In the area of customer orientation in marketing, there is the `proximity principle', which can be applied and used to an advantage by marketers of products and services. This principle works on the fact that closeness increases power, while distance decreases influence. When Tom Peters talks about being ``close to the customer'' in marketing, or ``managing by walking around'' in an organisation, he is employing the proximity principle. He is talking of staying in touch with customers and their requirements.

Application of the proximity principle, in simple terms, is staying in touch with your customers. In marketing, it has two major advantages tooffer you and your organisation. First, it can show your availability to your customers all the time, and second, it can help you gather vital intelligence to work out your strategies.

Customer Contact--The Underlying Principle:In all selling, when you wish to motivate customers, you first have to make contact with them and see things from their perspective. The proximity principle thus also explains why face-to-face communication is more powerful than a phone contact, which in turn is more influential than present-day electronic mail. Closing the distance between yourself and your customers greatly increases your impact. Closing that small distance will make a large difference in how you and your product and service are perceived.

Studies reveal that the closer you are to your customer, the greater will be the number of interactions between them and you; the farther apart you are, the fewer the contacts.

Customer needs and requirements are subject to change. See change as an ally. You can makethis work for you. Discuss how things have changed. The art lies in timing, choosing the direction, and being able to address the customer's needs and concerns clearly and effectively.

In all that you do, focus on connection. After the initial contact, continued connection is critical in dealing with people, and particularly so in effectively dealing with customers--for the customer's satisfaction and delight.

Key to Customer Power:Like any other management and marketing discipline, customer relations and customer satisfaction require study and the application of key methods within your organisation. Here are five that can make up a part of your customer relations programme:

Become a master of leveraging:Allocate time and activities to transform the organisation into a customer-focused organisation. Empower people to take decisions and disseminate management techniques towards better customer service and satisfaction throughout the organisation.

Make customer relations a mission inthe organisation:Be pro-active and get people to be pro-active agents toward customer service and satisfaction. Have clear guidelines in this area and make it all a corporate philosophy.

Plan and act for a positive mind-set change:Develop a long-range perspective in customer service. Recognise opportunities and stumbling blocks in any situation. Learn to adjust plans to changing conditions and customer needs.

Channel conflict (complaints) productively:Make complaints work for you. Make them a challenge in converting unhappy customers to happy customers, and retaining old customers.

Hone in your courage and creativity in being customer-led:Creativity entails taking risks. Experiment in low-risk areas and know when the rules don't apply and discover new ways to keep customers happy and loyal.

In all this, what you do to win customers or to retain customers, as the case may be, you must work at ``creating extra value'' for your customers. Value addition in terms of personalattention and contact, or the proximity principle leading to total customer satisfaction--that should be your mission and you must meet the challenges with creativity and commitment at the individual and corporate level.

The writer is General Manager, Corporate Relations, Wockhardt Ltd.