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Sonos Promises to Recommit to Software Quality and Customer Experience After App Disaster

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Sonos today announced a series of new commitments that are meant to demonstrate the company's "renewed focus" on software quality and customer experience. The announcement and an accompanying video from Sonos CEO Patrick Spence come as Sonos tries to ameliorate the negative experience customers have had with the May Sonos app update.


Going forward, Sonos says that it isn't just going to fix its app mistake, but also build a better Sonos experience. To that end, Sonos made seven pledges:
  • Unwavering focus on customer experience with ambitious quality benchmarks, and a promise to not launch products that don't meet the standards customers expect.
  • More stringent pre-launch testing with a broader range of customers to resolve issues before new software comes out.
  • No more all-at-once app releases. Any new major changes to the Sonos app will be released gradually, and customers will be able to opt-in to test new features before they become default.
  • There will be a new Quality Ombudsperson role that will give employees a clear path to raise concerns regarding quality and customer experience.
  • Home speaker products currently under warranty will have their warranty extended for an additional year.
  • App updates will come every two to four weeks to "optimize and enhance" the app experience. This includes after the current issues are fixed.
  • Sonos is establishing a Customer Advisory Board to provide feedback and insights from a customer perspective to shape and improve products before they launch.
Sonos says that its Executive Leadership Team will not accept any bonus payout for the October 2024 to September 2025 fiscal year unless Sonos is able to improve the quality of the app and rebuild customer trust.

According to Sonos, more than 80 percent of the missing features from the app have now been reintroduced, and the company expects to be at close to 100 percent in the coming weeks.

Recent reports have suggested that Sonos employees raised an alarm prior to when the redesigned Sonos app launched in May. The app was an immediate disappointment to customers because it was riddled with bugs and missing many key Sonos features, and there was significant outcry over the downgrade. Sonos was not able to roll back the changes, and has spent 2024 trying to fix the app.

Sonos has delayed new product launches to focus on software, and as a result, will miss its annual revenue target by $200 million.

Article Link: Sonos Promises to Recommit to Software Quality and Customer Experience After App Disaster
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/10/01/sonos-customer-service-software-quality/
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  • Unwavering focus on customer experience with ambitious quality benchmarks, and a promise to not launch products that don't meet the standards customers expect.
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I think being overly ambitious was what got us into this quagmire in the first place. I would much rather hear discussion of pragmatic quality benchmarks.

Alas, this is all just PR mumbo jumbo and nothing of actual substance.
 
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My only experience with Sonos is resetting the speakers to sell them, but even that experience wasn’t very good. It was so confusing for no good reason. Made me never want to get any for myself.
 
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Too late. There’s no telling the company won’t just go back to its antics once it hits its financial targets again. Without a change in executive leadership this is just temporary lip service.

All you have to do is browse the Sonos subreddit and you’ll see what’s really going on here. No one trusts the CEO anymore and the company's reputation has gone straight into the garbage.

When a company makes decisions like this only after it’s in shambles, it’s already shown its true colors.
 
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goonie4life9 said:
Good on Sonos for realizing that their employees want to do good work and that customers will support good work!
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Good on them? The only reason they are even coming out and doing this is because they released a trash app despite the fact that their employees warned them.

They are essentially saying two things: "We know we broke a lot of your expensive speakers with our terrible app and sorry about that" and "We continually ignored our employees regarding releasing garbage onto the public. But since the public is leaving us we will now acknowledge our employees."

Yes I think its good they are at least doing these things, but the fact that they weren't doing them in the first place simply shows they didn't particularly value their customers or their employees.
 
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you can tell by the way he delivers that prepared speech that that guy himself is the biggest part of the problem.

i have never seen a worse example of a corporate apology / we messed up.

1 he comes across as arrogant
2 he doesn't come across as actually sorry
3 the changes that he talks about are patently surface level and perfunctory (he talks about an ombudsman who will give two reports a year, etctera)
4 he doesn't actually take the blame himself, rather blames it on the organisation

in short, nothing has or will change at sonos. and it will happen again, but they will try to have better PR next time.

universities will be using this video in classes for years to come as how to not make a corporate apology.
 
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MN7119 said:
I might be the minority here but nothing is wrong with my Sonos system after the app update. It works like it worked before.
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Same here (the new app actually works better for me when I occasionally use it). But it's also screwed up so many others users that I honestly don't think it's being badly exaggerated or anything. They really missed the mark.
 
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Too late. Already sold all my Sonos gear. Maybe next time they will think a little harder about keeping customers happy and not the stock investors.

Edit: It wasn’t just the app debacle. It was also Sonos deciding to sell user data among other things. I actually made a profit on my used gear.
 
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MacRumors said:
Sonos says that its Executive Leadership Team will not accept any bonus payout for the October 2024 to September 2025 fiscal year unless Sonos is able to improve the quality of the app and rebuild customer trust.
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Shouldn't have have already been foregone due to the cluster that was the recent release?

So far this year has been a net negative. Why should they get a bonus for merely getting back on track after the self initiatted disaster?
 
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