FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 July 1, 2011 – Last year Simplicity Sofas challenged the World's RTA sofa manufacturers to compete for the honorary title of Best RTA Sofa in the World. There were no challengers.

The 2nd annual challenge is now on and Simplicity Sofas is better than ever. Competitors are invited to offer their products for examination by the buying public in the categories of: 

1.  Best quality 
2.  Easiest and fastest assembly 
3.  Customer Service Support 

1.  Quality 
Last year Simplicity Sofas based its quality claims on its kiln-dried solid oak frames (with a lifetime warranty), optional 6" thick Ultracel foam cushions, and a choice of more than 100 quality fabrics.  It also offered dozens of special options including fitted slipcovers, box or roll-front cushions, skirts, contrasting welts and other special requests.  Every piece is hand-crafted, built one-piece-at-a-time by skilled American craftspeople with 20 or more years of experience. 

This year Simplicity Sofas has made numerous quality upgrades. The optional Ultracel cushions with the lifetime warranty are now standard and have been upgraded from the original industry standard 6" thickness to 8 1/2" .

For customers who would like an even plusher cushion they can now choose premium Spring-down, an expensive cushion construction usually found only in high end sofas costing thousands of dollars.  

Other changes include additional arm and back foam padding, upgraded fiber quality in back cushions and more than 50 new fabrics which bring the total number of stocked fabrics to more than 150. More than 50 leather choices are also available.

2.  Easiest and Fastest Assembly 
Last year Simplicity Sofas claimed that its sofa can be assembled by most first-time adults in 15 minutes (or in less than 10 minutes with a team of 2)  Industry experts scoffed at that claim until Simplicity Sofas produced a YouTube video featuring a diminutive 8 year old boy who assembled a full-size sofa by himself in less than 5 minutes.

8 year old Skyler's YouTube sofa assembly video can be found at 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gwPONAW3llY   

Another unique advantage of the Simplicity Sofas Easy Assembly system -- Unlike other RTA sofas,  Simplicity Sofas can be assembled, dis-assembled and re-assembled hundreds of times without a loss of structural integrity. Sofa dis-assembly takes a single person about 5 minutes.

This year Simplicity Sofas has added a new sectional grouping (available with 6 different arm styles.)  Although the sectional is based upon a completely different technology than the sofas, assembly (or dis-assembly) requires less than 5 minutes for a single individual.  Like the sofas, the sectional units can be assembled and disassembled over and over again without a loss of structural integrity.

3.  Customer Service Support 
This is a new category to this challenge.  Furniture companies are generally not known for outstanding customer service.  When Simplicity Sofas first opened in 2007 it announced its intention to provide its customers with the best customer service in the entire furniture industry.  Amazingly, it has achieved that position after just 3 years.  The company bases its claim on 4 facts: 
    A.  The strongest warranty in the furniture industry --   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.*     *Frames and cushions are covered by lifetime warranties. 

    B.   Simplicity Sofas is the only furniture company who contacts every one of its customers after they have received their furniture to check that there are no minor (or major) problems. Frequently the company will insist on correcting minor complaints that its customers were willing to live with. 

    C.   In 3 1/2 years Simplicity Sofas has received hundreds of extremely positive reviews from its customers which can be found all over the Internet. More amazingly, after shipping its furniture to more than 1500 customers, the company has never received a negative review.  That does not mean that its customers never have problems.  It does mean that those problems are resolved promptly, to the satisfaction of the customer. 

    D.  Simplicity Sofas has been named a "Beloved Company" , one of the highest Customer Service Honors any company can attain. 

"Beloved Company" status is the creation of nationally acclaimed author and Customer Service authority Jeanne Bliss who bestows this honor to a very limited number of companies  who have demonstrated the very highest levels of Customer Service achievement. Simplicity Sofas is the first furniture company ever to be named a Beloved Company.

Other Beloved Companies  include Zappos, Southwest Airlines and Harley-Davidson. Jeanne Bliss is also one of the two founders of the CXPA (Customer Experience Professionals Association) whose mission is to evaluate and improve customer service practices for both large and small companies nationwide. 

Simplicity Sofas' revolutionary Ready to Assemble sofa and sectional assembly systems were developed by Glenn Laughlin and Jeff Frank.  Glenn and Jeff have worked together on developing high quality RTA upholstered furniture designs for nearly 20 years and have been awarded 5 US patents.  Upholstered furniture products based on their patents have been sold in 30 countries around the world. 

Glenn and Jeff's approach to developing RTA sofas has been different from other manufacturers (such as the companies who supply IKEA.)  Rather than trying to develop the least expensive product, their efforts were directed towards producing the highest quality products, furniture that looked and felt like similarly priced conventional sofas and sectionals.  At the same time it had to be extremely simple for a single person to assemble, including elderly customers and those without great physical strength. 

The problem with designing an RTA sofa with those requirements is that most people have the idea that knockdown or ready to assemble furniture is cheaper than "real" furniture. That is true only when inferior materials are used and emphasis is placed on reduction of shipping costs rather than ease of assembly. 

It actually costs more to make an RTA sofa than it would to build a conventional sofa using the same quality components. Assembly mechanisms and hardware create additional costs.  In addition, inside surfaces that are not visible on a conventional sofa must be finished or covered because they are visible on the RTA  sofa.  

Simplicity Sofas' solution to the cost dilemma was to sell directly from the factory to the consumer. By eliminating the retail markup, the products could be priced for less than a retailer would have charged while at the same time the factory could control quality and speed of response to provide a level of customer service beyond the capabilities of any retailer.