Ask HN: How important is a phone number on your site?

One idea which I brought to the table: simply putting our freaking phone number on our website and asking people to call. We've have a number of customers saying how great it is when we give them calls back to handle their issues quickly over the phone, and wonder why we don't have a number on our website for customers (both new and existing) to call.

The question is: is it worth the extra effort in providing phone service and support? Could it help us break through the glass ceiling?

Phone support is something people are willing to pay for, so it certainly can be worth the hassle.

So I think the delicate task is to manage expectations and roll it out for a few customers to see how it works and gage demand/value.

Solid endorsement about putting phone number from a real business:

http://www.userscape.com/blog/index.php/site/comments/how_to...

I think Joel also advocates putting phone# on the product homepage.

I'd like to see a physical address, and a phone number, even if I'll never use either. If both are missing, it suggests that they want to make it hard to find them. Especially if the domain name is registered through a proxy.

Make sure you specify the hours during which the phone will be answered, with time zone.