Sonos has been struggling to regain the trust of its customers after its disastrous launch of a new version of the app.
After initially doubling down on the new app, the company’s CEO later apologized for it, and he has now made seven promises about how Sonos will operate going forward. This includes giving all products currently under warranty an additional year of coverage, but customers don’t seem too impressed …
A quick recap on the mess
Back in May, Sonos launched the company’s first headphones, the Ace, intended to compete with AirPods Max. The app needed to be updated to support these, and the company decided to use it as an opportunity for a ground-up rebuild, launching a completely new app just ahead of the launch.
That did not go well. Customers were upset at the company removing much-loved features, and many owners of older Sonos speakers experienced connection problems and lag. Given that the whole idea of Sonos is an Apple-esque It Just Works, customers were understandably angry at the company – even more so when it turned out to break accessibility too.
Sonos initially downplayed the complaints, but CEO Patrick Spence subsequently emailed customers to apologize, and provide a timeline for fixes.
Sonos makes seven promises
Sonos made seven commitments in a blog post and video (below) by Spence.
- Unwavering Focus on Customer Experience
- Increasing the Stringency of Pre-Launch Testing
- Approaching Change with Humility
- Appointing a Quality Ombudsperson
- Extending Our Home Speaker Warranties
- Relentless App Improvement
- Establishing a Customer Advisory Board
Spence said his bonus would depend on keeping these promises.
As a demonstration of the significance of these commitments, the Sonos Executive Leadership Team will not accept any annual bonus payout for the October 2024 – September 2025 fiscal year unless the company succeeds in improving the quality of the app experience and rebuilding customer trust.
Customers don’t seem impressed
However, comments on the YouTube video suggest that customers aren’t particularly impressed, with many calling for him to step down.
“Isn’t the “root-cause” of this problems the one talking in the video?!?”
“Come on Patrick, ‘Forgo the bonus unless you fix what you broke’, you should have been sacked mate. Anyone else who damaged a company this much wouldn’t be around. Sounds like ‘top down’ dictatorship where you pushed for speed… You ignored everyone and did it anyway to get some disappointing headphones out.”
“C’mon man. Just forgo the bonus for the year without the “unless”. You’ll be fine.”
“Dude, you fired half your workforce just because you made terrible decisions. That’s embarrassing.”
“How are you still at Sonos? Can’t even imagine the horrible workplace culture/experience you put employees through to get to this point. I understand that you surely have a balloon payment clause in your contract which kept the board from dropping you, but wouldn’t that be pennies on the dollar compared to letting you make things worse (based on your track history). Lastly, HOW could you possibly deserve a bonus? Do you mean a pink slip?”
“Sonos, your new app is badly designed, even if it wasn’t a buggy mess. You completely misunderstand your core customer base if you think a yippy/zippy drawer-tastic sugar-baby bubble app is what boring music fans want. Even if you fix the bugs, we’re left with a ad-laden, popup-tastic app-of-the-week mess. Heck, I can be 5 drawers deep, mis-click back once, and everything goes away. Your app design SUCKS.”
“Spence — RESIGN Take accountability and fix the culture by leaving. Stop treating your customers and the media like morons.”
Screengrab: Sonos
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