Call it value-addition or necessity, providing valet parking convenience for customers has become inevitable during festival season for retail showrooms in the city, especially textile shops located along Cross Cut Road, Oppanakara Street and such major thoroughfares in the city.
So much so that potential customers have now cultivated the habit of calling up showrooms in advance to ascertain availability of the facility before proceeding for shopping, according to a manager of a leading textile showroom along Cross Cut Road.
The retail showrooms that offer the service free of cost hire vacant spaces in the vicinity for parking the cars for the duration of shopping.
Customers say valet parking is significant not only for saving substantial time that would otherwise have to be spent finding parking space, but also because they could shop with peace of mind, not having to bother about the safety of the vehicle.
All that customers do is drive the cars right in front of the showrooms, alight and handover the keys to the waiting valet driver.
Once the shopping is completed and customers come out, the security personnel call out the drivers by mentioning the vehicle numbers over the walkie talkie.
In only a matter of minutes the customers drive away their cars. The timing precision takes some time for perfection. Even a few minutes of confusion would attract the wrath of traffic cops.
The scale of handling peaks on the few days preceding major festivals. Pothys along Cross Cut Road, for instance, had to handle in excess of 500 cars on the eve of Deepavali. Customers now deem the facility a necessity, D. Rajasekaran, general manager of the showroom said.
With the trend gaining a foothold, the showrooms have on their regular rolls groups of skilled drivers specifically for the task.
Skilled drivers
Only drivers with rich experience are recruited for the purpose since they are required to handle cars of different makes safely. For, even a small scratch will dent goodwill, the very basis for business.
With the trend catching up, the showrooms have skilled drivers on their regular rolls
