The review gap between the median solar installer and the top tenth, and this week's work
The median solar installer has a fraction of the reviews the top tenth has. What the gap means to a homeowner comparing quotes, and a week of work to close it.
A homeowner getting solar quotes almost always looks up each installer on Google before the second meeting. If one company has a long list of detailed reviews and yours has a handful, you start that meeting behind, no matter how good your proposal is.
This post looks at one number from our benchmark report, the gap between the median installer and the top tenth on Google reviews, and what to do about it this week.
The number
Across the 32,440 solar listings in our data, the median installer has 18 Google reviews. The top quarter starts at about 86. The top tenth starts at about 287. And 17% of listings have no reviews at all.
That is a steep curve. The middle of the market is thin, and the top is very thick. A few large companies with years of installs have pulled far ahead, and most local installers sit well below them. The full spread is on the benchmarks page.
Why it matters more in solar than in most trades
Solar is a big, slow purchase. A homeowner might spend weeks deciding, compare three or four proposals, and read reviews several times along the way. They are not looking for a fast fix. They are looking for a company they trust to put holes in their roof and still be around for the warranty.
That means reviews do more work in solar than in a trade where someone needs help in the next hour. A homeowner reads them for answers to specific worries. Did the install match the proposal? Did the system produce what was promised? Did the company help with permits and the utility hookup? Did anyone call back when something went wrong?
A small review count cannot answer those questions. A large one with detail can.
What you do not need to do
You do not need to catch the national companies. You need to beat the other two or three installers the homeowner is comparing you to. For most local installers, passing the median and getting toward the top quarter is the goal for the next six months. That is a realistic number for a company that installs a handful of systems a month and asks every customer.
This week's work
Day one: pull every customer from the past two years. Make a list of every system you installed, with the homeowner's name, phone, install date and town. Most installers have more past customers than reviews by a wide margin. That is your backlog.
Day two: send the backlog ask. Text each one personally. Something like:
"Hi Tom, it is Sarah from [company]. Your system has been running for about a year now. If you have been happy with it, a short Google review would help other homeowners in [town] who are deciding. Here is the link: [link]. Thanks again for choosing us."
Mention how long the system has been running. People who have watched a year of low bills have the most useful things to say. The reviews guide has more versions of this ask.
Day three: set up the ask for new installs. Decide when you will ask from now on. Many installers do best asking twice: once at permission to operate, when the customer flips the system on, and again after the first low utility bill.
Day four: reply to every review you already have. Thank them by name. Mention the town and the system size if they did. Future customers read the replies.
Day five: fix the rest of your profile. While you are in there, make sure hours are listed, your service area is right, and you have recent install photos. In our data, 24.8% of solar listings show no hours at all. The Google profile guide walks through each section.
What not to do
Do not buy reviews, trade discounts for them, or ask only the customers you know are happy. Google removes reviews that look manufactured and can put a warning on your profile. Ask everyone, and answer the ones that are not perfect calmly and in public.
Do not stop after the backlog. A burst of reviews followed by silence looks odd. A steady pace, a few a month, looks like a company that is installing.
How you will know it worked
Check your count in 30 days. If you sent the backlog and set up the new-install ask, most installers see a real jump in the first month and a steady climb after. Then watch your proposal close rate over the next quarter. When homeowners mention your reviews in the second meeting, you will know the gap has closed enough to matter.
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Steven has spent the last several years running growth campaigns for local service businesses, solar installers among them, and builds the benchmark datasets on this site from public Google listings. About the editor