Every client gets a public status page. Here's why that wins.
Transparency is a support strategy: a public status page answers "is it down?" before anyone opens a ticket, and builds trust when things break.
The most common support ticket in the world is some version of "is it down, or is it just me?" It's also the most avoidable one.
Every SentinelGrid managed client gets a public status page at status.sentinelgrid.us/c/their-name, showing their services, their uptime history and their incidents, live. No login, no token, no "contact your administrator." As of this month those pages are public by default (a client can opt out and make theirs private).
Why public?
Three reasons, in order of how much they surprised us:
- It deflects tickets before they exist. When something breaks, the status page already says so, usually before the client notices. A bookmarked status page is the difference between "they're on it" and three phone calls.
- It keeps us honest. We can't quietly have a bad month. The uptime numbers are on a page our clients can check whenever they like, which is exactly the pressure a provider should be under.
- It's marketing that costs nothing. "Here is your status page, live, right now" lands better in a sales conversation than any slide about "proactive monitoring." One is a claim; the other is a working thing you can click.
Watchers, not logins
A status page answers questions, but some people need to be told. Each client page has watchers: plain email addresses that get notified when a service on that page changes state. Deliberately not portal accounts: the whole point is that an on-call address or a shared inbox can watch a service without anyone managing credentials for it.
The details that matter
- Incidents are tracked as first-class records (opened, updated, resolved), not just a red dot that turns green again with no history.
- The support desk and the status system are linked: managing a client in our helpdesk creates and maintains their status page automatically. One source of truth, no drift.
- Old private links keep working after a page goes public. Nobody's bookmark breaks.
If you're evaluating any IT provider
Ask them one question: "can I see the status page you'd give me?" If the answer involves the word "roadmap," you've learned something. Ours is live, and if you want one with your name on it, the Managed IT beta has founding-client spots open.