- As long as possible, handle all requests yourself.
- If people keep having billing issues, use a different solution for billing. I use Fastspring, and issues are rare. And I can just forward billing related issues to Fastspring support.
- If you keep having to deal with technical problems, fix your product. Ideally it shouldn't need customer support. If it is so complicated that customer support is required, charge at least $100 per customer.
- Write good documentation. This is so often overlooked. People generally contact support as a last resort, and will usually read all documentation in advance. If your docs explain it, they won't need to contact you.
- Time: it usually takes me 10-30min to answer one support request. I don't have a time budget, I try to answer as quickly as possible. Being responsive makes a great difference to your customers, and they will be much more likely to buy your product and recommend it to others.
- However, to limit the time per week I spend on customer support, I do everything I can to make sure people don't need to contact me at all. I try to fix every reported issue permanently so that I never have to deal with it again.