Tell HN: Tuft and Needle Follow-up (Ten mattress, improvements and growing pains)

33 points by johmas 12 years ago | 5 comments

Following up on our December post (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6900625), we'd like to thank the Hacker News community—especially all those who reached out directly to advise. Based on feedback, we made improvements that have resonated well with customers, including:

We launched our Tuft & Needle Ten mattress. This is a thicker version (10-inches) of our original mattress while keeping the same comfort and feel. Improved the visuals and photography to show that Tuft & Needle is a quality product crafted with care rather than just another low price mattress. Added FAQs and clarified that we only sell the mattress.

Our company and sales have grown quite a bit since our last post. Over the last three months we've exceeded our 2013 revenue ($1MM). Last week, CNNMoney/Fortune followed up on a previous article and filmed our manufacturing process: http://bit.ly/tncnnmoney

Here are a few of the challenges we've been experiencing with our recent growth:

Scaling Supply Chain: We discovered a very critical bottleneck in our manufacturing process. The fix involves a new machine. We learned that we need to proactively forecast and make sure that order volume can be sustained even with a jump in the sales baseline. Also, customers appreciate open communication via emails and social media about any delays before they realize it themselves.

Hiring: We are having to hire quickly, especially in customer support. The volume of tickets seems to compound with delays which puts extra stress on the team as a whole. What has been working well for us has been to ask our friends, "Who are the most talented people you know who we should hire?"

We'd love to hear your critiques on our changes so far. We realize we still have a lot more work to do. Also, it'd be great to get your ideas on how we can improve the brand.

We're so grateful for your help so far. Thank you again.

JT & Daehee https://www.tuftandneedle.com

jhjester 12 years ago |

Something that bugged me when I ordered, there's really no order status window. I don't know which stage my mattress was on or when it would arrive. I actually didn't know until the day before it arrived that it shipped. Something as simple the Domino's pizza tracker (order processing, processed, manufacturing, shipping, etc) that shows the status of my order would've been nice. Like you said, proactive status updates, even if it's about delays, put customer minds at ease. The status tracker could also drive traffic to other informative parts of the site. For instance, you're mattresses are American made. If you source materials from a specific place, outlining where a customer's mattress is coming from could be cool. If you source from multiple American companies and manufacture in multiple locations, a customer could track where their mattress is coming from. I think it would add more weight to the claim of American Made. I'm very happy with my Ten and have slept soundly since I got it. I'm a fan.

johmas 12 years ago | |

That's a fantastic idea. I like the transparency around each stage and what's happening.

dfcarney 12 years ago |

Cited post from December: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6900625

octoberrust 12 years ago |

We may not be your main target, but international (Canada here) shipping would be great. There are alternatives, such as using a third party to forward the package, but with the weight the shipping costs get out of control.

I'm just waiting until a solution pops up, I do not want to buy elsewhere and I also do not want two mattresses.

ByronT 12 years ago |

Just ordered a 10" king for the house I'll be moving into next week. I'm so excited! Keep fighting the good fight.