SMB Innovator of the Year Takes Customer Service to the ?Extreme ...

If you?ve ever purchased furniture, you?re familiar with the usual routine. You walk into the showroom, a couple of sales reps greet you, and they never let you out of their sight until you?ve found that perfect sofa, ottoman or kitchen table you?ve been envisioning in your home. But often, once that furniture is delivered, the level of customer service drops off significantly. The over eager sales person you met in the showroom has long since moved on to other customers, and getting someone on the phone to help you with any issues can be a long and frustrating process of back and forth calls with very little action.

Simplicity Sofas, a High Point, NC based company, is changing the game in the furniture industry?by delivering ?extreme?customer service? that lasts way beyond the point of sale. Simplicity Sofas won the $20,000 grand prize in the Phonebooth SMB Innovator Awards last December. I caught up with CEO Jeff Frank just before the holidays to learn more about the innovative practices that have allowed this seasoned entrepreneur to grow his business by leaps and bounds?even in a downturned economy.

LP: Who is Simplicity Sofas?

JF: Simplicity Sofas manufactures Furniture for Small Spaces and Tight Places. Our modular design enables us to offer over 1 million different hand-built custom product variations all constructed in 30 days or less using only 30 different frame components.

LP: How is Simplicity Sofas different from other furniture companies?

JF: Simplicity Sofas is different in a number of ways?starting with the way we sell our furniture. We have a very small showroom and we don?t sell through other retailers. ?Ninety-five percent of our sales are made online and we are the only furniture company that offers a Total Satisfaction Guarantee, which states ?If you do not like our furniture?for any reason whatsoever, you may return it for a full refund, including all shipping charges, for a period of one year after purchase.?

We have grown through a combination of innovative, high quality products combined with Word of Mouth Marketing. Basically, our customers are so pleased with the experience of buying from us that they come back again and also recommend us to their friends, family and co-workers.

LP: How are you able to offer such high quality products along with an extreme customer service guarantee? Don?t you lose money with people taking advantage of the return policy?

JF: There is no such thing as taking advantage of the policy. We?re different from a normal furniture company where doing customer service is a cost of sales. We view customer service as a long-term marketing investment. For instance, replacing a set of cushions might count as a major slice of the average company?s profit margins. We see the cost of replacing those cushions as an opportunity to create a customer that is so happy with our service that the next time they need furniture, they will come back to us and also talk about us to their friends. The cost of replacing those cushions is an investment, not a cost, with a very high potential return on investment.

LP: This type of customer service model seems risky. How did you know if would work?

JF: After being in the industry for so many years, I knew the most critical pain points that accompany the furniture buying process. I also knew there had to be a better way to meet the needs of consumers for good quality furniture. To make the ?extreme customer service? model work, we had to eliminate the overhead associated with big showrooms and selling through retailers. The model is working?while 40% of the American furniture industry went out of business in the past five years, Simplicity Sofas has continued to grow.

LP: How has your extreme customer service model paid off?

JF: We rely heavily on customer testimonials but consumers typically only write testimonials when they are unhappy. To encourage our customers to tell us how they feel about our products and service, we contact every single customer within 24 hours of shipment and ask three simple survey questions including one which no other furniture company ever asks, ?Are there any problems that we need to take care of immediately?? After five years and over 3,000 customers,?Simplicity Sofas has never received a single negative review. That is not because our customers never experience problems but because of the way we react when those problems occur.

LP: How do you handle customer complaints?

JF: When problems do occur, our quick responses bring us even stronger endorsements. It also minimizes the severity of the customer reaction and turns them into willing partners who help to solve the problems in many cases. Often they are happy to fix the problem themselves when supplied with the necessary parts and instructions. Since all of our furniture is highly modular, the great majority of problems can be fixed by simply replacing a part. We do not make the customers return the damaged items.

LP: You?ve said you use ?Word of Mouth? marketing?what does that look like for Simplicity Sofas?

JF: Even after amassing hundreds of very strong testimonials from both customers and industry professionals, a large percentage of potential customers still would like to see and sit on the furniture before buying. To make this happen, we have again turned to our growing number of loyal customers.

When a prospective customer calls and wants to know where they can see and test out our furniture, we call one of our past customers in the area and ask them to help us out by showing the Simplicity Sofas furniture in their home. At this point, 70% of customers nationwide who ask to see our furniture can be matched up with a volunteer within one hour?s drive of their homes. There?s no better proof that we?re doing something right than having customers invite strangers into their living rooms on our behalf!

Source: http://www.phonebooth.com/blog/2013/01/smb-innovator-year-simplicity/

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