Let's Talk Project Management

Ever wondered how a project manager keeps the wheels turning smoothly on your solar project? Strap in for a behind-the-scenes tour of the project manager's world with our special guest Kalvin Pachote. Kalvin brings a wealth of expertise from his dual roles in Arizona and Oklahoma. He lifts the veil on the communication strategies that keep customers in the loop without burying them in details. We share laughs over regional quirks but at the core, it's about striking a balance between transparency and efficiency. Our conversation with Kalvin takes a candid look at the challenges that pepper the path of solar project management. 

Chapters:
05:38 Kalvin's Background and Experience
15:36 Communication and Coordination During Installations
18:37 Solar Panel Design Approval Process
28:43 Schedule Installation and Parts Delivery Logistics
37:01 Setting Up Monitoring
47:18 15 Day Installs...Please!!!!

Transcript

Speaker 2 0:24

Welcome to another episode of the Harmon Solar podcast. I'm your host, Ralph Romano, VP of sales and marketing at Harmon Solar, with me at always my co-host, Ben Walsh Lager. Also, you guys know him as Mr Everything. Ben. How you doing Good, it's been a while. It's been a couple weeks. It's been a couple weeks We've had the holidays and, and you know you have a good holidays. It was good and it took vacation, which meant I just didn't go to work, which was nice.

Speaker 1 0:46

Yeah.

Speaker 2 0:47

I got a break and stuff and didn't have to leave.

Speaker 1 0:49

I did not take a break. I just kept working because someone has to run the company, I guess.

Speaker 2 0:52

Well, mr, everything means that you have to do everything Right.

Speaker 1 0:55

So did you do my job for me. Well, that's pretty easy to do, but yeah, wow, we'll talk about that. After we record, 12 new podcasts will be coming out, so this is actually this is our episode number nine, yep, you know.

Speaker 2 1:08

So we've gotten, wow, we got. Actually we have 10 of them out, with a two part last time. So this is episode number nine of the Harmon Solar podcast, and today we got a guy. We got a guy there it is I don't have my we got a guy sweatshirt, but we got a guy, yep, and this guy is a project manager at Harmon Solar, and not only is he a project manager in Arizona, but he's also a project manager for our Oklahoma operation. So he's a hybrid.

Speaker 1 1:33

Yeah, two different markets, sure, two very different scenarios.

Speaker 2 1:36

Right, they're a little different right. So he's going to kind of share with us some of that. You know what that means. And then, of course, you've have project management experience with the company couple days. So we're going to rely on you and him to kind of walk through this and we want to educate you guys on, you know, once we get down the road.

Speaker 2 1:50

We've been going down this road with when you buy solar with us and kind of the process, and I think one of the last things we did before we went to the one on one series, we talked about the audit right With Lucas, and so now, after the audit, there's a lot of other things that happen up through installation and this is where a project manager kicks in and he's your guy, gal, whatever that may be, and kind of walks through the project to make sure it happens the correct way for you. So we thought we'd obviously the next step would be have a project manager come on board and kind of talk about what they go through and what they do and how they interact with you. So yeah, that's the whole point of this show today.

Speaker 1 2:22

This is the okay. What's next? So you bought solar, you made your major purchase. Okay, now what? How do I get this thing on my roof? Right, let's talk about that. I agree, let's, let's do it. So that's what we're going to do?

Speaker 2 2:34

We're going to bring on Calvin Pashot, our PM and, like I said, our hybrid PM for Oklahoma and Arizona. And there's that guy, calvin. Welcome Calvin. How's it going? Good, how are you all doing today? We're okay.

Speaker 1 2:46

We're here Got some good food in me, so that was the main reason, because we because we eat here at the Herman's old at least my guest eater. You're really the only reason why I come here. I we've had. We've had this conversation.

Speaker 2 2:58

It's the only way we got Calvin to come. We told him, there'd be food and he showed up.

Speaker 1 3:01

You know what we should do. We should start posting the menu of what we're eating. We should.

Speaker 2 3:04

That'd be great. Yeah, That'd be. That'd be really good, get some foodies in here.

Speaker 3 3:07

You'll have me in here for a few weeks.

Speaker 2 3:09

And Calvin just found out like two days ago he was coming in, so I thought it was really good to us to do that.

Speaker 1 3:13

Yeah.

Speaker 3 3:14

You know welcome.

Speaker 2 3:16

Welcome to this, All right. So, Calvin, tell us a little bit about yourself. What's your background? Tell us you know how long you've been in Herman.

Speaker 3 3:24

I've been in Herman going on about two years now.

Speaker 2 3:26

Two years Yep. So that is the shortest tenured person we've ever had on the podcast. Yep, you should feel special.

Speaker 1 3:33

Congratulations, congratulations.

Speaker 2 3:35

Two years, so okay, and and so he's still new.

Speaker 1 3:39

He is relatively new. We'll check back in in 10 years and see how things are going.

Speaker 2 3:42

I mean, I'll be retired on a beach somewhere, but you can check in all you want. I'll be just as retired as you.

Speaker 1 3:47

No, you'll be still here, dang it.

Speaker 2 3:48

You'll be here forever, so tell us a little bit about your background.

Speaker 3 3:52

Went to school in Berkeley, went to sales right after that and I've been doing sales for about going on 10 years now, and then I went from sales to here and started in sales and then moved over to the management side.

Speaker 1 4:05

What kind of sales, if you don't mind me asking Started with car sales.

Speaker 3 4:08

Car sales, okay, cool, yeah, I did car sales for quite some time.

Speaker 1 4:11

That's a tough gig. That is a tough guy that builds some character. What kind of cars.

Speaker 3 4:16

I did both Toyota, and then we're in luxury cars, so that's Jaguar.

Speaker 2 4:21

Rover, toyota, luxury cars. Okay, that's a pretty good gig.

Speaker 1 4:25

That's pretty good, yeah, you can make good.

Speaker 3 4:26

Toyota's a great here we go.

Speaker 1 4:29

Okay. So we know we're great, we're not paying for this promotion. It's not getting anything out of this.

Speaker 2 4:33

but luxury cars probably easier, a little bit easier gig. You make more money, yeah definitely is. And you came over and started doing sales and working in the sales department with us doing some different things.

Speaker 3 4:41

Yeah, it was a big move when I first got here into Arizona, so it it helped me get into Arizona itself.

Speaker 2 4:48

Right, okay, so cool. And then you've kind of worked your way into project management. It kind of you fell into it. It kind of it's funny, how that happens.

Speaker 1 4:54

We all just kind of fall into things. I guess what we're doing now yeah, I mean, you fell into it.

Speaker 2 4:59

I fell into a lot of things. He's fallen into it, believe it or not. I fell into it 11 years ago. I didn't come here, I was. I was actually a contractor and kind of fell into running the whole thing so well.

Speaker 1 5:07

correction I think project management was the only one. I asked to be a part of you asked.

Speaker 2 5:11

Oh yeah, you did ask, that's right, you did ask.

Speaker 1 5:14

I asked Ralph and he said no. So I went above Ralph.

Speaker 2 5:18

Everything you need to know about Mr Everything right there, including Mr Backstabber. Okay, so now kidding Got to climb somehow.

Speaker 3 5:25

Yeah.

Speaker 2 5:26

All right. So you've been around a couple of years, like we talked about. You've had a bunch of different roles and responsibilities, so now you're a project manager. It's been new to you. How long have you been doing the project management side?

Kalvin's Background and Experience

Speaker 3 5:35

About a year now About a year yeah. Going on a year.

Speaker 2 5:38

So where Calvin's different is so we have an operation in Oklahoma as well and he really started doing project management for that group. Yeah, and that group's run a little different, so it's a little unique about how we do things there and we can talk a little about that. And then you have more the Arizona experience, which Calvin is now doing Arizona project management as well. So he's doing both, which is just it's newer. You've been doing that maybe a few months a few months.

Speaker 3 6:04

I'm still getting the hang of that. It's a lot of new steps. It's like you're getting a little bit further into it.

Speaker 1 6:10

Okay, and that will never change, by the way. I figured as much I did it for a while and every day it's like I'm learning something new, because something changes. Jurisdiction's changed, process changed Like okay, I just learned this, and now this changed.

Speaker 3 6:21

Cool, it's like you're learning everyone's job Right Right and making sure that everyone's doing their job on time.

Speaker 2 6:27

And how Calvin's also different in this role is. So at Harmon, obviously we have our Harmon internal sales team that you know, Dennis, and those guys that you've met on this podcast, but we also work with other sales entities that go out there to sell solar and we do the installations for them. So we're very particular about the partners we partner up with up and I have a whole dealer program around it and probably do a dealer program podcast and maybe bring a dealer on Sure.

Speaker 3 6:52

We probably should do that.

Speaker 2 6:53

Yeah, but we have that program and Calvin right now is basically doing project management for some of those partners, so it's a little bit different, right?

Speaker 3 7:03

You're communicating not only with a customer but probably with a sales entity partner as well, exactly, I have a little more on you the sales rep side who want answers, they want to figure out what's going on to move forward. And then also the customer side. They wanted to figure out what's going on the roof. What's going on with their project. It's their only line of communication.

Speaker 1 7:22

We're the middlemen, we're talking to a customer and the sales person to keep them everyone in the loop of. Hey, this is what's going on with your project.

Speaker 2 7:30

That's right, and you're paid handsomely for that Sure.

Speaker 1 7:36

And he didn't say a word.

Speaker 2 7:40

Okay, so what I want to do is I want to help people understand what that looks like. So not every company has project managers, not every installer has project managers, so that could be a bad thing. Where you go ahead and you get solar and all of a sudden the communication kind of gets crickets. Okay, thank you, so it's. And so that's what we want to avoid is, we don't want crickets, right? So we, we believe in and I'm a big believer of over communication to a point where you're like can you stop calling me please?

Speaker 3 8:10

I know.

Speaker 2 8:11

Because there is in the process of getting solar there. There can be periods of time where there's not a lot new to report. Right, because we're waiting on a jurisdiction to do something or permitting in a you know Phoenix. Wait around, phoenix permitting. We're waiting on this, waiting on that, waiting on a utility input, whatever it may. Be right, things we've talked about in previous podcasts. So we still like to over communicate to make sure you understand.

Speaker 1 8:33

Yeah, hey, we're still here. A lot of times it is a waiting game what I've told my customers. You know, systems that I've sold, if we had it our way, we would have you installed, like the next day, right, you know. But it's not up to us, right, it's up to jurisdictions and supply chains and this and that, like in permit offices and utilities, you know, they all have to do their due diligence to make sure everything's done correctly. It's not simple, you know. Oh, I bought this, I signed on the dotted line today and I got it installed tomorrow. That's not how the world works, unfortunately.

Speaker 2 9:00

Right, and with this purchase, this is a pretty you know this is not a $5 purchase. This is an expensive purchase You're getting you're basically bought this big new toy and it takes time to get that toy and you're going to want to be updated on what's going on Right. So that's that's. That's the job of the project manager is to not only keep you updated but also to make sure and this is where it's it's really important is they work with all the different departments within the organization to ensure that the project is moving forward, because every piece of every department and everything that they do has a timeline set to it. So there's an expectation that when it's doing this, it'll take three days. If it's in this department, it'll take five days.

Speaker 2 9:38

So there's this expectation that these people, these service level metrics that everybody's held to within the organization, and it's a project manager's job to make sure that those things keep moving Right. And we talk about them in a meeting every week. We go over projects, we look at projects and we obviously we focus on projects that for some reason aren't moving. Yep, we have software that shows us every project and where it's at and if we can see if something's been sitting somewhere too long. That gets talked about. We figure out why. Why?

Speaker 1 10:03

is it not moving? What's going on?

Speaker 2 10:04

Exactly so they, their job is not just communication with you but also keeping the project moving, as a point I wanted to make. So there's a lot involved in me and project managers. There's a lot that goes on, yeah. So let's, let's talk about I want to touch on some of the talking points, so the touch points that you have with customers, right? So a project gets sold. It comes across your desk, yeah, and I know you're a little different with that, but it comes across your desk. What is? What is the first thing you have to do when that happens?

Speaker 3 10:30

Once it comes across my desk, I'm first going through contracts, making sure everything is correct System sizes, types of panels, things like that but then, once that's taken care of and everything's uploaded, I'm talking to the customer.

Speaker 2 10:43

Right, so a welcome call yeah, exactly.

Speaker 3 10:45

Letting them know that I'm going to be here with them throughout the process.

Speaker 2 10:48

So they expect to hear from you.

Speaker 3 10:51

Yeah, they should be hearing from me probably at least once a week. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 10:56

I always made sure that my customers know that, hey, I am the main point of contact. If you have questions on anything throughout the process, you're going to get a lot of emails from different you know people and jurisdictions and utility companies and this, and that If you don't sign anything until you talk to me, you know if anyone else reaches out, make sure you talk to me first, because we want to make sure everyone's on the same page before we're going to that next step.

Speaker 3 11:17

Exactly, yeah. So that's the hardest part just letting them know that, hey, regardless of what's going on, you're here.

Speaker 1 11:24

Right, yeah, exactly, every single step. Yeah, I'm here for you.

Speaker 2 11:27

So you're going to call them, you're going to reduce yourself, you're going to have that conversation, you're going to go over the system and everything. Make sure they understand what they've purchased.

Speaker 3 11:34

Go over the system and then go over a base timeline with them.

Speaker 2 11:36

Let them know what to be expecting over the next couple of weeks, right, and then I think we also send them a welcome email, right.

Speaker 3 11:42

Yep, that's all at the same time. After I call them, it's got that little graph with the timeline, exactly Right.

Speaker 2 11:47

Wish we had our visuals to show them.

Speaker 1 11:48

A little graph Ralph.

Speaker 2 11:49

I don't have visuals. I see, I didn't want to do stuff, I know, so let's talk about the other thing I was going to touch on. So all that stuff, when should they expect that call Like. So I'll ask you internally so how many days after they've turned in the paperwork they've signed everything? Week?

Speaker 1 12:07

It's really up to the project manager whenever they get it. Once it's assigned to you as a project manager, balls in your court Right as soon as I got one a deal across my desk. I reached out to the customer that day and say hey because I know they're going to be waiting for something.

Speaker 2 12:21

Right.

Speaker 1 12:22

As soon as it was sold, salesperson hands it off to whoever it's going to the project manager now. So the homeowner which I'm always thinking about is probably waiting, okay. Well, what's next? What's next? I'm eager. So as soon as I get hey, ben, this is your customer I'm reaching out that day and say just a welcome call. Hey, I'm your project manager, we're going to go ahead and you know, this is where you're at in the process. We're going to take care of you. Some project managers will wait until after the audit because there's my. Some things might come up during that time. So it's really depends on.

Speaker 1 12:53

But you were the guy that you do it.

Speaker 2 12:55

You did it up front.

Speaker 1 12:56

Yeah, I was one of those guys that you said that, like I'm going to be overly communicating with you, I'm communicating with you at least once a week on a minimum, and then, whatever happens throughout the week, I'm going to like hey, this just happened today. I'm letting you know how about you.

Speaker 3 13:08

I'm pretty much the same. I liked going right as you get it just because one. You never know what's going to happen tomorrow. True, you could have an entire full day, but two. I like getting them before the audit and everything, just so that they know what's going on, that Don is going to be reaching out or that they're going to be scheduled. There's going to be people at their house, right? I don't know what their sales rep went over with them.

Speaker 2 13:29

So I would say you know that right away would probably equal within the first week by the time it's sold. I think that's fair, that's safe to say. Within the first week you should hear from us. Yeah, I know the one thing you just mentioned at Donna. So Donna is the person that sets up our site audit schedules, and so you'll you'll get a phone call from somebody here on Donna particularly that'll say hey, you know, I'm calling to set up your site survey. We want to go ahead and come in there and take a look at everything. So remember the episode with Lucas that talked about the audit. I mean, so she's setting up that site audit for us to come out there and do that. So you're going to hear from you. Might she might be the first one you actually hear from before you ever even hear from her.

Speaker 1 14:06

It's the first right.

Speaker 2 14:07

It gets it first. Right, she gets them pretty quick though. So that that's the expectation. So you sign on the dotted line. You're going to get that. Probably going to get that that communication from Donna or somebody in that department that says, hey, we want to set this up and do a site survey. And then you're probably going to hear from a PM pretty close to that, saying hey, welcome, welcome to Harman, glad to have you as a partner. Here's what they expect. That's fair.

Speaker 1 14:29

Yeah, right, yeah.

Speaker 2 14:30

Okay Then. So we're going to go down the road here. So then we go to the audit, the audit, the auditor comes out there, he does his job, does his thing, and then we've talked about in that episode how we get the compilation. Blah, blah, blah. We do all that. So once the audit is is done, is that your next touch point?

Speaker 3 14:48

Not for me probably, how Ben did it more than likely because I'm not going directly to the customer with those audit comps and stuff, because I'm working with external salespeople. Good, point. So I'm going to the sales rep, letting them know what's going on so that they can talk to their customers.

Speaker 2 15:06

That's true, so that's a good point. The money Right, so there's a big difference there. So, with you working with the dealers or working in Oklahoma, even with more than the dealers, you're going to focus on the dealer primarily because you got to let them know the results Exactly, because maybe we need to go back to the customer and talk about something we found.

Communication and Coordination During Installations

Speaker 1 15:23

Yeah, or maybe that they don't even care and they're just taking it out of my portion Right and then you, yeah, so kind of, I'm kind of the same, a little bit different in the fact that I set proper expectations with with customers. So I let them know in that my initial welcome call how much information do you want? Cause every, every install there's probably going to be bumps in the road. You know something's going to come up. Do you want to know about the little things? You want to know about everything? Do you want to know? You know I'll obviously let you know about the major things that come down, but just so you know something tiny is going to come up. Do you want me to solve it? It's going to have no impact on the cost, the production savings, anything like that. It might be just something that we have to work out internally. Do you want to know about that? Most of customers are like, no, just you know, get the job done the way that you know.

Speaker 3 16:09

Stop calling me, just do this.

Speaker 1 16:11

Exactly so. As a project manager, your goal is on time and on budget, so you don't want to go back to the customer and say, oh, by the way, this came up, and then they're going to get freaked out and like no it's a tiny little thing that we have to change.

Speaker 1 16:23

It has no impact on your production savings cost or anything. It's just something that we have to fix internally. So it depends If it's something small that comes up in the audit, I just tell the salesperson you're like, oh, this came up by the way, like you said, sometimes you know they'll eat that cost. Or if there is no cost, there's no issues and we'll just move right along. But I'll let the customer know like hey, we just got down with your audit. Something you know small little thing came up. We fixed it, we're moving forward.

Speaker 2 16:49

Okay.

Speaker 1 16:50

So if there's a big issue, obviously then I'll let the customer know. Like hey, this came up, we discussed it, we already have solutions in place, you know here. Here are your options of how we want to solve it. What do you want to do, right?

Speaker 2 17:00

So now in Oklahoma. You call the customer.

Speaker 3 17:02

Yeah in Oklahoma. I'm talking directly to the customer the whole time.

Speaker 2 17:05

So that's where it would be different, right.

Speaker 3 17:06

But those are all our sales reps.

Speaker 2 17:08

Right? No, I understand that. So that's just. It's a little bit more in line with kind of what. Ben's doing when you're dealing with Oklahoma.

Speaker 3 17:13

Yeah, it's weird though, because it's Oklahoma, but I'm doing it exactly how we would do it here, so do you just like, change your voice and have like a.

Speaker 1 17:23

I'm very much right here.

Speaker 3 17:26

Maybe you gave me an accent or something.

Speaker 2 17:27

I don't know. I was going for something, but it didn't happen.

Speaker 1 17:31

Yeah, in a line with that. Not only am I having that same conversation with customers, I'm having the same thing with the sales rep. I'll tell sales reps like hey, if something comes up and I can fix it, I'm not talking to you about it, right, I'll just fix it. You know, if it has to come back to you in some way or shape or form, then I'll let you know. But if you know, if I start bombarding you with calls and emails, you're just going to get overwhelmed and you're going to want to try to fix things and all this stuff it's kind of a let me do my job and I'll get it fixed for you. So if I need something from you, I'll ask it.

Speaker 2 18:00

All right, so let's get past the audit. So now we've gone through the audit process, customers been communicated to, if needed to, we go to the next step, which is basically now it's going to go into design. Our design department takes anywhere from three to seven days depending on, you know, volume and other things, and what that means is they're going to sit there and do the drawings. They're going to basically do the three lines call the three line electrical drawing that they have to submit to the utility for approval and get permits for. So they're going to go through that process and that department. Now, once that's done, the design's done. That's another contact point. Typically that's an important one to explain that one.

Speaker 1 18:37

So that one, that one I will be, or Calvin will be reaching out to the customer at that point, because this is where we've gathered all the information and everything is ready to move forward. And now what we need to do is we got to show the customer like, yeah, I know we gave you a preliminary design that you know, daniel has, you know, given you just based off of this. But we've gathered all the information from the audit and the preliminary design and we've actually figured out hey, this is where your panels are going to be going, this is all the stuff that you're going to be getting. This is kind of like your final checks and balances of are you sure this is what you want to do? This is what you're going to get, this is where the panels are going and everything. So take a look at that big long packet that we're going to, that we send you, and make sure everything looks okay with what you're getting. And if it's okay, then we move forward.

Speaker 1 19:21

But that's kind of the main thing with a lot of customers They'll get it and they'll just not respond, and then we have to let them know, like you do know, that every step of the way it's based on your communication with us, right? You know, if you want your project to move quickly, then I need responses quickly. If you take a day, everything else is held up for a day, right? If you take a week, everything else is held up for a week. So if you want it to move quickly, as soon as I send you an email or a phone call or something, I need responses right away.

Speaker 3 19:50

I let my customers know that that makes sense yeah, you have to let them know from the beginning as well, so that they know the balls in their court.

Speaker 1 19:55

the whole time Right, Because I can't approve the design. I can't just go yeah, this is what he wants.

Speaker 2 20:00

Now in Oklahoma you're doing it that way, but with the dealers. So now you're communicating that to the actual dealer company.

Speaker 3 20:07

With the dealers. No, I'm still going directly to the customer.

Speaker 2 20:09

Oh, you're going directly to the customer. Yeah, okay, if it's long, as it doesn't involve money.

Speaker 3 20:12

I'm going directly to the customer.

Speaker 2 20:14

But at this point we're past that. So yeah, I mean.

Speaker 3 20:16

So actually I didn't realize that.

Speaker 2 20:17

So you're communicating with the customer and say hey it's you know, I need your approval. Blah, blah, blah blah.

Speaker 3 20:21

Yeah, I usually send out the, the, the packet, the packet, and as I send it out, I'm calling them at the exact same time letting them know that. Hey, you should have just received this. Please go over it when you get the opportunity, make sure it's what you want Because, like you said, it's going to be the final product, right?

Speaker 1 20:39

Yeah.

Speaker 3 20:39

We're showing you the end right now.

Speaker 1 20:40

Yeah, because once they get that plan set, that's what we submit to the utility and the jurisdiction. You have a lot of those kind of shady companies who will try to sell you, you know, systems that are panels hanging off over the roof or this and that, because it makes it look good on paper, and then they do the audit and afterwards then they have the actual plan set and they go back to the customer, go oh, by the way, I know I told you this, but we're going to need more money and the production is a little bit lower. Because you know, and a lot of homeowners will be like, well, I've already signed the documents. Might as well, sure, whatever, I'll do it. A little bait and switch. Yeah, we don't do that.

Speaker 1 21:14

We tried to be honest up front. You know with everything. So when you show you that plan set, we go by the way, this is what you're getting. I don't know what your salesperson showed you or told you, if it's an outside company, not Harman, but this is what you're getting, this is what we're submitting and this is what we're installing. Are you okay with that?

Speaker 2 21:32

And I'm going to say this is this happens more than once. Yep, is Mr or Mrs customer really? Look at that especially. You know where the panel placement is, because if you come back and it's after, after the fact and we've already now, we've gone into permitting and everything else we're down the road. Well, I don't want my panel installed there, I don't want this. It's. I want to say it's too late.

Speaker 2 21:52

It's not too late, but it is too late in a sense that if we have to make a change now, we have to stop. We have to go all the way back to the design process, redesign it and then resubmit everything to the utility, right to the jurisdiction, and guess what. That takes time and I guess what also takes money exactly that you will now have to pay to make that change.

Speaker 1 22:12

Yeah, so that's a very important step that when we give you that design to make sure this is what you want, because this is what we're installing right, don't change your mind when we're out there with panels that you're signing off on it.

Speaker 2 22:22

Yeah, so it's not just like you know, I can go somewhere and just sign a paper and don't think about it. Don't do that, Cause of too many times we go out there to install and you're like oh no, no, no, we'll stop and it'll delay everything and it'll cost you money. We'll do that if you want to, but avoid that from happening because it happens too much. Yeah, I would say that.

Speaker 1 22:39

What's next? What's on the? What's on the? I mean?

Speaker 2 22:42

obviously. So we've passed design. So now, like you just said, we've, now we submit that design to the, to the jurisdiction for permit, and we submit the utility applications and all that stuff that we have to submit the designs of the utility for everybody has to approve everything. Is my understanding. Yeah, correct, yep.

Speaker 1 22:59

Yep, another little tidbit I'll add, and I'm pretty sure you're probably on. All the emails is everyone at Harmon knows everything, even if it's not your project. Do you get all those emails too?

Speaker 3 23:10

I'm starting to get a few more, oh man.

Speaker 1 23:12

Like, even if it's not my project, I get CC'd on every single like project, like hey, this one's in permitting, this one's in design, this one's so like. Everyone has checks and balances and every now and then, even if it's not my project, I'll chime in, just because you know people don't like me.

Speaker 3 23:28

I'll give you your opinion. I'll give my opinion. I can't imagine. I know it's crazy.

Speaker 1 23:33

I'll chime in and be like, oh no, no, no, hey, wait, let's, let's do this instead. Or you know, panel should go here or this and that or no. It's helpful because other people, other project managers, will ask questions to other project managers Like, hey, how can we solve this, how can we fix this? And same thing with permitting and all that stuff where everyone's included on the emails, and that's why I get probably 500 a day, and so I we see all that, so nothing gets, you know, slipped through the cracks, right.

Speaker 2 23:58

So it's a nice little bonus with Harman, do you ever see him sending those emails out with his opinion on it?

Speaker 1 24:03

Are you on the permitting and design emails too?

Speaker 2 24:04

No, I'm not Give it time.

Speaker 1 24:07

That needs a change. Give it time.

Speaker 2 24:10

Cause. Then you'll be like what's this guy want? He's not, like that's not even your project. So now we've submitted for permit. So we're going down that road, right. So we're waiting for the permit to come back and, depending on the jurisdiction, it could take. It could be over the counter, it could be tomorrow. It could be tomorrow If it's in the Phoenix jurisdiction. Depending on the time of year, it could be 10 weeks, it just depends, Right. So I've even seen as far as 15 weeks, 14 weeks out of Phoenix. So it really just depends on the jurisdiction and the time of year and how busy they are. But hopefully within a good timeframe we get that permit back. And once we have that back, what's the next phone call? Well, hold on, hold on.

Speaker 1 24:45

We might not get that back, we might get red lines.

Speaker 2 24:49

See, you had to go to the red lines.

Speaker 1 24:50

It happens. Have you ever dealt with Peoria? Are we allowed to say that on the air?

Speaker 2 24:54

So now the Peoria won't let us do business there anymore because of that conversation. No, so talk about red lines.

Speaker 1 24:59

Yeah, so when we submit for permits or to the utility, sometimes they come back and go oh you need this, you need this, you need to change that. So we go back to our design and we update things depending on their code, their rules. Their rules change all the time. It really depends on the jurisdiction of what they want.

Speaker 3 25:16

It's exactly the same in.

Speaker 1 25:17

Oklahoma. Yeah, we do everything up to our codes, up to you know, national codes, state codes. But every now and then you get a jurisdiction goes oh, can you label this on your drawings? Can you label this on your plan set? You know you're missing this from the three line. You know this and that, so we go back and sometimes we go back and forth, which takes time with the jurisdiction Talk about Oklahoma.

Speaker 2 25:36

So you said we're seeing the same issues there.

Speaker 3 25:38

Yeah, usually with the power companies, because they have like a thousand power companies. It's not just two or three, that's true.

Speaker 2 25:45

So there's OG and E right.

Speaker 3 25:47

There's PSO, there's Oklahoma Power.

Speaker 2 25:51

And there's a million little ones yeah.

Speaker 3 25:52

There's a ton of them. They're little co-ops, Co-ops right.

Speaker 2 25:56

So that's typical in the Midwest. You have a lot of co-ops because there's a lot of deregulated power, and so you have to deal with all the different rules of all the different, and there's so many of them.

Speaker 3 26:04

A lot of the time you don't find out until after the permitting stage, once you've gotten your permits and like, okay, we're just submitting for the interconnection agreement now. Oh, you can't produce that much power here. You have too big of a system, you need to downgrade. We've had that happen like three or four times. That's not good. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 26:21

That's not good.

Speaker 2 26:22

My favorite was well, we'll get to that. Later We'll get to the inspection part.

Speaker 1 26:25

But I remember that.

Speaker 2 26:27

You know what I'm talking about.

Speaker 1 26:28

Stay tuned.

Speaker 2 26:30

The good part about saying that is really Arizona is it's a lot. You know there's only with the. You know the few utilities that we have here. There's not many. I mean, we don't deal with a lot of the tiny little ones that are out in the middle of nowhere, but we're only dealing with two or three utilities really out here. So we can get a bigger grasp of the rules, a better grasp of the rules and how what can or can't happen. It doesn't mean that a jurisdiction can't change what they want or how they want something.

Speaker 2 26:53

It happens all the time, like you just talked about, and to try to stay on top of all. That is not easy.

Speaker 1 26:58

It's just not so you're going to get red lines once in a while yeah, and a lot of it's not major, it's just tiny little things on. You know labeling stuff on your site plan. You know like, oh, this person you know on the site plan we put that they, you know, don't have a fence around their house.

Speaker 1 27:12

And so like yes, we labeled it, but they want to label somewhere else on the site plan. They're like okay, we'll put it over here, but that takes, you know, a day or two for us to change that and do this.

Speaker 1 27:21

And then send it back to them and put it in their little next queue that it has to go, wait now again, yeah, and then they send it back again and go oh, then we also need this. So a lot of that back and forth stuff which, again, I'm not really communicating with the customer or the sales rep at that point. That's what I mentioned earlier. There's a lot of those little things that we can just fix internally that the customer doesn't need to know. I don't need to call them. Go.

Speaker 3 27:40

oh, by the way, you know at that point it's just going to make them worry. Yeah, they're like what, what, what?

Speaker 2 27:45

My bushes are too tall Like no, no, we just have to label it. I think on the, when we submit the drawings to the utility, I think the customers actually get emails from the utilities. So those are seeing some emails here and there from a utility saying that this is going on or that's going on as well. So just so you know that, I mean you guys will have some communication from the utility when you'll see things. Don't freak out, it's all just part of the process.

Speaker 1 28:10

It even says on that email that the customer gets typically your installer will, you know, fix this or reach out to you. So is your homeowner again. This email read the whole thing, cause it says typically your installer will fix it.

Schedule Installation and Parts Delivery Logistics

Speaker 2 28:23

So we're going down the road still. So now we've, we've, we get our permit back in here, everything's good. Yep, right, we're, we're. Once, we have a permit, we're, we're ready to go. Typically, at that point, we've, we're ordering equipment, if we haven't already ordered it. But our big thing now is we want to get you on the schedule Right, and so talk about that process. What do you guys do?

Speaker 1 28:44

Well, we also have to order equipment too. I just said that we did that. Yeah, we already ordered stuff.

Speaker 3 28:49

Well, that's where it's different Cause, like Oklahoma. I'm getting them on the schedule before I ordered.

Speaker 2 28:53

That's true, you're back, you're, he's backwards.

Speaker 3 28:55

I'm getting the equipment literally the day before you guys are installing, I'm getting your equipment there.

Speaker 2 29:00

Directly to the house. He gets it delivered the day before Right.

Speaker 3 29:04

Yeah.

Speaker 2 29:04

Did we get the? Do we deliver it to the customer's house?

Speaker 3 29:07

Straight to the customer's house.

Speaker 2 29:08

Straight to the customer's house Right, we just drop it on the driveway.

Speaker 1 29:11

So you see, you know it's, it's Install it yourself. Good luck, here you go, d Y I.

Speaker 3 29:15

No cause. When they show up? They'll show up at seven o'clock. The delivery drivers aren't up that early. They're not. That's when they're starting. Right, they're starting their shift at seven. So I get them all done the day before so that the customers already know I'll give them a call beforehand and let them know that I'm going to be getting parts delivered to them.

Speaker 2 29:32

Where should we put it, once you have a permit in Oklahoma, you're telling people okay, hey, now I want to get you on the schedule. Yeah, right, so you give them a call and talk through that schedule, depending if today install or two day install, whatever it is, they're all different Right? And then you're calling them again, maybe a day or two before to say, hey, the equipment's going to be delivered.

Speaker 3 29:50

Yep, Well, once we're talking about scheduling, I'll let them know that we're going to be getting equipment delivered to their house. That's when I'll ask them where should we have it delivered? What's part of the house Cause? A lot of the time we're doing barns and things like that.

Speaker 2 30:01

Yeah Again. Different, yeah yeah, different world out there. Right, we got farms and barns and all sorts of shops.

Speaker 3 30:09

Look like barns. She sheds.

Speaker 2 30:12

He's yeah Okay.

Speaker 1 30:14

Arizona is similar, depending on the jurisdiction. So, for example, we know like Phoenix takes a long time. So we will get you tentatively on the schedule If we know we're coming up to the point where we're about to get the permit. So we don't necessarily have to wait for the permit and go, okay, we've got the permit now, let's get you on the schedule now, because there's lots of installs, lots of lots of everything. We don't want to go.

Speaker 1 30:36

We got your permit on January 5th and we'll put you on the schedule for March 1st, like okay, we'll not have to wait more. Like, no, we know we're going to get your permit here pretty soon. Let's get you tentatively, you know, on the schedule Just in case we get it. You know in time we can, as soon as we get that permit, we can get you installed. So we kind of plan ahead for this. So if it's other jurisdictions like Miraclepa County or Avondale, where we know it's pretty quick, you know as soon as we get that approval from your design, like we can get you on the schedule pretty quick because we know the permit offices are pretty fast too. But again, it's just that communication with the customer. Like it's tentatively on the schedule and I usually tell my customers. You know it's either going to be this week or this week or this week, so we're aiming for the earlier. But if that doesn't happen, we at least have a few tentative spots for you, just because our install schedules are backed up depending on volume.

Speaker 2 31:27

And I would say, depending on time of year, right. I mean there's going to be times where the calendar is in a good place, when you can get stuff moving pretty quick, but as you get toward the end of the year especially that's when everybody wants to get it installed before the end of the year. We talked about that in previous episodes, but that's where it's you can wind up being. No, we can't install it until January, Right, right.

Speaker 1 31:46

So it's just how it is. That's why I always tell people the best time to look at solar is now January.

Speaker 3 31:50

February get it installed before summer, you know.

Speaker 2 31:54

Get install, start building credits Start building credits, install times are quicker.

Speaker 1 31:57

You know jurisdictions aren't backed up. Utilities aren't backed up, they're. You know they get backed up when everyone is mad rushing in the summer. Try to get solar, but then you're not getting installed till December, maybe January.

Speaker 2 32:09

Okay, so we've put you on the schedule. It all works out. Our crew comes out there. They do their job. I think typically are like we talked about in episode three. David's roofing crew comes out there first. They put the stanchions up and this is Arizona. They put the stanchions up and then the other crew will come behind them how many ever days later, whatever it is on the calendar, and they do the install In Oklahoma. I think it's different. I think it all done in one shot.

Speaker 3 32:35

Lately it's been all in one shot. We used to have it where they were doing racking the day before. Then they'll come out and do everything the next day. But lately we've been having a lot of smaller systems too, so they haven't needed the whole time. They've been able to go up, put it all up and go.

Speaker 2 32:49

Yeah, systems tend to be smaller in Oklahoma for some reason. Bigger in Arizona, especially in the last four or five months, been really big. We could probably use a lot more power. Yeah, probably.

Speaker 1 32:59

In the summer.

Speaker 2 33:00

It does get hotter here and they are dodging tornadoes, that's true. You need more panels, a lot more generators out there, okay, tons of generators out there.

Speaker 1 33:08

Yeah, installs here in Arizona typically a day or two, right, we do the stanchions one day and then the actual modules will take a day or two depending on the system size, and it's pretty quick actually.

Speaker 2 33:21

Okay, and then. So we do that, and then what we do is a post installation. It's called post installation and what that means is now we have to do the final inspection. Those are typically. They take place within 48 hours of the install being complete. Typically Right Not always, but typically Right. So you must be like this it depends on the jurisdiction.

Speaker 1 33:39

Yeah, it depends on the jurisdiction. It depends on your project manager. If they were working ahead of schedule and you know because, again, when you know your system is being installed on a certain day, you can kind of plan ahead, Because when you apply for permits you also have to get that inspected. You're telling the jurisdiction hey, by the way, they're getting solar and we're gonna need you and inspect it. So once you know when the system is installed, you can plan ahead and get your system inspected, Hopefully that next day or that same week whenever it's installed.

Speaker 2 34:09

Do you let the customers know that, hey, they're gonna be coming out?

Speaker 3 34:13

Yeah, as the install's done, you basically go over the next few steps with them. They're gonna have two different inspections and we're also no column. We're doing video inspections as well at the end of it. But just basically lay it all out for them so that they know one of the guys isn't gonna show up. He's not gonna tell you anything, he's just gonna show up on your doorstep one day. We don't know when he's gonna show up because they don't tell us, but you'll probably see him from this time to this time.

Speaker 1 34:39

Yeah, usually when you schedule inspection is it'll be for a certain day, but then the time slot is 7 am to 4 pm, so be home for nine hours and someone might show up.

Speaker 3 34:50

Oklahoma. From the time you schedule it. It could be from anytime there to the next 10 days. Really, yeah.

Speaker 1 34:57

Wow, so obviously the homeowner does not have to be home. No, we're not telling you, stay in your house, for 10 days because someone might show up at 3 am. But here they have to be home, don't they? It depends Depends on, like, if we do a solar system with an EV charger and the EV charger's in the garage, then yeah, they would have to be home.

Speaker 2 35:14

Or if the inverter's in the garage.

Speaker 1 35:16

If the inverter's in the garage. Yeah, so usually on the inspection notes that I type up, I always put, like the homeowner's hours that he's home with this. Here's their phone number. I've already spoke to them. Make sure you call 30 minutes before you arrive, or something like that.

Speaker 2 35:30

Okay.

Speaker 1 35:31

Again, open line of communication. Everyone should be knowing what everyone's doing.

Speaker 2 35:35

And that is so. We're talking about the post installation, not the utility inspection, but the jurisdiction. Jurisdiction, yeah, inspection. So once they pass it, I guess they green tag it in a sense. Right, they say, yep, this is good to go. Now is the big inspection and that's with the utility. Yeah, correct, yeah, so that's, and this is the one, that we're at the mercy of the utility. Yeah, we have no control over this. I know in Oklahoma we've had some monsters where the utility could take a month to come out. It's sometimes even longer, exactly.

Speaker 1 36:09

Wow.

Speaker 2 36:10

That's Oklahoma, though.

Speaker 1 36:11

Yeah, over here?

Speaker 2 36:12

I don't. We don't have that kind of issue.

Speaker 1 36:14

No, recently I've been seeing about a week. Again, it all depends on the volume, how busy utility companies are, things like that. I've had one case where they came out like two days later, so that was kind of nice, but then on the one. They came out two weeks later. So we don't know. We let them know, let the utility know hey, it passed city inspection balls in your court. I wish you would come right now, but it's up to you. So it really depends on what they want.

Speaker 2 36:43

OK. And so once that they come out and they say, yep, it gets turned on and you're solar.

Setting Up Monitoring

Speaker 1 36:49

Well, there's a couple more steps. I think there's one, yeah. So they turn on the turn on the system that give you the PTO permission to operate. But then we need to kind of come out and do our final, final spiel. You know, set up the monitoring. Have you been? Have they showed you how?

Speaker 3 37:05

to do that. I haven't gotten this right.

Speaker 1 37:07

It's kind of fun. It's like you get to build the array again.

Speaker 1 37:09

So you know you go into the portal and you kind of build the array and go, hey, these are where the panels are based off of the you know how it was installed so you can set up for the homeowner. And then someone comes out to the home and shows you, hey, here's how, here's how separate monitoring we connected to your internet, and kind of show you, you know, based off of what you got and what monitoring system you got, of how everything works.

Speaker 2 37:32

I thought you guys monitored it for me. Arm and solar does not We've talked about this. Yeah, throw that out there.

Speaker 1 37:39

No, but we get you. We get you set up with monitoring, so we need to access to your Wi-Fi router and you know, we set you up with an email account or the monitoring with your email account, so you get the alerts when things go down, but then after that, everything's on you now.

Speaker 2 37:51

So then our final touch here would be basically to we're going to, we're going to. After it's been basically blessed by the utility, we give them a call and say, hey, now we need to come back out and we need to do our thing, right, okay, right, we have a name for that. We send James out.

Speaker 1 38:10

That's our name for it.

Speaker 2 38:12

That's like a closeout in a sense, kind of.

Speaker 1 38:14

Yes, I know. I mean it really depends on the project manager how much. If you know how much they want to go into it, you know letting the because they were with the homeowner the whole time, from start to finish, and now we're at the finish line. So it's like you know what do you do after the finish line.

Speaker 2 38:29

I've got an answer for that, Not yet though Go home, I don't know.

Speaker 3 38:33

And so in. Oklahoma same thing I mean pretty much the same thing. We're just waiting for them to come out reprogram the meters. Once that happens and we get PTO, we're good to go.

Speaker 2 38:42

Unless it's a certain utility that requires a band to be out there or some kind of a plate to be out there all of a sudden, doesn't tell anybody about it.

Speaker 1 38:48

No, we didn't say that.

Speaker 3 38:50

It's someone.

Speaker 2 38:51

It's someone where, all of a sudden, they said hey, by the way, we now require this plate to be on their bypass.

Speaker 1 38:56

Oh, when you said band, I thought you meant like there needs to be a drummer no, no, no, no no no, no, bass player guitar. No, no, it's a play.

Speaker 3 39:02

Little cover that goes over, like would go over meter. Okay, and you have to have it on all systems for their, for their power company. It's just their regulation.

Speaker 2 39:12

That was just basically. Hey, by the way, this is new and good luck finding one.

Speaker 1 39:16

This is new and we didn't tell anyone.

Speaker 2 39:18

Yeah they're all gone.

Speaker 1 39:19

Yeah everywhere. Okay, so sorry, mr Customer, you need to wait. So again back to my original statement. Before this whole thing. If we had it our way, we would install it tomorrow, but we're at the mercy of every single jurisdiction and utility company. We have to do what they want.

Speaker 2 39:34

And the point about why we're kind of making this such a big deal is you hear from we've talked about this in the sales part where companies say, yeah, we'll get it installed for you in 15 days. I call BS because you just can't do that. You're at the mercy of so many other people.

Speaker 1 39:52

I always tell people there's nothing that you can do. That's better than what we can do we're all kind of in the same boat of at the mercy of jurisdictions. It's not like they go. Oh, this is a Harman solar design. We'll go ahead and push this to the front of the line and now you're in first place and now you can get installed tomorrow. Everyone's treated the same.

Speaker 2 40:09

It's all equal it's. You're in a, you're in a, you know you're in a pile and you get there when you get there. So if they can do it in 15 days. They probably didn't get a permit, they probably didn't do all the things they're supposed to do. And if they even turn it on without all that, boy, could you get in trouble?

Speaker 1 40:22

and it happens, yep.

Speaker 2 40:23

So be careful who you're dealing with, because you need to make sure it's done right the whole way through. Or you could have the jurisdiction on you, you could have the utility on you, just it could be not pretty.

Speaker 1 40:33

Yeah, yeah, there's a lot of horror stories out there.

Speaker 3 40:36

The systems that are installed and can't be turned on for two years. Yep, there's those horror stories installed or two.

Speaker 2 40:42

Yeah, that's happened a lot Okay, so we kind of reached the finish line at that point, I mean we're.

Speaker 1 40:48

You said you had a comment. What do we get? What do you do when you get to the finish line of something? You win the race, got to the finish line. I put a medal on, go. Okay, that was it. Cause you won, cause.

Speaker 2 40:58

I won. You had the podium. I mean I win. So I mean, so we're at the finish line, it's all done, and Start saving money. That's it, I mean, right. Oh, there is one more thing we do. What do we do? Come on, you guys.

Speaker 3 41:11

You just give us a call and say, hey, congratulations, you're now part of the Harmon family. What?

Speaker 1 41:15

else I don't know.

Speaker 3 41:17

Come on.

Speaker 1 41:17

I'm failing at my job, you are right now, right now, you're failing. I tell Ralph that this system is turned on. I don't do that?

Speaker 3 41:24

Oh yeah, I eat my Marjorie. That's what I do. No, you bill them.

Speaker 1 41:28

You send them a bill. No, we should have already collected that bill. I know, I'm just kidding. You ask for more money. No, we ask for referrals. We ask for a review, refuse, oh yeah.

Speaker 2 41:38

Because reviews are important. In today's world, we want real reviews, and if a customer's had a good experience with us, we want it to be told, and if they had a bad experience with us that we then made right, we want that to be told, do we, I presume?

Speaker 3 41:49

It's okay to have a bad experience, but then we do the right thing. That's true.

Speaker 2 41:52

Now I mean that's we want. We want to ask for reviews. I mean I would. That's why I think it's so important to have a good relationship with the customer all the way through, so they can come back and say, yeah, you know what Calvin was awesome he talked to me when I didn't want to talk to him but he told me everything that I needed to know.

Speaker 1 42:04

I want a customer on this podcast that had a bad experience initially and then we solved it. Let's get that. Yeah, we're gonna get that. So if you're listening out there and you're a customer who had kind of a shaky experience but then we fixed it, let's know we're gonna do that. Message us, Email, Ralph.

Speaker 2 42:19

I'll give you his phone number.

Speaker 1 42:20

You can text him, call him Email Ralph.

Speaker 2 42:22

Let's not so. I mean, that's the whole process for getting solar and that's the process that you guys are managing as project managers. What? Let's look at this. What is the one? That's one thing that stands out the toughest thing in that whole process that you have to deal with. Is there one thing that stands out where you're like man, this is just the toughest thing. I hate this. I always have to deal with this.

Speaker 1 42:45

When something comes back from the audit that you know again the salesperson didn't know, the homeowner didn't know. It's something major that comes back that's gonna potentially upset the customer. You're like oh, we came back, like you need a new service panel, like a whole new service panel. It's a couple thousand dollars. Again, no one knew about this Salesperson to know you at home, you didn't know. But now we have to break that bad news to you and like, oh, by the way, contrary to popular belief, we do not want to be the bearer of bad news, exactly, but sometimes we have to.

Speaker 1 43:14

We have to be For safety reasons.

Speaker 2 43:17

Yeah, I would say that's probably. I agree with that. That's probably the toughest thing you guys deal with is having to communicate that.

Speaker 3 43:23

I would say playing the line between nice and mean, because Whoa.

Speaker 2 43:29

What does that mean?

Speaker 3 43:30

You have to be able to go to these companies and let them know that you have timelines and we're supposed to be sticking to it. Oh, okay At the same time you have to let them know like, hey, this isn't for me, I'm just here to help, like I'm gonna. What do you need? How can I help you? But we still have to get this done, regardless of what you, so you're talking more about dealing with the dealers. Yeah, dealers, installers, installers, either way.

Speaker 2 43:51

Yeah, I got okay, I get what you're saying Cause you're trying to make this thing, continue to keep moving, and then you got to start finding ways Internally. You got to find that fine line of being nice, being politically correct, of being like come on, I need to get this done. Exactly, what do I need to do to get this done? I mean, there's no reason this needs to be sitting the way it's sitting.

Speaker 3 44:09

Exactly so, whether it's installers, internal timelines, whatever you're going through, you still have to figure out how to manage that time.

Speaker 2 44:15

I would definitely say that Oklahoma is a tougher. Yeah, it's, this process in Oklahoma is a little tougher Really, and I think it's because solar is so new out there Makes sense. Where we've been doing it for so long in Arizona. But in Oklahoma it's a really new thing. It's probably where we were 10 years ago.

Speaker 1 44:31

Really.

Speaker 2 44:32

So I mean there's a lot of people still learning and you have to be patient it makes sense. So it's just definitely there's challenges, there's no doubt there's challenges, but it's still really worth it out there, so it's really beneficial. But, man, it can get tough.

Speaker 3 44:45

It definitely does, but it's worth it All right.

Speaker 2 44:49

What else, what else? What else am I missing? Is there anything missing within this process or this? I think a customer has a really good idea Now. If you've watched all our podcasts to this point, I mean, you should pretty much know what to expect. From the time that we set up an appointment to the time where now your solar's turned down, we've hit everything.

Speaker 1 45:06

Everything. That's it, ladies and gentlemen. No more podcasts. That's the end of our podcast ever. No, we got a lot more, all right.

Speaker 2 45:12

But I mean we've hit absolutely everything now to this point. That's true, that's true. So I mean there should be no surprises, hopefully, but you should have a general idea of what it is that we go through and what you're going to be going through when you do this purchase.

Speaker 1 45:25

Again, it's all about communication there are some times where I've had some customers, I tried calling, I tried emailing, I tried texting. I'm like I need a response, I need a response, I need a response. And then eventually, oh yeah, I just kind of ignored your calls. I'm like okay, well, I'm trying to get this thing going here for you so that you can be saving money. The goal is for you to save money. We need to get this on your roof as soon as possible so you can start saving as soon as possible.

Speaker 3 45:48

It's the worst when it's already on the roof and you just need to get in contact with them so you can turn it off. Yeah, that happens a lot in Oklahoma, yeah.

Speaker 2 45:56

Because you have people that are truckers and stuff and they're gone for a month at a time. Oh wow, we had one that I remember.

Speaker 3 46:02

Final inspection. They didn't even do it with her, they just had the inspector go out and do a video and it was a whole thing, because she was never there she wasn't.

Speaker 2 46:10

It was like a month and a half or after install or something like that.

Speaker 3 46:13

Wasn't it more? No, it was like four or five months after the install that she finally got PTO'd.

Speaker 2 46:17

Isn't that crazy Because?

Speaker 3 46:18

she was just waiting on inspection Always gone.

Speaker 2 46:20

So it was no cooperation.

Speaker 3 46:22

That was not her fault, that's her job. Oh, that's her job Exactly. It's how she's paying for it, but never adult. Never have those four or five months without it, that you could have been saving up credits, and that's the part that's hard, because it's like I'm here for you at the end. This is something that you can be helping yourself with, because you're working this hard already. This is why you got it.

Speaker 2 46:44

So really good point I mean. So I'm gonna focus on if I end with anything, it's over communicate, which we do Hopefully we always do, but you guys out there play a role in this as well. We need you to be a part of this, and if you're not, it's on you because we can only do so much.

Speaker 1 47:02

I don't wanna make decisions for you, I don't wanna guess what you want.

Speaker 2 47:07

So it's really up to you.

15 Day Installs...Please!!!!

Speaker 2 47:09

We can move as fast as you help us move and as fast as the utilities and the jurisdictions move. That's the bottom line. That's the solar industry. So, from beginning to end, there's a lot of factors in there and we don't control a lot of it. The pieces that we control, we better make sure we do what we're supposed to do. There's a piece you control, there's a piece other people control, and as long as we can all work together, it could be a nice smooth process. But it ain't gonna take 10, 15 days, like some people tell you this is not real.

Speaker 2 47:36

So, I just don't care what anyone says. I challenge all of you out there that say that to your customers. Prove me wrong and tell me that you're doing it right, I guarantee you.

Speaker 1 47:45

Yeah, we could put it on your roof illegally, yeah, and no people companies that, do that, and it's just not the way it gets done.

Speaker 3 47:51

So it wouldn't even take 15 days at that point, yeah, I mean we could do $15.

Speaker 2 47:55

But that's why I always say make sure you look into who you're working with and how they're doing things and make sure they're doing it the right way. And if you don't see all these things happening like we just talked about, someone's probably wrong. If you wake up one morning and there's a solar system up there and you're kind of 10 days later or something, probably right now, I didn't buy this.

Speaker 1 48:12

It's the wrong house.

Speaker 2 48:14

And I have a story about that's happened.

Speaker 1 48:16

I know it's happened. I know it's happened. I've heard that story.

Speaker 2 48:19

Where somebody let us know that they woke up and there was people putting solar on the roof and they just didn't say anything and they had a solar system on the roof Congratulations you won. It wasn't theirs, but we didn't do it.

Speaker 3 48:28

It wasn't us, it wasn't us but that did happen, or they don't use the approved design.

Speaker 2 48:33

Yeah, there's all these things that can happen, which why project management is so important. So it's so important for us to make sure we're moving things through. This is a really rough job. It's probably one of the rougher jobs that we have in the organization is project management, because if you've ever been in construction, you understand that things happen, and so this job is this person having to make sure that it moves as fast as possible, as correctly as possible, and over communicates to you to let you know what you're doing. Because the more we communicate to you when something does go wrong, if it does go wrong, you're probably gonna be more open to having that conversation versus us never talking to you and something goes wrong and like, oops, and well, the only time you hear from us is when we give you bad news. That wouldn't be good. So that's how we do it at Harmon anyway. That's just the residential side.

Speaker 1 49:16

The commercial side is we're not gonna talk commercial right now A hundred thousand times crazier than the residential side.

Speaker 2 49:21

Anything you wanna add, anything you feel we missed, or no, that was pretty much everything from start to finish, all right, and your eyes are this big because you've been doing this for like a year and like my gosh.

Speaker 3 49:33

No, it's really not that bad. No, it just brings you to projects where it's just like oh, that was a fun project to get through.

Speaker 1 49:40

It is nice to see you go from a project from start to finish Like you're completely done and you're like, wow, that was my baby. Go on, graduated and on, is all now and you've created the relationship with that customer. It's kind of cool and that will never go away.

Speaker 3 49:52

It starts at a why are you calling me? Stop calling me, Please call me. I'm so glad you called me.

Speaker 1 50:00

And then the next one is hey, we're having a barbecue later, Do you wanna come over? And that does happen. I know. I know it's happened to you. I know I get that a lot.

Speaker 2 50:08

All right, so that's project management. Hopefully you got something out of that one, and just I thought it would be important just to have this conversation and go through it, and so now we'll be going in some different directions. Next, what's next, ralph? You know, I've got a lot of ideas. I know you do too. I do wanna bring in our operations manager. Director.

Speaker 3 50:27

I think it'd be good to have that conversation with him.

Speaker 2 50:29

Maybe, even bring in a foreman that actually goes to the house. That'd be kind of cool. Talk about the actual install.

Speaker 1 50:34

Yeah, I think that'd be kind of interesting to do. We talked about installs. My little get in the in depth, I mean just something more and more in depth.

Speaker 2 50:40

And then I wanna talk. I wanna get into batteries, I wanna get into APS we haven't done that yet and I really wanna bring customers in here.

Speaker 3 50:49

I really wanna do that.

Speaker 2 50:49

And I wanna bring dealers in here. I think that would be interesting. So we have a long list. In other words, we've got a huge list of things. Job security, yeah, so we've hit. Like I said, we've hit them up, you know, nine, 10 episodes, whatever it is, and there's a lot more to talk about, sure.

Speaker 1 51:03

So Well, as always, thanks for having me. Should we end on something weird, like we always do?

Speaker 2 51:10

No.

Speaker 1 51:11

So, calvin, thanks for joining us. Thank you guys for having me. Thank you for coming in and joining us.

Speaker 2 51:15

I appreciate it and kind of opening up a little bit Oklahoma to us, which is interesting. And thank you to my co-host. Yeah, you're welcome. Who is always here for the food?

Speaker 1 51:24

Yeah, we appreciate it. I'm gonna go downstairs and get more.

Speaker 2 51:27

Exactly the dog, I think. Ate it. Dang it so. But thanks again for tuning in and watching our Harm and Solar podcast. Remember to like and subscribe. We've had we've actually grown a little bit and we're getting some really good, really good feedback on the things that we're sharing with people. I know these things they actually show a couple of weeks later, but we're gonna be at the home show this week, which I know we're gonna be really promoting the podcast and talking to people. So if you're at a home show and you see Ben, he's gonna be there too. You see Calvin, you see me, which you probably won't Come up and talk to us. We weren't happy to talk about all this stuff. It's what we do, it's what we love and we appreciate everyone out there, and we're always looking for ideas for other podcasts that you would like us to do as well. So be more than happy to put those in the comments. Share, give us a call, call Ben, I'll give you his number, yep put it on the screen there 888, no, but anyway.

Speaker 2 52:15

So like and subscribe and we appreciate your time and we'll see you next time. Thanks, Thank you. We keep Having some kind of an outsider. I know that had been an analyze. You haveur会練識他们. They have at least a half should work together.