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How far would you go to really deliver remarkable customer service? Welcome to Retail Gladiators – your challenger is Michael Cote of Sleep Squad.
Sleep Squad is a mattress retailer based in greater Chicago, and is using every weapon in their arsenal when it comes to capturing customers. Sleep Squad has no need for bricks-and-mortar retail stores. Why stay in one place when the company can come to you? Michael Cote has reinvented the mattress business with a fleet of portable showrooms that pull up to a customer’s door and offer a customized mattress-buying experience.
As writer Thomas Prais, recently wrote, “… Cote’s out-of-the-box thinking wasn’t even ‘inventing the wheel’ kind of innovation – he just applied one long existing business model (pizza delivery) to another long existing business model (mattress sales), seasoned a dash of Internet, and Voila!”
Be sure to read Cote’s extensive interview, where he talks about how he started the business, the over-the-top experience the company aims to deliver, and plans for the future.
Here are just a few critically important quotes from the interview:
It wasn’t like I woke up one morning and decided I wanted to be the mattress king. I wanted to find the worst experience and turn it into something people could brag about to their friends. After we did that, we tried to figure out everything about shopping for mattresses that people really despised.”
We carry over 150 different skus. We carry more models than the average mattress store in Chicago, which has about 45 models on the floor. We inventory our selections, which enables us, if someone calls us up at 8 a.m. and needs a mattress by noon, and they need a twin, Simmons, BeautyRest classic pillow top, we can have it there by noon, along with two or three other very comparable selections.”
Instead of commissions, we give bonuses based on customer satisfaction, whether there’s a purchase or not. [When it comes to hiring] We prefer to hire people who have never been in the mattress industry before. We’d rather not spread that cancer.”
We have a process checklist that our employees go through on every single appointment. So in addition to making sure the jacks are down, and the showroom is level, and the merchandising wall is fully stocked, we also make sure that every single customer introduction is the same. So we explain why the shade is one-quarter closed to begin with, we explain that between showing every mattress we’re going to leave the showroom whether the customer asks us to or not, so the customer can try the mattress in privacy.”
…we’ll shovel the sidewalk right up to the front door, and that way even if there’s a foot of snow people can put on their slippers and try the beds in privacy and comfort.”
These are just a bit of the very revealing insight the article has to offer. In these days of competition from the Internet and an economy in distress, this kind of extreme retailing is what the smart entrepreneurs are doing to achieve cult brand loyalty.
Michele Miller is a writer, speaker, and consultant on ways to capture the heart of the female customer. The co-author of The Soccer Mom Myth, she consults with businesses of all sizes across North America
This seems like a great idea, but for many it ends up being really uncomfortable and embarrassing.
It’s great if the customer loves the bed and wants to purchase one of the 2-4 selections they were given. Then it’s a convenient way of getting a bed. What if they don’t and they want to try other mattresses, or compare the prices.
Then you have two salesman in a truck pressuring you to buy in front of your home. (They get paid if you buy.)
I’ve read reviews on yelp, and other local business sites where this was the case.
Also, the beds are wrapped in plastic, so you don’t exactly get the best understanding of what you’re choosing, until you make your FINAL selection.
There is a whole world of mattresses that are really innovative now. Many types that weren’t around 10 years ago when most people last purchased a mattress.
Bottom line: This is a really cool convenient and innovative idea for sure, but it is not the best way to find the right mattress for the best prices.
While I don’t like competing against Sleep Squad because they’re ruining the pricing integrity for brick and mortar retailers… I won’t lie about them like “Mattress Chicago” did in the previous comment.
Sleep Squad doesn’t pressure people because their employees don’t make commissions.
If you click on the name “chicago mattress you’ll see that it links to Back to Bed. Back to Bed currently has 112 Better Business Bureau complaints and 5 lawsuits in the Chicago Area.
Wow…The Bedding Experts is on the offensive…
Sleep Squad can call it what they may. The bottom line is the driver / salesman gets paid more if the customer BUYS A BED and is HAPPY ABOUT IT.
Read their yelp reviews if you do not believe me about customer’s feeling uncomfortable. Overall it’s a great idea though. I’m sure they have a great buying rate, with a high percentage of satisfied clients. Great idea.
As for the bedding experts:
First you claim I am lying about Sleep Squad, then you try to slander Back To Bed.
The fact is you have more BBB complaints in a single store than we do company wide.
http://www.bbb.org/chicago/business-reviews/mattress-and-bedding-stores/bedding-experts-bridgeview-in-bridgeview-il-30000088
We serve 10’s of thousands of people. Sometimes there are people that are not happy, and we do try to accommodate them. Which is why we have 0 OPEN complaints from our last report. Not that the BBB is the end-all be-all of customer service.
I prefer blogs / review sites / open forums.
Just do two simple google searches:
bedding experts complaints
back to bed complaints
: )
Folks – while I appreciate you commenting here, if this is going to turn into a flame war, I respectfully ask that you take it elsewhere. This is a blog on marketing, not a space to duke it out in mattress wars. Thanks very much.
I’m Sorry, this was an inappropriate forum.
We really need to bring back the Bedding Experts VS. Back to Bed football game…
No sweat! Just thought I’d call a “time out” before the hooligans started taking over.
That’s a great way to get out there and advertise your product.