Will loyal SONOS customers forgive a 'planned obsolescence' messaging mishap?
I love my SONOS products. SONOS is to whole home sound what Spotify is to content delivery. Sound quality is high, products integrate with ease and the app interfaces are intuitive and elegant. SONOS continually improved the customer experience and it's been one of my most satisfying purchases by far.
So it was completely out of character for SONOS to send me an email last week advising that "In May the following products in your system will be classified as legacy and no longer receive software updates and new features. This will affect your listening experience."
Wait, what?
My options were to continue using the product with "...disrupt[ed] access to services and overall functionality." or buy new stuff at 30% off.
You can imagine that this did not go over well with me, and based on the follow-up email delivered Friday by SONOS CEO Patrick Spence I wasn't alone.
In his apology note titled "All SONOS products will continue to work past May." Patrick falls on SONOS' collective sword. He starts by admitting that "We heard you. We did not get this right from the start." and goes on to describe a far more customer-centric path forward that will allow legacy products to carry on with (near) uninterrupted service and to coexist with new products.
Well that's a little more like it...but the damage is done.
The reaction came not a moment too soon. The tone is apologetic and humble. The proposed solution is far more appropriate for customers who have made a significant investment in legacy products that still function at a high level.
This lesson is one that we have learned many times...so why do companies keep making the same mistake? Why do they not view the world through the eyes of their customers?
Ignore the customer at your peril. The loyal customer base that took SONOS a decade to create could evaporate with one click of a send button.
My question for SONOS is "How could you let this happen?" How could this message be delivered without a red flag being raised? Or was it raised and ignored? If your team did not understand that this would upset customers, that's a grave concern. If they did understand, and they ignored it...well that's unforgivable.
Will loyal customers forgive SONOS? Only time will tell.