[po]

Automate everything. Nothing should be manual.

If you can even get close to doing that then you either have the world's best development team or you aren't trying to do enough. In a perfect world we would have time to automate everything, but time pressure makes us go for the minimal thing that will work.

A large part of this is essay is premised on the idea that developer time is expensive and slow relative to the manual process (which can even be done by someone non-technical in a pinch). If you're not 100% sure it's a necessary feature then it is a waste. In your case, throwing a phone number on the page was a very quick way to provide good support relative to an automated support system and/or a flawless well-tuned experience.

[XorNot]

Non-technical people don't know what normal is in your process, what should be noted when it's happening (Warning's may actually be important if non-fatal) and when they should seek advice. They're liable to ask you about every tiny thing, but then miss something really important altogether. Basically - I strongly disagree that you can often put a non-technical person onto a repetitive task involving technology.

It really depends what process you're talking about, but its a worthwhile consideration that unskilled (but intelligent) labor is not cheap either (i.e. Foxconn has to be massive and in another country to leverage it the way they do).