager
- Google Search Console
- CRMs/ESPs (and their forms)
- Cookie Consent
- Accessibility