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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areeter

Contributor I

It’s hard to have sympathy for anyone at Sonos. Insiders were selling their stock before this incompetent app was introduced. I’d be more impressed if the people responsible for this mess were fired.

BTW Today’s WSJ’s “Heard on The Street” column addresses a small part of this: “Sonos is Still Reeling From App Fiasco.”

Where’s the sympathy for the customers and stock owners?

Flyboy

A

a9979

Enthusiast II

How about fixing Spotify Playlists? Since May, I’ve only been able to access 50 of my Spotify Playlists using iOS devices, and I’ve read similar complaints MANY times. Most Spotify users can only see their last 50 playlists. Unacceptable. It’s a music playing app and we can’t access our music. Hmmmmm.

N

nousername123456789

Contributor I

Keith, do everyone a favour (and yourselves) and rollback the app to the original!! This new app is garbage. Nothing but problems. Can’t stand it.

sigh

Prodigy II

As @Ian_S says, actions speak louder than words… after the way everything has been handled so far the announcement reads like corporate rearranging the deck chairs than an actual call to action with some real change occurring.

Only time will tell, but occasional announcements and basically requesting patience and loyalty from users who have been on the receiving end of a wall of silence and had their system features downgraded then drip fed back to them in various states of working over the past 5 months isn’t a good starting point for regaining trust.

W

Willyeckerslike

Avid Contributor II

Blah buzzwords blah blah blah.

What interests me with having a non reliable, frustratingly expensive buggy system is..

Increase the stringency of our pre-launch testing phases. Our beta testing program will include a broader range of customers and more diverse setups

Who beta tested the new app? I knew within minutes that it was shocking with my systems not functioning as intended anymore.

L

LoveSonosWhenItWorks

Trending Lyricist I

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.

The overpaid egotistical hacks who run Sonos have pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars over the years and have now slapped a once loyal customer base in face all so you could launch headphones nobody wants.

It's infuriating that they continue to live in luxury after turning our equipment that we paid a lot of money for into a festering pile of detritus that is as reliable as some no-name garbage. Have any of them offered to sacrifice some of their wealth to help fix the problem? Of course not.

Will my speakers ever just work like they did before Sonos created this disaster? God I hope so

S

ScottyAloha

Trending Lyricist I

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.

The overpaid egotistical hacks who run Sonos have pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars over the years and have now slapped a once loyal customer base in face all so you could launch headphones nobody wants.

It's infuriating that they continue to live in luxury after turning our equipment that we paid a lot of money for into a festering pile of detritus that is as reliable as some no-name garbage. Have any of them offered to sacrifice some of their wealth to help fix the problem? Of course not.

Will my speakers ever just work like they did before Sonos created this disaster? God I hope so

Yea. On that note, I got to say that Sonos’ employees are probably not using the brick app that we’re using. You know they’re using the last version as they’re lounging in luxury at their own homes and offices 😂

L

LoveSonosWhenItWorks

Trending Lyricist I

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.

The overpaid egotistical hacks who run Sonos have pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars over the years and have now slapped a once loyal customer base in face all so you could launch headphones nobody wants.

It's infuriating that they continue to live in luxury after turning our equipment that we paid a lot of money for into a festering pile of detritus that is as reliable as some no-name garbage. Have any of them offered to sacrifice some of their wealth to help fix the problem? Of course not.

Will my speakers ever just work like they did before Sonos created this disaster? God I hope so

Yea. On that note, I got to say that Sonos’ employees are probably not using the brick app that we’re using. You know they’re using the last version as they’re lounging in luxury at their own homes and offices 😂

Well the guys at the top probably have the latest gear and probably also have on-call IT support who come to their house to set up their networks. And even down to the mid-level, they probably don't rely on Play1s from 10 years ago. I can't imagine that Patrick Spence is actually unable to change the volume on his speakers or group/ungroup speakers to his heart's content. First rule of testing though is to test on the hardware that the user has, not what you wish they would buy. Maybe they thought we'd all be gullible enough to just upgrade all our hardware and boost their sales.

K

Kumar

Well the guys at the top probably have the latest gear and probably also have on-call IT support who come to their house to set up their networks. And even down to the mid-level, they probably don't rely on Play1s from 10 years ago.

I doubt that Spence uses Sonos for home audio. And yet claimed to have used the new app successfully for some months prior to the May 2024 launch, the app that is still limping along for many users in the real world.

At some time the Board will realise that unless Spence is jettisoned, Sonos cannot regain credibility and customer trust. I am surprised he has been able to cling on till now.

W

Williammurray

Contributor I

Such a shameful implosion of a great product with excellent interface. How could this NOT have been predicted unless those who were warning of dire consequences and had the skills and knowledge to know what they were talking about - just maybe somebody a little higher up in the pecking order stubbornly went ahead anyway…happens in all companies but this move has bricked hundreds of thousands of customers expensive products. The platitudes mentioned are too little too late and are words alone…unless the app dramatically improves my next speaker will NOT BE A SONOS one. Shame as I have 8 already in the house and they cannot talk to each other never mind the app!! My worry is Sonos will go ‘t*ts up’ and the company will cease to exist - should I sell my speakers now? Who would even buy them?? The trello board and planned enhancements (aka essential functions) don’t include the problem I reported this week to Sonos who replied that it is a known issue.

What amongst your mission statements above gives me the most hope? Well..mission statements and trello is something my own company did years ago and we’ve moved on as they didn’t really do a lot other than than give the executives something they could understand when they looked at them ….hmmm? In lieu of a magic wand and a Time Machine, please please show more humility - your home page demonstrates great products and functions which are - in reality - NOT currently working. I want to love you again but it’s you..not me.

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