Let's Talk Project Management

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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!!!!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to another episode of the Harmon Solar
podcast.
I'm your host, Ralph Romano, VPof sales and marketing at
Harmon Solar, with me at alwaysmy co-host, Ben Walsh Lager.
Also, you guys know him as MrEverything.
Ben.
How you doing Good, it's been awhile.
It's been a couple weeks.
It's been a couple weeks We'vehad the holidays and, and you
know you have a good holidays.
It was good and it tookvacation, which meant I just

(00:45):
didn't go to work, which wasnice.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
I got a break and stuff and didn't have to leave.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
I did not take a break.
I just kept working becausesomeone has to run the company,
I guess.

Speaker 2 (00:52):
Well, mr, everything means that you have to do
everything Right.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
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 newpodcasts will be coming out, so
this is actually this is ourepisode number nine, yep, you
know.

Speaker 2 (01:08):
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 nineof the Harmon Solar podcast, and
today we got a guy.
We got a guy there it is Idon'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 notonly is he a project manager in

(01:29):
Arizona, but he's also aproject manager for our Oklahoma
operation.
So he's a hybrid.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Yeah, two different markets, sure, two very
different scenarios.

Speaker 2 (01:36):
Right, they're a little different right.
So he's going to kind of sharewith us some of that.
You know what that means.
And then, of course, you'vehave project management
experience with the companycouple days.
So we're going to rely on youand him to kind of walk through
this and we want to educate youguys on, you know, once we get
down the road.
We've been going down this roadwith when you buy solar with us
and kind of the process, and Ithink one of the last things we
did before we went to the one onone series, we talked about the

(01:58):
audit right With Lucas, and sonow, after the audit, there's a
lot of other things that happenup through installation and this
is where a project managerkicks in and he's your guy, gal,
whatever that may be, and kindof walks through the project to
make sure it happens the correctway for you.
So we thought we'd obviouslythe next step would be have a
project manager come on boardand kind of talk about what they
go through and what they do andhow they interact with you.

(02:20):
So yeah, that's the whole pointof this show today.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
This is the okay.
What's next?
So you bought solar, you madeyour major purchase.
Okay, now what?
How do I get this thing on myroof?
Right, let's talk about that.
I agree, let's, let's do it.
So that's what we're going todo?

Speaker 2 (02:34):
We're going to bring on Calvin Pashot, our PM and,
like I said, our hybrid PM forOklahoma and Arizona.
And there's that guy, calvin.
Welcome Calvin.
How's it going?
Good, how are you all doingtoday?
We're okay.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
We're here Got some good food in me, so that was the
main reason, because we becausewe eat here at the Herman's old
at least my guest eater.
You're really the only reasonwhy I come here.
I we've had.
We've had this conversation.

Speaker 2 (02:58):
It's the only way we got Calvin to come.
We told him, there'd be foodand he showed up.

Speaker 1 (03:01):
You know what we should do.
We should start posting themenu of what we're eating.
We should.

Speaker 2 (03:04):
That'd be great.
Yeah, That'd be.
That'd be really good, get somefoodies in here.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
You'll have me in here for a few weeks.

Speaker 2 (03:09):
And Calvin just found out like two days ago he was
coming in, so I thought it wasreally good to us to do that.

Speaker 1 (03:13):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:14):
You know welcome.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
Welcome to this, All right.
So, Calvin, tell us a littlebit about yourself.
What's your background?
Tell us you know how longyou've been in Herman.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
I've been in Herman going on about two years now.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
Two years Yep.
So that is the shortest tenuredperson we've ever had on the
podcast.
Yep, you should feel special.

Speaker 1 (03:33):
Congratulations, congratulations.

Speaker 2 (03:35):
Two years, so okay, and and so he's still new.

Speaker 1 (03:39):
He is relatively new.
We'll check back in in 10 yearsand see how things are going.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
I mean, I'll be retired on a beach somewhere,
but you can check in all youwant.
I'll be just as retired as you.

Speaker 1 (03:47):
No, you'll be still here, dang it.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
You'll be here forever, so tell us a little bit
about your background.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Went to school in Berkeley, went to sales right
after that and I've been doingsales for about going on 10
years now, and then I went fromsales to here and started in
sales and then moved over to themanagement side.

Speaker 1 (04:05):
What kind of sales, if you don't mind me asking
Started with car sales.

Speaker 3 (04:08):
Car sales, okay, cool , yeah, I did car sales for
quite some time.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
That's a tough gig.
That is a tough guy that buildssome character.
What kind of cars.

Speaker 3 (04:16):
I did both Toyota, and then we're in luxury cars,
so that's Jaguar.

Speaker 2 (04:21):
Rover, toyota, luxury cars.
Okay, that's a pretty good gig.

Speaker 1 (04:25):
That's pretty good, yeah, you can make good.

Speaker 3 (04:26):
Toyota's a great here we go.

Speaker 1 (04:29):
Okay.
So we know we're great, we'renot paying for this promotion.
It's not getting anything outof this.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
but luxury cars probably easier, a little bit
easier gig.
You make more money, yeahdefinitely is.
And you came over and starteddoing sales and working in the
sales department with us doingsome different things.

Speaker 3 (04:41):
Yeah, it was a big move when I first got here into
Arizona, so it it helped me getinto Arizona itself.

Speaker 2 (04:48):
Right, okay, so cool.
And then you've kind of workedyour way into project management
.
It kind of you fell into it.
It kind of it's funny, how thathappens.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
We all just kind of fall into things.
I guess what we're doing nowyeah, I mean, you fell into it.

Speaker 2 (04:59):
I fell into a lot of things.
He's fallen into it, believe itor not.
I fell into it 11 years ago.
I didn't come here, I was.
I was actually a contractor andkind of fell into running the
whole thing so well.

Speaker 1 (05:07):
correction I think project management was the only
one.
I asked to be a part of youasked.

Speaker 2 (05:11):
Oh yeah, you did ask, that's right, you did ask.

Speaker 1 (05:14):
I asked Ralph and he said no.
So I went above Ralph.

Speaker 2 (05:18):
Everything you need to know about Mr Everything
right there, including MrBackstabber.
Okay, so now kidding Got toclimb somehow.

Speaker 3 (05:25):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
All right.
So you've been around a coupleof years, like we talked about.
You've had a bunch of differentroles and responsibilities, so
now you're a project manager.
It's been new to you.
How long have you been doingthe project management side?

Speaker 3 (05:35):
About a year now About a year yeah.
Going on a year.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
So where Calvin's different is so we have an
operation in Oklahoma as welland he really started doing
project management for thatgroup.
Yeah, and that group's run alittle different, so it's a
little unique about how we dothings there and we can talk a
little about that.
And then you have more theArizona experience, which Calvin
is now doing Arizona projectmanagement as well.
So he's doing both, which isjust it's newer.

(06:01):
You've been doing that maybe afew months a few months.

Speaker 3 (06:04):
I'm still getting the hang of that.
It's a lot of new steps.
It's like you're getting alittle bit further into it.

Speaker 1 (06:10):
Okay, and that will never change, by the way.
I figured as much I did it fora while and every day it's like
I'm learning something new,because something changes.
Jurisdiction's changed, processchanged Like okay, I just
learned this, and now thischanged.

Speaker 3 (06:21):
Cool, it's like you're learning everyone's job
Right Right and making sure thateveryone's doing their job on
time.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
And how Calvin's also different in this role is.
So at Harmon, obviously we haveour Harmon internal sales team
that you know, Dennis, and thoseguys that you've met on this
podcast, but we also work withother sales entities that go out
there to sell solar and we dothe installations for them.
So we're very particular aboutthe partners we partner up with
up and I have a whole dealerprogram around it and probably

(06:49):
do a dealer program podcast andmaybe bring a dealer on Sure.

Speaker 3 (06:52):
We probably should do that.

Speaker 2 (06:53):
Yeah, but we have that program and Calvin right
now is basically doing projectmanagement for some of those
partners, so it's a little bitdifferent, right?

Speaker 3 (07:03):
You're communicating not only with a customer but
probably with a sales entitypartner as well, exactly, I have
a little more on you the salesrep side who want answers, they
want to figure out what's goingon to move forward.
And then also the customer side.
They wanted to figure outwhat's going on the roof.
What's going on with theirproject.
It's their only line ofcommunication.

Speaker 1 (07:22):
We're the middlemen, we're talking to a customer and
the sales person to keep themeveryone in the loop of.
Hey, this is what's going onwith your project.

Speaker 2 (07:30):
That's right, and you're paid handsomely for that
Sure.

Speaker 1 (07:36):
And he didn't say a word.

Speaker 2 (07:40):
Okay, so what I want to do is I want to help people
understand what that looks like.
So not every company hasproject managers, not every
installer has project managers,so that could be a bad thing.
Where you go ahead and you getsolar and all of a sudden the
communication kind of getscrickets.
Okay, thank you, so it's.
And so that's what we want toavoid is, we don't want crickets

(08:02):
, right?
So we, we believe in and I'm abig believer of over
communication to a point whereyou're like can you stop calling
me please?

Speaker 3 (08:10):
I know.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
Because there is in the process of getting solar
there.
There can be periods of timewhere there's not a lot new to
report.
Right, because we're waiting ona jurisdiction to do something
or permitting in a you knowPhoenix.
Wait around, phoenix permitting.
We're waiting on this, waitingon that, waiting on a utility
input, whatever it may.
Be right, things we've talkedabout in previous podcasts.
So we still like to overcommunicate to make sure you

(08:32):
understand.

Speaker 1 (08:33):
Yeah, hey, we're still here.
A lot of times it is a waitinggame what I've told my customers
.
You know, systems that I'vesold, if we had it our way, we
would have you installed, likethe 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 allhave to do their due diligence
to make sure everything's donecorrectly.

(08:54):
It's not simple, you know.
Oh, I bought this, I signed onthe dotted line today and I got
it installed tomorrow.
That's not how the world works,unfortunately.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
Right, and with this purchase, this is a pretty you
know this is not a $5 purchase.
This is an expensive purchaseYou're getting you're basically
bought this big new toy and ittakes time to get that toy and
you're going to want to beupdated on what's going on Right
.
So that's that's.
That's the job of the projectmanager is to not only keep you
updated but also to make sureand this is where it's it's
really important is they workwith all the different

(09:22):
departments within theorganization to ensure that the
project is moving forward,because every piece of every
department and everything thatthey do has a timeline set to it
.
So there's an expectation thatwhen it's doing this, it'll take
three days.
If it's in this department,it'll take five days.
So there's this expectation thatthese people, these service
level metrics that everybody'sheld to within the organization,

(09:42):
and it's a project manager'sjob to make sure that those
things keep moving Right.
And we talk about them in ameeting every week.
We go over projects, we look atprojects and we obviously we
focus on projects that for somereason aren't moving.
Yep, we have software thatshows us every project and where
it's at and if we can see ifsomething'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 alsokeeping the project moving, as a
point I wanted to make.
So there's a lot involved in meand project managers.
There's a lot that goes on,yeah.
So let's, let's talk about Iwant to touch on some of the
talking points, so the touchpoints that you have with
customers, right?
So a project gets sold.
It comes across your desk, yeah, and I know you're a little

(10:25):
different with that, but itcomes across your desk.
What is?
What is the first thing youhave to do when that happens?

Speaker 3 (10:30):
Once it comes across my desk, I'm first going through
contracts, making sureeverything is correct System
sizes, types of panels, thingslike that but then, once that's
taken care of and everything'suploaded, 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 onanything throughout the process,
you're going to get a lot ofemails from different you know
people and jurisdictions andutility companies and this, and
that If you don't sign anythinguntil you talk to me, you know
if anyone else reaches out, makesure you talk to me first,
because we want to make sureeveryone's on the same page

(11:16):
before we're going to that nextstep.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
Exactly, yeah.
So that's the hardest part justletting 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 tohave that conversation, you're
going to go over the system andeverything.
Make sure they understand whatthey'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 thenI 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 gotthat 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 dostuff, I know, so let's talk
about the other thing I wasgoing to touch on.
So all that stuff, when shouldthey expect that call Like.
So I'll ask you internally sohow many days after they've
turned in the paperwork they'vesigned 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 aproject manager, balls in your
court Right as soon as I got onea deal across my desk.
I reached out to the customerthat day and say hey because I
know they're going to be waitingfor 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 theproject manager now.
So the homeowner which I'malways 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 sayjust a welcome call.
Hey, I'm your project manager,we're going to go ahead and you
know, this is where you're at inthe process.
We're going to take care of you.

(12:45):
Some project managers will waituntil after the audit because
there's my.
Some things might come upduring that time.
So it's really depends on.
But you were the guy that you doit.

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 overlycommunicating with you, I'm
communicating with you at leastonce a week on a minimum, and
then, whatever happensthroughout the week, I'm going
to like hey, this just happenedtoday.
I'm letting you know how aboutyou.

Speaker 3 (13:08):
I'm pretty much the same.
I liked going right as you getit just because one.
You never know what's going tohappen tomorrow.
True, you could have an entirefull day, but two.
I like getting them before theaudit 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 bescheduled.
There's going to be people attheir house, right?
I don't know what their salesrep went over with them.

Speaker 2 (13:29):
So I would say you know that right away would
probably equal within the firstweek by the time it's sold.
I think that's fair, that'ssafe to say.
Within the first week youshould hear from us.
Yeah, I know the one thing youjust mentioned at Donna.
So Donna is the person thatsets up our site audit schedules
, and so you'll you'll get aphone call from somebody here on
Donna particularly that'll sayhey, you know, I'm calling to

(13:50):
set up your site survey.
We want to go ahead and come inthere and take a look at
everything.
So remember the episode withLucas that talked about the
audit.
I mean, so she's setting upthat site audit for us to come
out there and do that.
So you're going to hear fromyou.
Might she might be the firstone you actually hear from
before you ever even hear fromher.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
It's the first right.

Speaker 2 (14:07):
It gets it first.
Right, she gets them prettyquick 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 thatcommunication from Donna or
somebody in that department thatsays, hey, we want to set this
up and do a site survey.
And then you're probably goingto 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.

(14:27):
That's fair.

Speaker 1 (14:29):
Yeah, right, yeah.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
Okay Then.
So we're going to go down theroad here.
So then we go to the audit, theaudit, the auditor comes out
there, he does his job, does histhing, and then we've talked
about in that episode how we getthe 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 directlyto the customer with those audit
comps and stuff, because I'mworking 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 totheir customers.

Speaker 2 (15:06):
That's true, so that's a good point.
The money Right, so there's abig difference there.
So, with you working with thedealers or working in Oklahoma,
even with more than the dealers,you're going to focus on the
dealer primarily because you gotto let them know the results
Exactly, because maybe we needto go back to the customer and
talk about something we found.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
Yeah, or maybe that they don't even care and they're
just taking it out of myportion Right and then you, yeah
, so kind of, I'm kind of thesame, a little bit different in
the fact that I set properexpectations with with customers
.
So I let them know in that myinitial welcome call how much
information do you want?
Cause every, every installthere's probably going to be

(15:44):
bumps in the road.
You know something's going tocome up.
Do you want to know about thelittle things?
You want to know abouteverything?
Do you want to know?
You know I'll obviously let youknow about the major things
that come down, but just so youknow something tiny is going to
come up.
Do you want me to solve it?
It's going to have no impact onthe cost, the production
savings, anything like that.
It might be just something thatwe 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

(16:07):
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 goalis on time and on budget, so
you don't want to go back to thecustomer and say, oh, by the
way, this came up, and thenthey're going to get freaked out
and like no it's a tiny littlething that we have to change.
It has no impact on yourproduction savings cost or
anything.
It's just something that wehave to fix internally.
So it depends If it's somethingsmall that comes up in the

(16:32):
audit, I just tell thesalesperson you're like, oh,
this came up by the way, likeyou said, sometimes you know
they'll eat that cost.
Or if there is no cost, there'sno issues and we'll just move
right along.
But I'll let the customer knowlike hey, we just got down with
your audit.
Something you know small littlething came up.
We fixed it, we're movingforward.

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, wediscussed it, we already have
solutions in place, you knowhere.
Here are your options of how wewant 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 thecustomer 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 linewith kind of what.
Ben's doing when you're dealingwith Oklahoma.

Speaker 3 (17:13):
Yeah, it's weird though, because it's Oklahoma,
but I'm doing it exactly how wewould do it here, so do you just
like, change your voice andhave 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, butit didn't happen.

Speaker 1 (17:31):
Yeah, in a line with that.
Not only am I having that sameconversation with customers, I'm
having the same thing with thesales rep.
I'll tell sales reps like hey,if something comes up and I can
fix it, I'm not talking to youabout it, right, I'll just fix
it.
You know, if it has to comeback to you in some way or shape
or form, then I'll let you know.
But if you know, if I startbombarding you with calls and
emails, you're just going to getoverwhelmed and you're going to

(17:51):
want to try to fix things andall this stuff it's kind of a
let me do my job and I'll get itfixed 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 theaudit process, customers been
communicated to, if needed to,we go to the next step, which is
basically now it's going to gointo design.
Our design department takesanywhere from three to seven
days depending on, you know,volume and other things, and
what that means is they're goingto sit there and do the
drawings.
They're going to basically dothe three lines call the three
line electrical drawing thatthey have to submit to the

(18:22):
utility for approval and getpermits for.
So they're going to go throughthat process and that department
.
Now, once that's done, thedesign's done.
That's another contact point.
Typically that's an importantone 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 atthat point, because this is
where we've gathered all theinformation and everything is
ready to move forward.
And now what we need to do iswe got to show the customer like
, yeah, I know we gave you apreliminary design that you know
, daniel has, you know, givenyou just based off of this.
But we've gathered all theinformation from the audit and

(18:58):
the preliminary design and we'veactually figured out hey, this
is where your panels are goingto be going, this is all the
stuff that you're going to begetting.
This is kind of like your finalchecks and balances of are you
sure this is what you want to do?
This is what you're going toget, this is where the panels
are going and everything.
So take a look at that big longpacket that we're going to,
that we send you, and make sureeverything looks okay with what
you're getting.

(19:18):
And if it's okay, then we moveforward.
But that's kind of the mainthing with a lot of customers
They'll get it and they'll justnot respond, and then we have to
let them know, like you do know, that every step of the way
it's based on your communicationwith us, right?
You know, if you want yourproject to move quickly, then I
need responses quickly.

(19:38):
If you take a day, everythingelse is held up for a day, right
?
If you take a week, everythingelse is held up for a week.
So if you want it to movequickly, as soon as I send you
an email or a phone call orsomething, 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 fromthe beginning as well, so that
they know the balls in theircourt.

Speaker 1 (19:55):
the whole time Right, Because I can't approve the
design.
I can't just go yeah, this iswhat he wants.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Now in Oklahoma you're doing it that way, but
with the dealers.
So now you're communicatingthat to the actual dealer
company.

Speaker 3 (20:07):
With the dealers.
No, I'm still going directly tothe customer.

Speaker 2 (20:09):
Oh, you're going directly to the customer.
Yeah, okay, if it's long, as itdoesn'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, Ineed 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 justreceived this.
Please go over it when you getthe opportunity, make sure it's
what you want Because, like yousaid, 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 utilityand the jurisdiction.
You have a lot of those kind ofshady companies who will try to
sell you, you know, systemsthat are panels hanging off over
the roof or this and that,because it makes it look good on
paper, and then they do theaudit and afterwards then they
have the actual plan set andthey go back to the customer, go

(21:01):
oh, by the way, I know I toldyou this, but we're going to
need more money and theproduction is a little bit lower
.
Because you know, and a lot ofhomeowners will be like, well,
I've already signed thedocuments.
Might as well, sure, whatever,I'll do it.
A little bait and switch.
Yeah, we don't do that.
We tried to be honest up front.
You know with everything.
So when you show you that planset, we go by the way, this is
what you're getting.
I don't know what yoursalesperson showed you or told

(21:23):
you, if it's an outside company,not Harman, but this is what
you're getting, this is whatwe'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 customerreally?
Look at that especially.
You know where the panelplacement is, because if you
come back and it's after, afterthe fact and we've already now,
we've gone into permitting andeverything else we're down the
road.
Well, I don't want my panelinstalled there, I don't want
this.
It's.
I want to say it's too late.

(21:52):
It's not too late, but it is toolate in a sense that if we have
to make a change now, we haveto stop.
We have to go all the way backto the design process, redesign
it and then resubmit everythingto the utility, right to the
jurisdiction, and guess what.
That takes time and I guesswhat also takes money exactly
that you will now have to pay tomake that change.

Speaker 1 (22:12):
Yeah, so that's a very important step that when we
give you that design to makesure this is what you want,
because this is what we'reinstalling right, don't change
your mind when we're out therewith 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 paperand don't think about it.
Don't do that, Cause of toomany 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 costyou 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 forpermit, and we submit the
utility applications and allthat stuff that we have to
submit the designs of theutility 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 atHarmon 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, likehey, this one's in permitting,
this one's in design, this one'sso like.
Everyone has checks andbalances 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 gohere or this and that or no.
It's helpful because otherpeople, other project managers,
will ask questions to otherproject managers Like, hey, how
can we solve this, how can wefix this?
And same thing with permittingand all that stuff where
everyone's included on theemails, and that's why I get
probably 500 a day, and so I wesee all that, so nothing gets,

(23:56):
you know, slipped through thecracks, right.

Speaker 2 (23:58):
So it's a nice little bonus with Harman, do you ever
see him sending those emails outwith 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 thisguy want?
He's not, like that's not evenyour project.
So now we've submitted forpermit.
So we're going down that road,right.
So we're waiting for the permitto 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 inthe Phoenix jurisdiction.
Depending on the time of year,it could be 10 weeks, it just
depends, Right.

(24:30):
So I've even seen as far as 15weeks, 14 weeks out of Phoenix.
So it really just depends onthe jurisdiction and the time of
year and how busy they are.
But hopefully within a goodtimeframe 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 onthe air?

Speaker 2 (24:54):
So now the Peoria won't let us do business there
anymore because of thatconversation.
No, so talk about red lines.

Speaker 1 (24:59):
Yeah, so when we submit for permits or to the
utility, sometimes they comeback and go oh you need this,
you need this, you need tochange that.
So we go back to our design andwe update things depending on
their code, their rules.
Their rules change all the time.
It really depends on thejurisdiction of what they want.

Speaker 3 (25:16):
It's exactly the same in.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
Oklahoma.
Yeah, we do everything up toour codes, up to you know,
national codes, state codes.
But every now and then you geta jurisdiction goes oh, can you
label this on your drawings?
Can you label this on your planset?
You know you're missing thisfrom the three line.
You know this and that, so wego back and sometimes we go back
and forth, which takes timewith 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 powercompanies.
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-opsright.

Speaker 2 (25:56):
So that's typical in the Midwest.
You have a lot of co-opsbecause there's a lot of
deregulated power, and so youhave to deal with all the
different rules of all thedifferent, 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'vegotten your permits and like,
okay, we're just submitting forthe interconnection agreement
now.
Oh, you can't produce that muchpower here.
You have too big of a system,you need to downgrade.
We've had that happen likethree 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 theinspection 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 thatwe have here.
There's not many.
I mean, we don't deal with alot of the tiny little ones that
are out in the middle ofnowhere, but we're only dealing
with two or three utilitiesreally out here.
So we can get a bigger grasp ofthe rules, a better grasp of
the rules and how what can orcan't happen.
It doesn't mean that ajurisdiction can't change what

(26:51):
they want or how they wantsomething.
It happens all the time, likeyou 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 lotof it's not major, it's just
tiny little things on.
You know labeling stuff on yoursite plan.
You know like, oh, this personyou know on the site plan we put
that they, you know, don't havea fence around their house.
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 itover here, but that takes, you

(27:18):
know, a day or two for us tochange that and do this.
And then send it back to themand put it in their little next
queue that it has to go, waitnow again, yeah, and then they
send it back again and go oh,then we also need this.
So a lot of that back and forthstuff which, again, I'm not
really communicating with thecustomer or the sales rep at
that point.
That's what I mentioned earlier.
There's a lot of those littlethings that we can just fix
internally that the customerdoesn't need to know.

(27:39):
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 submitthe drawings to the utility, I
think the customers actually getemails from the utilities.
So those are seeing some emailshere and there from a utility
saying that this is going on orthat's going on as well.
So just so you know that, Imean you guys will have some

(28:06):
communication from the utilitywhen you'll see things.
Don't freak out, it's all justpart 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.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
So we're going down the road still.
So now we've, we've, we get ourpermit 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 wewant to get you on the schedule
Right, and so talk about thatprocess.
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 theschedule 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 daybefore Right.

Speaker 3 (29:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:04):
Did we get the?
Do we deliver it to thecustomer'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 seveno'clock.
The delivery drivers aren't upthat early.
They're not.
That's when they're starting.
Right, they're starting theirshift at seven.
So I get them all done the daybefore so that the customers
already know I'll give them acall beforehand and let them
know that I'm going to begetting parts delivered to them.

Speaker 2 (29:32):
Where should we put it, once you have a permit in
Oklahoma, you're telling peopleokay, hey, now I want to get you
on the schedule.
Yeah, right, so you give them acall and talk through that
schedule, depending if todayinstall or two day install,
whatever it is, they're alldifferent Right?
And then you're calling themagain, maybe a day or two before
to say, hey, the equipment'sgoing to be delivered.

Speaker 3 (29:50):
Yep, Well, once we're talking about scheduling, I'll
let them know that we're goingto be getting equipment
delivered to their house.
That's when I'll ask them whereshould we have it delivered?
What's part of the house Cause?
A lot of the time we're doingbarns and things like that.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah Again.
Different, yeah yeah, differentworld out there.
Right, we got farms and barnsand 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 likePhoenix takes a long time.
So we will get you tentativelyon the schedule If we know we're
coming up to the point wherewe're about to get the permit.
So we don't necessarily have towait for the permit and go,
okay, we've got the permit now,let's get you on the schedule
now, because there's lots ofinstalls, lots of lots of

(30:34):
everything.
We don't want to go.
We got your permit on January5th and we'll put you on the
schedule for March 1st, likeokay, we'll not have to wait
more.
Like, no, we know we're goingto get your permit here pretty
soon.
Let's get you tentatively, youknow, on the schedule Just in
case we get it.
You know in time we can, assoon as we get that permit, we
can get you installed.
So we kind of plan ahead forthis.
So if it's other jurisdictionslike Miraclepa County or

(30:58):
Avondale, where we know it'spretty quick, you know as soon
as we get that approval fromyour design, like we can get you
on the schedule pretty quickbecause we know the permit
offices are pretty fast too.
But again, it's just thatcommunication with the customer.
Like it's tentatively on theschedule and I usually tell my
customers.
You know it's either going tobe this week or this week or
this week, so we're aiming forthe earlier.

(31:20):
But if that doesn't happen, weat least have a few tentative
spots for you, just because ourinstall 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 betimes where the calendar is in a
good place, when you can getstuff moving pretty quick, but
as you get toward the end of theyear especially that's when
everybody wants to get itinstalled before the end of the
year.
We talked about that inprevious episodes, but that's
where it's you can wind up being.
No, we can't install it untilJanuary, Right, right.

Speaker 1 (31:46):
So it's just how it is.
That's why I always tell peoplethe 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 arequicker.

Speaker 1 (31:57):
You know jurisdictions aren't backed up.
Utilities aren't backed up,they're.
You know they get backed upwhen everyone is mad rushing in
the summer.
Try to get solar, but thenyou'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 wetalked about in episode three.
David's roofing crew comes outthere first.
They put the stanchions up andthis is Arizona.
They put the stanchions up andthen the other crew will come
behind them how many ever dayslater, whatever it is on the
calendar, and they do theinstall In Oklahoma.

(32:32):
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 theywere doing racking the day
before.
Then they'll come out and doeverything the next day.
But lately we've been having alot of smaller systems too, so
they haven't needed the wholetime.
They've been able to go up, putit all up and go.

Speaker 2 (32:49):
Yeah, systems tend to be smaller in Oklahoma for some
reason.
Bigger in Arizona, especiallyin the last four or five months,
been really big.
We could probably use a lotmore 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 lotmore 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 stanchionsone day and then the actual
modules will take a day or twodepending on the system size,
and it's pretty quick actually.

Speaker 2 (33:21):
Okay, and then.
So we do that, and then what wedo is a post installation.
It's called post installationand what that means is now we
have to do the final inspection.
Those are typically.
They take place within 48 hoursof the install being complete.
Typically Right Not always, buttypically Right.
So you must be like this itdepends on the jurisdiction.

Speaker 1 (33:39):
Yeah, it depends on the jurisdiction.
It depends on your projectmanager.
If they were working ahead ofschedule and you know because,
again, when you know your systemis being installed on a certain
day, you can kind of plan ahead, Because when you apply for
permits you also have to getthat inspected.
You're telling the jurisdictionhey, by the way, they're
getting solar and we're gonnaneed you and inspect it.

(33:59):
So once you know when thesystem is installed, you can
plan ahead and get your systeminspected, Hopefully that next
day or that same week wheneverit'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 withthem.
They're gonna have twodifferent inspections and we're
also no column.
We're doing video inspectionsas well at the end of it.
But just basically lay it allout for them so that they know
one of the guys isn't gonna showup.
He's not gonna tell youanything, he's just gonna show
up on your doorstep one day.
We don't know when he's gonnashow up because they don't tell

(34:36):
us, but you'll probably see himfrom this time to this time.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Yeah, usually when you schedule inspection is it'll
be for a certain day, but thenthe time slot is 7 am to 4 pm,
so be home for nine hours andsomeone might show up.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
Oklahoma.
From the time you schedule it.
It could be from anytime thereto 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, stayin your house, for 10 days
because someone might show up at3 am.
But here they have to be home,don't they?
It depends Depends on, like, ifwe do a solar system with an EV
charger and the EV charger's inthe 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 theinspection notes that I type up,
I always put, like thehomeowner's hours that he's home
with this.
Here's their phone number.
I've already spoke to them.
Make sure you call 30 minutesbefore you arrive, or something
like that.

Speaker 2 (35:30):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
Again, open line of communication.
Everyone should be knowing whateveryone's doing.

Speaker 2 (35:35):
And that is so.
We're talking about the postinstallation, not the utility
inspection, but the jurisdiction.
Jurisdiction, yeah, inspection.
So once they pass it, I guessthey green tag it in a sense.
Right, they say, yep, this isgood to go.
Now is the big inspection andthat's with the utility.
Yeah, correct, yeah, so that's,and this is the one, that we're
at the mercy of the utility.

(35:56):
Yeah, we have no control overthis.
I know in Oklahoma we've hadsome 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 ofissue.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
No, recently I've been seeing about a week.
Again, it all depends on thevolume, how busy utility
companies are, things like that.
I've had one case where theycame out like two days later, so
that was kind of nice, but thenon the one.
They came out two weeks later.
So we don't know.
We let them know, let theutility know hey, it passed city
inspection balls in your court.

(36:34):
I wish you would come right now, but it's up to you.
So it really depends on whatthey want.

Speaker 2 (36:43):
OK.
And so once that they come outand they say, yep, it gets
turned on and you're solar.

Speaker 1 (36:49):
Well, there's a couple more steps.
I think there's one, yeah.
So they turn on the turn on thesystem that give you the PTO
permission to operate.
But then we need to kind ofcome 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 thearray again.
So you know you go into theportal and you kind of build the
array and go, hey, these arewhere the panels are based off
of the you know how it wasinstalled so you can set up for
the homeowner.
And then someone comes out tothe home and shows you, hey,
here's how, here's how separatemonitoring we connected to your
internet, and kind of show you,you know, based off of what you

(37:27):
got and what monitoring systemyou got, of how everything works
.

Speaker 2 (37:32):
I thought you guys monitored it for me.
Arm and solar does not We'vetalked about this.
Yeah, throw that out there.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
No, but we get you.
We get you set up withmonitoring, so we need to access
to your Wi-Fi router and youknow, we set you up with an
email account or the monitoringwith your email account, so you
get the alerts when things godown, 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 basicallyblessed by the utility, we give
them a call and say, hey, now weneed 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 theproject manager how much.
If you know how much they wantto go into it, you know letting
the because they were with thehomeowner the whole time, from
start to finish, and now we'reat the finish line.
So it's like you know what doyou 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 meanpretty much the same thing.
We're just waiting for them tocome out reprogram the meters.
Once that happens and we getPTO, 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 aplate to be out there all of a
sudden, doesn't tell anybodyabout 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 thisplate 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 iton 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 newand 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 originalstatement.
Before this whole thing.
If we had it our way, we wouldinstall it tomorrow, but we're
at the mercy of every singlejurisdiction 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 fromwe'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 justcan't do that.
You're at the mercy of so manyother people.

Speaker 1 (39:52):
I always tell people there's nothing that you can do.
That's better than what we cando we're all kind of in the same
boat of at the mercy ofjurisdictions.
It's not like they go.
Oh, this is a Harman solardesign.
We'll go ahead and push this tothe front of the line and now
you're in first place and nowyou 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, youknow 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 apermit, they probably didn't do
all the things they're supposedto do.
And if they even turn it onwithout 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 doneright the whole way through.
Or you could have thejurisdiction on you, you could
have the utility on you, just itcould 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 horrorstories installed or two.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
Yeah, that's happened a lot Okay, so we kind of
reached the finish line at thatpoint, 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 tothe finish line of something?
You win the race, got to thefinish 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 thefinish line, it's all done, and
Start saving money.
That's it, I mean, right.
Oh, there is one more thing wedo.
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 partof 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 systemis 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 alreadycollected that bill.
I know, I'm just kidding.
You ask for more money.
No, we ask for referrals.
We ask for a review, refuse, ohyeah.

Speaker 2 (41:38):
Because reviews are important.
In today's world, we want realreviews, and if a customer's had
a good experience with us, wewant it to be told, and if they
had a bad experience with usthat we then made right, we want
that to be told, do we, Ipresume?

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 soimportant to have a good
relationship with the customerall the way through, so they can
come back and say, yeah, youknow what Calvin was awesome he
talked to me when I didn't wantto 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 wesolved it.
Let's get that.
Yeah, we're gonna get that.
So if you're listening outthere and you're a customer who
had kind of a shaky experiencebut 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 wholeprocess for getting solar and
that's the process that you guysare managing as project
managers.
What?
Let's look at this.
What is the one?
That's one thing that standsout the toughest thing in that
whole process that you have todeal with.
Is there one thing that standsout where you're like man, this
is just the toughest thing.

(42:42):
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 salespersondidn't know, the homeowner
didn't know.
It's something major that comesback 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 servicepanel.
It's a couple thousand dollars.
Again, no one knew about thisSalesperson to know you at home,

(43:06):
you didn't know.
But now we have to break thatbad news to you and like, oh, by
the way, contrary to popularbelief, we do not want to be the
bearer of bad news, exactly,but sometimes we have to.
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 toughestthing 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 havetimelines and we're supposed to
be sticking to it.
Oh, okay At the same time youhave to let them know like, hey,
this isn't for me, I'm justhere to help, like I'm gonna.
What do you need?
How can I help you?
But we still have to get thisdone, regardless of what you, so
you're talking more aboutdealing 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 findingways Internally.
You got to find that fine lineof being nice, being politically
correct, of being like come on,I need to get this done.
Exactly, what do I need to doto get this done?
I mean, there's no reason thisneeds to be sitting the way it's
sitting.

Speaker 3 (44:09):
Exactly so, whether it's installers, internal
timelines, whatever you're goingthrough, you still have to
figure out how to manage thattime.

Speaker 2 (44:15):
I would definitely say that Oklahoma is a tougher.
Yeah, it's, this process inOklahoma is a little tougher
Really, and I think it's becausesolar is so new out there Makes
sense.
Where we've been doing it forso long in Arizona.
But in Oklahoma it's a reallynew thing.
It's probably where we were 10years 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 makessense.
So it's just definitely there'schallenges, there's no doubt
there's challenges, but it'sstill 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 missingwithin this process or this?
I think a customer has a reallygood idea Now.
If you've watched all ourpodcasts to this point, I mean,
you should pretty much know whatto expect.
From the time that we set up anappointment 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 podcastever.
No, we got a lot more, allright.

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 nosurprises, hopefully, but you
should have a general idea ofwhat it is that we go through
and what you're going to begoing through when you do this
purchase.

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Again, it's all about communication there are some
times where I've had somecustomers, I tried calling, I
tried emailing, I tried texting.
I'm like I need a response, Ineed a response, I need a
response.
And then eventually, oh yeah, Ijust kind of ignored your calls
.
I'm like okay, well, I'm tryingto get this thing going here
for you so that you can besaving money.
The goal is for you to savemoney.
We need to get this on yourroof as soon as possible so you

(45:46):
can start saving as soon aspossible.

Speaker 3 (45:48):
It's the worst when it's already on the roof and you
just need to get in contactwith them so you can turn it off
.
Yeah, that happens a lot inOklahoma, yeah.

Speaker 2 (45:56):
Because you have people that are truckers and
stuff and they're gone for amonth at a time.
Oh wow, we had one that Iremember.

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 awhole 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 fivemonths 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 fivemonths without it, that you
could have been saving upcredits, and that's the part
that's hard, because it's likeI'm here for you at the end.
This is something that you canbe helping yourself with,

(46:42):
because you're working this hardalready.
This is why you got it.

Speaker 2 (46:44):
So really good point I mean.
So I'm gonna focus on if I endwith anything, it's over
communicate, which we doHopefully we always do, but you
guys out there play a role inthis as well.
We need you to be a part ofthis, and if you're not, it's on
you because we can only do somuch.

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.
We can move as fast as you helpus move and as fast as the
utilities and the jurisdictionsmove.
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 lotof it.
The pieces that we control, webetter make sure we do what
we're supposed to do.
There's a piece you control,there's a piece other people

(47:29):
control, and as long as we canall work together, it could be a
nice smooth process.
But it ain't gonna take 10, 15days, like some people tell you
this is not real.
So, I just don't care whatanyone says.
I challenge all of you outthere that say that to your
customers.
Prove me wrong and tell me thatyou'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, dothat, 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 andhow they're doing things and
make sure they're doing it theright way.
And if you don't see all thesethings happening like we just
talked about, someone's probablywrong.
If you wake up one morning andthere's a solar system up there
and you're kind of 10 days lateror 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 solaron the roof and they just didn't
say anything and they had asolar system on the roof
Congratulations you won.
It wasn't theirs, but we didn'tdo it.

Speaker 3 (48:28):
It wasn't us, it wasn't us but that did happen,
or they don't use the approveddesign.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
Yeah, there's all these things that can happen,
which why project management isso important.
So it's so important for us tomake sure we're moving things
through.
This is a really rough job.
It's probably one of therougher jobs that we have in the
organization is projectmanagement, because if you've
ever been in construction, youunderstand that things happen,
and so this job is this personhaving to make sure that it
moves as fast as possible, ascorrectly as possible, and over

(48:55):
communicates to you to let youknow what you're doing.
Because the more we communicateto you when something does go
wrong, if it does go wrong,you're probably gonna be more
open to having that conversationversus us never talking to you
and something goes wrong andlike, oops, and well, the only
time you hear from us is when wegive you bad news.
That wouldn't be good.
So that's how we do it atHarmon anyway.
That's just the residentialside.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
The commercial side is we're not gonna talk
commercial right now A hundredthousand times crazier than the
residential side.

Speaker 2 (49:21):
Anything you wanna add, anything you feel we missed
, or no, that was pretty mucheverything from start to finish,
all right, and your eyes arethis big because you've been
doing this for like a year andlike my gosh.

Speaker 3 (49:33):
No, it's really not that bad.
No, it just brings you toprojects where it's just like oh
, that was a fun project to getthrough.

Speaker 1 (49:40):
It is nice to see you go from a project from start to
finish Like you're completelydone and you're like, wow, that
was my baby.
Go on, graduated and on, is allnow and you've created the
relationship with that customer.
It's kind of cool and that willnever 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 outof that one, and just I thought
it would be important just tohave this conversation and go
through it, and so now we'll begoing in some different
directions.
Next, what's next, ralph?
You know, I've got a lot ofideas.
I know you do too.
I do wanna bring in ouroperations 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, Iwanna get into APS we haven't
done that yet and I really wannabring 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 beinteresting.
So we have a long list.
In other words, we've got ahuge list of things.
Job security, yeah, so we'vehit.
Like I said, we've hit them up,you know, nine, 10 episodes,
whatever it is, and there's alot more to talk about, sure.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
So Well, as always, thanks for having me.
Should we end on somethingweird, 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 andjoining us.

Speaker 2 (51:15):
I appreciate it and kind of opening up a little bit
Oklahoma to us, which isinteresting.
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 getmore.

Speaker 2 (51:27):
Exactly the dog, I think.
Ate it.
Dang it so.
But thanks again for tuning inand watching our Harm and Solar
podcast.
Remember to like and subscribe.
We've had we've actually growna little bit and we're getting
some really good, really goodfeedback on the things that
we're sharing with people.
I know these things theyactually show a couple of weeks
later, but we're gonna be at thehome show this week, which I

(51:48):
know we're gonna be reallypromoting the podcast and
talking to people.
So if you're at a home show andyou 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 aboutall this stuff.
It's what we do, it's what welove and we appreciate everyone
out there, and we're alwayslooking for ideas for other
podcasts that you would like usto do as well.
So be more than happy to putthose in the comments.
Share, give us a call, call Ben, I'll give you his number, yep

(52:11):
put it on the screen there 888,no, but anyway.
So like and subscribe and weappreciate your time and we'll
see you next time.
Thanks, Thank you.
We keep Having some kind of anoutsider.
I know that had been an analyze.
You haveur会練識他们.
They have at least a halfshould work together.