Quotatis

[SRE]

Is anyone else taking up the Quotatis free offer? I feel like I'm daft not to but I'm wary of being stitched up with extra leads. I've agreed to try the 2 and let them know if I want to continue.

Update:

So they send me an agreement through for 5 leads a week - hmmm not what I agreed at all.

 

[steve Leese]

Personaly i wouldn't touch them

 

[sedgy34]

We don't even entertain there emails as they keep coming in
they are leaches all lead generation company's

 

[SRE]

I'll let you know how I get on. I have an email from them confirming 2 free leads then they will freeze the account. They have my credit card number so I guess I may have section 75 claim if they take money they shouldn't.

 

[Worcester]

Told them to go ...., couldn't be bothered with the REAL hassle of dealing with them.

 

[whinmoor]

I'll let you know how I get on. I have an email from them confirming 2 free leads then they will freeze the account. They have my credit card number so I guess I may have section 75 claim if they take money they shouldn't.

Section 75 only comes into play for claims over £100.

 

[SolarCity]

+1 to leads companies = leeches.

 

[Worcester]

And also it is CONSUMER protection not business protection..... so I THINK it doesn't apply to business credit cards ..

 

[MorganPVI]

All the lead gen companies suck, last week rocked up to one to find a small triangular roof with the south side full of thermal, another had a velux slap bang in the middle and to top if off the "customer" who booked the appointment was away working all week. Eco "experts" if your interested.

 

[SRE]

It's about 2.5 years since I used one, Eco Experts used to be really good.

I couldn't seem to get the point about the D rating over to them - about 60% of our properties are solid wall and many of those are off the gas grid.

I'll let you know how I get on I don't have any great expectations.

 

[MorganPVI]

I've always found Eco "experts" to be crap, we binned the lead gens 18 months ago, however we now have free leads via subbing, but it is not worth the diesel let alone my time.

 

[SRE]

Ok, had both of my free referrals. Both really good quality, could be a coincidence that free referrals are excellent quality!! Although Quotatis have only passed the lead to another 2 installers the customer had also asked for quotes from other lead generators so I ended up quoting against 6 yes 6 other installers for each job. BUT they were almost all of the shiny suit brigade. I've had the usual stories, 16 panels where 11 will fit, wot chimney, inverter in small v hot loft, panels on N roof, no sir if one panel gets shade the others will work absolutely fine, 50% home use of generated electricity even though no-one is in the house from 10am to 8pm and customers being constantly pestered by phone calls.

So my issue is really more with the shiny suits than the referrals and the quality was good. We are hoping to have one confirmation tomorrow and I'm ringing about the other on Monday when the customer comes back from holiday. Not sure about that one but we were the only ones who measured up!

 

[finchy]

I have noticed a few new installs near me without no enquires to us. We are google number 1 and located in the area but out of town shinny suite firm got the call ( I know them as I did a secret shopper on my brothers house last year).....

 

[confounded]

Ok, had both of my free referrals. Both really good quality

Hi SRE,

Any feedback on Quotatis, I have had many calls and emails recently and have only entertained them due to this thread. Any update would be greatly appreciated. We seem very similar company's having followed you over the years and feel if it works for you it could work for us.

 

[finchy]

Ditto ....

 

[John Allen]

Our experience wasn't a very good one with them, we had a couple of occassions where we received a PV lead and then 10 minutes later the same person as a GSHP lead, even though the property was on mains gas, a 3 bed or 2 bed semi, with little or no outside space to put either ground loop or boreholes. When I questioned one of the leads they said "Oh the lady on the phone said it would be a good idea to get one as I wouldnt pay for any heating and I would earn about £1000 per year by having a GSHP"
My advice is to keep clear of them.

 

[sedgy34]

We don't entertain lead company's they are all parasites based on my experience

 

[confounded]

We don't entertain lead company's they are all parasites based on my experience

We initially liked lead generators with 50% conversion rate in 2010/2011 and built our company on the initial ones we did until we had more work than we could handle via our website and referrals.

Our order book is still pretty thin so we have been using the Solar guide for the last 3 months but our conversion rate this time has plummeted getting close to 10%. We put a huge amount into our quotes in terms of the initial survey and the design of the system but a struggling with the shinny suit brigade and companies that have high overheads and have taken a decision it is better to go in low and just cover them until things pick up.

We have tried print advertising and find the cost per lead converted is even higher than the lead generators because adverts generate very little for us.

We are trapped between being busy fools and not being busy waiting for website and referral leads. Any tips for better alternative to print advertising or lead generators?

 

[SRE]

Like Confounded our business was initially built on lead generators with a high conversion rate - we took 10 of them in the first 2 months (that's all there was in 2010 and we got 5 free in those days!!) and then had to turn them off because we referred to those customers' friends and family. The D rating hit us badly and we've struggled since then.

I've had one referral from Solar Guide in the last 9 months so I can't rely on them even if they were mint quality.

I wouldn't go to a referral agency for ashp it's too complex for a call centre to be able to filter effectively, if they can't ask the questions related to D rating then you've no chance with ashp. It's horses for courses really, they aren't specialists and from what I see a lot of installers get ashp info wrong so you couldn't really expect a call centre to get it right.

With us being rural, we're taking the view that we'll try to do as much as possible from our home based office to keep costs down and we've sort of returned to what we did to start off the business 3 years ago, with lower expectations and profit margins. We have a business mentor (provided free) who insists that people will still pay for the quality, personal service that we provide and the 2 jobs we have this week are testament to this.

To be honest the weather isn't helping, round our way people can't sell their houses, they are having a dabble with solar quotes then re-confirming that really they want to move. It seems in our area that at the start 14k was a lot of money but quite a few newly and early retired people had the cash. Although it's less than half now - people are so worried about job security that to spend 6-7k now is equivalent to 14k 3 years ago and our customers seem to be able to just about scrape that sort of money together but worry that they will need it to live on if the job goes.

For what it's worth I have a post grad in Marketing and quite a lot of marketing advice from when I set up and ran an advice centre. The big no's in terms of marketing are:
TV
Radio
Fliers through the door - hand delivered or Royal Mail (unless you do letters, 3 times consecutively over 6 weeks followed up by canvassers and with LA logos)
Any type of press advertising or advertorial

What appears to work but is getting harder: events through the Summer where people can meet you, website, social media (although it's a long haul) and networking.

We decided to work on lower margins but not to just cover costs it's going to be harder to increase prices later. Don't know if it's the right strategy .....

We need sun, an improved economy and E rating for rural properties!!