Learn the importance of after-sales in the photovoltaic market

“The integrator needs to understand and change the culture after the installation of a plant.” This is what Fábio Furtado, CEO of SolarZ, stated. During his participation in the podcast Papo Solar, he commented on the importance of after-sales for the photovoltaic market and highlighted that this service is essential to be able to anticipate revenue.

“What I heard most from integrators was always 'I don't want to do after-sales'; 'let the customer call me, when they call me and have a problem, I'll solve it'; 'a lot of headache'; 'no, no after-sales'; 'This business is too boring, I don't want to, don't get involved with after-sales'”, he exemplified.

For Furtado, the level of awareness among integrators regarding this issue is still low. “They have the view that it’s just monitoring, that it’s just that process in engineering. That’s just 15% of after-sales,” he explained.

“After you deliver the plant to the customer, a 25-year journey with the customer begins. So, it is nothing more than a 'customer experience' process that needs to be maintained so that the factors that made that customer buy the plant are maintained during this period. From the moment you carry out active after-sales, you can anticipate revenue”, highlighted the specialist.

Listen: #43 Fábio Furtado: after-sales tool in the photovoltaic market

“Until then, for example, you expected your customer to call asking why they had a high electricity bill, and then you will understand that performance dropped because the sign was dirty and then you will sell the cleaning. In other words, with after-sales you will anticipate all of this”, he pointed out.

According to the executive, more than 50% of solar energy sales come through referrals. “This is unanimous. Therefore, how does the integrator want to maintain this strength without worrying about his customer's after-sales service?”, he asked.

more examples

To better exemplify the importance of after-sales, the CEO of SolarZ told another case. “When the customer installs solar energy, they think they are installing a hydroelectric plant, an Itaipu, at home. In the first month, they put in air conditioning – the bill didn't come, it was minimal. Then in the second month he installed air conditioning for his daughter – the electricity bill still hasn't come. In the third month he says 'I'm fine' and puts in a brewer and a heater. And then, in the third month, comes a hit on the electricity bill. What is this person going to do?”

“He will call the integrator and say that he did not fulfill what was promised. The integrator goes there and gets the generation report, gets the electricity bill and shows that consumption has increased due to these new purchases. However, no matter how much you showed the customer that he was wrong, the name of the integrator, the manufacturer, will already be tarnished, because before all this this person already said that he was deceived. Therefore, the after-sales process reduces this entire situation”, he emphasized.

To help resolve these problems, Fábio Furtado reported that the training that SolarZ offers after-sales defines the entire integrator development process.

“ Therefore, these customer pains are anticipated, especially because anticipating the pain of increased consumption is where a plant expansion is sold. If the integrator accompanies such a consumer at the turn of the cycle and anticipates that consumption is increasing, it is much more advantageous for the customer to pay for an additional plate to complement the plant than to pay the concessionaire”.

So, according to Fábio Furtado, when you change the key from passive to active after-sales, this is where the integrator, in addition to having this damage reduction because they are monitoring the customer, anticipates and generates other revenues.

Plans for the Brazilian photovoltaic market

Throughout the podcast, the CEO of SolarZ also commented on the company's plans and emphasized that the focus is to increasingly serve solar after-sales. “Right now it is still a huge challenge to show integrators the importance of after-sales. There is no point in embracing other fronts, as my main one is that I was unable to achieve the objective”.

“Today, we have an average of 15 thousand integrators, according to research by Greener. In a year and a half, I trained an average of 1.300 people in after-sales in general, that is, in every aspect you can imagine, but not technical ones. However, we still have more than 90% of integrators to go through us, even if just to do a small webinar. There is still a lot to work on and structure at SolarZ”, he concluded.

About SolarZ

A SolarZ is a monitoring and after-sales company for the solar energy market. The software provided by the company is capable of accurately estimating the financial return of photovoltaic systems, as it takes into account a greater number of variables, such as: injected energy, tariff variation according to cycles, percentage of distribution of credits in systems with multiple consumer units, compensated energy and instantaneous consumption.