Annoying Customers

[Gavin A]

we've taken 34 inquiries for PV in 2 days at a show this weekend, probably hit 50 by the end of today, and already have around 25 active domestic leads on our sales boards and another 20 or so on the commercial boards.

TBH we've been and remain pretty swamped with inquiries, and haven't taken any lead generation since around April. I've just put our core prices up by 5% - we've stopped competing at the very bottom of the market, just tell people if they want dirt cheap systems then we're not for them, but we will do them a very good value very good quality system that will look great and perform well for a very long time. At worst we'll sometimes meet people in the middle.

Only time we'l go really cheap is for trade systems / builders / multiple property owners, or someone we're wanting to trial a new system with.

We went the other way and decided to focus heavily on our core business of high quality solar PV installations, and I'm pretty sure we've turned the corner, with a steady flow of inquiries from referrals, repeat customers, other companies who'll refer to us, small builders, and the occasional stand at a show to boost the numbers up. My staffing levels are now back up to 2011 levels, but with a better balanced team, with a much reduced wage bill - took on a 3 year apprentice full time on JIB wages in September which helps with that.

It's still a bit touch and go financially, the margins are far too tight, hence the price rise, but I'm now fairly confident we can keep things ticking over at least, and hopefully maybe even look towards making back a chunk of the money we lost in 2012 by the end of 2014, which'd be nice.

 

[SolarCity]

Great to hear you're doing well, Gavin. In all honesty, marketing is much more important in PV than most other trades and it is not something that I'm particularly good at. Which is why I think myself and other companies struggle.

 

[SRE]

Marketing is important but you do have to have a receptive audience too - we're seeing hardly any installs in our area at all. Since we cam back from our holiday a couple of weeks ago we've had 5 enquiries, installed 2 of those, I'm just quoting for 1 this morning and I'm waiting for the other 2 to get back to me. One is a possibility the other isn't a brilliant option for the customer and we advised them accordingly so I don't expect to pick that up.

To be honest we don't get the same thrill we used to installing solar pv and having recovered from a desperate winter earlier in the year I'm not keen to throw away bundles of cash on marketing so we're taking the networking & social media approach and appear to be building reputation for decent honest advice about loads of energy stuff, this in turn seems to be generating enough to keep us from cancelling our MCS - but I have to admit it's constantly at the back of my mind that we may not renew next time.

I don't get any pleasure from being asked to put people's problems right - it's often a distress call, we have a roof with multiple leaks to his slate roof that had panels installed with hanger bolts 18 months ago. The whole roof is having to be replaced, you have to be completely disengaged to quote the customer a proper price for re-installing properly, so you end up not getting the original job and making less than you should for re-installing a system - where's the pleasure in that?

I still enjoy the discussion about solar with the customers but waiting 3 months to get the margin back via a vat return isn't a great way to run a business. I can't wait to see what gem the govt comes up with on 4th Dec in the Autumn statement!!

 

[Gavin A]

Great to hear you're doing well, Gavin. In all honesty, marketing is much more important in PV than most other trades and it is not something that I'm particularly good at. Which is why I think myself and other companies struggle.

We've stopped all marketing other than the website, and a few selected shows, as nothing else seemed to have been worth the money.

The key thing is getting the website right at the top of google for anyone searching for solar PV in the areas you want to work, that way the inquiries just trickle in - as long as your website is good enough to attract people, which is a constant struggle, and something I've been neglecting of late, it's well overdue for a full update, though we've done several partial updates.

Plus building relationships with local building firms, architects, green consultants, property agents etc

 

[Gavin A]

I still enjoy the discussion about solar with the customers but waiting 3 months to get the margin back via a vat return isn't a great way to run a business. I can't wait to see what gem the govt comes up with on 4th Dec in the Autumn statement!!

nooooo - you need to register with HMRC for monthly vat rebates. We'd be dead in the water if we had to wait 3 months for the VAT rebates.

 

[SRE]

I know you're right Gavin we should be doing monthly but it's such a pain in the backside quarterly is bad enough!!

 

[Gavin A]

I know you're right Gavin we should be doing monthly but it's such a pain in the backside quarterly is bad enough!!

yeah, but there's no way I'd want to be waiting 3 months to get it back, plus it doesn't actually take any longer in total... also, I'd advise roping in a brother to do it for you, that way there's almost no pain involved at all

 

[SRE]

Mmm my brother's an accountant I get lectures all the time from him! Mind you it might focus my mind a bit better if I did it monthly - it's always a mess at the end of the quarter.

 

[Gavin A]

Mmm my brother's an accountant I get lectures all the time from him! Mind you it might focus my mind a bit better if I did it monthly - it's always a mess at the end of the quarter.

problem solved then, just tell him he's doing it for you or you'll give him a chinese burn or something.