Chennaibest.com spoke to Lakshmi Devi about Home
Art, the home furnishing division of Kalpadruma.
On Home Art...
Last
year, we started our new home furnishing division for curtains,
upholstery, custom-made furniture – rosewood and teakwood. We are
offering complete home solutions for somebody who is building a
new house. If somebody comes here, we have people who can help
him out with the layout of his curtains, his furniture....you know....
complete service can be done, even if it is outside Chennai. The
customer can buy furniture, furnishings, curios and the works.
It is almost a one-stop shop for your home needs. That is what
we aim to be finally. Like a destination store, where everything
for the house is available under one roof or two.
How did the idea of Home Art originate?
Actually, it started as a catch line
for Kalpadruma. It started with my agency giving me these captions
‘Make Art a part of your life’, ‘Home Art’. All our caption
lines for Kalpadruma, we are using for Home Art now. Because we
are connected with arts here and we said "why not?"
But then when we realized that we had to name another showroom,
so we decided to go in for this.
Value for money – that seems to sum up customer
sentiment at Home Art - Your comments.
I
guess they are getting their value for money. That is why they
are coming back. But more than value for money, it is the service
that we are providing. Especially in home furnishings. If a person
comes and says he has two windows, we make sure our people go there
to his house, they take the measurements, give him a cost workout,
and do his quotation. Once he comes here, he is completely assured
of the best. Our people go three or four times before the whole
order is worked out and he is convinced about what is being done.
Then we do the tailoring ourselves and we go and install it in the
house. It is a complete service solution. Today, the name of the
game is service, because a lot of people are coming up with a similar
kind of product. But the difference between me and others is what
I can add as value in terms of service to my customers. I guess
that is what is going to make or break businesses in the future.
What is moving fastest at Home Art presently?
Right
now, we are doing a lot of rosewood furniture, custom-made, according
to the client's requirements. So once he comes, he can browse through
our catalogues, and tell us what he wants or doesn’t want to the
extent of telling me what carving he wants, where he wants it or
if he doesn’t want carving at all. That much of elaboration is
possible.
At what stage are the design studio and CAD
software?
We haven’t yet done anything, but we
still rely on designers who are actually working with their own
hands. We still have plans, but for now our designers create the
designs with their hands and we do not use computer software.
Last
year, we started our new home furnishing division for curtains,
upholstery, custom-made furniture – rosewood and teakwood. We are
offering complete home solutions for somebody who is building a
new house. If somebody comes here, we have people who can help
him out with the layout of his curtains, his furniture....you know....
complete service can be done, even if it is outside Chennai. The
customer can buy furniture, furnishings, curios and the works.
It is almost a one-stop shop for your home needs. That is what
we aim to be finally. Like a destination store, where everything
for the house is available under one roof or two.
I
guess they are getting their value for money. That is why they
are coming back. But more than value for money, it is the service
that we are providing. Especially in home furnishings. If a person
comes and says he has two windows, we make sure our people go there
to his house, they take the measurements, give him a cost workout,
and do his quotation. Once he comes here, he is completely assured
of the best. Our people go three or four times before the whole
order is worked out and he is convinced about what is being done.
Then we do the tailoring ourselves and we go and install it in the
house. It is a complete service solution. Today, the name of the
game is service, because a lot of people are coming up with a similar
kind of product. But the difference between me and others is what
I can add as value in terms of service to my customers. I guess
that is what is going to make or break businesses in the future.
Right
now, we are doing a lot of rosewood furniture, custom-made, according
to the client's requirements. So once he comes, he can browse through
our catalogues, and tell us what he wants or doesn’t want to the
extent of telling me what carving he wants, where he wants it or
if he doesn’t want carving at all. That much of elaboration is
possible. 
