The Hidden Costs of Customer Support

A significant and often underestimated aspect of running a software business is the ongoing burden of customer support. While it may seem like a secondary task, it can quickly become a major drain on time and resources, especially for a solo entrepreneur or a small team.

The Growing Burden

As the customer base grows, so does the volume of support requests. This creates a situation where the support burden actually worsens over time. What starts as a manageable stream of emails can quickly turn into a significant time commitment, taking away from the time needed to develop new features and grow the business.

The Nature of Support Issues

A surprising aspect of customer support is that the majority of issues are often not related to bugs in the software itself. Instead, they are frequently caused by external factors, such as:

• Degraded operating system installations
• Unusual system configurations
• User error or lack of technical knowledge

This can be a frustrating experience for developers, who find themselves spending a significant amount of time troubleshooting problems that are outside of their control. A realistic understanding of this support burden is a crucial part of planning for a sustainable software business.