Sonos Staff

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Our New Quality and Customer Experience Commitments

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Hi all,

We’ve been sharing app updates with you all over the last several months, and today we wanted to share commitments that we are announcing following our internal review of the app release in May of this year. In addition to all we have been doing to get you back to enjoying your Sonos products, these commitments will drive us to emerge from this with an even stronger commitment to quality. You can read highlights of the commitments below, and read more here: www.sonos.com/commitments.

To address the root causes of the problems of the app release, we commit to:

Unwavering focus on the customer experience. To deliver the highest level of customer experience, we will always establish ambitious quality benchmarks at the start of product development. We will not launch products until they meet these criteria. We will also enhance the tools needed to measure and maintain the standards our customers expect.
Increase the stringency of our pre-launch testing phases. Our beta testing program will include a broader range of customers and more diverse setups, helping us diagnose and resolve issues faster before going to market.
Demonstrate humility when introducing changes. In contrast to the all-at-once automated app release we issued in May, any major change to the Sonos app will be released gradually, allowing customers to adjust and provide feedback before it becomes the default. For new features smaller in scope, we will introduce an opt-in experimental features option in the app for customers who would like to participate in testing them.
Appoint a Quality Ombudsperson. This new role will ensure our employees have a clear path to escalate any concerns in terms of quality and customer experience. This person will be consulted by executive leadership throughout the development process and before any product launches. In this role, the ombudsperson will guarantee transparency and publish a report to management and employees twice per year, and will present regularly to the Sonos board of directors.

In addition, we are also committing to the following to begin to regain your trust:

Extend our home speaker warranties. To reflect our strong belief in the quality of our products, we will extend the manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year for all home theater and plug-in speaker products currently under warranty.
Relentlessly improve the app experience with regular software upgrades. We will continue to roll out updated mobile software versions every 2-4 weeks to optimize and enhance the app experience, even after the current issues are fully resolved.
Establish a Customer Advisory Board. We will form a Customer Advisory Board to ensure we never lose sight of our customers' voices. This board will provide feedback and insights from a customer perspective to help shape and improve our software and products before they are launched.

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.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Thanks for all of your support and patience the last several months - we’re excited to move forward and get you back to enjoying the quality that Sonos is known for.

Your Sonos team.

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W

Warsh

Lyricist I

So many words from Sonos execs. But it’s hard to forgive them for one of the most customer UNfriendly moves in a very, very long time. CEO should have been sacked.

D

Dust

Lyricist II

Lets see it then talk is cheap.

B

Bart12314

Lyricist III

The changes seem to be around moving the entire ecosystem to the cloud. Removing local network access and routing all streaming services through the Sonos cloud.

Is Sonos going to collect and monitize (now or in the future) user listening activity?
Will users have the option to use Sonos on a non internet connected network?
What if the internet goes out, will I be able to use my Sonos system locally, from a local music folder?
What if the Sonos cloud goes down? Will streaming services still work?
Has there been a security audit of the Sonos cloud? Will you produce thouse results?
Why does the Sonos cloud not use 2FA?

I quote you once more, Sonos, please response on these questions.

D

Dust

Lyricist II

Hi all,

We’ve been sharing app updates with you all over the last several months, and today we wanted to share commitments that we are announcing following our internal review of the app release in May of this year. In addition to all we have been doing to get you back to enjoying your Sonos products, these commitments will drive us to emerge from this with an even stronger commitment to quality. You can read highlights of the commitments below, and read more here: www.sonos.com/commitments.

To address the root causes of the problems of the app release, we commit to:

Unwavering focus on the customer experience. To deliver the highest level of customer experience, we will always establish ambitious quality benchmarks at the start of product development. We will not launch products until they meet these criteria. We will also enhance the tools needed to measure and maintain the standards our customers expect.
Increase the stringency of our pre-launch testing phases. Our beta testing program will include a broader range of customers and more diverse setups, helping us diagnose and resolve issues faster before going to market.
Demonstrate humility when introducing changes. In contrast to the all-at-once automated app release we issued in May, any major change to the Sonos app will be released gradually, allowing customers to adjust and provide feedback before it becomes the default. For new features smaller in scope, we will introduce an opt-in experimental features option in the app for customers who would like to participate in testing them.
Appoint a Quality Ombudsperson. This new role will ensure our employees have a clear path to escalate any concerns in terms of quality and customer experience. This person will be consulted by executive leadership throughout the development process and before any product launches. In this role, the ombudsperson will guarantee transparency and publish a report to management and employees twice per year, and will present regularly to the Sonos board of directors.

In addition, we are also committing to the following to begin to regain your trust:

Extend our home speaker warranties. To reflect our strong belief in the quality of our products, we will extend the manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year for all home theater and plug-in speaker products currently under warranty.
Relentlessly improve the app experience with regular software upgrades. We will continue to roll out updated mobile software versions every 2-4 weeks to optimize and enhance the app experience, even after the current issues are fully resolved.
Establish a Customer Advisory Board. We will form a Customer Advisory Board to ensure we never lose sight of our customers' voices. This board will provide feedback and insights from a customer perspective to help shape and improve our software and products before they are launched.

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.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Thanks for all of your support and patience the last several months - we’re excited to move forward and get you back to enjoying the quality that Sonos is known for.

Your Sonos team.

Baloney! I am returning $2,000 worth of Sonos equipment tomorrow because the app foes not work.

Update: Just so you know I wasn’t bluffing, I have returned all my Sonos equipment for a refund and deleted this dreadful app. I spent untold hours restarting every piece of hardware in my house including WiFi routers, TV and all Sonos speakers. I was able to get it to recognize the Arc and Sub3 but it would never run Trueplay. I compared the sound to my 47 hear old BIC Venturi II speakers. The BICs won.

D

DaveS00

Lyricist III

That's a lot of arm waving without saying much.

Try delivering as promised and on time. For example, zero mention of "TrueCinema” on the Ace since the feature was discussed live in June with plan to rollout by the end of July. Today's October 1st....

It’s software - you can eitehr have iterative improvements, or features delivered in an unready state to the original timescale. It may not seem good - but that is a software reality. You can’t just throe more people at software probelsm - you just get a bigger crash crash :)

B

BrianJG

Enthusiast II

Hi all,

We’ve been sharing app updates with you all over the last several months, and today we wanted to share commitments that we are announcing following our internal review of the app release in May of this year. In addition to all we have been doing to get you back to enjoying your Sonos products, these commitments will drive us to emerge from this with an even stronger commitment to quality. You can read highlights of the commitments below, and read more here: www.sonos.com/commitments.

To address the root causes of the problems of the app release, we commit to:

Unwavering focus on the customer experience. To deliver the highest level of customer experience, we will always establish ambitious quality benchmarks at the start of product development. We will not launch products until they meet these criteria. We will also enhance the tools needed to measure and maintain the standards our customers expect.
Increase the stringency of our pre-launch testing phases. Our beta testing program will include a broader range of customers and more diverse setups, helping us diagnose and resolve issues faster before going to market.
Demonstrate humility when introducing changes. In contrast to the all-at-once automated app release we issued in May, any major change to the Sonos app will be released gradually, allowing customers to adjust and provide feedback before it becomes the default. For new features smaller in scope, we will introduce an opt-in experimental features option in the app for customers who would like to participate in testing them.
Appoint a Quality Ombudsperson. This new role will ensure our employees have a clear path to escalate any concerns in terms of quality and customer experience. This person will be consulted by executive leadership throughout the development process and before any product launches. In this role, the ombudsperson will guarantee transparency and publish a report to management and employees twice per year, and will present regularly to the Sonos board of directors.

In addition, we are also committing to the following to begin to regain your trust:

Extend our home speaker warranties. To reflect our strong belief in the quality of our products, we will extend the manufacturer’s warranty by an additional year for all home theater and plug-in speaker products currently under warranty.
Relentlessly improve the app experience with regular software upgrades. We will continue to roll out updated mobile software versions every 2-4 weeks to optimize and enhance the app experience, even after the current issues are fully resolved.
Establish a Customer Advisory Board. We will form a Customer Advisory Board to ensure we never lose sight of our customers' voices. This board will provide feedback and insights from a customer perspective to help shape and improve our software and products before they are launched.

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.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. Thanks for all of your support and patience the last several months - we’re excited to move forward and get you back to enjoying the quality that Sonos is known for.

Your Sonos team.

This is all meaningless. Nothing has improved for many of your users. I have pretty much given up on using Sonos for anything other than a white noise speaker beside my bed. The rest of the system I bought is basically useless now with this painfully bad app. I’ll probably give it away and buy something else that actually works, since Sonos still hasn’t fixed the problems it created back in May. Can’t import playlists, painfully bad controls, and it’s painfully difficult to create new playlists. It’s impossible to get help from Sonos due to ridiculous wait times. I can’t even just Bluetooth to my phone as it keeps losing the connection. All of the features we had prior to May are just gone. I have tried to get help online or on the phone numerous times but cannot get through. “Level 2 support” is scheduled one day at a time two weeks in advance. So I don’t believe Sonos has a relentless new focus on customer experience.

K

kevinboardley

Enthusiast I

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.

PATHETIC

They will easily demonstrate improving the quality of the app so that they get their (undeserved) rewards. They could claim success on that already given the absolute mess of an app resulting from their commercial decisions. And how exactly will they measure the ‘rebuilding of customer trust’? Who will measure it? Will they contact each and every one of their customers? Not a chance.

This whole debacle is caused by the model that prioritises shareholders as the ONLY stakeholders in any business. On which of course, CEO pay and benefits are based. I might be convinced if the announcement had said that no bonuses will be taken until 3 years AFTER all the functions that were broken are independently verified as working satisfactorily for at least 95% of their customers. Even better, that there would be salary/bonus penalties applied until such validation.

That way we would know that the directors/CEOs are actually feeling some pain in a place where they understand it. They might then start to see that their customers are an important stakeholder too and behave accordingly! Until that happens expect more of the same, veiled by ever more corporate waffle and obfuscation aimed solely at protecting market share.

K

kevinboardley

Enthusiast I

That's a lot of arm waving without saying much.

Try delivering as promised and on time. For example, zero mention of "TrueCinema” on the Ace since the feature was discussed live in June with plan to rollout by the end of July. Today's October 1st....

It’s software - you can eitehr have iterative improvements, or features delivered in an unready state to the original timescale. It may not seem good - but that is a software reality. You can’t just throe more people at software probelsm - you just get a bigger crash crash :)

That’s why they should not have taken the decisions they did to release the update that was not ready….isn’t it? Why not stop making excuses for them and instead expect them to behave like a company that understands how to provide the products and service they have sold?

K

kevinboardley

Enthusiast I

So many words from Sonos execs. But it’s hard to forgive them for one of the most customer UNfriendly moves in a very, very long time. CEO should have been sacked.

Yes, even better. But they would just go on to another company and continue to be totally focused on extracing value in the same way. That’s how most corporations have been behaving for nigh on 30 years.

K

kevinboardley

Enthusiast I

“Redesigning the Sonos app is an ambitious undertaking that represents just how seriously we are committed to invention and re-invention,” said chief product officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin. “It takes courage to rebuild a brand’s core product from the ground up, and to do so knowing it may require taking a few steps back to ultimately leap into the future.”

[https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/9/24152675/sonos-new-app-bad-reviews-response-statement]

A bit too ambitious maybe. Or along with courage, did it also need expertise and consideration for your customers? Maybe a focus on customer service rather than Sonos share prices (read: Exective Team pay and bonuses).

“A few steps back..” that you chose to hide from your existing customers and no doubt still aim to hide from potential new customers.

If I bought this system now and the app was working as it is (i.e. not working in so many erratic ways) I would have taken it straight back. There must be a lot of new custom disappearing for Sonos in that way.

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