Highlights from iRobot...The role of automation in reducing solar soft costs

We joined up with Dividend Finance and Demand IQ and co-hosted a panel with 2 solar owners and 2 automation experts to answer the question, “When using automation, how do we preserve the human touch required to deliver on homeowners' expectations?”    

The panel was moderated by Skyler Hopkins, SVP of Sales at Dividend Finance

And the panelists were:

Stan Pipkin - CEO of Lighthouse Solar

Morgan Brewer - VP of Business Development at ESA Solar

Shaheen Pasarya - Head of Product at Bodhi

Austin Rosenbaum - CEO of Demand IQ

Here's 1 key takeaway from each panelist:

Stan Pipkin - "Our goal is to use automation to help create a process from sales all the way through service where we can present a consistent seamless customer experience populated by different staff with different skills and different levels of experience but it should all result in the same experience regardless of the complexity of the project."

Morgan Brewer - "We are at a really interesting and exciting moment where now we have the tools and resources at our disposal and that we can use in two ways. One, accelerate our own businesses to drive more bottom line profit, and two, engage your employees with easier tasks and easier days. Most importantly this will provide the most seamless and worry-free customer experience."‍

Austin Rosenbaum - "The reality is that everybody is busy, and you're probably going to to catch that person when they're taking their kids to school or when they're at work. Ultimately that experience is an interruption to them. Reducing interruptions and that friction is a key goal of automation."‍

Shaheen Pasarya - “It’s been amazing to see how far companies have come in embracing automation in such a short time.  From managing a spreadsheet of 99 rows which was a weekly to do list or physically having to move folders across the desk to remember what stage a project is in to now automating much of their operational tasks."

Skyler Hopkins - "The name of our panel "iRobot" conjures some grim optics of a post-apocalyptic world where the machine have replaced us. The conversation today really focused on the role of automation and technology in empowering people and make their lives better and allow them to find more meaning in their work."

To learn more, watch the recording of the panel below: