Sonos announces major commitments to win back the trust of its customers
Sonos mobile app | Image credit: Sonos
Sonos is the best example of how bad management and lack of communication with customers can destroy a company. The release of a new app that moved almost all the core features and functionality into the cloud proved to be almost fatal for Sonos, a company that’s now struggling to fix the issues and regain the customers’ trust at the same time.
In an attempt to prevent even more customers to switch to other products, Sonos recently published a public roadmap for its new app, which shows in advance what users can expect to get in the foreseeable future.
Earlier this week, Sonos announced new commitments “to show our renewed focus on software quality, customer experience, and delivering the excellence you deserve from Sonos.”
If you’re still using Sonos products on a daily basis and hope that the company will end up fixing the app sooner rather than later, then read on because here is what’s going to happen.
First off, all the commitments announced by Sonos this week focus on addressing the root cause of the app release issues, as well as on winning back the trust of its customers.
The first thing reiterated by Sonos is that the company will not launch new products until they meet the highest level of customer experience. Sonos also promises to enhance the tools needed to measure and maintain the standards customers expect.
Secondly, Sonos announced that its beta testing program will include a broader range of customer and more diverse setups, which will allow the company to diagnose and resolve issues faster.
More importantly, Sonos revealed that going forward, any major change to the Sonos app will be released gradually, allowing customers to adjust and provide feedback before it becomes the default. The company will also offer customers the option to opt in to test new features.
Apart from the commitments above, which focus on fixing the app, Sonos also announced some commitments that are meant to regain the trust of its customers.
Sonos mobile app | Image credit: Sonos
In a surprising turn of events, Sonos announced that it’s extending the manufacturer’s warranties by an additional year for all home theater and plug-in speaker products currently under warranty.
The company also promised to continue to roll out software updates every 2-4 weeks to optimize and enhance the app experience, even after the current issues are addressed in full.
Finally, Sonos says that its 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 regain the trust of its customers.
All Sonos customers can track the progress of each release or specific improvements via the Sonos app improvement and bug tracker on Trello.
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