Sonos outlines a plan to win back user trust after its app fiasco

Speaker company Sonos laid out a number of new plans and commitments on Tuesday in an attempt to turn around the beleaguered sound company following a bug-riddled app relaunch in May that’s still impacting the company. The changes mostly focus on creating new avenues for employees and customers to raise concerns, plus more stringent beta testing. The seven commitments include: “unwavering focus on customer experience, increasing the stringency of prelaunch testing, approaching change with humility, appointing a quality ombudsperson, extending our home speaker warranties, relentless app improvement, and establishing a customer advisory board.” Sonos’s executive leadership team will also not receive annual bonus payments for the October 2024 to September 2025 fiscal year unless the company “succeeds in improving the quality of the app experience and rebuilding customer trust.” Sonos in May had rolled out a new version of its app that ended up causing tons of users to have extreme issues with their wireless home-speaker systems. Features that were a staple within the app, like setting speakers at a specific volume level or adding new devices, were missing or broken, according to user complaints. The company’s CEO said during an earnings call with investors in August that fixing the ongoing issues with the mobile app would cost the company roughly $20 million to $30 million. It also laid off 100 employees that same month. “We’re working to ensure we don’t just fix our mistakes but actively build a better Sonos experience for everyone,” the company wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. Sonos said that in terms of progress, many of the initiatives are already underway, while others will roll out throughout the year. More than 80% of the features removed from the app have been restored, it said, and expects to hit 100% in the coming weeks. “We are committed to making Sonos better than ever, and these commitments are just the beginning of that journey,” the company said. There are ways to get around using the Sonos app, which could help antsy users who don’t want to wait for the company to roll out individual fixes. Apple users can lean on Airplay, for example, while Android users can work with AirMusic.