Sonos' apology tour continues with new commitments

Sonos didn't have the best 2024 as the company took a clumsy approach to revamping its app. After several apologies, the smart speaker maker makes a bigger statement, this time trying to convince users that it will move on in the interests of its customers.

The whole affair started in April with the announcement of the release of the revamped iOS controller app on May 7th. The app redesign aimed to optimize access to content, shrinking the home screen and removing tabs in favor of a single-page approach.

Since then, Sonos has attempted to apologize to offended consumers, culminating in a new page on its website and a YouTube video.

The page, titled “Recommitting to Quality and Customer Experience,” is a lengthy admission that they have let customers down. There is then a lot of insistence that everything will be okay next time and in the future.

“We failed when our new app version did not meet the promised standards,” the site says. It then claims that Sonos “spent time listening to our customers and employees, learning from our mistakes and taking action.”

The page goes on to describe “new commitments to demonstrate our renewed focus on software quality, customer experience and delivering the excellence you deserve from Sonos.”

This opening speech is then accompanied by a three-minute video in which CEO Patrick Spence speaks directly to the camera about the commitments. For an apology video, it has all the gravitas of starting a redemption tour in notes with a screencap posted on X.

Sonos is unveiling seven new commitments and initiatives that the company hopes will regain customer trust. Some will hopefully avoid Sonos making the changes that led to the PR mess in the first place.

At the forefront is an “unwavering focus on customer experience,” which involves only releasing products to market once they meet the quality benchmarks set at the start of product development.

This will be followed by “increasing the rigor of pre-launch testing,” which will include “a broader range of customers and more diverse setups.”

The third part, “Approaching Change with Humility,” sounds a little sloppy, but in reality Sonos says major changes are made gradually. This means there is a greater chance of getting customer feedback before the changes become standard.

This is relevant because amid the app turmoil, Spence admitted that the app could not be restored to an earlier and more user-friendly state. Apparently, Sonos had gone too far in adapting various elements of the software for a reversal to be possible.

Sonos customers with hardware within warranty will receive an additional year as an apology.

The fourth obligation, “appointment of a quality ombudsperson,” sounds important, but could easily not be as useful. A new quality ombudsperson role will be created, “ensuring employees have a clear path to raise concerns about quality and customer experience.”

This person will report directly to senior management, publish reports twice a year and “present to the Sonos board on a regular basis.” Whether the board and leadership actually listen to complaints is, of course, another matter.

The remaining commitments are intended to help regain consumer trust. The first and easiest option is to extend the manufacturer's warranty for one year on all existing home theater and speaker products covered by the warranty.

Sonos promises “Relentless App Improvement” for the app, with updates to the app every two to four weeks. This is planned “even if the current problems have been completely solved”.

A customer advisory board will also be established that will “provide feedback and insights from the customer perspective.” Again, this will only work if leadership actually listens to complaints.

In order for Sonos' management to truly learn from its mistakes, there is also a financial component. The site adds that the Sonos Executive Leadership Team “will not accept an annual bonus payout for the October 2024 to September 2025 fiscal year.”

This is not a complete bonus blackout as there is a massive caveat. You will continue to receive rewards if “the company succeeds in improving the quality of the app experience and rebuilding customer trust.”

In fact, Sonos boasts that “more than 80% of the app's missing features have been reintroduced, and the company expects to restore nearly 100% of them in the coming weeks.”

Considering Sonos releases app updates and fixes every few weeks and practically bribes customers with an extended warranty, these bonuses won't be long in coming. Especially because it can define the limit that must be reached for the withdrawals.

The latest in Sonos' ongoing apology tour, the actions are in line with what you'd expect a major company to do to consumers. It goes beyond a simple apology and is a very big declaration that things will get better in the future.

However, it took over four months to reach this point. Normally one would expect a company to make such an offer within weeks, if not days, of the discovery of wrongdoing.

We've been waiting for Sonos to fix the app for months and it's still not ready. Even Sonos admits this.

Even the promise that superiors will not receive bonuses has a lot of scope. It seems like a penalty, but one that can easily be avoided so that the top people still get their money.

It's Sonos' biggest apology yet, but it remains to be seen whether the promises are serious or just for show. At the moment we are betting on the latter.