If you’ve been understandably frustrated by the Sonos app debacle that cause so many sound systems to fail for the better part of a year, Sonos has plans to fix things henceforth.
A good lesson in what not to do when releasing updates, this year’s Sonos app debacle has been just that: a debacle of mammoth proportions. What was originally aimed at being a reinvention of the Sonos app turned into a repair job in the biggest possible way.
May turned into a nightmare for most customers as the name behind innovation in the home speaker and multiroom audio space suddenly needed to go on damage control to make things work once again.
Bugs, bugs, and more bugs, as customers who had invested hundreds to thousands of dollars in a Sonos-specific system were left wondering when everything would go back to normal once more.
It’s been an interesting few months as Sonos rushed to repair things, with the CEO even taking the step to apologise recently, delivering a timeline for the return of features that never should have been removed in the first place.
This week, Sonos has noted what it will do henceforth beyond an apology, and some of that actually includes what the company says is humility. Specifically, Sonos plans to let customers adjust and provide feedback before features become the norm for everyone.
In short, you won’t have updates forced on you before they’re rolled out, which could improve compatibility for everyone moving forward.
At the same time, Sonos will have more testing, more focus on the customer experience, and will appoint a “Quality Ombudsman” to make sure employees have someone they can escalate problems to.
For customers, though, one of the bigger fixes for this year’s shenanigans will come in the form of warranties. Simply put, Sonos is extending the manufacturer’s warranty by one year for home theatre and plug-in speakers currently under warranty. It sounds like it’s at least one way to help excuse some of the year’s problems, even if it still doesn’t quite solve the frustrations of customers for the app.
“Our priority since its release has been – and continues to be – fixing the app,” said Patrick Spence, CEO of Sonos.
“There were missteps, and we first went deep to understand how we got here, and then moved to convert those learnings into action,” he said.
“We are committed to making changes to get us back to being the brand people love by offering the best audio system for the home and beyond. We must always do right by our customers, and I am confident that, with these commitments, we will.”
According to Sonos, more than 80 percent of the app’s missing features have been restored since the broken release, with an expectation of a 100 percent restoration in the coming weeks.
