Solstice Solar · 2026
Turning a five-week permit silence into referrals
Before
- 7%Post-install referral rate
- 29%Sit cancellation rate
- 3.1Support calls per project
After
- 20%Post-install referral rate
- 20%Sit cancellation rate
- 0.9Support calls per project
The challenge
Solstice closed well and installed well, and lost the referral entirely in between. A homeowner signs, feels excited, then hears nothing for five weeks while permits move through a municipal process they do not understand. By the time the system switches on, the goodwill has drained into low-grade anxiety, and an anxious customer does not refer their neighbour. Operations was also fielding three support calls per project from people asking what was happening.
The approach
Milestones turned into messages
Permit submitted, permit approved, install scheduled, install complete, inspection passed, utility interconnected. Six moments that already existed as pipeline stages, each now triggering a homeowner update.
Every update sets the next expectation
The message says what just happened, what happens next and roughly how long that takes. Almost all of the inbound anxiety calls came from people who simply did not know what stage they were at.
The referral ask timed to peak goodwill
The request goes out the week the system energises, which is the single best moment in the whole relationship. Asking at contract signature or at final invoice both perform far worse.
Confirmation sequencing on sales appointments
Between booking and the sit, homeowners get two confirmations with an easy reschedule link. Making rescheduling frictionless cut outright cancellations by nearly a third.
The outcome
Post-install referrals nearly tripled, from seven percent of completed projects to twenty. Install-phase support calls fell by more than two thirds, which gave the operations coordinator time for actual coordination. Sit cancellations dropped nine points on confirmation sequencing alone.
We were losing referrals in the five weeks where we said nothing. Once the homeowner knew what was happening, the recommendations started arriving on their own.