Sonos, Customer Backlash, Reddit, and a Guy Named Keith
It’s been a tough few months for the speaker company Sonos. A redesign of their app in spring caused outrage from consumers and major headaches for the brand. So when a friend tipped me off to the r/Sonos subreddit filled with 261,000 angry people, I braced for impact. Yes, I found the expected complaints—but I also noticed that the community really like an employee named Keith.
KeithFromSonos is a Sonos employee who is very active in the r/Sonos subreddit and has somehow won over customers in a particularly tumultuous time for the brand. It’s hard for me to not use jargon here, but he shows up as a customer and not like a brand mouthpiece. When it was announced two months ago that Sonos had a big round of layoffs, someone commented “KeithFromSonos - you still around?”, he replied with a Weekend at Bernies GIF. It was upvoted 788 times. (He, of course, then posted a thoughtful note.) And when Keith isn’t solving user issues, he might be recommending his favorite A24 movies or writing paragraphs about why he loves the r/Sonos community.
Importantly, the r/Sonos community loves Keith back. One comment that stuck out was, “Keith- you’re amazing, and I’m sure it isn’t easy showing up here on the regular. We- well, at least I, have been pretty openly hostile about your employer. It isn’t easy to face that for your job, and you do it well.” The nice comments about Keith are essentially surrounded by the most blazing roasts of a company you’ve ever read.
