The Hidden ROI of Solar Service Work

Many solar companies only think about operations and maintenance (O&M) in simple terms: what does it cost to roll a truck for a service call, and what revenue does that call generate? But this narrow accounting view can miss the bigger picture of what a service program really delivers.

Residential O&M goes beyond fixing what’s broken. It’s about building lasting relationships with customers who have already demonstrated their commitment to clean energy. These are exactly the people who might want to add battery storage, EV chargers, or other home electrification upgrades down the line.

In this conversation, HeatSpring’s Brian Hayden and Amanda Bybee of Amicus O&M Cooperative dig into the real value of service programs, including the often-overlooked benefit of customer retention. As Amanda points out, solar companies work hard to build relationships with their installation customers – why let them go after the installation is complete?

Is your company ready to build a robust service department? Start getting your team the technical training they need to thrive, beginning with Solar PV and BESS Operations & Maintenance Tech 1 Training.

Transcript below.

Brian: I want to think about the accounting side, like the really boring to some people side of this. So, what I’ve learned over the years is the way you do accounting really matters for how your business operates because it’s like, what are you incentivizing? I feel that the opportunity of being in front of your customers regularly and these are people who might be interested in other things that you do, if you do battery systems, if you do EV chargers, if you do all these adjacent projects related to electrification. 

These are your most valuable customers and to be in an ongoing relationship with them, even if you’re not making a lot on a service call, to me the ROI is just so good on that relationship over time. When you are like getting into the weeds with Amicus members, when people model out the ROI of having a service program, are they including that stuff in the ROI or do you think companies are looking at it as a pure ROI on rolling a truck out for a service call and then what you make on that service call?

Amanda: I think most companies are just looking at the hard dollars of rolling a truck and having a service call. The other benefits of the service department such as, having an ongoing relationship with your customers, like you said, retaining them as future customers for recurring service work, for add-ons, for referrals. Those are all generally externalized. I don’t think that we assign a dollar value to them, but I think people recognize that intuitively, but they don’t necessarily try to quantify it in a dollar figure on the P&L, but it’s definitely a part of why you want to maintain a relationship.

You’ve already worked really hard to build a relationship with your installation customers. And I’m speaking just for those EPCs that also do service in O&M. You worked hard to build that relationship and so it seems a shame to just let it go after the installation is complete when there are so many benefits to maintaining it.

You mentioned our favorite book – HVAC Spells Wealth. Our good friend Ron Smith talks a lot about the value of retaining your customer base and keeping them engaged in some form or fashion so that when the day comes that they need a more significant upgrade or replacement of their components, they know who to call. You don’t have to work as hard to keep your customers as you do to have to find brand new ones.