Shelby Township, MI – October 22, 2013 –Beducation®, Mattress To Go’s YouTube channel and the nation’s premier online consumer video resource for mattress shopping information, was recently featured in an in-depth article on Leggett & Platt’s Sleep Geek website, according to Mattress To Go owner Jeff Scheuer.

“I’m extremely honored to be featured on the home page of the Sleep Geek website,” stated Scheuer. “Sleep Geek is the leading website for the education of mattress retailers in America and they promote educated, objective advice. The staff at Sleep Geek was impressed with my online Beducation videos and the honest and comprehensive guidance that I provide consumers shopping for a mattress. They asked if they could write a story about Mattress To Go and my Beducation program and of course I agreed.   

“I’m a big fan of helping educate everyone about mattresses and that’s exactly what my Beducation videos do better than any other product in the country. These videos are really the online manifestation of what I’ve done locally for my customers for over 20 years. Mattress To Go and Beducation are helpful and honest voices in an industry not necessarily known for treating consumers in an ethical manner, and I’m proud that Sleep Geek chose to recognize our accomplishments.”   

The article on the Sleep Geek website is the longest one that they’ve ever featured. The article may be found at: https://sleep-geek.com/Articles/Article?articleId=2397

The Mattress To Go Beducation channel can be found at: www.youtube.com/mattresstogo. 

About Mattress To Go: 
Mattress To Go, a four-time Pinnacle Award winner, is America’s home of Beducation®. Owner Jeff Scheuer has spent over 20 years helping people find premium mattresses that best suit their needs, and at Mattress To Go he makes these mattresses available at extraordinary discounts. Mattress To Go is located at 51260 Van Dyke, Shelby Township, Mich. Contact them at (586) 580-3605, or email at info@matt-to-go.com.   

About Leggett & Platt’s Sleep Geek: 
Sleep Geek’s mission is to serve the mattress industry by creating a community that connects members with ideas to invigorate their professional purpose, encouraging mattress retailers to become knowledgeable Sleep Consultants who advise people on their sleep and well-being. Sleep Geek currently has over 4000 members. Their website is located at www.sleep-geek.com.

 

(Transcript of the Sleep Geek interview with Mattress To Go owner Jeff Scheuer, 10/21/13)

Getting a Beducation® with Jeff Scheuer
by Mark Kinsley 

Jeff Scheuer is a former USA Olympic luge coach turned sleep shop owner from Southwest Michigan. In 2006, Jeff took over 20 years of award-winning experience in the mattress industry to the other side of the state and founded Mattress To Go with the goal to offer affordable premium mattresses and exceptional customer service. Jeff views Mattress To Go as the antithesis of a normal mattress shopping experience, and one big reason why is Beducation, a series of educational videos that Jeff created to inform consumers about mattresses. We caught up with Jeff recently to talk about his store and all the cool stuff he’s doing to advance the sleep industry. 

Tell us about Beducation. How and why did you come up with the idea? 

There’s so much misinformation within our industry. Beducation was the online manifestation of what I’ve been doing in my own sleep shop for years. I wanted to offer consumers an objective source of mattress information to empower them as they go through their mattress buying experience. A mattress is an item that has a direct impact upon your health and you should take more time investigating it than you do selecting a fast food Extra Value Meal. 

Your largest advertising investment goes toward the Beducation videos. Tell us why you started doing these and give us some stories about the results.

The Beducation videos are my biggest investment in time, planning, editing, shooting and creativity, but not in money. It’s a way I can help brand and cement my reputation and reach out to consumers as they search the web for mattress information. If I can’t be trusted in the eyes of the consumer, then it’s difficult for them to validate what I tell them when they call or visit my store. I can show them my diplomas and academic achievements, but the Beducation videos are the best way to brand myself as a knowledgeable and honest retailer who is on the side of the consumer. Plus, these Beducation videos help people to learn and in the process they come up with some great questions that in turn further assist me in helping them find the product that best suits their needs.   

I’ll often get people calling or emailing, asking me to pick their mattress for them. The reason I make the videos, I politely explain, is to help customers help themselves. I’ll always try to take a few minutes to assist them if they’re looking for a product that I don’t offer or something that isn’t economically feasible to ship (we ship to the lower-48). Often people contact me exasperated, sometimes in tears (!), just wanting clarity and direction. I had someone from Spain email and then call me with questions about latex, and even though I couldn’t sell them a bed I helped as best I could. And while I’m often told you can’t feed your family on “thank yous,” I do believe it all comes back around. People stop in and drive from quite a distance (Chicago to Cleveland) to visit and buy from me, or have me ship them products online just because they’ve watched the videos and feel they can trust me. I just shipped some beds to a marketing professor at the University of Oklahoma and he’s used my web site and Beducation videos as an example in one of this classes.       

You have a trademark on the word Beducation. That’s pretty cool. What was the thinking behind applying for the trademark? What can mattress retailers learn?   

I trademarked Beducation because I put so much work into these videos and I knew I had to protect the work. And sure enough, I’ve already had people pirate the videos and then put them on their own web pages and try to represent them as their own work and intellectual property. So having the trademark has helped me get these people in line. The trademark gives me legal standing to stop any pirating. It also helps to validate the whole Beducation line of videos. There’s a large value to what I do with Beducation. I’m the one taking the time to think up topics, script, shoot, edit and then get it posted. While the videos may not look super glossy, I think that’s part of the charm. People see them for what they are – an honest retailer actually trying to assist others.   

What do other retailers think about the videos you make? Tell us the good and the bad, and why you agree or disagree with the feedback.  

The majority of feedback is usually a short note saying thanks for the video or the help, or letting me know they appreciate the resource and the fact that someone is providing honest, objective information – being on the side of the consumer. But, you know, I get both ends of the spectrum. I’ve had retailers call me, a few who own some pretty large chains, and commend me for making the videos, even saying they assign them to their sales staff to review and pluck things to use for their own sales persona. And then I get the negative ones. Most of the nasty stuff I ignore because it isn’t constructive, but some of it is and I try to respond. Sometimes I’ll have retailers ask honest questions about why I say what I do, and I’ll privately email them and point them toward references. I think those people are actually just trying to learn and see if they agree with what I have to say and I have no problem with that. The funniest feedback I’ve received was from a guy who has a HORRIBLE line of videos online and he claimed I was, “…a traitor to my industry, spilling out facts that consumers shouldn’t know.” I had to laugh at that. In the end, I always look at the constructive feedback, as I’m always trying to learn.  

The most watched video on your YouTube channel has more than 37,000 views and is titled “Mattress Pricing – The Truth About 50% Off Sales.” Why do you think this video receives so much action?  

(By the way, I don’t promote these videos at all. Those are organic numbers. It would be so much higher if I promoted, which maybe I should.)   

There’s a reason that people put off shopping for a mattress and that our industry is consistently rated in the top-five for “least-liked salespeople.” Part of that is the dishonest sales tactics. I know certain types of sales promotions work and that people have become millionaires using them, but customers don’t like them. I had one person tell me, “I know that I’m getting lied to when I got to the stores. I’m just trying to find the store where I’m getting screwed the least.” That’s sad. And it’s a huge problem where I have my store. So I decided to explain to people how the industry, in many cases, prices and markets their mattresses. It really isn’t a big secret and I think most people know in the back of their head things aren’t really half off, but they feel a little better armed with the knowledge from my video and then they can free themselves from the screaming and shouting of the promotions, and instead focus on components and the final price they pay.   

I don’t necessarily blame the salespeople because they’re only doing what they’re trained to do in order to make a living. But that still doesn’t make it right. Mattresses directly impact restoration and health and you shouldn’t be “sold” when buying one. Salespeople should be comfort consultants, trained in health and mattress technology, not the latest sales techniques.  How many sales people know about compression modulus, foam hysteresis, or can even describe ILD? A lot of what I put down in the videos flies in the face of running a successful sleep shop, but that still won’t stop me from arming consumers with information. I can sleep well at night and it’s not because I have a good mattress (which I do). It’s because I have a clear conscience.  

You were an Olympic coach for the 1994 luge team? What’s the story there? How has your background in sports influenced your life in business?   

Yes, I was an amateur luge athlete and then became the Strength and Conditioning / Start Coach for the USA National Luge Team, and I was fortunate enough to be on the ’94 Olympic Team as a coach. I still help with training programs and biomechanical analysis of the start motion, but on an informal basis. As an athlete (I was a wrestler in high school) in a sport like luge, you learn there are no excuses (or at least, you SHOULD learn that). If you don’t do the work, you won’t get the results. And the minute you stop striving and achieving will be the minute you’re passed by someone who is putting in the work.