Sonos is working to recover from the negative impact of its troubled app relaunch earlier this year, which caused major frustrations for users and led to significant internal challenges for the company. In an effort to rebuild trust with customers, Sonos has outlined a detailed plan that includes frequent app updates, enhanced transparency, and extended product warranties.
The company’s app overhaul in May, intended to accompany the release of its new Ace headphones, backfired as the app was launched with numerous bugs and missing critical features. This misstep led to widespread customer dissatisfaction, delayed product launches, and the layoff of more than 100 employees. Sonos is now responding with a multi-part recovery strategy to fix the app’s issues and rebuild relationships with its loyal customer base.
In a statement, Sonos CEO Patrick Spence acknowledged the company’s mistakes, stating that the priority has been, and continues to be, fixing the app. He highlighted the company’s commitment to learning from its errors and making improvements to ensure that Sonos remains a trusted brand known for its high-quality home audio systems.
Focus on Product Quality
To address the app’s problems, Sonos has made seven key commitments. Central to these is a renewed focus on improving the customer experience. The company plans to set higher quality standards early in the product development process and avoid releasing new products until they meet those benchmarks.
To support this, Sonos will appoint a quality ombudsperson, who will act as a liaison between employees and executives, addressing concerns about product quality and the customer experience. This ombudsperson will provide regular reports to company leadership to ensure ongoing improvements.
Longer and Broader Testing
Sonos is also expanding its beta testing program to include more users and extend testing periods, with the goal of catching and addressing issues earlier in the development cycle. Additionally, the company will gradually roll out major app updates, allowing for user feedback and adjustments before wider implementation. Minor updates will be available as opt-in features, giving customers the chance to test new functions on an experimental basis.
New Warranty Terms and User Feedback
As part of its efforts to restore customer trust, Sonos is extending the manufacturer warranty for all home speaker products, including home theater gear and plug-in speakers, that are still under warranty. The company is also committing to releasing app updates every two to four weeks to improve and optimize the user experience, even after the current issues are resolved.
A significant part of Sonos’ recovery plan involves setting up a Customer Advisory Board. This board will allow users to give direct feedback on software and product development, helping shape future releases. This approach is designed to ensure that Sonos stays responsive to its customer base and addresses their concerns more effectively.
Sonos Ties Leadership Incentives to App Performance
In a move to hold itself accountable, Sonos has linked its executive leadership team’s bonuses for the fiscal year 2024-2025 to the success of these recovery efforts. Executives will not receive their bonuses unless the company can significantly improve the quality of the app and rebuild customer trust. However, Sonos has not yet clarified the specific metrics it will use to measure success in these areas.
Sonos has already made progress in fixing the app, restoring more than 80 percent of the missing features, with nearly all of them expected to return in the coming weeks. The company also claims that the app’s reliability and speed have improved with each update. However, the company’s missteps have had a lasting impact, resulting in delays for two product releases and an estimated cost of between $20 million and $30 million to resolve the issues caused by the flawed app rollout.
Featured Image courtesy of David Paul Morris/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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