Mattress retailing 101: Consumers: Sales associates don't meet their needs

Focus groups give feedback on problems

David Perry, Bedding Editor -- Furniture Today, October 18, 2007

The bedding industry can boost sales and increase consumer satisfaction if retail bedding sales associates better connect with their customers. But there is much work yet to be done in that area.

Those were some of the major lessons learned by top bedding executives and consultants who spent a week listening to bedding consumers around the country. They were participants on Leggett & Platt's Spring Alive Tour, a national, grassroots tour designed to take a better sleep message to retailers and consumers. As part of the tour, focus groups gave participants insights into consumers' attitudes about bedding and the mattress shopping experience.

Those focus groups gave the bedding executives, led by Mark Quinn, group executive vice president of sales and marketing in L&P's bedding group, a warts-and-all look at consumers' mattress opinions. Some of the sessions painted a bleak picture on key issues such as retail bedding sales associates and how they are perceived. At one of the sessions, for example, the all-female panel gave sales associates failing grades.

Kurt Ling, president of Customer Kinetics, an Atlanta-based customer experience firm, led the group, asking the women what they recalled about the last person who had sold them a mattress. "Sharky," "pushy" and "a used car salesman" were some of their responses.

Ling, who formerly worked at Maytag and Simmons, kept the discussion rolling. A seasoned researcher, he established a rapport with the women and encouraged each of them to share their thoughts.

On the other side of the one-way glass in the research facility conference room, the members of the L&P delegation listened intently to the women's comments. The focus group was one of four held during the week-long Spring Alive Tour.

Each of the focus groups consisted solely of women, who are viewed as the key decision makers in the mattress purchase.

The focus group that zeroed in on sales associates found few positive feelings about them — or the mattress shopping experience. Ling asked the women what emotions they were feeling before they walked into a mattress store. One woman said she felt "excited" about the prospect of shopping, but another said she had a sense of "drudgery" and a third reported feeling "indifferent." Perhaps the strongest comments came from the woman who said: "They (the sales associates) are going to be swarming over me."

The women had various criticisms of mattress salespeople, saying they act like robots, don't connect with them on an emotional level, recite sales pitches, steer them to the most expensive beds, and accept "kickbacks" from manufacturers.

The women indicated that the sales associates were more focused on meeting their own needs — making the most money on each sale — than in meeting customers' needs. "I want to know that a salesperson is thinking about me," one consumer said.

Reflecting on what he had learned from the focus groups, Quinn said he has a renewed appreciation for the fact that consumers buy mattresses for various reasons. "This is not just a logical decision these people have to make. It is an emotional one as well. We need to understand how to communicate with consumers on that level and shine a light on the fact that the mattress-buying decision could make a huge difference in their life and play a big part in improving their quality of life."

And Ling said that, despite all the negative comments he heard from consumers, there are some positives for the industry.

"It is interesting to me how much the mattress retailing industry has improved in the 10 years that I have been in the business," he said, "and yet we still have a bad rap. Practically, I would like to blame the long purchase cycle, but that really isn't it because all of these respondents shopped in the last six to 24 months for a new mattress. I think there is a reality we have to face of the way they see us and use it to move forward and create better experiences."

He remains hopeful: "We can create a day when it isn't like today. Part of that will be when stores don't have 50 beds lined up in three rows, and another part of it will be when we talk about things that matter and do that in a way that seems helpful rather than having sales associates who are just seen as being out to make commission."