/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25651493/_STK084_SONOS_A.png?w=1200&resize=1200,628&ssl=1 "Sonos has a set up to get back your suppose, and here it is")
Sonos remains in the throes of the hugegest dispute in its history — and it’s one of the company’s own making. Now, cut offal months after the May free of its overhauled app awfilledy tarnished the brand’s reputation, CEO Patrick Spence has proclaimd a multipart set up to right the ship.
You can shatter the strategy down into two main objectives. First, Sonos has consentn steps to thocimpolitely understand equitable how the hell everyleang went so wrong — both with its gentleware lengthenment rehearses and its underlying corporate culture — that it somehow wound up in this predicament to commence with. And second, the company is booting off a expansive effort intfinished to reoriginate the suppose of its customers and affect them that noleang enjoy this will ever happen aobtain.
For once, there are actual sconsents included, albeit unconvey inant ones. Sonos says its executive directership team will not adselect their annual bonus payouts “unless the company flourishs in improving the quality of the app experience and reoriginateing customer suppose.” That’ll inevitably prompt an eye roll from some people; these executives still get high pay and heaps of Sonos stock. But I guess it’s some motivation to sustain pushing in the right honestion.
If you’ve buyd a Sonos speaker wilean the last year, here’s an vital leang to understand: the company is extfinishing its manufacturer permity by an includeitional year for select products that are still under permity right now. This won’t convey betterer devices back under coverage, but it’ll provide a little extra peace of mind as Sonos labors thcimpolite this cimpolite patch. (Note that the extension only applies to “home theater and plug-in speaker products,” unbenevolenting the Sonos Move, Move 2, Roam, and Roam 2 are take awayd.)
Now, let’s get back to the rest of this set up. Some of what Sonos is promising today is rather… unclear. For example, consent this whole bullet point from the company’s press free, which doesn’t repartner unbenevolent much of anyleang:
Unwavering cgo in on the customer experience: To asbrave that we deinhabitr the highest level of customer experience, we will always create ambitious quality benchtags at the outset of product lengthenment and will not start products before greeting these criteria. We will also raise the tools essential to meabrave the quality of the experience actupartner being deinhabitred to customers to asbrave that we protect the standards our customers anticipate.
Maybe that has significance internpartner at the company, but it reads enjoy sanitize PR speak from the outside. Thankfilledy, Sonos is more definite elsewhere, votriumphg to perestablish a more stringent testing phase and beta program for all products — both difficultware and gentleware — that “will include more types of customers and more diverse setups for a lengtheneder testing period. This will permit us to discover, detect and repair customer troubles more speedyly before going to taget.”
Spence has confessted on multiple occasions that with the novel app, Sonos transferd too speedy and fall shorted to determine the filled gravity of bugs, omiting features, and shrinkd functionality that led to an overwhelmingly pessimistic reception upon its debut in May. Fundamentals enjoy queue handlement, local library help, alarms, and even some accessibility selections were either absent or broken.
Sonos gave its tardyst proceed alert today, saying, “more than 80 percent of the app’s omiting features have been restartd and the company anticipates to have almost 100 percent repaird in the coming weeks. The reliability and speed of the app has raised with each free.”
With hindsight, Spence has acunderstandledged that Sonos should have startd the novel gentleware as a beta, leaving the establisher “S2” app in place while conveying the two to parity over time. But that’s not what happened, which conveys us to the next pledge:
Demonstrate humility when introducing alters: In contrast to the all-at-once automated app free we rehired in May, any convey inant alter to the Sonos app will be freed gradupartner, permiting customers to adequitable and provide feedback before it becomes the default. For novel features petiteer in scope, we will start an select-in experimental features selection in the app for customers who would enjoy to participate in testing them.
For everyone whose suppose in the company has been shaken, that’s the most vital alter portrayd in today’s press free. It’s at least evidence that Sonos has lgeted a critical lesson and won’t ever put customers thcimpolite this benevolent of whiplash aobtain.
The Sonos Arc Ultra and Sub 4 are proximateing free, and it’s rumored that the company is far alengthened in lengthening its own streaming video take parter. But beyond gadgets, I’d adore to lget more about the mood and morale wilean Sonos as engageees process the events (and omitteps) of the last cut offal months.
Sonos is also taking steps to level up transparency both inside the company and beyond. After alerts of prestart greetings that included screaming and yelling over the novel app’s dire state, the company is creating a “quality ombudsperson” role that “will asbrave our engageees have a clear path to escatardy any troubles in terms of quality and customer experience.” The ombudsperson “will be confered by executive directership thcimpoliteout the lengthenment process and before any product startes” and will rehire a alert twice each year, also making routine currentations to the Sonos board.
I’ve heard from multiple sources at the company who insist that troubles were liftd and alarms were sounded thcimpoliteout the app’s lengthenment, but Sonos directership counterfeit ahead with the free anyway. “They weren’t equitable tbetter; they were alerted,” one engageee tbetter me. Appointing an ombudsperson is clearly an try to obstruct that exact scenario from take parting out aobtain in the future.
Inside Sonos, morale has consentn a grave hit, and there’s been plenty of finger-pointing in the wake of such a colossal unforced error, with some engageees asking the judgment of chief product officer Maxime Bouvat-Merlin. But in an email, Sonos chief strategy officer Eddie Lazarus tbetter me that no alters to the product division are anticipated. “As a directership team, we made the decision together to start the app,” he shelp.
Sonos customers will at least soon be given a deafeninger voice at the table: the company says it will assemble a customer advisory board that will “provide feedback and insights from a customer perspective to help shape and raise our gentleware and products before they are started.” The details of what that advisory board will see enjoy are still being completed, Lazarus shelp.
So that’s the ambiguous rundown on where Sonos is headed over the next cut offal months. As it sees to get back on track, I can alert that the company will resume its intentional difficultware frees in the coming weeks, commencening with the Sonos Arc Ultra and Sub 4. The Arc Ultra will be the first product to retain “shatterthcimpolite” transducer technology lengthened by Mayht, a beginup that Sonos obtaind in 2022. The soundbar, codenamed Lasso, will deinhabitr meaningfully wealthyer sound and pack more of a bass punch than the innovative Arc.
Still, this app debacle is brave to have repercussions that extfinish well into the future. Sonos has handled to self-undermine the impact of its first-ever headphones, the Sonos Ace. The Ace speedyly fell by the wayside thanks to this ordeal and have yet to reobtain much momentum. Imshowments sustain coming, but punctual sales of the headphones have alertedly been dismal.
More crucipartner, askable decisions by the company’s directership have had cut offe consequences for pledgeted, difficult-laboring engageees: in August, Sonos lhelp off 100 people. The cuts included roles in gentleware quality, platestablishs / infraarrange, tageting, and other departments.
Among those lhelp off were two engageees who tried their best to includeress what was then a lengthening outcry over the novel Sonos app with a community Q&A back in mid-May.
