Hey Authors, how do you handle your Theme support?

I’m with a design group that published themes, and we see a lot of the same issues popping up for all design shops: the creative team is spending a lot of time facilitating technical support requests or managing subcontractors to do the work, and not enough time cranking out product.

Has anyone found a good solution that doesn’t get in the way with productivity?

Most importantly, a few of us are seriously considering developing a support system tailored specifically to ThemeForest authors. If we did this, what would make you want to subscribe to the service? What are some of the biggest problems you guys are facing in profiting from your Theme development?

I seriously would love to build a great service out of this, but I wanted to get a few more perspectives outside of my own.

Thanks in advance,

Tom Geoco

WordPress + Verifi plugin + bbpress. I do plan on moving to a custom solution instead of bbpress later on

itsmattadams said
https://www.ticksy.com/ works well and is very affordable.

Looks like a pretty useful app.

From the looks of it, it still requires the dev shop to provide their own technical front-facing support, correct? For example, our team would have to designate one or all to stay up on recent and active support tickets, so essentially we’d have to collectively spend time providing IT support or we’d have to designate a subject expert to the field.

Could there ever be a better way than that? Our team is primarily devs or creatives, non of which want to provide tech support especially in the face of the long list of to-dos.

I’m wondering if this is a common trend.

tomgeoco said

itsmattadams said
https://www.ticksy.com/ works well and is very affordable.

Looks like a pretty useful app.

From the looks of it, it still requires the dev shop to provide their own technical front-facing support, correct? For example, our team would have to designate one or all to stay up on recent and active support tickets, so essentially we’d have to collectively spend time providing IT support or we’d have to designate a subject expert to the field.

Could there ever be a better way than that? Our team is primarily devs or creatives, non of which want to provide tech support especially in the face of the long list of to-dos.

I’m wondering if this is a common trend.

if you’re worried about spending time, hire some one, or dont provide support, or make it paid support only

OrganicBeeMedia said

tomgeoco said

itsmattadams said
https://www.ticksy.com/ works well and is very affordable.

Looks like a pretty useful app.

From the looks of it, it still requires the dev shop to provide their own technical front-facing support, correct? For example, our team would have to designate one or all to stay up on recent and active support tickets, so essentially we’d have to collectively spend time providing IT support or we’d have to designate a subject expert to the field.

Could there ever be a better way than that? Our team is primarily devs or creatives, non of which want to provide tech support especially in the face of the long list of to-dos.

I’m wondering if this is a common trend.

if you’re worried about spending time, hire some one, or dont provide support, or make it paid support only

I agree with you. I guess I’m not being very clear, so let me clarify.

I’m just asking some questions and hoping to find a solution for a problem for theme authors. And I know from first hand experience, there is no greater pain than IT support, to the point that it can be very hard to scale a design shop because of it.

If a service-based IT support group existed soley to take on ThemeForest author support, would it be something you would subscribe to? If not, what would be your concerns? If so, what would be your expectations?

tomgeoco said

OrganicBeeMedia said

tomgeoco said

itsmattadams said
https://www.ticksy.com/ works well and is very affordable.

Looks like a pretty useful app.

From the looks of it, it still requires the dev shop to provide their own technical front-facing support, correct? For example, our team would have to designate one or all to stay up on recent and active support tickets, so essentially we’d have to collectively spend time providing IT support or we’d have to designate a subject expert to the field.

Could there ever be a better way than that? Our team is primarily devs or creatives, non of which want to provide tech support especially in the face of the long list of to-dos.

I’m wondering if this is a common trend.

if you’re worried about spending time, hire some one, or dont provide support, or make it paid support only

I agree with you. I guess I’m not being very clear, so let me clarify.

I’m just asking some questions and hoping to find a solution for a problem for theme authors. And I know from first hand experience, there is no greater pain than IT support, to the point that it can be very hard to scale a design shop because of it.

If a service-based IT support group existed soley to take on ThemeForest author support, would it be something you would subscribe to? If not, what would be your concerns? If so, what would be your expectations?

not at all

1. the service will be paid, I can hire my own staff if thats the case

2. I can train my own staff/provide better support than any service mainly because I know every line of code

3. Ive done support for other top authors, and really its not a lot of time or anything complex if you code theme/plugins properly they shouldnt break/cause a lot of issues

4. support != custom work

OrganicBeeMedia said

tomgeoco said

OrganicBeeMedia said

tomgeoco said

itsmattadams said
https://www.ticksy.com/ works well and is very affordable.

Looks like a pretty useful app.

From the looks of it, it still requires the dev shop to provide their own technical front-facing support, correct? For example, our team would have to designate one or all to stay up on recent and active support tickets, so essentially we’d have to collectively spend time providing IT support or we’d have to designate a subject expert to the field.

Could there ever be a better way than that? Our team is primarily devs or creatives, non of which want to provide tech support especially in the face of the long list of to-dos.

I’m wondering if this is a common trend.

if you’re worried about spending time, hire some one, or dont provide support, or make it paid support only

I agree with you. I guess I’m not being very clear, so let me clarify.

I’m just asking some questions and hoping to find a solution for a problem for theme authors. And I know from first hand experience, there is no greater pain than IT support, to the point that it can be very hard to scale a design shop because of it.

If a service-based IT support group existed soley to take on ThemeForest author support, would it be something you would subscribe to? If not, what would be your concerns? If so, what would be your expectations?

not at all

1. the service will be paid, I can hire my own staff if thats the case

2. I can train my own staff/provide better support than any service mainly because I know every line of code

3. Ive done support for other top authors, and really its not a lot of time or anything complex if you code theme/plugins properly they shouldnt break/cause a lot of issues

4. support != custom work

Awesome, that’s the kind of feedback I was hoping for. Thanks.

And out of curiosity, you don’t mind providing IT support then, I assume?

tomgeoco said
And out of curiosity, you don’t mind providing IT support then, I assume?

I wouldn’t really call it true IT support, most people asking question have expericance with WordPress and the web

maybe and maybe .5% have no idea how to use WordPress or are brand new to it but even then all you need to do is refer them to the codex or 1 of hundreds of WordPress walkthough’s

you’re provide support for themes and or plugins(not WordPress itself) on a platform which many users are already familiar with, and unless you completely break the UI/UX standard of WordPress they should already know how to use your product