The Customer Experience/NPS (Net Promoter Score) program at Sleep Number is ranked among
customer experience leaders like Apple, Amazon, Costco and Southwest. This and the Lean Six Sigma
initiative received honorable mention in the 4Q 2010 earnings call for Sleep Number.
Bill McLaughlin, President and CEO quoted during the earnings call:
“Sleep Number customer satisfaction, as measured by our Net Promoter Score (NPS), improved nearly
five-fold during the past two years, and we are now firmly in the range of top performing companies, and
we believe we can advance even further to join the elite”
How did Lean Six Sigma improve the customer experience?
Leadership and buy-in
First a leader was chosen who championed the customer experience. Roadshows were held to gain buy-in
and credibility for using Net Promoter Score (NPS) as the way to drive better customer experience.
VOC (Voice of Customer)
By leveraging Voice of Customer (using the NPS approach) insights were gathered into reasons for
dissatisfaction. Within a matter of weeks, the sample size was high enough to develop a so-called Pareto
for all the reasons for dissatisfaction. (Called detractors in the NPS methodology).
Pareto Principle
The Pareto principle was used to rank the drivers of detractors from high to low, and subsequently
projects were chosen to improve the experience. Starting with the highest detractor reason (called a Pareto
bar) and using the so-called “one Pareto-bar at the time” principle, one detractor reason after another was
eliminated, turning detractors into promoters.
Data Analysis
Data was used to baseline the current customer experience performance by calculating the NPS score as
well as to develop the Pareto of detractor reasons. This score became as important as Net Income and
progress was presented during senior management and Board of Directors’ report outs.
Root Cause Analysis
Many projects were executed in the span of 1-2 years by a combination of full-time Black Belt and part-
time Green Belts. The projects dove into the root-causes of detractors and subsequently solutions were
chosen to them intro promoters.
Projects were focused on improving the quality and cycling times of services and products, in the call
center, supply chain, product design, stores, and other functions.
Monitoring results
By measuring progress (through an increased NPS score) teams were able to see the impact of solutions
and making sure they were sufficient and sustainable.
