Sonos Rewards Their Current Customers, What A Concept

Companies today tend to give their newest customers the best deals, leaving the ones who have been supporting them over time to fend for themselves. The phone and cable companies have been the most egregious offenders of this in my view. I’ve been a customer of Cingular and now AT&T since 1994 (that’s 14 years!) and can’t say I ever received anything of value from them. They continue to send me free phone offers, but they know I’ve had an iPhone since day 1 (there’s a picture of it right on the home page of their account servicing site next to my name), Do they really think I would ever switch from a phone I paid $600 for?

Well, I’m happy to report that Sonos sent me an email to today that actually rewarded me. Sonos has been a great product, allowing me to listen to my iTunes music collection all over the house, even outside. They have successfully combined a simple interface and wireless connectivity, and its performed like a trooper for over 2 years.

The communication informed me that a new software version was now available and all I had to do was download it to my Sonos system and they would give me free music, worth $200.

The download process was a bit more cumbersome than I wanted, as I ended up resetting my hand held controller to the factory defaults, which erased all my internet radio favorites and the controller playlists I built over the last two years. A little annoying.

Once that was accomplished, I clicked on the email link to see the details. Of the three offers, two of them pre-selected the music, some of which I had, other selections I didn’t care to have. The third service required a credit card and enrollment in their trial package, but the trade off was you could choose from anything in the catalog. I only took them up on one of the three offers, but that’s not the point. The fact that they demonstrated that my time was valuable, acknowledged that fact and offered me something in return.

It wasn’t a huge benefit, but neither was the amount of time. I found their support of loyal customers to be refreshing, and solidified my link to the brand.