What kinds of customers are these (the individuals), tech, non-tech, whatever? I tend to skip sites that make it difficult to get information. OTOH my SO is an artist. She likes the phone because people like to talk to her. They jump through hoops to tell her what she wants to know, and she ends up getting big discounts on hardware, software, and art supplies.

It's an interesting point because I'm always amazed at how many sites of major companies I visit and they make life really hard to sign up or buy their products. It often involves a phone call or to send an e-mail to the sales department - I wonder how they can stay in business, but clearly it works otherwise they wouldn't be turning over $10m+.

No, but it gets you more serious users.