Keeping orders coming through the monsoon months

From the first rain in June to the end of Karkidakam in August, a showroom can go a whole morning without a walk-in. There is a saying that nobody buys anything new in Karkidakam, and for the big purchases there is something in it. So stop spending those weeks on strangers. Turn to the people who already bought from you. Offer a service call on what you sold them, remind them about what they replace, and ask who in the family buys next. Some orders come in during the rains. More are waiting in Chingam.

Why advertising to strangers in Karkidakam wastes money

In Kerala the heavy rain and the month of Karkidakam arrive together. Many families hold back on weddings, house-warmings and large purchases until Chingam, and the rain keeps casual browsers at home. An advertisement in July reaches people who have already decided to wait.

Many of the families who will buy from you in Chingam are not strangers at all. Take the household that bought a cot from you six years ago. Their son is getting married. They will pick a shop in the first weeks of Chingam. It will be the one that stayed in touch through the rains, not the one with the loudest Onam advertisement.

Sort last season's buyers into three lists

Pull out the bill book, the delivery register and the chats on the shop phone. Write one line per household: name, number, area, what they bought and when. Then sort.

• Anything that needs a visit goes on the service list. Wardrobes, cots, dining sets and sofas suffer in the damp months: doors stick, drawers swell, and mould marks leather and rexine.
• Small things people replace go on the repeat list. Mattress protectors, cushion covers, chair pads, a second study table for a younger child.
• Households with an event coming go on the family list. A wedding, a room being built upstairs, a child leaving for college or the Gulf. You hear about these at the counter, at delivery and on the service visit.

A household can sit on two lists. Keep it on the one with the nearer reason to call.

What to send, and from which phone

Send from the shop's WhatsApp Business number, by hand, one household at a time. Ten or fifteen a day is plenty if one person has to follow up properly. Each message names what they bought and asks one question that is easy to answer.

For the service list:

Namaskaram [name], this is [shop] on [road]. You bought a teak wardrobe from us in [year]. In this rain the doors can stick. Our carpenter is in [area] on Thursday. Shall we send a visit? It costs nothing, and any repair is priced before work starts.

For the repeat list:

Namaskaram [name], [shop] here. The covers for your sofa set are in again, in the same fabric. Shall I keep two sets aside for you? Reply YES and they go with Saturday's delivery van.

For the family list, do not send a message at all. Ask in person, on the service visit or when they drop in:

"Is anyone in the family setting up a room after Chingam? Bring them in before the rush and I will show them what fits."

The service visit is where the next order shows itself

A carpenter fixing a sticking wardrobe door is inside the house, and sees the half-built room upstairs and the wedding cards on the table. The carpenter hears that the son in Doha is home in August. Ask for one line after each visit: anything new in that house? Do not ask the carpenter to sell. Leave a card with the showroom's number behind.

Referrals start here too. A family that had a door fixed at no charge in July tells the cousin who is buying furniture in September. Ask the household once, plainly, whether anyone they know is setting up a home after Chingam. Thank them properly when that person walks in, and write the thank-you down so every salesperson gives it, not only the owner.

A Mavoor Road showroom, two monsoons apart

Imagine a family-run furniture showroom on Mavoor Road in Kozhikode, with one carpenter and a delivery van. The shop is made up; the season is not.

One season the owner used Karkidakam to repaint the showroom and wait. Chingam came. The owner booked newspaper advertisements alongside every other furniture shop in the city. Two families served for years bought their wedding furniture elsewhere, about ₹2.5 lakh between them (an invented figure). One told the owner later: the other shop's salesperson had called in August. About the wedding.

The next season the owner wrote the lists in the second week of June. The owner's son messaged the service list a few households a day, and the carpenter worked through the visits between showers. Most visits ended in small paid repairs. A few turned into orders for cushions and a dining chair. Three households mentioned a wedding in Chingam, and two Gulf families home for the school holidays came in with relatives. Each went on a note with a date to call. Those calls went out in the first days of Chingam, before any advertisement. Not every message landed: one household replied that they had bought a new wardrobe elsewhere in May, and the son took them off the list.

When this plan does not fit

Some trades are busiest in the rain: umbrellas, raincoats, inverters, roof repair. If yours is one of them, you have the opposite problem. Leave out the service list if you cannot do the visits you offer, because a carpenter who never turns up loses the customer. A shop only a few months old has no lists yet, so this waits a season.

Do not message anyone more than twice without a reply, and stop at once for anyone who asks. A past buyer who feels hunted in July will not come back in Chingam either. Long-lapsed buyers are different. Reactivating dormant customers covers them.

Before the rains start

Take last season's bills and write the three lists, even if each holds only twenty names. Decide who sends the messages and which days the carpenter or technician can visit. Building the lists and the follow-up around your own shop is customer reactivation; tell us what you need to start.