[towlesda]

My job tried that the first few years I worked there and it was a nightmare. Yes, as a developer I knew the software better than anyone else and could provide quick and effective support, but it was detrimental to my coding. For example I'd be in the middle of thinking through a process and get a phone call and the call would completely take me out of the mindset of the problem at hand, since I'd have to focus on the customer. After that it would take many minutes of reading through code or looking at diagrams to get back into the mindset of the problem, what happens then if I get another call; the process starts over again. In addition to the time spent on the phone, many calls can easily be an additional 15 minute time sink.

I wasn't the only developer who felt this way and after enough complaints from almost every developer they changed the policy to have support and development separate (with the developers being available to help with support problems, but only after support attempts the problem first). I don't see any reason to ever disrupt development for a trivial problem, there are better hires for that.