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As the sun rises, so do the stakes. Step into the thick of it with our Director of Operations, Brad Yant as we navigate the nuances of the solar system installation. Learn about the coordination, the challenges, and the sweet symphony of teamwork that turns the cogs in this green machine. What happens after the panels are in place? Brad leads us through the meticulous measures to ensure quality assurance and the open lines of communication that pave the road to customer satisfaction. With a nod to the vibrant culture at Harmon Solar, we close our chat, leaving you with a newfound appreciation for the community and collaboration that radiates from the heart of the solar industry. Join us for this enlightening journey and charge your knowledge with the expertise of a true solar operation.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Welcome to another edition of the Harman Solar
podcast.
I'm your host, rob from Mono,vp of sales and marketing at
Harman Solar, and with me, asalways, is my co-host, ben Walsh
Lager, also known as MrEverything.
Mr.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
A little enthusiasm, mr.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Everything.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Mr Everything, how are you Ben?
I'm doing well.
How are you Good?
It's been about a month, it'sbeen a while.
Yeah, nice little break, yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Took a little break, got refreshed, grew a little
hair, except for you, no, tryingto, I guess.
That's good, yeah, yeah, Ithink we got a guy.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
We got a guy, another guy Hold on before we get into
the guy.
Okay, let's not talk guys.
Let's recap what have we doneso far.
We've talked about the ins andouts of solar as a customer or
homeowner.
You're made the decision.
Okay, I'm going to do it.
I've watched the sales process.
I kind of know what's going togo on, so I don't have any
questions there.
I know what's after the sale,before my installation goes on,

(01:20):
and I'm all up to speed andeverything.
And now it's the big day.
Right, it's the big day Time toget those panels.

Speaker 2 (01:26):
Time to get it installed.

Speaker 1 (01:27):
Get those panels on your roof.
Wow, let's do it.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
It's about time, yeah Well, I mean, I don't know how
long it takes, but that's prettymuch what we've done.

Speaker 1 (01:36):
That's pretty much, yeah.
From the time that we startedthe podcast to now it's like the
length of the industry To getyou to this.
It worked out nice Well, youknow, depending on the
jurisdiction, depending on thejurisdiction.

Speaker 2 (01:45):
So now we're at that point and now it becomes the job
of a guy, the guy, the guy thatowns all of this.
No pressure, no pressure at all.
If you're happy with us, thisis the guy you want to praise.
If you're not, this is the guyyou want to call and we'll have
his phone number and email andhome address, like always after
the show.
So today I forgot to memorizeyour home address.

(02:06):
You can't talk it.
You're not on camera.
Today we have Brad Yant.
He's our director of operationsat Harmon Solar, brad, welcome.

Speaker 3 (02:15):
Good morning.

Speaker 1 (02:15):
Welcome.

Speaker 2 (02:17):
So that, brad, how long you been at Harmon.
I am in my fourth year atHarmon.
Fourth year is not bad.
I know a random people that webrought on.
Yeah, he's new.
He's newer.
He's not as new as our lastguest.
It was two years, but fouryears is not bad.

Speaker 1 (02:31):
Probably feels like a hundred A little more yeah.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Tell us a little bit about you and your background.
What have you done before youcame to Harmon?

Speaker 3 (02:40):
Background 25 years doing new home builds, new home
builds, new home builds.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
So you know everything about a house.

Speaker 3 (02:48):
And a guy and a guy.
All right, I do.
I spent a long time doing homebuilding.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Custom home, custom cook cutters, cook cutter custom
and semi-customs.

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Everything Did a little bit of commercial
development as well, so got alittle bit of that experience.
And then also got to demo someschools.
Oh, okay.
And do infill communities,which was an experience and a
half.
I did not know, that.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
So you have a good amount of background in
construction, construction,building stuff.
That's what you do.
That's what you do.
It's all about construction.
So you are the director ofoperations at Harmon Solar Some
days.

Speaker 3 (03:28):
Depends who's calling .
What does it mean?

Speaker 2 (03:31):
What does it mean, what's in your world, to be the
director of operations?

Speaker 3 (03:35):
You know, I think just trying to bring people
together on our team.
in all honesty, I'll probably gooff a little bit, I can edit
everything out, so go ahead.
So obviously, like one of myfirst inclinations, even
interaction with you, is eraselines in the sand.
Yeah, you know, between salesand ops.
I think you find that all thetime I've got I've got previous

(03:58):
years of, obviously, director ofoperations stuff and you find
that combativeness in betweensales and ops all the time,
always, that's one of my mainfocuses is to try and erase
those those lines right and blurthem as much as possible and
understand that it's all for thebenefit of the company.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
And for people to understand that which I'm sure a
lot of you do, I mean, it's youalways have the sales out of
the business that's getting thenew business and bringing it in
and wants it to go and move asfast as possible.
For a lot of different reasons,because they want to keep
customer happy, they wanteverything to be perfect and in
construction always noteverything is always perfect,
Right, and we've talked aboutthat and we'll get into that
later on as well.
But so there's always going tobe a little bit of this

(04:38):
sometimes between sales and hops, and I think we've done a good
job in the last four years ofkind of minimizing this.

Speaker 3 (04:43):
Yeah, I think you're going to have a little bit of it
.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
Yeah, it's always going to be a piece of it there.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yeah, but yeah, trying to blur those lines as
much as possible and understandthe best benefit to the business
and not just personal interest.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Right, no, I agree.
Yeah, so talk about.
So what departments are underyou?
What do you?
What do you oversee?

Speaker 3 (05:02):
All the residential and then warehouse Okay,
literally following me, theauditing team as well fall under
me, so I've got my hands inquite a few baskets every day.

Speaker 2 (05:13):
All the field guys.
So everything we've kind ofbeen talking about up to this
point a lot of it is is Brad'sis doing again show that number.

Speaker 1 (05:23):
It's his doing, so he's responsible for all that,
okay.

Speaker 2 (05:27):
So I think today we want to focus on installation
day, right, like you said, we'vegotten all the way up to this
point and now customershopefully ready to get installed
.
They've got their permits at.
Finally, the designs are alldone, everything was permitted
and now we just need to get themon the schedule.

Speaker 1 (05:41):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
We have to order equipment and all that.
We have to get them on theschedule.

Speaker 1 (05:44):
And it's not as easy as just throwing up on the roof
and a couple screws right.
Sure it is.
Oh well, I thought it was too.

Speaker 2 (05:51):
I didn't know it was that hard.
Yeah, so my mistake.
Yeah, it is your mistake, solet's talk about that.
So you actually are, you'reover.
You oversee the parts orderingpart too, right, so you have a
part of the department that doesthat.
So there's a department thatunder you that orders the
equipment and gets it all andthat can take some time.
I don't know how long it takesto get the equipment.

Speaker 3 (06:09):
It depends, you know, obviously, if it's, if it's a
simple job not, we don't haveany duration issues.
Usually If there's equipmentupgrades, things of that nature
that are, you know, going intosomething, then then, yeah, we
deal with some longer lead timeson some things.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
So if I'm a customer, what I'm at home waiting for
something to happen, who callsme?
Who tells me what's going on asfar as scheduling?
What's that process?

Speaker 3 (06:32):
Are we talking normal or hypothetical?

Speaker 2 (06:37):
Gosh, I don't know how to answer that.

Speaker 1 (06:38):
Do we have a hypothetical person that does
this?

Speaker 3 (06:41):
Well, and the reason being right.
I mean, once again, ralph,we've talked quite a bit.
It's it's.
I'd love to tell you we live ina perfect world and no one
makes mistakes, and your projectmanager should be reaching out
to you, right, that's.
The goal is that the projectmanagers is communicating with
with the clients as much asfeasible, feasibly possible,
understanding that we go througha night and I don't want to get

(07:03):
off from the installs, but wedeal with permitting timelines,
right, right, the permittingtimelines are longer, so it does
go quiet for a little bit.
It goes dark.
Hopefully, as we get closer toinstall, though, the guy, you've
got interaction with yourproject manager.
They've reached out to you totell you when materials coming,
install dates are confirmed withyou and they will not be

(07:24):
arbitrary or show up andtemperatures off, knock on the
door and say, hey, we're here todo this.

Speaker 2 (07:28):
So, hypothetically, Should I hear when it goes dark?
Does that mean I don't hearfrom anybody for a period of
time?
Or is there actually touchpoints with that, or there's?

Speaker 3 (07:38):
still touch points are just not as frequent.
Every couple weeks Maybe, yeah,every couple weeks.
And then obviously, we're alsotrying to engage and stay
engaged with the salesperson aswell.
Right, so everyone's on thesame page and knows what's
happening.

Speaker 1 (07:51):
Yeah, yeah, because the goal is to have you know
your, your permits ready andmaterials and all that stuff by
installation day.
Obviously you don't want tohave like, okay, we got
materials and we got our permits, now let's go ahead and
schedule.
No, because it might be, youknow, two or three months after
that because the schedule sobacked up, so you gotta have
that like.

Speaker 3 (08:10):
Our goal is to kind of time it so that when we get
everything, we at the same timeWe'd spend quite a bit of time.
So, as jobs are flowing throughthe process, what we'll do is
we'll back into trying toanticipate scheduling time
frames right and we'll layerthings in with tentative dates
on things, yep, and that way itgives us opportunity on the
calendars to move jobs in andout based on what's going on.

Speaker 1 (08:32):
Yeah.
So that's why we tell customershey, this is your tentative
install day.
It might be sooner if somethingelse moves around, but it also
might be a little bit later ifthere's delays.
But right, plan on this day.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
I just thought of something.
You were actually his boss atone point, weren't you?
Oh, that is accurate.
So you're in a room right nowwith both your ex bosses.
How's it feel?
Well, the fact that you'reBecause you don't work for me
anymore it feels really good.

Speaker 1 (08:55):
It feels good.
Yeah, it feels good, and oneday you two will work for me.
Yeah, I'll be dead and I'll beretired.

Speaker 2 (09:03):
See, I'll be dead, he'll be retired.
That's great.

Speaker 1 (09:06):
How's it make you feel, feels great, I'll still be
working for me, I guess.

Speaker 2 (09:10):
Okay.
So, like you said, not aperfect world, but you're gonna
communicate with a customer.
Hey let him know we're gonna becoming out.
Blah, blah, blah.
Now I do.
We do something very different.
We don't typically just comeout, and if it's a one-day
install, we don't come out anddo it all on the first day.
We actually have a roofing teamthat comes out first.

Speaker 3 (09:28):
Correct, so roof roofers, roofers show up roughly
I'm gonna tell you in a perfectworld about a week or two
before week or two before beforeInstall to do the roofing piece
and then we go into what wecall a valet with our
distributor and the distributorYou'll get you'll get
notifications from your projectmanager when these dates get set
up.
But the distributor shows uproughly a day prior and Our

(09:51):
intent is to get all thematerial loaded under your roof.
So when the install team showsup day of install, all the
equipment's already on the roof.

Speaker 2 (10:00):
Okay, so let's talk about that.
So two things Roofing teamcomes out, they're putting up
the stanchions.
Correct roof stanchions, justthe stanchions.

Speaker 3 (10:09):
The yes, just the stanchions.
At that point they're supposedto put everything back.
Right, that all the threecourse material and Any tile
flash kits, all that supposed tobe put back together, right?
Someone solar shows up.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
It's just ready to go .

Speaker 2 (10:22):
Yeah it's just the roof, alfie, I can go so we can
explain what a stanchion is.
If you don't know what astanchion is, it's you know.
I guess I can say it's thatlittle thingy that thing they're
sticking out of your.
You can probably put put a linkto our roofing video.
Yeah, because the roofing videodoes talk about the stanchions
and they're just metal.
I'm, what do they?
How do you remember?
How were they six inches?
Four and five generally aboutfive inch.
So there are five inch metalRound things that are gonna

(10:45):
stick out of your roof.
Sometimes it'll be the metaltile plates in there as well.
We've shown you all that in theroofing video.
But that's what we're talkingabout is their team will come
out and do that first, and thatcould be two weeks before.
Yeah so you could have yourjust that stuff sitting on your
house for two weeks before weget out there.
So that's good to know.
And then you're saying that oursupplier will then come out,
typically a day before.

Speaker 3 (11:06):
Yeah, generally it's a day or two before we try and
we try and plan a day before.
A lot depends if we're runninginto holidays or what their
schedule is and then we actuallyrun into also opportunities
when we'll get a phone call fromthem.
Hey we're, we don't have themanpower to get it up on the
roof and we need to place it ina secure area at the homeowner's

(11:27):
home, Right?
So then it's obviously tryingto get it if if it's a backyard
snare behind a gate or someplace that we can feel confident
that it's gonna be safe untilthe install crew shows up.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
So their goal is, though, to try to put it on the
roof.
That is the meaning.
They're gonna put a stack ofpanels and stuff on the roof.

Speaker 3 (11:45):
Yeah, the the distributor uses.
They've got a series ofunistruts that go up there.
We're not just free-floatingpanels.

Speaker 2 (11:53):
I'm just trying to understand as a customer like
you're putting stuff in my roof,just leaving it there.

Speaker 3 (11:56):
They've got you in a strut, a unistrut system that
they put up there and getslagged down and then all the
material goes into that.
So it's all sitting up there,secure, shouldn't blow away he
said it shouldn't shouldn't,shouldn't.
Once again, we are dealing withhumans.

Speaker 2 (12:10):
Yeah right, right, all right, so should should.
Well, let's hope that doesn'tright.

Speaker 3 (12:14):
We've never had that happen yet we have not right.
But that's there's once again I.

Speaker 1 (12:20):
Ralph, you know.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
I think you've known me long enough to know now,
right, I'll stand behindeverything we do.

Speaker 2 (12:25):
Yeah, things are gonna happen.

Speaker 3 (12:26):
I agree, we don't run from them, that's.
That's one of the differenceswith us.
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 2 (12:30):
I agree with that, and just just to want everybody
to understand.
So, no, and all kidding aside,yeah, we do put it on your roof.
It is secure, nothing's gonnahappen.
But the point is they are gonnasit it up there if they can, if
that's, if they have themanpower, like you said and that
just Makes it so much easierfor when the crew comes the next
day, right, so let's.
So we've gotten to that pointwhere we got.
We got stuff on the roof, wegot everything going in, we're
now we get to installation day.

Speaker 1 (12:50):
Yep, everything's prepped and ready, like we've
got all of our ingredients out.
We're ready to cook.

Speaker 2 (12:54):
Yes, we're ready to cook.

Speaker 3 (12:57):
What time do we start cooking depends on time of year
summer, summer I'm gonna tellyou we try and get there as
early as we can get there.
We generally I have a 6 amStart time you'll probably see
guys showing up 545 Wanted toget going.
A lot of this, once again,let's talk right.
A lot of this depends on HOA'ssure what rules or guidelines

(13:19):
we're working with.
But obviously 110, 115 degreeheat.
These guys want to be off theroof by One o'clock.
We don't and furthermore, wedon't want our guys up there
right for safety reasons.
You know we put some protocolsinto place even for our teams in
the past couple years about,you know, summer activities and
how we want these installs to goso that we keep everyone

(13:41):
healthy okay, homeowner need tobe awake during that time.
Well, if they're not awake whenwe?
Arrive, there's gonna be a wakeshortly, I knew that was coming
.

Speaker 1 (13:51):
You stepped into that one.
Is that Santa on my roof?

Speaker 2 (13:55):
Geez, yeah, they're gonna be awake real quick.
Yeah, I remember when it did itat my house, I was, I Was awake
, but I mean it was yeah, youcould obviously hear someone's
clock, you know, walking on yourroof.

Speaker 1 (14:06):
I guess you can probably hear it.

Speaker 3 (14:06):
I think I think one of the things, even talking to
that point, that we've beentrying to coach the guys on and
and I think just Recently we'vestarted to get a little bit
better at it With my interactionwith the superintendent is, you
know, coaching these guys, theforeman to start Engaging with
the homeowners when they get onsite.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
Yeah, so I was gonna go to that.
That's where I was going next.
Yeah, so I'm glad you walkedright into that.
That's perfect.
What?
What's the team?
So well, who's out there?
You have you said you have aforeman that comes out there.

Speaker 3 (14:33):
We should have a foreman, a roof lead and then
obviously the other crew members.

Speaker 2 (14:37):
Okay and then.
So the foreman is gonna try toengage first with a customer
woman should try and engage withthe client, right.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
That's.
We actually want them it's.
It's funny, and I'm not I don'tmean to, this isn't a dig at
Harmon by an instruction.
When I got there, though, fouryears ago, that community from
from what I saw, thatcommunication wasn't happening,
right, the foreman, right,pretty shut down with the client
, just there to focus on theirjob, and I think we've tried to
turn the corner with that isthat we want them engaged with

(15:03):
the client, absolutely.
We want them to explain to theclient hey, this is where this
equipment's going on your wall,this is where it's gonna hang.
Set some expectations right,because, once again,
expectations are everything, andif a client's perceiving
something different in theirhead and we start working and
it's not what they'reenvisioning, we're not in a good
spot at the end of the daytaking all my questions away, so

(15:24):
that's what I was gonna say isis.

Speaker 2 (15:26):
I would hope that we knock on the door, say hi, I'm
whoever, I am with Harmon, havea, you have the plan and say
this is what we're getting readyto come do.
Right, we're gonna installpanels, this is where they're
going.
We have a battery that's goinghere.
Blah, blah, blah.
Make sure everybody's copaceticVersus not saying hi, getting
on the roof, putting stuff upand people like what the heck,
you didn't yeah.
This isn't even this.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
I didn't order so it goes back to a story that you
told me wasn't a Harman install,but I think you told me that
someone, a company, installedpanels on the wrong home.
Yeah, all it took was someoneto knock on the door and say,
hey, we're here with you, knowso-and-so over here to install.
But they didn't do that.
They just installed panels on ahome and turns out wrong house.

Speaker 2 (16:04):
What are you doing on my roof?
Yeah, Santa came early.

Speaker 3 (16:07):
Thanks for the system .
Yeah, I didn't.

Speaker 1 (16:11):
So it yeah helps alleviate stuff like that too
the.

Speaker 3 (16:14):
The other thing to be cognizant about with that, that
initial upfront conversation isOnce again understanding if, if
there's determining factorsthat hey, we're gonna move some
equipment around, or or thehomeowner, the client, wants
something a little bit different, understand we could end up
going back to do permitrevisions right, that stops
everything, right, yep well, Imean we can proceed with it with

(16:35):
, you know, 99% of the installat that point, but we are gonna
have to go back to thejurisdiction because it's got to
show on that plan set whereit's going.

Speaker 2 (16:44):
So what you're saying is it's a good idea to make
sure everybody's on the samepage before you start doing
anything, oh yeah so and I knowwe've talked about in the
process where we do a designapproval With the customer we
have in the past, correct.

Speaker 3 (16:55):
We've kind of gone to say sending that plan set to
them and kind of relying uponthem, if they have questions or
concerns when that plan set issent to them, to reach back out
to us, because if they don't,we're just gonna assume it's
good and we're gonna moveforward.

Speaker 2 (17:07):
There, you go right.
And so when we're calling toschedule the install, is anyone
even touching that point anymore?

Speaker 3 (17:15):
Not, not to a whole.
You know we're hoping at thatpoint that they've had plenty of
time to review right, becausewe're anticipating permit coming
back in at that point.

Speaker 2 (17:24):
So and you would assume you hear something right
there.
Yeah, yeah, if you call to sayI'm gonna schedule the install,
well, what are you talking about?
I didn't want this done, though, and you can start having that
whole conference.
Unfortunately, that'd be a badtime to have it, yeah but, but
better at that time than theright but that's a delayed
conversation now, because nowyou're going back and we permit
and everything else.

Speaker 1 (17:40):
So to your point as a PM, though we we don't even get
to that point until we get,like, when we send them the plan
set, we say I need some sort ofVerbal confirmation that this
is what you want.

Speaker 2 (17:50):
So a verbal or text email, something that says I
think, yes, in the past that'sbeen the situation, but I know
that in the, in the recent we'vemoved away from even that.
We've more said here.
It is you need to respond to usif it's not what you want,
because we're moving forwardOkay yeah, because we don't want
to create a major delay.
Well, someone takes three weeksto get back to us.
That project is just sitting.
We want to go get it permitted.
So it's like hey, here it is,get back to us in the next 48

(18:12):
hours.
If you don't get back to us,we're going forward.
We're gonna move forward.

Speaker 3 (18:15):
Yeah, just trying to streamline and find some
efficiency games.
Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (18:18):
So anyway, yeah, so we just you know they don't get
back to us within 48 hours, thenwe're just moving forward and
going down the process and thenhopefully, when they're sitting
on the front door, they're nothaving that conversation of, oh,
this is not what I wanted.
So everybody just needs tounderstand.
If it get to that point and yousay this is not what I wanted,
now everything stops.
Like we just talked about, wehave to get repermitted, we
can't.
The installation gets put onhold for the most part, maybe

(18:39):
some.
We know plans gotta beredesigned, which is why it's so
important that not only do wehave to do our part, do as an.

Speaker 3 (18:46):
Homeowner has to do their part.

Speaker 2 (18:47):
You have to be able to communicate to us.
You have to tell us, yes, no,let's move.
If you don't communicate to us,these are the bad things that
can happen down the road.
Yeah which then are just gonnamake you upset, because now
you're gonna wait even longer toget something that you want up
there To start saving your moneyright.
So everybody has a part of this.
Agreed, agreed.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
So how long Typical insta?
I know this is tough becausethere's there's so many
different kinds are smallinstalls, large installs, but a
typical install.
What is it?
Is it a day, is it two days?

Speaker 3 (19:14):
typical itself.
So it'll only be a day,depending on we we schedule
these things.
We're looking at, obviously,looking at the plan set, looking
at number of re-arrays,distance to the s, the.
The main panel is about to saySES, most, most people wouldn't
know what that is.
Distance back to the main panelright.
What are our conduit runs?
How are we getting there?

(19:35):
So all those things kind ofcome into consideration.
We're looking at job durationGenerally speaking though.

Speaker 2 (19:41):
Yeah, standard system , a day a day if it's, and the
customer's gonna know how longprior to that, right, they're
gonna tell them it's a two-dayinstall, yeah correct, I'm not
scheduled.

Speaker 3 (19:49):
Data is confirmed with them.

Speaker 2 (19:51):
Are they gonna have their power turned off during
this time?

Speaker 3 (19:54):
If they do, it should be very, very, very quickly.
Generally, on a standardinstall, you're looking at as to
if it's gonna get shut down.
It's Just to pop the back foryou.
Then, if you need to, the backfeed breaker.
Other Nat, if the job's got a Drate, yeah, you're gonna lose
power for a little bit becausewe've got a pull.
Oh, you're your main circuitbreaker out to put the D rate
breaker in.
So you would be looking atlosing power.

(20:17):
And then, obviously, if youhave an SES upgrade once again,
sorry about the vernacular amain panel upgrade, so they
understand then then yeah, youwould also be looking at a
shutdown in that scenario.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
So let's talk about that.
So a main panel upgrade now,isn't that a more involved?
Does that happen at the timeinstallation?
Does it happen before, after?

Speaker 3 (20:33):
Little both.
Generally we want to get thembefore.
So obviously, when the solarcomes out, to tie in, right, the
main panels there and we don'thave to walk away from that job
with wires dangling or things.
Not, it happens.
Yeah, right, I mean that we'reable to just tie in immediately
with with the main panel alreadybeing upgraded and ready to go.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
So, yes so does the utility have to come out for any
part of that.

Speaker 3 (20:57):
Yeah, main panel upgrade same thing.
They're gonna come out, they'regonna, they're gonna pull meter
socket.
We actually have to go throughan inspection.
So once we get new panel up andstart getting every all the
breakers back landed in thepanel, we have to get inspection
through the Jurisdiction beforethe utility company comes back
out to rest at the meter in sothat can actually hurt the
timeline For when the systemgets installed right, because we
have to go on their schedulecorrect.

(21:18):
So yeah, utilities, we don't getto dictate to the utilities
when we, when we have them shutdown.
They kind of dictate to us,based on their scheduling
availability right.

Speaker 2 (21:27):
So anybody that's getting a main panel upgrade I
mean it's that could definitelyadjust the time of when your
system's gonna get installed.
We might be able to move reallyfast.
But maybe utilities like hey,I'm this many weeks out, I can't
come out till this.

Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, we're at their mercy, like you just said again,
that's if you need the mainpanel if you need it.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Not everyone needs it .

Speaker 1 (21:42):
Not everyone needs it exactly don't want to scare
anyone out there, no, I don'tscare you, but I want reality.

Speaker 2 (21:46):
Right, just like if we need to get a utility input
on something in the design.
So if something in your designis kind of questionable, we need
to go to the utility and say,hey, what do you want to see?
Right, we have to wait for themto come back to us.

Speaker 3 (21:59):
What we generally see on those is what's going on, as
a lot of older homes, olderconstructed homes, main panels
were installed in backyards,under overhangs, carports.
Those things are no longerallowed to be done that way.
Yeah, and today's environmentand based on all the new code
updates, and so we, what we findis, if there you've got to have
either D-rate or some kind ofupgrade, those services have to

(22:22):
move.
They're not allowed to remainin place.
We've overhead services willhave to move.
We've run into, you know, allof the above and Once again, now
we're up against trying tofigure this out.
So we've got to get the utilityinput back from them to say,
hey, this is where we can runour conductors, this is where
we're expecting the new servicelocation to be.

(22:42):
So once again, there's there'sthere's 20 things behind the
scenes happening that thatpeople really don't understand
Right what's going on or whythere is delays.
Yeah and I think, yeah, utilityinput, as we've kind of talked
about, it's one of those grayareas that we tend to follow
with the utility and go downthat path with them, because

(23:03):
what we don't want is to get theend of the process and have an
upgrade and the utility come outand say, nope, sorry, doesn't
work here, we're not gonna allowthis and that's where I was
going.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
So perfectly got me there.
Right is.
There's companies out therethat just go ahead and do
whatever they think is right,right, wrong or indifferent, and
it's not what the utility wantsright.
And now we get to that pointand everybody has to stop,
because utility says nope.

Speaker 3 (23:25):
Can't do that, and let well, let me tell you the
good news, right?
The good news is the othercompanies are gonna.
Soul is, everything's gonna beup on your roof, but it's not
doing you any good.
It's like having a paperweightup there.
Right right, you're notproducing anything until all
this gets resolved and done.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
Yeah, we're not trying to be the bad guys here.
We're trying to go off ofbuilding codes and utility
Requirements, that this is allthe things that they want.
So it's not stuff that we wantto do, is it?

Speaker 3 (23:48):
we just have to follow the rules and that's what
we do you know, ralph and Italked earlier and and One of
the things, one of the researchthings I did when I started it,
harmon, was I startedresearching.
You know how long solarinstallers had been in business
here in Phoenix in the area andI would advise people to do your
homework on that because, youstart looking back, like beyond

(24:11):
five and ten years, most of theinstall companies are no longer
here.
Yeah, and to me there's a reasonwhy, right, and the reason
Harmon's still standing here, Ithink, is because they take
pride in what they do, numberone, but they do it the right
way.

Speaker 2 (24:24):
Yeah, it's so true.
We've talked about that amillion times.
Yeah, I can't tell you just inthe last year how many of them
have gone out of business.

Speaker 1 (24:31):
Yeah, so if you're a homeowner and you're looking at
solar, one of the questions thatyou should ask her in that
point is how long have you beendoing installs?
Yeah, you know, if they're like, oh, just you know, a couple
months, okay, I don't know if Iwant to be in business with you
guys, but if it's someone that'sbeen around since the 70s and I
just wouldn't take people'sword right Get online if I think
we all have that capability atour fingertips today To start

(24:53):
doing that kind of and look,it's not spending a day doing
research, it's been in tenminutes, yeah, and you can start
finding those answers anddriving out.

Speaker 3 (25:00):
Who do I really want to partner with, right?
Right Do I want to do?
I want to partner with thecompany that that's still
standing all these years later,that has the support.
They've got an office buildingright.
If I physically need to walk insomewhere, guess what?
I can walk into their companyand speak to someone.

Speaker 1 (25:15):
Right.
So when you walk into thatbuilding and you make a slight
right and you go all the waydown about two weeks.

Speaker 3 (25:20):
Four doors, there you go.
That's my office.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
If you can get by our security guard.
That's true, she is packing,all right.
So another thing that wouldstop you sometimes I'm gonna
bring this up, I know we'vetalked about it but I'd like to
hear from you is if we get intosomething and it's an
unpermitted structure.

Speaker 3 (25:38):
Let's talk about that .
We just had a house like thatrecently, right, so we did.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
Like I guess they had a I can't remember what they
had that was unpermitted, was ita?

Speaker 3 (25:45):
overhang, or I wanna say it was a weird patio that
wasn't permitted.
And what we run into is,generally we can get down the
road a little bit in permittingand then we'll install, and then
all of a sudden it'll getflagged as we start calling for
our final inspections, or whatwe like to call green tag
inspections, and we won't beable to obtain inspection right.

(26:06):
So here we go client systems onyour house, not functional, not
turned on, can't get inspectionuntil unpermitted structures
resolved Right.
And now all of a sudden you'reup against a clock of loan
expirations or payments,starting homeowners now making
loan payments but solar's notturned on right.
It just causes havoc foreveryone.

Speaker 2 (26:28):
It's a rolling effect , and the one I'm thinking of
recently was just the battery.

Speaker 1 (26:32):
Yeah, we were just doing a battery, we weren't even
looking at doing solar, adesign install and patio is
unpermitted.

Speaker 3 (26:38):
And so once again we've gotta go back and say, hey
, we've gotta call a timeoutright.
Once again not gonna make theclient happy that we're calling
a timeout, but let's berealistic with what's going on.
Right, we could get down thisroad.
You're gonna have this batterypurchases contract whether
you're paying cash or it's afinance deal.
There's money vested into it atthis point and it's gonna go

(27:00):
nowhere fast.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
To your point that you were just talking about.
So now we can't move on thisthing.
And then they're gonna come outand say, well, tear, that
you're gonna have to tear thispatio down.
Or they're gonna say, hey,here's a $900 fine, $1,000 fine.
Who wants to play that game?
Nobody, right.
And your point that you weremaking was we don't just not our
rules, we're just we have toplay by the rules.

Speaker 1 (27:22):
A lot of customers think it's oh, harman said this,
harman said no, the utilitysaid that.
You jurisdiction said this.
Like it's not us, we're tryingto protect you.

Speaker 2 (27:31):
So if we see that, we pause right away and say we're
not going forward because thisis what's gonna happen, Unless
you get an inspector or somebodythat's just a clueless and
doesn't care.
But typically nowadays we'reseeing more and more of that's
not the case.
They are looking at stuff, sowe have to prevent that.
So that's just another thingthat can pause it.

Speaker 1 (27:47):
Same thing with EV chargers.
I know we see that a lot ofpeople have unpermitted EV
chargers.
Yeah, that's very common Verycommon because they don't know
any better.
They have an electric car.

Speaker 3 (27:54):
let me put my EV charger in my garage, my buddy's
friend does electrical he cameover and ran a 50 amp circuit
for me and I'm not gonnaobviously name jurisdictions,
but there's jurisdictions outthere now that they require a
picture of the panel at time ofpermits.
So when we first submit and thereason being is because they
wanna be able to identify thecircuit set where they're when

(28:15):
the house was built and what'scurrently there on that main
panel cover to show what's beenaltered or what's new, and it
gets flagged immediately at thatpoint if that's in those
jurisdictions.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
And then we have to have those conversations with
the homeowner and say, hey, yoursystem will not be installed or
turned on unless you get apermit for your EV charger.
So we can help you do that, butyou need to have a permit for
this, because what you just paidfor for your solar system, like
you were saying, it's apaperweight now.

Speaker 3 (28:41):
Let's talk reality.
I don't mind and I'veinstructed our teams right, we
don't mind being the guy helpingdoing this right, but there's a
delay there.
So that expectation I'm anexpectation guy and we have to
set that expectation properlythat, okay, here's what we're up
against, here's the delay.
We don't mind helping.

(29:01):
You just know that it's gonnatake some time to walk through
that, because once again, we'regonna have to go out and gather
information.
What did your electrician do?
How did they wire it?
Because we've now got toidentify that on a plan set, get
it submitted, wait for thepermit, have that inspected and
get approval on that before weeven take our next steps and

(29:22):
we've found out.

Speaker 1 (29:23):
I can think of one instance in particular where
that friend's electrician whodid the EV charger apparently
they did it wrong and it wasn'tup to code, so then we had to go
out and redo it the correct way.
So, even though it was working,their EV charger was working
fine, but it just wasn't up tocode and it wasn't permitted.
So, like you said, it tookdelays.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
Let's talk about the code, because I actually have
some background there.
The code what people don'tunderstand?
The code is a minimum standard.
It's not the maximum right.
There's reasons why it's thereand it's to protect life and
safety of the homeowner.
That's really what you'relooking at.
Yeah, and we follow that code.
I say unfortunately, it'sreally not unfortunate.

(30:03):
People sometimes view it asunfortunate because, yeah, I can
delay some processes.

Speaker 1 (30:08):
Every morning, when the bell rings at Harmon, we
stand up and recite that code.

Speaker 2 (30:14):
And some companies don't follow.
That's just gonna say that Okay, so go back to the installation
.
Then we're okay that we go offon tangents.
We're gonna talk about thisstuff.
That's what I do best.
Yeah, very true.
So guys spend their day there.
The panels are up and installed, they've run the conduit,
everything's hooked into the.
So let's kind of walk throughit right, walk through it go
ahead.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
Elfie are gonna go on , racking's gonna go on.
So when I say racking therailing that the modules are
gonna start to, they're gonnastart doing all their wire
management, which is obviouslypre-running all their PV wire.
Jboxes get installed.
Your foreman is generallydownstairs, he's generally not
up on the roof unless they needsome help up there, and he's
starting to do all thegroundwork which is hanging

(30:54):
equipment, start doing all thepipe work, bending all the pipe
downstairs, getting all thatready.
The guys then should be able toget to a point, once all that
stuff up on the roof is takencare of and wire management is
done, where modules startgetting landed on all of the
railing that's there and gettingsecured down with end clamps
and mid clamps Obviously soundsreally fast.

(31:15):
In essence, right Took about 15seconds to get that done.
It takes the majority of a day,depending on system size and
arrays and location.
And then we obviously, beforeour guys get done, we want them
cleaning up the job site, right?
I'll give you a great story.
I know we talk about otherinstallers.
I actually got a call I'm gonnasay it was a couple of months

(31:36):
ago from a salesperson prettyupset with us that hey, here's a
photo you guys left.
You guys left a drink up on theroof.
It happened, it's reality, ithappened.
I'm looking at the photo.
It was real, it's.
And that's why I start makingsome phone calls, right?
Cause that's what I do I gottaget to the bottom of the problem
and figure out who I can getout there and get it taken care

(31:56):
of, re-walk the roof, make sureeverything was cleaned up and
copacetic, and as I called thesuper and I'm not trying to bag
on my super cause I love the guyyeah, brad, I went up there, I
was helping the guys, I had thedrink in my hand, I set it down
and I actually forgot it.

Speaker 2 (32:15):
Center right Once again super, but it's reality
One star review.

Speaker 3 (32:20):
Well, once again, when I talk about reality in
humans and it happens, here'sour super.
He didn't do it, blatantly, hedid it.
It was mistakenly left there.
We ended up getting a phonecall.
He went back right, re-walk,got his drink down off the but
once again things happened right.
We're a phone call away.
I think that's one of thethings that we stand behind is

(32:44):
we're gonna make sure we dothings right Doesn't mean we're
gonna try.
Look, my main intent to beefficient is to do things right
the first time out of the gate.
But dealing with humans,dealing- with the imperfect
world doesn't always go downthat way, and the good thing is
is we stand behind what we doand we're gonna come back and
take care of what we need totake care of.

Speaker 1 (33:05):
I don't think in all my years here that we've ever
said you know what, yeah, we didmess up, but we're not gonna do
anything about it.

Speaker 2 (33:11):
Well, and we've talked with us all the time is
there's construction, thingshappen.
Yeah, it's not about the thingthat happens and hopefully it's
not too bad.
It's about how you react to itright, and we will always react
in a positive way and make itright.
We're always gonna make itright.
Our ownership has preached thatsince I've been here 11 years
and they preach that since dayone.
So that's important.
We'll make it right.
Well, everybody else make itright.

Speaker 3 (33:30):
I don't know you know , I'll tell you, I used to hear
in the home building industryall the time Well, I can't see
it from my house that and that'sexactly opposite.
The way we operate right,because I think being a local,
being a local contractor,working for our owners, and how
they value the business right,repeat and refer.

(33:51):
I say repeat, but it's referralbusinesses is what helps drive
us, and so that's a that's ahuge thing for us is trying to
maintain referrals and and Iused to say this all the time
and I've actually talked there'sa couple clients that that have
reached out, even multipletimes, since we've been done
with their projects throughoutthe four years I've been there,
and One of my favorite linesthat I love to tell people is at

(34:13):
the end of the day, I want youwaving at me with five fingers,
not one.
How do I get there?

Speaker 1 (34:17):
right, Can that be here?
That's my goal.

Speaker 2 (34:19):
Can that be Harman's slogan?
I would love that t-shirt.

Speaker 3 (34:23):
Oh, I'm gonna tell my wife that that but that's my,
you know, I learned it in thehome-building industry, because
here's the deal with you as wewere building communities, right
, you're.
You're in and out of streetseven once homeowners start
taking possession of theirhouses, and you're still there,
right, and people get frustrated, and that used to be our thing
is, hey, the end of the day, Ineed you waving at me with five

(34:44):
fingers, not one, yeah how do?
I get there.

Speaker 2 (34:46):
What do I need to do?

Speaker 3 (34:47):
and I think that philosophy is always stuck with
me, even into this industry isright?
You drive through the Phoenixneighborhoods and see how many
solar systems are installed onhomes, right?
Yeah, drive down the streets,look, wave at us with five
fingers.
That's our, that's our goal.
How do we, how do we get therewith you, right?

Speaker 2 (35:04):
we need down in the back of our shirts.
It's a good one.
It's a good one, I really likeI'll let you.
Yeah, I really like that.
That's phenomenal.
It's kind of like you're, youknow, you're the one that you
say we've actually put that upat the home shows.
Now, not everyone should get solittle bit.
Everyone should look at it.
Yeah, and that's our, that'sour motto now, but we also have
to have the finger.
That's the same second motto.

Speaker 1 (35:23):
I like it.

Speaker 2 (35:23):
Have them side by side, I like that Okay, so your
team has spent their day doingeverything.
You just said we got the drinksdown, everything and it's it's
all good.
What's next?

Speaker 3 (35:34):
What's next is, generally, we're gonna try and
get someone out to QC, qa, qc,the system.

Speaker 2 (35:39):
Okay, what's?

Speaker 3 (35:40):
that?
What's that person?
Well, let me kind of back up.
First thing, what is QA, qc,quality, assurance, quality?

Speaker 1 (35:46):
control.
I knew what it was.
It's just for the listeners,yeah.

Speaker 3 (35:53):
Let's talk about our guys generally.
Generally, we tell our guys wewant them to bump the system and
but, and when they say bump thesystem, right before they leave
, we want to make sure thateverything's is working to its
functional intent when we leave.
Once again, are the guys gonnamiss something?
Sure there's.
You know there's 30 stickersthat have to go on in certain

(36:14):
locations and and Identifyingthings here and there.
So, yeah, things get missed.
You know I hate the once again,I hate to be the bare bad news.
So we send someone, we try andget someone out, to QA, qc the
system, have a look, make surethat whatever we miss gets
rectified, gets taken care.
Once again, that person's onlyhuman too, right?
And if they they're on thephone and they got 20 other

(36:35):
things going on, are they fullyor did they miss something?
Because then, what we generallydo within once we're done
install is good to go, generallywithin a couple days, we're
calling for for what we callgreen tag inspection Clients
lingo final inspection.
Right, we're calling for finalinspection on your solar install
.
Inspectors gonna come out,they're gonna open up our plan

(36:57):
set.
They're gonna start taking alook.
Do we have all of ourIdentification markers, our
stickers on?
Is everything good to go?
Our back feet breaker sizedaccordingly?
Is our conduit sizedaccordingly?
You know J-box is correctthings of that.

Speaker 2 (37:12):
They they're gonna take a look at all of that and
this person's from the citycorrect from the jurisdiction
and the plans are inside theactual Panel right, yeah, we'll
leave them in the panel we have.

Speaker 3 (37:22):
We have had clients take them inside.
We just ask that please put themback, because if not the
jurisdiction will thenessentially walk away and go hey
, no plans on site, sorry, wefailed your inspection, right?
So so we try and leave themreadily accessible for the
inspector Once we getnotification, whether it's a
pass or fail.
Look, fails do happen.
That's, that's the real world,right?

(37:42):
We then we actually internallyhave a what we call a go-back
list, right, so gets put on thislist.
We're running guys constantlyif there are go backs to get
back out to jobs, to take careof any Corrections that need to
be made can you give an exampleof what, what kind of what's a
go-back?

Speaker 2 (37:57):
So give me example of go backs that commonly happen.

Speaker 3 (38:00):
We we missed a placard right or the placard, so
we we actually the plack.
So some of the placards that goon right we actually source out
to an Engraving or a signcompany.
These are the little things thatgo on the inside on the on the
panel door thing they getriveted on things of that nature
, and so let's say that then theforeman that's out there, it

(38:22):
doesn't really pay attention tothat placard.
Once again, they supposed to,but things happen.
He's in our trying to getwrapped up and saw the placard.
Let's see the placards off by amodule, count right, and the
inspector looks at that andfailed, okay, doesn't match.
So things like that happen.
Our intent, though, is to getthrough final inspection, which
we're gonna call green tag.
Right, green tag.

(38:43):
Once the inspector says, hey,it's, it's built accordingly to
your plan set, it's correct,everything is good to go.
We're gonna green light you.
They then send notification tothe utility company.
Right, it used to be when Ifirst even started at Harmon we
were able to also call theutility company and say, hey, we
passed final inspection, yeah,or green tag.

(39:04):
Now it's all automated.
So the jurisdictions areSending over approvals to the
utility, which we've seen thatactually delay up to like two
days, 48 hours for the for thejurisdiction To get that
paperwork, yeah, processed andsent over to the utility Once
the utility receives it.
Right, we've got a durationthere of them.
Once again, now they hold theball and Utility is several

(39:29):
weeks out from physically comingout and what we call
commissioning the system, whichis setting the meter socket.
They, the utility, will comeout.
They'll let us know thatthey're coming out to set meter
socket.
They'll give us a notification,generally right after they
install.
We receive their notificationpretty quickly after they
install, but generally it couldbe up to a two, three, four week

(39:49):
gap from the time we pass Untilutility gets after to install
meter socket.

Speaker 2 (39:53):
So what you're saying .
That system could be up on theroof.
It passed the system, the cityinspection and it just sits.
Nothing we control.
Correct, right, because now weneed, you need the utility Set
the production they gotta bringthat little meter thing and they
got to stick it in the yeah inthe thing.

Speaker 1 (40:12):
Yeah, the thing in a thing they're kind of to kind of
summarize it you know, back inthe very beginning of the
process, we developed the plans,we submitted to the you know,
you know the jurisdiction, andsaid this is what we're
installing.
Then we go out and install thatbased off the plans.
And then the city comes backout and goes okay, did you
install it based off of theseplans?
We need to check these things.
So that's that whole processand why it takes so long.

Speaker 2 (40:34):
And then city, like you said, then the utility has
to come out and turn it onexactly in a sense correct.

Speaker 3 (40:39):
They're also gonna look at it while they're there.
Before they just set the meterthere, make sure that everything
is as good on their end.
Right, they'll set meter ingeneral.
We then get notification thatwe ask clients like Because
it'll be about a day gap beforethe utility notifies us that
they've set.
So we'll tell clients, call,call your project manager and
let them know.
Hey, I saw the guy out.

(41:00):
They set meter today.

Speaker 2 (41:02):
Yeah, that's a really good point.
And we get that phone call.
We don't know when the city,when the utility comes out to do
this.
No, they don't tell us no.
They don't give us a day or atime, they just show right, so
they'll tell us maybe a day ortwo later.
Correct, so if it happens, youneed to call in, talk to your
project manager.
You've been talking to them allthis time.
It just helps.
It helps expedite that process.

(41:23):
And then would we go out andturn it on or would we ask the
customer to turn on?

Speaker 3 (41:27):
we'll then.
We'll then schedule someoneback out to that site and
Essentially, they are gonna walkthe homeowner through the
commissioning process, they'regonna get the system turned on
and by doing that, what they'realso gonna do is showing I show
them how to set up monitoringRight.
A lot of people want and I, mynovice starting into solar right
.
Oh, so you guys monitor all thesystems?

(41:48):
No, we don't monitor right.

Speaker 2 (41:50):
There it is.

Speaker 3 (41:51):
We.
We set the monitoring up forthe client to monitor their
system.
Why doesn't mean if somethinggoes on You're not gonna call us
.
If something goes on, you'regonna call us and we'll come
back for that.
But client clients have thatkind of ownership as far as
monitoring their solarproduction, making sure that
that everything is functioning.

Speaker 2 (42:10):
So we're gonna put the little flashy thing up.
Yeah, herman, solar does notmonitor your solar system.

Speaker 1 (42:14):
I always tell people it's like a check engine light
in your car.
When the check engine lightcomes on, do you call a dealer
or does a dealer call you?
You call it either.
It's true same thing with youknow when something goes wrong
with your monitoring.
Is Harmon call you or do youcall Harmon you?

Speaker 2 (42:26):
gotta call us yeah.

Speaker 3 (42:28):
I say same same thing yeah, so we walk through it
with them.

Speaker 2 (42:31):
We turn it on.
They're monitoring a setup.

Speaker 3 (42:34):
Yeah so.
So what happens is, what'sinteresting is when the guy is
the form, is responsible forwhat, turning in what we call
wire map when our install isdone, right, which kind of says,
hey, here's the module numbers,here's where they're at up on
your roof, right, we've got,he's got a sticker map that he
creates, and then the systemgets built that way into that
software system, so it's panelof a monitoring or not, right

(42:55):
now, right.
So that way, if something wereto happen, especially on like
n-phase with micro inverters,you can tell immediately what
module right you're having anissue with right, exactly, okay.

Speaker 2 (43:07):
So real quick back to the QA guys.
So we kind of talked about hima little bit.
Does he?
Is he basically there?
He's checking out everything tomake sure it's everything's
good and clean.
He goes up on the roof Shouldgo up on the roof as well see if
there's any panels that aretiles that need to be replaced,
because typically tiles can soform.
It so form and create.

Speaker 3 (43:24):
We have an end-of-day report for the form and to
create.
Foreman are supposed to let usknow.
Right, hey, we had, we busted,I'm gonna throw it out there 50
tiles, right, it's not unheardof.
Okay, so we have a roofing team.
Right, we send our roofing teamback to Reinstall reinstall any
, any roof tiles that are brokeor busted or need to be you know

(43:44):
, adjusted, yeah, the other.
The other thing that that I dolike to talk about it's come up
a couple times is we willgenerally so once again.
Concrete roof tiles are done indie lots, right, what?
What happens to anything that'sdied when the Sun beats on it
for years?

Speaker 2 (43:59):
It's gonna crack.
Well, the color fades.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
Oh hey, yeah so here's what we deal with, here's
what we do.
We're clients, right Is so we.
All of a sudden we go out to dotile replacements or repair
tiles and now you've got a shadevariation on your roof, right?
So our guys are trained.
What we'd rather do, right, ispeel tiles out from under the
array, put the new tile thatwe've ordered Under the array
where it's not visible, and thentake that tile and utilize it

(44:25):
in areas where we broke tile, sothat if I'm, look, if I'm the
guy, your next door neighbor,walking by your house, I really
don't see any evidence of, hey,there's discoloration of the
tile or it doesn't match, or.
But mind you, being in thebuilding industry for the years
I was what I can't tell you.
It's the same thing withrooftop.
Go drive even new productionneighborhoods and you'll see

(44:46):
tiles that look like they gotpatched patches on the on the
roof, because once again, therethey're done in die lots.

Speaker 2 (44:53):
I didn't even think about doing that.
Yeah, that's what.
That's what you know.
We do that.
That's why I know I didn't knowthat that's why he's here.

Speaker 3 (44:58):
You both learn something.
I learned one thing that'sgonna get there only one day.

Speaker 2 (45:03):
No, that's really interesting.
That's that makes a lot ofsense.
Huh, yeah.

Speaker 3 (45:06):
I learned two things today.

Speaker 1 (45:08):
The first one I was following directions to get here
.

Speaker 3 (45:10):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (45:11):
Second one was that I'm actually good-looking.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
I don't like that, I go, that's not, we're gonna edit
that out.
Yes, so the the point of thecockpock my QA also was if you
notice that there's some brokenstuff up there, there's some
tiles missing.
Yeah, we know we're gonna comeback and we're gonna come back.

Speaker 3 (45:27):
So the QA guy obviously he's not rolling
around with just a truckload ofroof tiles or things of that.
So what he'll do is he'll letthey'll let you know our super
no, we've got a list.
It'll get added that list, andwe're gonna, we're gonna put it
on that.
Hey, we're gonna come back onsuch and such.
They can't reach back out toyou.
Hey, can we come this day?
We're gonna send someone by,whether it's to do tiles,

(45:48):
whether it's wire management,something slipped there.
There's a multitude of things,right?
But but yeah, we're still gonnacommunicate through that.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
So I mean it for some reason as a customer.
Maybe you didn't talk to theforum before he left, maybe you
weren't home, whatever, and hedidn't tell you hey, there's
that up there, we're gonna comeback and get that.
Know that, we are gonna do that.
If you're not comfortable, youcan call your PM.
They'll tell you the same thingregardless.
But yeah, it's, we get thatphone call.
Sometimes, though I know in thesales size, we get it.
There's panels missers, there'sthings missing up there.
Well, yeah, we know, don't worry, we're gonna come fix that when

(46:18):
I done.
Yet expectations, expect you'reright.
Expectations, yeah, okay.
I mean so that's, that's that'sinstallation day and beyond,
even right right and at thatpoint we're beyond you're done
with your.
You know they're a commission,they're turned on, the
monitoring is set up and youguys are good to go.

Speaker 3 (46:34):
Next job Till the phone call comes.

Speaker 2 (46:37):
No phone call.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
It's okay that there it happens.
And once again, I want ourclients to know right, that's
the difference that separatesHarmon.
When you call, you're gonnatalk to someone, yeah right,
we're not just gonna keephitting voicemail.
You might you might get avoicemail for sitting in
meetings or something.
Mm-hmm but we'll call you backand we're gonna we're gonna
resolve your issue.
Once again, we're gonna try andMeet in the middle of if we did

(47:03):
something wrong, we're comingback, or if you're just unhappy
with something, then we're gonnatry and find some middle ground
with you.
Mm-hmm, yeah, I'm great, and Iwant to see five fingers, not
one.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
I love that.
We're doing that.
We're gonna get that shirt.
All right.
What are we missing?
Did you?
Can you think of anything elsethat?

Speaker 1 (47:17):
is a.
That's a lot.
I think that's it.
It's on your roof, it's turnedon.
Start saving money right.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
That's it.
That's the name of the game.
That's the name of the game.
Can you think of anything elseyou want to share with our, our
viewers?
What's?

Speaker 3 (47:30):
just expectations.
I'm a huge Expectation guy.
Yeah, I agree, it's, I think.
I think we all have internalexpectations on everything every
day.
It's not always a good thing,but we all internalize and do
that.
Yeah and I think, unless youyou're talking to people about
those expectations, yourperception sometimes gets very,
very misconstrued.

(47:51):
And so I think it's it'scritical that we, we set proper
expectations, the clientsunderstand those expectations
right.
And if you don't understand acall, yeah, pick up a phone and
call and let's, let's have thoseconversations Right, because
the end of the day, I Want youhappy with us, yep, and and how
do we get there?
I look, I can't solve theworld's problems, but if I can

(48:12):
make your life a little bitEasier and better, then that's
the intent of this, right.
I mean, we're not there toupset you.
We're there to install aproduct that you wanted
installed on your home and getyou across that finish line With
with what?
The way you anticipated it,right.
But once again, it it's fromthe word goals, setting these
expectations correctly at theend of the day.

Speaker 2 (48:33):
We've talked about a million times.
It's all about communicationright.
We don't want to find out.
You're not happy when we read areview, right.
We want to avoid that, but atthe same time, once we've taken
care of that situation and fixedit, we want the review to be
hey, maybe they weren't perfect,but in the end, yeah, they were
perfect, right.

Speaker 3 (48:49):
Well see, and I'll disagree with you.

Speaker 2 (48:50):
Okay, disagree with me.

Speaker 3 (48:51):
There's no succinct, it's perfection.

Speaker 2 (48:53):
Well, there isn't my house.

Speaker 1 (48:54):
I don't know.
And here we are in your house.
You're right.

Speaker 3 (48:56):
You're right, there's no, there's no such thing.
We can be, we can.
We can be good at what we do,right.
We can't be perfect at what wedo.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
We can meet expectations.

Speaker 3 (49:04):
Yes, perfect.

Speaker 2 (49:05):
But we have to set them first.

Speaker 3 (49:06):
We have to set them and we have to be very clear
with what they are and sometimesMaybe in the sales side of the
of the conversation.

Speaker 2 (49:13):
Maybe sometimes people don't give proper
expectations.

Speaker 3 (49:16):
Yeah, well, not only that, let's let's be realist,
right?
Sometimes people only hear whatthey want to hear to that's
true too.
Yeah, that's true.
Yeah, on both ends, that's yeah.
So it's once again we're humans, we're all trying to to get to
this finish line together, right?
And and how do we do that,right, to make everyone happy
when we cross over that finishline?

Speaker 2 (49:34):
It's a partnership and so we talk about it all the
time.
You guys play a role in this,so you're buying this whole or
from us, but you are partneringwith us to get this to the
finish line, yep, so there'sthings you have to do, there's
communications we need from youand, as long as we all kind of
play together, nice, this couldbe a great process, and it
usually is yeah, for themajority it is.
There's always the squeaky.
You know the squeaky wheel thatwe have to deal with here and

(49:55):
there, but for the moment, wefix.
We fix those issues.

Speaker 3 (49:58):
Yeah, it's gonna happen right.

Speaker 2 (49:59):
I mean when we were sitting in a meeting with
leadership and we're talkingabout this stuff.
We're not talking about allthose stuff that went great.
We're talking about the oneswhere there's things going on
that we need to fix to get tothe next level, and we need
everybody To play their part tomake it work.
That's, that's what your bigpart of your job is.
So, yeah, I don't envy your job.

Speaker 3 (50:17):
Well, there's days I don't need.
Now we're home page.
Yeah, it's just it'sexpectations.

Speaker 2 (50:24):
Yes, so we have now gone through.

Speaker 1 (50:28):
The entire process.
We're done.
Thanks for coming to ourpodcast signing off forever.
We're all done right.

Speaker 2 (50:33):
We're 13 episodes in or whatever, and we finally got
to the end now.
We're not done with the podcast.
Obviously we're gonna do a lotmore stuff, sure, but we've gone
through from a to z.
Yep, this is the process.
Brad's the back end, right, soperfect.
We've done the whole thing.
And what's next?
What's next, we'll see.
We're probably gonna.

Speaker 1 (50:49):
We're probably gonna we have a lot of options.
We do have a lot of options.
Viewers, if you havesuggestions, feel free to give
us the best option.

Speaker 3 (50:56):
Yet you guys don't like it.
You might not.
You know what I honestly thinkwe should do.
We need to bring a client.

Speaker 1 (51:03):
Yes, we talked about that.
I have a couple in mind They'vealready reached out to, so I
yeah, I think that's I.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
I I had some discussion a while back and we
haven't done it yet, but I thinkit look.
I'd like to bring in to interops meeting once a month.
Right, bring a client in to gettheir perspective in front of
our team.
I would love that.

Speaker 1 (51:22):
I have it's.

Speaker 3 (51:23):
I think it's hugely beneficial.

Speaker 1 (51:25):
I do kind of piggyback of what you've been
saying a lot of.
I have a customer that thingsdidn't go well at first but then
we fixed it and now he's happy.
I thought he would be a goodthat's the person I want.

Speaker 2 (51:33):
Yeah, I want the person that was happy all the
way through.
I want the person that wasn'thappy and then is happy at the
end, and Probably even a personthat maybe is not happy.
You know at the end and whythey're not happy and what did
we do?
That's gonna be an expert.
I guarantee you.
It's not gonna be that theydidn't get what they bought.
It's gonna be something else.

Speaker 1 (51:50):
Yeah, cuz anyone could bring on people that are.
You know all sunshine andrainbows, but let's be
transparent.

Speaker 2 (51:55):
Agreed, so what we'll look at doing things like that.
We'll also get into the dealernetwork.
I want to talk about that.
I think it's important tounderstand.
In solar, like we've talkedabout there, there's a us that
we have our own internal salesteam and there's also sales
companies out there that don'tinstall but they sell you solar,
yeah, and how we work with somecompanies like that, and you
need to understand how thatprocess works because it's

(52:16):
different.
So I want to make that.
I want to put that out there aswell.
Okay, so we'll, we'll get up.
We got options for the next one, so we'll Hang on.
We'll let you know, brad,thanks for joining us,
appreciate it, thanks for allyou do.
I know that we don't always seeeye to eye, but we, at the end
of the day, we do.
It was good to get out of theoffice.
Yeah it's always good to getout of the office.
That's why I work remote, yeah,so it's good to get out of the

(52:37):
office for me too.
Mr Everything, thank you againfor joining us.
I'll see you next time andthanks for viewing this again.
If you need to get in touchwith the harman solar 800, 281,
31, 89, or you can visit us atharman solar calm.
We'll see you next time, thankyou.