Prioritisation Fee

For us, saying ‘yes’ to a deadline and then failing to meet the expectation is not where we want to be – so we’ve invested time and money into processes and procedures to set and manage expectations better. When a change control request is logged, we offer a Prioritisation Fee. This allows your work to be prioritised over other requests that come in.

What is a Prioritisation Fee?

It’s a bit like paying for fast track at a theme park. If you don’t pay for fast track, you’re still getting on the ride. And if you visit the park in a non-peak time, you’ll get on the ride in ‘fast track’ times without needing to pay extra. But if you visit in peak seasons, you might need to wait a little bit longer to get on the ride if you choose not to upgrade to a fast track ticket.

It’s important to note that this isn’t a rush fee – it is a Prioritisation Fee – and for us this distinction is important. This is totally optional, and we’ll always do our best to meet your deadline regardless of whether you pay for prioritisation or not. But if you use this, it allows you to jump the queue of work.

A Prioritisation Fee is not a guarantee for delivery by your requested target delivery date, but if you utilise a Prioritisation Fee, your request will be labelled Priority 1 – ahead of Priority 2 and Priority 3 pieces of work.

When could a Prioritisation Fee be used?

Our Prioritisation Fee is designed for use on new features, functions or enhancements to your website. Support issues are dealt with as part of a HappyPress subscription carry their own priority system (based on our support SLA). However, if you would like to bump up the priority of a support ticket, you could utilise a Prioritisation Fee to do so.

What if everyone pays a Prioritisation Fee?

In order to prevent every client from using the prioritisation fee, it will adapt to the current situation. During peak times it’ll rise, and during non-peak times, it’ll drop.

Are there any other options?

We’ve created multiple options for our clients that help them to get their work done, balancing the classic project management triangle, of speed, quality and cost:

• SPEED and COST effective: You can make changes without SMILE, at your own pace, at no additional cost – all via our Git mirroring and auditing service
• High QUALITY and delivered at a fast SPEED: You can pay a prioritisation fee to jump the queue
• High QUALITY and lower COST: You can make a request without a deadline
• BALANCED: You can subscribe to Evolve, which guarantees you SMILE Professional Services time each month with deep discounts on our rates