How should a web designer handle future site maintenance for clients?

You need to define an SLA -- Service Level Agreement. This specifies your general availability, turn around time and charges for different services and different levels of availability.

I am normally available Mon - Fri, 9am - 5pm. at the following rates

• General Web Development: $x/hour
• Programming / Database Administration: $x/hour
• Systems Administration: $x/hour

Turn around Times: small web production services--editing existing pages, create new pages with existing templates, etc: 3 - 5 days.

More complex projects can be negotiated based on specifications and requirements.

One of the big problems with all clients is that they wait until their need is urgent to take action. Their lack of planning then becomes your problem. I've found the best way to deal with this is the Rapid Facilitation Fee. People love having choices, even if there is only reasonable option.

Rapid Facilitation Fee: Normal SLAs can be bypassed and service can be had immediately for 150% of normal fees.

I understand that Businesses sometimes have unforeseen needs that need to be dealt with immediately. I make every effort to support my clients in the time frame they require. AND, events not planned for in advance have a cost impact on my business in terms of my having to shift around time lines for existing clients and lost opportunity. I encourage my clients to plan for their web development in the same manner that they'd plan to take their car in for service or to make a doctor or dentist appointment. You call in advance and see what's available and them put it on the calendar.

Knowing that you could be available immediately makes people feel that you take their business seriously. Most of the time, people choose to accept your normal SLAs rather than paying 150% of normal fees. This Rapid Facilitation Fee has cut down on urgent requests from clients by 80%.

And, when it is urgent and they really can't wait, they don't seem to mind paying 150% of normal fees--provided you've had this discussion in advance.

You should first establish with a meeting what the client requires in as much depth as possible before doing any work for them this will avoid problems further down the line. In this scenario I would suggest setting up concrete5 for them (A free CMS) which makes it simple for the client to do 99% of changes without having to know any code.

http://www.concrete5.org/

Your answer is any CMS format (Drupal, WordPress, etc). If you know your client will want changes (like everyone does at some point), and you won't have time to maintain the code yourself, you should build in a CMS.

Making changes to a site is only simple if you know how and obviously your client does not. Perhaps a service agreement with a monthly charge that define a not to exceed number of changes?