App Calamity: Sonos CEO Leaves Door Open To Executive Bonuses

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The fallout from Sonos’ disastrous May release of an automated “all-at-once” app update – which crashed services – has culminated in the mother of all apologies, with CEO Patrick Spence promising the company will display “humility” into the future.

Spence’s self-flagellation tour is probably not over, but a statement from Sonos says “the company promises new standards and pledges to continue rebuilding trust”.

“Our priority since its release has been – and continues to be – fixing the app,” says Spence. “There were missteps, and we first went deep to understand how we got here, and then moved to convert those learnings into action.

“We are committed to making changes to get us back to being the brand people love … We must always do right by our customers, and I am confident that, with these commitments, we will.”

Given that absolutely nobody was talking about executive bonuses at Sonos, it’s perhaps passing strange that Spence raised them at all in his statement, and kept the door open to execs copping a bag of extra lolly. 

 

Patrick Spence Sonos App Calamity: Sonos CEO Leaves Door Open To Executive Bonuses
Patrick Spence.

 

He says executives would forgo bonuses “unless the company succeeds in improving the quality of the app experience and rebuilding customer trust”.

It’s not known whether the company will decide that for itself, or let customers do the marking.

Spence says Sonos has been releasing new software updates approximately every two weeks, and that “more than 80 per cent of the app’s missing features have been reintroduced”.

He claimed the app would be 100 per cent restored “in the coming weeks”, and that the reliability and speed of the app had improved with each release.

Sonos announced seven new “commitments”:

  1. Establish ambitious quality benchmarks at the outset of product development and will not launch products before meeting these criteria. 
  2. Increase the stringency of pre-launch testing phases. Beta testing programs will include more types of customers and more diverse setups for a longer testing period.
  3. Demonstrate humility when introducing changes. “In contrast to the all-at-once automated app release we issued in May, any major change to the Sonos app will be released gradually … For new features smaller in scope, we will introduce an opt-in experimental features option …”
  4. Appoint a Quality Ombudsperson. “This new role will ensure our employees have a clear path to escalate any concerns in terms of quality and customer experience. This person will be consulted by executive leadership throughout the development process and before any product launches. In this role, the ombudsperson will guarantee transparency and publish a report to management and employees twice per year, and will present regularly to the Sonos board of directors”.
  5. Extend home speaker warranties by one year for all home theatre and plug-in speaker products currently under warranty.
  6. Improve the app experience with regular software upgrades every two to four weeks.
  7. Establish a Customer Advisory Board. 

“Many of these initiatives are already underway and others will be implemented through the remainder of the year,” Sonos says.

For long-suffering customers, it remains to be seen if this is just crisis PR and window dressing, or whether Sonos has genuinely turned a corner.

Screen Shot 2024 10 10 at 10.14.09 am App Calamity: Sonos CEO Leaves Door Open To Executive Bonuses
Sonos stock price over five years.

Spence, who is CEO and sits on the board of directors for Sonos, joined the company as Chief Commercial Officer in 2012. He was appointed CEO in January 2017.

After reaching a low of US$8.45 per share in March 2020, Sonos stocks soared to a high of US$43.41 in April 2021, before starting a long slide. On January 2, 2024, it was trading at $16.68, and since then has fallen to US$11.72.

ChannelNews has covered the Sonos woes in depth. You can read our coverage here.

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