There are a number of things that any company can do to bring in extra customers. In some cases it helps your business appeal to a new set of customers, in other cases it helps strengthen the customer base you already have.

One of the things that is readily available for any business owner is booklet printing and other kinds of printing. Say, you have a company that needs to get out information about products and / or services, well remote printing can be quite beneficial to you and your company. With remote printing, you don’t have to buy expensive equipment and you can easily design pamphlets, pdf documents, catalogs, and other items to be printed and then delivered right to your business.

Many places that offer printing services also offer things like binding services. It is always a good thing to have a binding service that you find affordable and convenient. Whenever someone has to turn in a huge report, it is always nicer to see that paper in a nicely bound book rather than the sheets of paper stapled together. Professionalism is always extremely important in any business and reports can show that.

Twitter is one of those internet phenomenons that have really taken off in the past year or so. Ask the average person last year what Twitter is and they may have given you a sideways glance; ask that same person today and they will be able to tell you exactly what the site is: Microblogging.

As a business owner, there are ways to use Twitter to your advantage. One of the most publicized ways is to use it as a marketing tool. Then again, I suppose if your business is on Twitter that is really the only way to use it, right?

But, can Twitter be truly effective as a marketing tool for your company?

The answer is yes and there are many ways to use it to your advantage.

The first thing you can use Twitter for is to find out if anyone is talking about you. Even if you don’t have an account yet, you can search through “tweets” to see if someone is saying anything about you or your company. There are so many messages being posted daily that, if you have a company that people visit either in person or online, surely you will be mentioned at one point or another on the site.

The second thing that you can use Twitter for is to release promotion information and news about your company. Because of the 140 character limit on your tweets, you should link the news and information to a page where you can give everyone the real story.

One of the newest ways Twitter is being used by companies is customer service. There are companies that are tired of being seen in a negative light and are really ready to do something about it. This is where Twitter comes in. When someone tweets about the company, the company responds and actually tires to fix the situation. This has happened a more than a few times so far and I’m sure that this trend will continue to grow. If you wanted to participate in this trend, then it will likely get positive publicity for your company.

The downside is that if your company is seen as spamming Twitter or you have a bot doing all of your Tweeting, then its likely you won’t have quality followers. No one wants to read the same tweets on a daily basis linking to your site. If they wanted to visit your website, they would just do it; why would they want your tweets spamming up their homepage?

This is one of the biggest myths in business; it’s also one of the biggest cliches that can be told by a business owner to his or her employee. I believe that somewhere the real meaning gets lost in translation. I also believe that the customer doesn’t always know exactly what they want so how can he or she be right all the time?

As someone in the customer service industry, you (as an employee) have to help your customers discover what they really want and to help them receive no less than exactly what they need.

A good example that I can think of is when customers have a complaint. The first thing most managers and supervisors do is passify the customer with a refund or some kind of complimentary product. This does  not always work. From a customer’s point of view, I have called a company with a complaint where I didn’t want anything in return, I just wanted the company to know about the issue with the quality control of their products; the company sent me so many coupons my mailbox was stuffed. You need to actually listen to the customer rather than throwing refunds and smiling, trust me…they’ll be far more appreciative.

You also have to remember that some customers need to be turned away because they are bad for business. If you are in the business of customer service, then you will always have a customer or two that will cause trouble and you may end up losing money on that customer over the course of your relationship with him or her. You also need to make sure that you are treating your employees right and that the relationship with the customer isn’t worth the benefit you get from the employees. If an employee is constantly heckled by a bad customer, that employee will be unhappy and his or her work will be affected.

It will cost less to replace that customer than it will to hire and train a new employee.

You also have to realize when a customer is completely and TOTALLY wrong. If you go by the philosophy of the customer always being right, then when I walk into your clothing store and order chicken nuggets I should be able to get chicken nuggets. The customer can actually be wrong. It happens all the time, we’re all human and we make mistakes.

The truth is, I hate the phrase “The customer is always right.” That’s the worst phrase that can be taught and it needs to stop. It should be replaced with “Listen to the customer, sympathize, and come to some kind of mutually beneficial agreement.”