The site launched on Tuesday. The client sent a thank-you note, paid the final invoice, and when you mentioned ongoing maintenance they replied, “We’ll let you know if anything breaks.” Six months later something does break, they call you in a panic, and the fix costs them more stress than a year of care would have.
Most clients do not refuse maintenance because they think it is a bad idea. They refuse because nobody explained it in terms of their business, or because it was offered at the worst possible moment: after the money was spent and the project felt finished. This post is about changing both of those things, with wording you can lift and adapt.
Why clients say no
Before writing a single email, it helps to understand the objection you are actually answering. In practice it is usually one of these:
- “It’s new, so it shouldn’t need anything.” Clients think of a website like a printed brochure. Once it exists, it exists. They do not know that plugins, themes and WordPress itself release updates constantly, or that a working site can stop working without anyone touching it.
- “We’ll call you if there’s a problem.” This treats maintenance as repair. It assumes problems announce themselves, when many of the worst ones are quiet: a contact form that stopped sending, a backup that has not run for months, a plugin with a known vulnerability.
- “What do we get for it?” If the work is invisible, it feels like paying for nothing. This is the most reasonable objection, and the one you can answer best.
- “We just paid you a lot.” Budget fatigue is real. A project invoice and a recurring fee arriving together feels like the same cost twice.
Notice that none of these are technical. Answering them with a list of technical tasks (“core updates, plugin updates, PHP compatibility checks”) rarely works, because it answers a question the client did not ask.
Raise it before the build, not after
The single change that helps most is timing. If ongoing care first appears in the proposal, it becomes part of how the client thinks about the project’s total cost, rather than a surprise add-on at the end.
In the proposal, describe the site as having two phases: the build, and the life after launch. Put the care option in the second phase with a short plain description, and say clearly that it is optional. Clients who have seen it from the start are far more likely to say yes at handover, because it is no longer new information.
It also changes how you build. If you know you will be looking after the site, you make different choices about plugins, hosting and how much custom code you add. Clients can understand that point when you put it to them: “We build it the same way either way, but if we are looking after it, we pick things we can keep stable.”
Translate the work into what the client cares about
Clients care about leads, sales, bookings, reputation and their own time. Every part of the maintenance you offer should connect to one of those. A useful exercise is to take your task list and rewrite each line as a consequence the client would recognise:
| What you do | What the client hears |
|---|---|
| Update plugins and themes after testing | The site keeps working when the software it depends on changes |
| Off-site backups, checked regularly | If the worst happens, we can put the site back |
| Uptime monitoring | We usually know the site is down before your customers tell you |
| Form and email checks | Enquiries keep reaching your inbox |
| Security hardening and scanning | Less chance of your site being used to spread spam or malware under your name |
| Small content edits | You do not have to learn WordPress to change opening hours |
Be careful with the uptime line. Say “usually” and mean it. Monitoring tells you about outages; it does not prevent them, and a client who believes you promised they would never be down will remember that promise.
For a fuller view of what tends to go wrong when nobody looks after a site, our post on what happens to an unmaintained website is written for business owners, and some agencies send it to clients as background reading.
Sample wording you can adapt
These are starting points. Change the tone to match how you normally write, and remove anything that does not apply to the client in front of you.
In the proposal
“After launch, your site will need regular attention to stay secure and working. WordPress, its plugins and your theme all receive updates, and some of those updates fix security problems. We offer an optional care plan that covers updates, backups, monitoring and small edits. You can decide on this at handover; we mention it now so it is part of your planning from the start.”
At handover
“Your site is live, and from today it is your responsibility or ours, depending on what you choose. If you would like us to look after it, the care plan we discussed covers [list]. If you would prefer to manage it yourselves, we will send a short guide covering backups and updates, and we are happy to help when needed on an hourly basis. Either way is fine. What we would not recommend is leaving it with nobody.”
That last sentence does a lot of work. It is honest, it is not pushy, and it reframes the decision: the choice is not “pay or don’t pay”, it is “who is responsible”.
To an existing client who said no at launch
“It has been a while since your site launched, and I wanted to check in. Since then there have been several plugin and WordPress updates. I took a quick look from the outside and [specific observation, e.g. the site is running an older version of a plugin that has since released a security fix]. That is easy to sort out. If you would like, we can handle it as a one-off, or set up ongoing care so you do not have to think about it.”
Only send this if your observation is real and specific. A vague “your site may be at risk” email reads as a sales tactic, because it is one.
When a client cancels
“Understood, and thank you for letting us know. Before the plan ends we will take a full backup and send it to you, along with the logins and a note on which plugins need regular updates. If you ever want us to take a look again, just get in touch.”
A clean exit keeps the door open. Clients who leave on good terms often come back after their first bad experience going it alone.
Handling the common objections in conversation
“Can’t we just call you when something breaks?” Yes, and say so. Then explain the difference: when you are on a plan, you already have access, recent backups and knowledge of the site, so a fix starts straight away. When you are not, the first part of every emergency is recovering logins and working out what changed. Clients understand that the emergency route is slower and costs more per hour, even if you never put a number on it.
“Our nephew knows computers.” Do not argue. Suggest they make sure someone, whoever it is, is checking backups and updates on a schedule. If the nephew does it well, the client is fine. If not, they will remember you were reasonable about it.
“The hosting company does all that.” Sometimes they do part of it. Many hosts take server backups and some apply WordPress core updates, but few test plugin updates against the client’s site or check that forms still work. Ask the client to check what their host actually covers, rather than telling them their host does nothing. Our article on where hosting ends and maintenance begins lays this out in plain terms.
“It’s too expensive.” Ask what they would like covered, and offer a smaller version. A basic plan with backups and updates is better for everyone than no plan. If you have not yet designed tiers, the thinking in our guide to structuring a care offer may help.
Show the work, every month
The objection “what do we get for it?” does not go away after the client signs. It returns every time they see the invoice. The answer is a short regular report, written for a non-technical reader: what was updated, whether backups ran, any downtime, anything you fixed, and anything you recommend.
Keep it short. A page is plenty. Include one human sentence at the top, such as “Quiet month: everything updated and tested, no downtime.” Clients who see that every month rarely cancel, because they can see that someone is paying attention. If you want a sense of what to include, see what a good monthly report should tell the owner.
What not to say
- Do not promise the site will never be hacked or never go down. No one can promise that, and it turns every incident into a broken promise.
- Do not use fear as the main argument. Clients who sign out of fear tend to cancel the first quiet month.
- Do not bury the plan in jargon. If the client cannot explain what they are paying for to their business partner, they will struggle to justify it.
- Do not make maintenance a condition of the build. It feels like a trap, and clients talk to each other.
If delivering it is the hard part
Some agencies hold back from selling care because they worry about doing it: someone has to run the updates, test them, check the backups and write the reports every month, and that does not fit around project work. That is a fair worry, and it is worth solving before you sell, not after. You can staff it in-house, build it into a freelancer’s week, or hand the routine part to a partner. The overview of outsourcing WordPress work for agencies covers the options and trade-offs.
If you choose a partner, the client still deals with you, the reports still carry your name, and you still decide what goes into the plan. If that is the route you are weighing up, our page on maintenance delivered under your agency’s name explains how we handle it.
Next in this series: Scope Creep on WordPress Projects: How Agencies Stop It
