The Client Handover That Stops the 2am Phone Calls
Most post-launch support requests are not bugs. They are things the client was never shown. An hour of handover work removes most of them permanently.
The project is live, the invoice is paid, and three weeks later you get a message at an unreasonable hour asking how to change a phone number in the footer. That is a handover failure, not a support request.
Record the Admin Panel Walkthrough
Ten minutes of screen recording covering the things they will actually do: add a project, edit a page, change contact details, upload an image. Send the file, do not just link it — links expire and clients change tools.
This one artefact eliminates the majority of post-launch messages.
One Page of Written Notes
Not a manual. One page: where the site is hosted, where the domain is registered, where the database is, how to deploy a change, who to contact for what. Plain language, no jargon.
Hand Over Credentials Properly
Everything, in one organised place, sent through something safer than email: hosting, domain registrar, database, admin login, mail service, analytics, any third-party API keys. If the client cannot access their own infrastructure without you, you have created a dependency neither of you wants.
Show Them the Backups
Show where backups live, how often they run, and how to restore one. If there is no backup system, say so explicitly — in writing — rather than letting them assume there is.
Set the Support Terms Before They Are Needed
Define what counts as a bug (free, for a defined window) and what counts as a new request (quoted). Agree it at handover, when nobody is stressed. The alternative is negotiating it during an outage.
Do a Live Walkthrough Too
Thirty minutes on a call where they drive and you watch. You will find out immediately which parts of your admin interface are not as obvious as you thought — genuinely useful feedback, and they leave confident.
Follow Up in Two Weeks
A short "how is it going?" message. It catches small problems early, and it is the moment most referrals actually come from.