Fast-forward a few years, the author of their theme discontinued updating it, and the site would break with the advent of PHP 7.2. So, they were forced to update the theme.
The unexpected benefit is that the site now looks modern and fabulous. Their site had started to look a bit dated, as most do after for four or five years. I typically try to use themes from quality authors who keep them up to date. In this case the theme we used was brand-new, and was by a highly rated author. Sadly they dumped all their buyers and just created a new theme to try to force people to buy the new one. I wrote about this in my last blog post, Beware of WordPress Theme Authors Who Abandon Their Work.
But back to the point. The beauty of WordPress is you can switch themes and update your site’s look and feel fairly easily and keep your content. That’s right, keep your content if it is still working for you, and performing well with search engines. I typically like to stick with a theme that uses the same page builder if at all possible. In this case we were using a theme that used the WPBakery page builder. What this did is save the client a lot of time and money as a lot of the shortcodes still worked. The nice part about a lot of the modern premium themes is that you can switch your look and feel within those themes (without switching) as they have several design options and drag-and-drop functionality. So in essence you can build so many different kinds of sites that don’t look cookie-cutter.
Bottom Line: In this day and age, small business needs to run efficiently and not waste money. So you can’t afford to completely throw away a website every few years. But, you always want to be up to date in terms of your website’s display, security as well as functionality. In the case I mentioned PHP 7.2 was a big improvement within the programming language. The sites are far more secure and the performance is much better. So, as we said in the title do not throw away that WordPress site, update the theme. And as always, if you need help, contact RooSites, we are happy to assist.
Think of it as the one small step for man, one giant step for mankind quote, but rather than walking on the moon, we are talking about customer service going well beyond the norm.
I recently had an interaction with a business that left me so impressed; I had to blog about it. I was moving into a new house we are building and we had a light fixture that hangs down over the dining room table. The problem: the table hasn’t been delivered yet so the fixture is hanging there in the open where you can bump into it. Like a dunce, I smacked my head into it and cracked one of the glass globes.
After I got done beating myself up for being so stupid, I emailed the company I bought the fixture from. They told me they had it in stock and come on down.
I explained that their product wasn’t faulty and I smacked into it with my big head. When I pulled out my credit card to pay, the gentleman Chris told me no charge, have a nice Christmas.
I was so impressed by this, that I told everyone I know and I will refer and recommend them to anyone looking for lighting products. That seemingly small deed will reap big rewards.
Now I had given this company a lot of business as they furnished all the lighting in my new home. But still, business is business and they had every right to charge me for the new glass. I expected them to charge me. But, instead they did a nice thing.
Bottom line: When you go out of your way to provide excellent customer service it leaves people with a positive impression of your company. When you respond quickly and get things done for people, they appreciate it, as so many times in today’s world people wait weeks for assistance even for small tasks. In my business, this describes our view of website management. We developed a best in class support service model and answer inquiries the same day. This is unheard of in my business and people are so surprised when we email them back that their request has been completed. Again, small deeds reap big rewards, for us this is proven out by all the referrals we receive from satisfied clients.
In case you are wondering, the store in question is The Lighting Gallery of Taunton, 82 Weir St, Taunton, MA 02780. Website: http://www.bristollights.com/
