In a tough US solar market, the northeast, and Massachusetts in particular, has been a bright spot for the industry. While the US solar market as a whole continues to contract, Massachusetts has seen 11% YoY growth on the residential side, amounting to over 190,000 kW of installed residential systems.
While part of this growth can be attributed to rising utility rates, Massachusetts installers also know a thing or two about creating lean, strong solar businesses. That’s why we were excited to team up with EnergySage and host an event in Boston where Massachusetts solar executives could discuss both the challenges their businesses have experienced this past year, and the opportunities they see ahead of them. Listening to these solar pros, we realized that the steps they had taken to make their businesses more resilient were not specific to the Massachusetts market.
That’s why we wanted to share the top 4 lessons from our event — so installers from all over the country can experience some of the stability that the NE market is seeing.
Tip 1: Create SLAs, not just SOPs
Many solar business owners have Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for their different departments, from creating instructions for sales on pricing a system and creating a proposal to documenting how your operations team should submit to a specific AHJ.
SOPs are a great way to ensure that you’re not relying on unspoken tribal knowledge to run your business. They’re great for training new hires, as well as standardizing best practices across the company. We even met an installer recently who had created a flow chart of each phase of the install process that staff and customers alike used, so that everyone knew what to expect.
But what’s often missing from SOPs are timeline targets — and that’s where SLAs come in.
SLA stands for service level agreement. This agreement makes explicit how quickly a vendor needs to respond to customer questions or issues. They can also be applied to internal issues, like how long a project can be in a particular step of the process before it gets flagged. The value of SLAs is that they not only set communication expectations for customers, but they also set performance standards for your team.
So how are solar business owners in Boston creating and implementing SLAs in their companies? First they recommend creating three prioritization levels, and for each level, defining a time frame for when the issue must be responded to. For example, a high priority issue like a cancellation might require a 1 hour response, whereas a low priority issue like a general customer inquiry might mean a response within 3 days.
You can also build contingency plans within your SLAs. For example, if a contract has been stuck in NTP approval for more than 3 days (violating one of your agreed-upon timelines) your SLA can dictate what next steps should be taken.
Here are some things Massachusetts installers have established SLAs around:
- Missed customer calls
- Customer emails
- 1-star Google reviews
- Cancellation requests
- Referrals
- Rejected permit or PTO requests
And if your team is overwhelmed by their SLAs? Maybe it’s time for automation. One installer shared with us that even a 3-day SLA for standard customer questions sometimes overwhelmed his operations team during the busy season — that is, until they got a solar customer portal that dramatically reduced the number of inbound customer questions by providing each homeowner with a personalized project tracker.
Tip 2: Lean into credit union financing options
Though the Federal Reserve just cut interest rates, many installers are still disenchanted with mainstream financing options. Loans have high dealer fees. TPOs have escalating rates and onerous document requirements. The economics of solar with these financial options just don’t always make sense for the HO.
That’s why many Massachusetts installers are turning to credit unions. A particular favorite for Northeastern installers at our event was Cape Cod 5.
While there’s never going to be a one-size-fits-all financing option for solar, credit unions are gaining in popularity for a few reasons. According to Solar United Neighbors, it’s rare for a solar loan through a credit union to have filing fees higher than $300. Additionally, while they may have higher rates than standard solar loans, they have little to zero origination fees. These solar loans are also often classified as bridge loans — meaning they include temporary 0% loans until your tax credits come in the following year.
Though they aren’t the best option in all cases, they can be a good option for many HOs. Just remember if you want to bring this option to your prospects, you’ll need to become a registered installer with a credit union. While this does mean some upfront work, the Massachusetts installers we spoke with said investing in the process of becoming a registered installer has paid dividends for their business.
Tip 3: Set Google news alerts for solar doorknocking
When it came to doorknocking, the Massachusetts market was divided. Some solar business owners swore by their 1099 doorknockers. They had helped them increase their company’s brand awareness and bring in prospects who had previously been on the fence or apathetic about solar. Other solar leaders had recently made the decision to stop working with outside sales orgs altogether — bringing everything in-house instead so they could ensure lead quality and protect their brand reputation.
Regardless of your opinion, regulation is coming for solar sales. As of 2024, Nevada requires solar sales people to either hold a license issued by the State Contractor’s Board or be W2 employees of a company who holds this license. Recheck is also gaining steam nationally, offering solar financiers an additional way to vet solar partners. While it may be the big national players giving doorknocking a bad name, the subsequent consumer distrust impacts every solar installer in the industry.
The fact that we’re seeing solutions to solar scams taken up by both at the government- and industry-level proves that a shift is happening within solar. We’re likely to see copy-cat legislation, new solar non-profits pop up, and a whole slew of other attempts to iron out this issue before we land on a new normal. That’s why, whether you use doorknocking as a sales strategy or not, your solar business needs to stay on top of this changing landscape.
How do you do this? We recommend setting up Google news alerts for terms like “recheck” “solar” and “solar workforce” “regulation.” Installers at our Boston event also shared that they subscribe to organizations like Ohm Analytics, as well as participate in member groups like SEBANE and SEIA to stay up-to-date on solar legislation and trends.
After all, what happens in Nevada can quickly inspire other states to create similar consumer protection laws in the north east and beyond — and you don’t want to be caught flat footed.
Tip 4: Pick up the phone
When we talk about automation at Bodhi, we always say that we’re automating the mundane so that your employees can have time for the meaningful. The solar installers at our Boston event seemed to agree.
Things like communicating “no update” updates are expected by most homeowners these days, but ironically they don’t really contribute to a deeper relationship between project manager and customer. That’s why we recommend solar businesses automate these communications — they’re tablestakes for your customers, but they can really bog down an operations team.
But when it comes to those tricky customers or more complex parts of the customer journey, every MA installer was in agreement: Simple is best. So pick up the phone!
By picking up the phone, your team can shortcircut a lot of back and forth and waiting that comes with emails or even text messaging. You can also make sure your tone is understood in a way that can sometimes get lost over email. While it can be tempting to look for a tech solution to everything, solar is a very human-to-human business, so make sure your operations team feels empowered (and has the time!) to make these high-value phone calls. You wouldn’t believe the number of installers who have told us it was a simple phone call that saved them from a 1-star review or netted them an awesome referral.
Serving Massachusetts and beyond
The solarcoaster got its name for a reason — this industry isn’t always easy. That’s why we love to get together with other solar professionals and share learnings. As one solar business owner put it at the event: “I actually don’t mind sharing lessons with my ‘local competition.’ We’re all in this to get more solar on roofs — and we’re all fighting against the big companies anyway.”
We hope that these tips can arm you in this fight, and help you strengthen your business. And we’re grateful for the way the Massachusetts community showed up for our event with EnergySage.
If you’re interested in Bodhi bringing an event like this to your state, get in touch. And if you’re looking for a way to provide proactive customer service, from automating communications to identifying happy and unhappy customers, Bodhi can help. Book a demo to see how.
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