Festival offer calling campaign for Diwali and Sankranti

Why festival calls work, when they do

Festivals are when Indian families plan their biggest purchases of the year: clothes for Sankranti, a new fridge before Diwali, gold for Dhanteras, a vehicle on Dussehra. A customer who bought from you last year is far more likely to buy again than a stranger, and a personal phone call stands out among a hundred festival SMS and WhatsApp blasts.

The calls fail when they are aimed at bought lists, made on the festival day, or turned into a long pitch. A good festival call is under a minute, offers one thing, and books one action.

Consent and DND come first

A festival offer is a promotional call, so TRAI's commercial communication rules apply. Before you upload any list:

• Call only customers who bought from you or gave you their number and agreed to offers.
• Remove numbers on the national do-not-call registry unless you hold that person's consent.
• Remove everyone who asked you to stop calling, and keep that list permanent.
• Keep calls within sensible hours. Promotional calls late at night anger customers.
• Tell the customer who is calling, and offer to stop calling if they say so.

The DND and consent checks run before every call, and the details are in do-not-call and consent. For the full picture, read is AI calling legal in India.

Festival by festival: timing and language

Festival dates move each year with the calendar, so check the date and count back. In the Telugu states, Sankranti is the big shopping festival for clothes and home goods, often larger than Diwali.

What to say in the call

• Telugu: "Namaskaram Padma garu, Sankranti ki maa store lo pattu cheeralu meeda 20% offer undi. Store ki ravadaniki time book cheyyamantara, leda WhatsApp lo designs pampamantara?" (This Sankranti we have 20% off silk sarees at our store. Shall I book a visit time, or send designs on WhatsApp?)
• Hindi: "Namaste Anil ji, Diwali par humare purane customers ke liye special offer hai. Kya main WhatsApp par details bhej doon?" (There is a special Diwali offer for our past customers. Shall I send the details on WhatsApp?)

The offer in the call must match the offer in the store exactly. If the AI employee says 20% off silk sarees, the billing counter must honour it. Write the offer, its end date and any conditions into the brief so the AI employee answers questions accurately.

Setting up the bulk campaign

1. Export past customers from your billing software: name, phone, last purchase, preferred language.
2. Clean the list: remove DND numbers without consent, opted-out numbers and duplicates.
3. Split by language and city if the offer differs.
4. Describe the job: one offer, one question, book a visit or send the catalogue.
5. Make two test calls, to yourself and a colleague.
6. Schedule the bulk campaign to start 7 to 10 days before the festival, spread over several days.

Spreading calls over a few days matters. If you book 300 store visits for Saturday morning, nobody gets served. The bulk calling campaign guide covers pacing, retries and how to read results.

What you learn from the calls

• Interested: store visit booked, catalogue wanted, or callback
• Not this time, with the reason (already bought, budget, moved)
• Asked not to be called again, added to your do-not-call list at once
• Products customers asked about that were not in the offer

That last field helps buying for next season. If 40 customers ask about kids' ethnic wear during your saree offer, you know what to stock.

Cost of a festival campaign

For example, a store with 5,000 consenting past customers, about 45 seconds per answered call, and around 3,000 answered: roughly 2,250 minutes, about ₹17,955 at ₹7.98 a minute. Unanswered calls are not charged. Bigger recharges bring the per-minute rate down; see pricing. Compare that with a single newspaper insert in your city.

Writing the offer brief

The brief is a few plain paragraphs, not a script. A good festival brief for a clothing store might read: "Call our past customers about the Sankranti sale. 20% off all silk sarees and 10% off dress materials, from 5 to 15 January, in store only. Ask if they would like to visit or get designs on WhatsApp. If they ask about other items, note it. Do not offer any other discount. If they say they are not interested, thank them and end the call."

Add the store address, timings, parking, and the answer to one or two questions customers always ask, such as whether alterations are free. The AI employee will use these facts and nothing else.

After the festival: the thank-you call

A week after the festival, a short call to customers who visited can ask how the purchase went and whether they need anything else, such as blouse stitching or a matching item. Keep it short and only to people who bought. It builds the habit of hearing from you, so next year's festival call is welcome rather than ignored.

Local festivals and regional calendars

National festivals are crowded. Local ones are not. In Telangana, Bathukamma and Bonalu bring their own shopping for sarees, bangles and puja items. In the Hindi belt, Karva Chauth and Chhath have their own rush. A store that calls its own customers for the festival their family actually celebrates stands out more than one more Diwali message.

Keep a simple yearly calendar of the festivals that matter in your city, with the date to start calling for each. Prepare the brief and clean the list a week before that date, so the campaign starts on time rather than on the festival eve.

Look back at last year's sales register before you choose the offer. The categories that sold most in the festival week are usually the ones your customers will ask about first on the call.