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In a digital-first world, your brand experience isn’t just judged in-store—it’s judged in the palm of your customer’s hand. And nowhere is that judgment more transparent than in public app store reviews.
Recently, Unwrap picked up a series of real-time feedback spikes from Sonic’s app store page: clear expressions of frustration from customers encountering unexpected issues with the Sonic app.
While these insights represent just a slice of their total feedback ecosystem, they reveal pain points that customers felt strongly enough about to publicly call out. And if this feedback is reflected across Sonic’s broader feedback channels (like customer service, social listening, and internal support tickets), the scale of the issue could be far greater than what’s publicly visible.
The 3 alerts that demand attention
Unwrap’s real-time analysis of Sonic’s public app store feedback surfaced three key issues, each reaching unusually high levels of complaint volume in March and April. Each spike serves as a flashing red light indicator of customer friction—and potential damage to Sonic’s digital brand equity.
1. “I am unable to access the Sonic app”
On March 24th, user complaints hit a record high. Reports related to this problem made up 21.6% of total feedback volume, nearly doubling the previous peak.
Common themes included login failures, frozen screens, and general app instability. This suggests core functionality was compromised, and for a fast-food brand like Sonic—where speed and ease are critical—that’s a big problem.
2. “The app is incompatible with older phones”
A day later, on March 25th, frustration peaked for a different reason: customers reported being unable to use the app on older devices, making up 24% of total feedback volume. This feedback suggests a recent update may have broken historical compatibility—an oversight that could alienate their legacy customer base.
3. “I am unable to update the app”
By March 27th, 13.5% of users cited issues updating the app—a statistically significant spike. For many, the update either failed or rendered the app unusable, creating a perfect storm if/when combined with the earlier compatibility complaints.
What customer feedback tells us & why it matters more than ever
If 13–22 customers per day are voicing these issues in app store feedback, how many more are doing so in other, private channels? Or how many more are experiencing them silently?
Let’s look at the numbers: In 2019, Inspire Brands reported that 100,000 orders are placed every day via Sonic’s mobile app. If we assume those 100,000 orders are unique customers, that’s 36.5M yearly app users.
If in one insight, 22 customers make up around 15% of the total feedback volume (for the public data Unwrap is currently categorizing), scaled portionally, one of the above problems could potentially affect ~5.5M customers.
Remember, for every person who leaves a review, hundreds (or even hundreds of thousands) more might simply uninstall the app, abandon their order, or switch to a competitor. See where we’re going here?
These alerts don’t just highlight technical bugs—they reveal the blockers that break the customer journey:
- Frustration: Users feel locked out or excluded due to device incompatibility.
- Distrust: Frequent technical failures erode confidence in the app—and by extension, the brand.
- Disengagement: Customers stop trying. They abandon the app, the order, and the loyalty program.
And when Sonic’s app is the primary gateway for deals, ordering, and rewards, those blockers can mean lost revenue and customer churn.
The opportunity hidden in the alerts
Here’s the silver lining: these alerts give Sonic the opportunity to act before damage scales.
Engineering teams can use this feedback to debug release issues and re-prioritize backward compatibility. Product managers can reconsider update rollouts, testing protocols, and user communication.
Customer service teams can proactively communicate with impacted users, preserving loyalty. And Marketing can shift the narrative from frustration to resolution, by transparently addressing problems and highlighting upcoming improvements.
What Sonic should do next
To turn these alerts into action, Sonic has a clear opportunity:
- Own the problem publicly. Acknowledge the recent issues in app store release notes or via a customer message. Let customers know you see them, hear them, and are working on fixes.
- Fix fast, and prioritize compatibility. Whether through patches or rollbacks, resolving login and compatibility issues should be prioritized over new features on the roadmap.
- Use real-time feedback to monitor future rollouts. Platforms like Unwrap give brands a critical advantage: early detection. Make real-time public feedback part of a regular QA feedback loop—not just a retrospective tool post-launch.
The takeaway: There’s power in knowing—and acting fast
This isn’t just a story about app bugs. It’s a case study in how public feedback, if ignored, can erode customer loyalty. But if heard—and acted upon—it becomes a powerful tool for correcting course, innovating in the right direction, and building brand trust.
By surfacing these signals early, Unwrap would’ve given Sonic a head start. Because the feedback conundrum facing top brands today isn’t whether customers are speaking—it’s whether brands, like Sonic, are listening.
Read how Citizen tuned into customer feedback to improve app experience.
