Getting the MOST out of MoST
One of the best things about being proficient in updating and editing your website is being able to do it yourself when you want the changes made, and not having to wait until a third party is available to do it for you. Being able to make your own tweaks and seeing the effect immediately is another great advantage. Unfortunately, not all website owners / managers have the technical expertise (or inclination) to update their sites themselves, especially if the software is difficult to use, and not all software platforms are built with the end user in mind, especially if they’re non-technical users.
Fortunately, MoST is an easy-to-use software system and is largely intuitive. It was built as an application that almost everyone could update, even if they have no IT, programming or coding skills. If you can use Microsoft Word, you won’t have any problems using MoST.
However, over time, as MoST has morphed into an intuitive and organic product, we’ve found less and less training is required.
Right from the start
When Expert provides a proposal for a new client’s new website, training is always factored in. It makes sense to be familiar with the workings of your website, especially if it’s you who is going to be updating it. The best thing about training for MoST is that it’s customized for the end user’s skill level and delivered by the people who built the website.
New clients nearly always take up the training and pick up the rudiments quickly, and in the following weeks or months we sometimes receive the odd email or phone call seeking further assistance. Training notes are provided when the training is undertaken and there is help available in MoST’s help folders.
However, if all else fails, our highly-skilled and friendly staff are available to help with one-to-one support in a timely manner. Chances are these are the same people who built your site, so they’re already very familiar with it and with your organisation.
Training is offered to multiple staff members in an organisation; however, it’s usually only taken up by one or two people, and these are usually the ones who have been involved in the new website project. Whilst one staff member is usually able to share what they have learned, it makes a lot of sense to train several people, as this provides continuity and back-up, should that person be sick, on holiday or if they leave the organisation.
When new staff come on board it’s really useful to get them up to speed quickly with MoST if they are going to be using it to do their job. It’s hard enough learning a new job, but even more so if you aren’t familiar with the tools and software platform that is used.
Gaining competence
Like anything, it’s not until you’ve been using something for a while that you become aware of what it can and can’t do. It’s the same for our own abilities. As the old saying goes, “we know what we know, we know what we don’t know, but we don’t know what we don’t know”. If you cast your mind back to when you learnt to drive a car, you’ll recall that you really mastered driving and developed your own driving technique once you’d passed your licence and started driving solo. Prior to this point, there’s a lack of experience, a lack of confidence and usually a lack of judgment to contend with. The same can be said for managing your own website with no prior learning or knowledge.
By providing one-on-one training, the participants can ask questions that are specific to their own site and situation. Expert has clients all over the world and we provide training to our overseas clients via electronic meeting platforms. Getting the scheduling to align across different time-zones is the trickiest part – one party is usually about to go to bed and the other is often just getting out of bed, so finding the golden hour when both parties are still fresh can be the biggest challenge.
We find that clients benefit the most once they’ve had some time to ‘play’ with editing and updating their website in a live environment and it’s often in a second training session, usually a few months later and after everything has fallen into place, that the true value of both the software’s abilities and the training, is gained.
We can do it for you if you’re busy
Some clients have neither the time nor the inclination to manage their website, so Expert steps in and does it for them for a small extra charge. On the other end of the scale, we occasionally have clients who just love playing with their site and they are really proficient and talented. It certainly shows in the end result.
Whatever your situation, preference or skill level, it’s in everyone’s best interest to have all MoST users feeling capable and comfortable managing their websites, so we encourage clients to talk to us about how we can get them up to speed, competent and confident.
To help you to manage the updating of your website, we also provide information on MoST updates through our ezine or by email, so keep an eye out for those coming through. MoST is an ever-evolving product and we like to help our MoST users to evolve with it.
Please contact us us@expert.services you’d like to know more or to arrange a training session.