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"Fix it like last time": the one-page client runbook I'd keep as a freelance WordPress developer

#showdev #freelance #wordpress #productivity

If you maintain small-business WordPress sites, you know the email. Eight months after you fixed something, the client writes: "The contact form stopped sending again. Can you fix it like last time?" You remember that there was a last time. You don't remember what you did, which plugin you pinned, or what the client asked you never to touch.

A disclosure before the useful part: I build Maildoer, an email assistant, and I'll mention it once near the end. Everything else here works with a text file and ten minutes per client. The scenario is a labelled hypothetical, not a client story.

Why "like last time" is a trap

The request sounds cheap. It isn't, because the useful context lives in three places that don't talk to each other:

  • the old email thread, where the client said things like "please don't change the booking plugin, our receptionist only knows that one"
  • your own memory of the fix (an SMTP plugin, a DNS record, a version you held back)
  • the hosting panel, which has changed since

If you start from the new email alone, you re-diagnose from scratch, or worse, you "fix" it in a way that breaks something the client cared about.

The one-page runbook

Keep one Markdown file per client. Mine would have five short sections, and every line gets a date and, where it came from the client, their own words in quotes.

# Client runbook: <site>

## Access
- Hosting panel, registrar, DNS: where the logins live (never the passwords themselves)

## Don't touch
- 2026-03-04 "Please keep the booking plugin as it is, staff are trained on it"
- Theme child folder: custom header, do not regenerate

## Past fixes
- 2026-03-12 Contact form not sending: host blocks PHP mail; switched to SMTP via the client's mail provider; added SPF include
- 2026-03-12 Held the forms plugin at the version before the settings rewrite

## Standing preferences
- Changes only after 18:00 their time; email the office manager, not the owner
- They want a two-line summary, not a report

## Open items
- 2026-03-12 Suggested moving off shared hosting; client said "maybe next year"
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The rule that makes it work: update the runbook in the same sitting as the fix, before you send the "done" email. If it waits until Friday, it never happens.

Replying to "fix it like last time"

With the file open, the reply writes itself and shows the client you remember:

Thanks, I'll take a look this evening after 18:00 as usual. Last time the form stopped because the host blocks PHP mail, so we moved it to SMTP. I'll check whether the mail password or the SPF record changed first. I won't touch the booking plugin.

Three habits that save the most time:

  1. Check what changed since the last fix, not the whole stack: a renewed mail password, a migrated host, an auto-updated plugin.
  2. Quote the "don't touch" list back when the fix is near it. Clients relax when they see you kept their rule.
  3. Close the loop in the runbook: add the new date under the old fix, so the third time is even faster.

Pitfalls

  • Writing the runbook for yourself only. Write it so a subcontractor could follow it if you're ill.
  • Storing secrets in it. Point to your password manager instead.
  • Dropping the client's wording. "Don't change the booking plugin" carries a reason that "booking plugin: pinned" does not.

Where Maildoer fits

The thing I cared about most when building Maildoer is exactly this "like last time" moment. A later email from the same person is read together with their earlier emails, not on its own. So if a client's first email described the form problem and their rules, a follow-up saying "same issue again, same constraints" can be answered with those earlier details in mind. You can also reply to a result to adjust it instead of starting over. It can turn a pasted thread into a runbook draft, a summary, or a reply draft for you to check.

If you want to try it, email a task (attachments welcome) to do@maildoer.com. Each address gets 100 credits on its first email as a trial allowance. More at https://maildoer.com.

How do you keep per-client context for small maintenance jobs? A runbook, a CRM, or the inbox search box?

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