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Keith N
Sonos Staff
October 1, 2024
News

Our New Quality and Customer Experience Commitments

Related content:Sonos

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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    138 replies

    Prodigy III
    October 1, 2024

    Actions speak louder than words… 

    World-Class Superstar
    October 1, 2024

    Cut the Sonos girls & guys some slack, won't you. They know as well as we do they messed up big time. Now they're trying to make things better. Maybe they'll succeed in gaining back our trust. I for one hope they will, for their hardware still is great. Maybe the app will be great one day also. For the time being, I agree with @Ian_S: actions speak louder than words. Let's wait and see.

    Local Superstar
    October 1, 2024

    They're focusing on getting the App better instead of TrueCinema because only 8 people bought Ace so far. 😉

    Enthusiast I
    October 2, 2024

    I have written to Patrick recently to get clarification on how the company is going to delight us users. The reply was a canned response without answering the question.  
     

    Keith, can you elaborate on what I have to look forward to as a delight? My speakers are already out of warranty, so the extended warranty does not delight me. Engineering just figured out what was wrong with my speakers last week and they are finally working after four months.   Brian

    Stanley_4
    Grand Maestro
    October 2, 2024

    I’ll be looking to see what Sonos is planning to do to improve the Beta testing process and the user experience for folks that join it.

    Sonos will have to discuss that as Beta testers are not allowed to do so.

    Enthusiast II
    October 2, 2024

    The most important commitment Sonos could make to its customers is to resist the urge to fix what ain’t broke. 

    I was completely satisfied with my Sonos system as it was prior to the May shakeup; and contemplated adding a soundbar for my flat panel tv, adding my fourth stereo pair in another room and updating an existing stereo pair of play1 speakers with ERA 100s. 

    And then came chaos. 

    I’ve downloaded the latest version of the iOS app. Other than the ability to save new ‘Sonos playlists,’ I seem to have what I need. A few annoyances remain - returning to the top of the queue rather than to the track currently playing is definitely a pain. But in the main, my system is functional again. Five months later.

    So please, all of you Sonos rocket scientists. Fix some of the remaining bugs. Then leave well enough alone! 

    Lyricist III
    October 2, 2024

    Everything that comes from Sonos at this point just sounds like a load of corporate ********. These ”commitments” means nothing until we see what they actually will make happen. So I won’t get my hopes up just yet. 

     

    Moderator Note: Modified in accordance with the Community Code of Conduct.

    Trending Lyricist I
    October 2, 2024

    Cut the Sonos girls & guys some slack, won't you. They know as well as we do they messed up big time. Now they're trying to make things better. Maybe they'll succeed in gaining back our trust. I for one hope they will, for their hardware still is great. Maybe the app will be great one day also. For the time being, I agree with @Ian_S: actions speak louder than words. Let's wait and see.

    👎🏼

    Trending Lyricist I
    October 2, 2024

    Hi @Keith N, the commitment at https://www.sonos.com/en-us/blog/commitments mentions:

    More than 80% of the app’s missing features have been reintroduced and the company expects to have almost 100% restored in the coming weeks.

    I don't believe Sonos is even close to 50% of the missing features. Please, share with the team this list of pending issues: https://github.com/amp64/sonosbugtracker/issues

    Good list. Plus Besides the complete lack of functionality, sluggishness 2 big things still for me are no EQ from the volume sliders and previous searches just gives you the item you chose not the actual search term used. Again I have to say the entire app is just terrible and honestly feels like sabotage. Unbelievable they cannot/will not tweak the old app and give it back to us if they truly care about customer satisfaction. Most days it is still a brick 🧱 and we have had to setup other systems. Have not, will not purchase any more products and still hope a class action lawsuit is possible as 10k in  hardware is languishing in purgatory. 

    Lyricist I
    October 2, 2024

    Nice