Getting Help With Your WordPress Site
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Andrew Wikel from WooThemes emphasizes the importance of providing detailed information when seeking support for WordPress issues to enhance the effectiveness of the assistance received. He advises users to include specifics about their problems, suggest possible solutions like using screenshots or videos, and maintain a courteous tone with support agents. The document also highlights best practices for choosing plugins and themes, encouraging users to prioritize quality and keep their installations minimal to avoid potential conflicts.
Getting Help With Your WordPress Site
- 1. Getting Help with your WordPress Site Andrew Wikel - WooThemes @slash1andy
- 3. About WooThemes • We make the #1 e-commerce plugin for WordPress. • We currently power approx. 30% of every online store.
- 4. I Like Legos. And Star Wars. And Star Wars Legos.
- 6. My Background • I love WordPress • I’ve been working with it since 2008 • I work in WooCommerce Payment Gateways Support for Automattic
- 7. –Pippin Williamson “Support is hard, really hard, and it’s not something that most people are naturally good at.”
- 8. Spoiler Alert • Support agents typically are in the support field to help people. • We actually enjoy it, and really want to help you succeed online.
- 9. BAD Requests • “Doesn't work, white page, see attached. Very easy to understand, just not working.” (no attachment) • User: “When is someone going to reply to me?” Me: “Well, Jerry replied to you on June 3, but you haven’t answered his questions yet.” User: “Well, sorry, I didn’t realize Jerry was the one-stop- shop for support.” • “Would you please check on what your problem is” • “Send me instructions for using your software or I will delete it.”
- 10. ¯_(ツ)_/¯ –Me after getting one of those responses
- 11. Sometimes It Goes Like This • You’re cruising along in your site setup. Everything is going smoothly, and then: • Something breaks. • You go through all the basic debugging steps, but you are left with no other option. • You have to contact the maker of the theme/plugin that you are using.
- 12. So, You Submit Your Support Request • You tell the support agent about your issue, but you haven’t sat through my talk all the way yet, so you don’t know how best to do this.
- 13. Slow It Down • Just breathe. It’s best for all of us. Being snappy or mean is NEVER the best way to get someone to help you. • “HELP!” is an email subject that will definitely grab attention, but it’s not going to get your issue fixed more quickly.
- 14. So *How* Do I Get Good Support? • The easiest way to think about submitting your support request (ticket/email/chat/phone/however) is to give as much info about the problem as possible.
- 15. Sandwiches; We All Love Them • Imagine trying to order a sandwich, stepping to the counter and blurting out “HOAGIE!”. Would you expect that worker to intuitively build a chicken bacon sub with spinach and pickles? We need a little more information before we start making that sandwich.
- 16. Before You Start Typing • When exactly did you first notice the problem? • Have any updates been applied to your website recently? • Have you changed themes or made any design changes? • Have you installed any new plugins? • Can the issue be replicated on multiple devices? • Is your problem happening in one browser, or all of them? • Do you see any specific error messages?
- 17. Describe Your Issue • If you want a quick helping hand, and a thorough resolution, then please describe to us your issue. Describe it in-depth. Tell us *exactly* what is happening. • Your subject line or first chat is super important to give us info right away. • The easiest way to tell us is to walk through exactly what you were doing when the issue happened.
- 18. Screenshots! • The single easiest way to show us how you got the error, and what page you are on, etc. • There are a lot of free solutions out there for taking and sending screenshots. https://cloudup.com/ • When I see a ticket with a screenshot, I do a happy dance. We all love happy dances.
- 19. Videos! • Possibly even better than a screenshot. • Might make me do an even more intense happy dance. • If you are on a Mac, you can use QuickTime, and on Windows, I think you can use Windows Movie Maker. Also, a lot of the screenshot programs you use will also do screencasting videos.
- 20. We Need This Info: • Please, Please, Please send your site URL. • Send us your site login if it’s for a plugin or theme or something similar that’s misbehaving. • Send us links to your issue. • Do not send us a 5 page Word document attached to the ticket, with 6 embedded images. I don’t own Word.
- 21. There is No Such Thing as Too Much Info • There really isn’t. • Not sending us enough info will delay your ticket/chat being helped, and likely require us to request more info from you rather than do what we both want and actually solve your problem.
- 23. Getting the Info We Need • http://supportdetails.com/
- 24. Make Sure You are Sending What the Tech Needs: • A lot of times, there are very specific things that you need to include in your request that aren’t in any general list that I can put up here.
- 26. Say Thanks • We love hearing thanks. We are human too! • Typically you will end up talking to the same person more than once, so it’s in your favor to be on their good side, not the customer from hell.
- 27. Finding a Good Place to Get Good Help
- 28. You Have Options: • There are a *lot* of quality places to get some awesome additions for your WordPress site (themes, plugins, services, etc.) • The quality of WordPress add-ons in general has been on a steady climb since I have been working with WordPress.
- 29. Let’s Dive Into Plugins • The best place to find or start looking for plugins (when you are starting out) is WordPress.org • The code has been reviewed by volunteers, and should be safe to add to your site. You still need to check and verify your site doesn’t have code conflicts.
- 30. Here are Some Things to Look for with Plugins: • Make sure that the plugin is licensed under the GPL (as is legally required, since they are building off WordPress) • Look around at what other people are saying. Ask at the Happiness Bar after this about plugins you need. • Read articles about plugins, and plugin authors.
- 31. Plugin Checklist: • Has the plugin been updated recently to be compatible with the latest version of WordPress? • Does it have a strong rating (at least 4 stars or better) from the WordPress community? • When you visit the plugin author’s website, does it appear current? Does it offer support?
- 32. “Plugin Theory” • Plugins should only be installed on an “as-needed” basis, not on an “as-wanted” basis. By keeping this simple tenet in mind, your plugin strategy will already be much more solid than most.
- 33. Here’s How to Find a Good Theme: • Make sure that the theme is licensed under the GPL (as is legally required, since they are building off WordPress) • Look around at what other people are saying. Ask at the Happiness Bar after this about a theme you need. • Read articles about themes, and theme authors.
- 34. Theme Checklist: • Has the theme been updated recently to be compatible with the latest version of WordPress (or plugin that they integrate with)? • Does it have a strong rating (at least 4 stars or better) from the WordPress community? • When you visit the theme author’s website, does it appear current? Does it offer support?
- 35. Does That All Sound Familiar? • Plugins and themes are both just code. • They both have many resources around the web on picking good ones, and many places you can check for recommendations.
- 36. Some Other Issues with Themes and Plugins • I would try to get your code from somewhere that does only or mostly WordPress stuff. • Personally, I would avoid the large conglomerates of code. There are a lot of good things on the big sites, but you need to know exactly what you are looking for.
- 37. Plugins Vs. Themes • Don’t buy a theme that bundles in plugins. It’s an extremely bad practice that leaves you open for hacks and also conflicts. • Another thing to avoid is themes that add functionality. Functionality is for plugins.
- 38. Developers are a Bit Different • Sometimes you don’t need to hire a developer. Sometimes a service is better for you if you just need a bit of help with your site, not something made from scratch. • WP Curve • Maintainn • WP Site Care • If you need a dev for a larger project than maintenance or small tweaks, then check out Codeable • For a large project, you can look at http://directory.codepoet.com/
- 39. WordCamps are Amazing • For more than one reason, obviously, but finding someone or something to take your site to the next level is not something to take lightly. • I, or other speakers would *love* to get the chance to talk to you about our favorite themes, plugins, or a great developer or agency for you.
- 40. Ask the People You Already Trust • If you have an awesome host, ask them what themes they recommend, or plugins. • If you are in love with plugins from one place, ask them about themes (a lot of times, like at WooThemes, we actually do both.) • When you find an awesome theme, a lot of times there are plugins or plugin companies that work well with the theme. • Your developer should have a recommendation for almost all these things as well!
- 41. More Info on the Good Guys • http://wptavern.com/ • http://torquemag.io/ • https://managewp.org/ • http://wpbeginner.com • http://sellwithwp.com
- 42. 2 Things to take away from this session: 1. Give the support agent as much info as possible. 2. Use high-quality code and people.
Editor's Notes
- #2: I’m with WooThemes, and I’m going to be talking about getting help for your site. We’re going to go over a few different areas, from how to help others help you, and then finding good places to get code.
- #3: This is a team photo from our most recent WooTrip. They told us to act like a ninja, but I was already being Batman, so… I just went with that.
- #5: It’s almost an unwritten rule that every tech session has to have at least one lego picture, so here is the required slide.
- #6: It’s also a requirement that you include cat pictures, but that’s not really my style, so here is a picture of my Airedale.
- #8: So, a lot of you are probably thinking that I am going to be speaking about specific things that you need to say or do to help people help you. After all, it’s their job, right? If there is one thing that I can get you take away from this, it’s that support agents can only do as much as you allow them to. You have your part in support as the user as well. Most of the examples I will use in this talk will be from a product support perspective, but they can be applied to other things like hosting or anything else.
- #9: The average support agent (like me) is actually keenly interested in helping you out, and are not trying to be jerks or anything like that. We really are here to help. Just don’t end up like these next examples
- #10: Here is some examples of bad support, but not bad from the support agent. These are the kinds of tickets or responses from users that make us want to facepalm.
- #11: I just can’t even. What am I supposed to do with that? You can see that those are the most ridiculous examples, but sometimes extremely well-meaning people do similar things, by just not knowing what they need to send/tell the support agent.
- #17: Run a few quick test to make sure that your massive issue is *actually* an issue with the website, and not something else. The list above seems rather extensive, but typically if you think about it for a little bit, one or 2 will stick out at you. Tell them the story of the social blocker and submitting a ticket over the sharing feature not working on a news site. Make sure that the issue is not a PICNIC error.
- #18: One of the best ways for us to find out what you are seeing is to show us what you are seeing.
- #19: Side note: please send screenies.
- #22: Remember, we want to solve your issue just as much as you do. So what kind of info do we need?
- #24: This is a great site that tells you a lot of the basics of your system, and spits it out into a file that you can send the support tech.
- #25: Follow the instructions that the support tech gives you (or the form)
- #27: I’m not saying this simply because I work in support, but because it’s always a good practice to show gratitude.
- #30: Sometimes the best written plugins just won’t work with each other, or with certain themes, but by using quality plugins and themes, you can almost eliminate conflicts.
- #32: Frankly, I wouldn’t even consider installing any plugin for which the answer to all of the questions above was not “Yes.
- #33: Something I like to call Plugin Theory, or a way to think about adding and managing plugins. Don’t add in plugin (or themes for that matter) willy-nilly.
- #36: It’s basically the same checklist for plugins and themes.
- #38: If your theme bundles in functionality, it locks down your site to that theme only.
- #40: You have some of the best theme shops, plugin developers, and site developers at your fingertips at WordCamps, so why would you not use them?
- #42: WP Tavern is one of the most well known blogs about WordPress stuff. Torque is owned by WPEngine, and does a good job ManageWP is more of an aggregator for all the best articles on WordPress stuff around the webs WPBeginner does exactly what you think. It’s a huge resource for new users to WordPress I am fairly focused on e-commerce, so sellwithwp is for that niche.
- #44: Well this is about the end of the presentation. Thanks for joining me.