What do solar customers contact their installer about?
Most homeowner messages ask where a project stands or why the system is behaving a certain way, and the answer already sits in your project platform or monitoring portal. Agent resolves those once it can read them. Roofs, money owed and anything a salesperson promised go to people.
| Conversation type | Can Agent resolve it? | Hand off when | Data Agent needs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Project status: "Where is my project?" | Yes: the current stage, what it is waiting on and the next step | A stage has run past its limit, or the homeowner mentions cancelling | Project stage, milestone dates, open homeowner tasks |
| Site survey and install scheduling | Yes: books, confirms and moves dates within open crew slots | A reroof or main panel upgrade has to happen first, or a new date falls past the contract date | Crew calendar, survey notes |
| Permission to operate: "Can I turn it on?" | Yes: confirms whether PTO is granted and repeats your start-up steps | The utility rejected the application or asked for a design change | Interconnection status, PTO letter |
| Monitoring app shows the system offline | Partly: checks the installer portal and walks through gateway Wi-Fi reconnection | Still offline after the steps, an inverter error code, or zero output on a clear day | Online status, gateway last-seen time |
| "It produces less than the proposal said" | Partly: compares month-to-date output with the proposal's monthly estimate and explains seasonal swings | Output stays well under the estimate on clear days, or the homeowner invokes a production guarantee | Production history, monthly estimate from the proposal |
| "Why do I still get an electric bill?" and true-up bills | Partly: explains fixed utility charges and how annual true-up works, from your Knowledge | The homeowner disputes savings figures given during the sale | Rate plan on file, proposal assumptions |
| "My solar stopped during the outage" | Yes: explains why grid-tied systems shut down and whether this home has battery backup | A battery failed to back up the home as designed, or someone relies on powered medical equipment | Equipment list, backup configuration |
| Lease, PPA and loan payments | Yes for lease and PPA balances, autopay and statements; for loans, the lender's name and contact | Hardship, a loan payment that jumped, an early buyout or a transfer on a home sale | Billing records, finance type, lender |
| Tax credit paperwork | Partly: sends the paid invoice, install and PTO dates, and the IRS page | Always, for eligibility or amounts, to the homeowner's tax professional | Invoice, project dates |
| Warranty claims and roof leaks | Partly: gathers serial numbers and photos and opens the claim | Immediately for a leak, water indoors, smoke, sparks or a burning smell | Install date, equipment serials, warranty terms |
Outage questions look simple and are easy to get wrong. The Department of Energy explains that grid-connected inverters disconnect and shut down during a long or unusual grid disruption, and that solar-plus-storage systems keep running only if they were designed to. Agent should read the equipment list before it answers.
What does an AI procedure for solar project status look like?
Project status is the solar version of "where is my order", stretched over weeks and gated by outside parties: the building department, sometimes an HOA, the utility and the lender. A project team could write the procedure for Agent like this. The stage limits are example values; set yours from your own project history.
Example procedure: project status before PTO
- Verify the homeowner with the service address plus the email or mobile number on the contract, or a logged-in portal session. After two failed attempts, hand off.
- Read the project: current stage, the date it entered that stage, the next milestone and who it is waiting on (homeowner, building department, HOA, utility, lender or crew).
- If it is waiting on the homeowner, say so first and send the link: the utility application signature, the HOA form or a photo of the main electrical panel.
- Explain the stage in plain words. Give a date only when the record holds a scheduled one (survey, install, inspection). Never predict a permit approval or a PTO date.
- If the system is installed and inspected but PTO has not arrived, remind the homeowner to keep it switched off until the utility's approval email, and mention that the utility may need to swap the meter first.
- If the project has sat in one stage past its limit (example: permit review 15 business days, utility review 10 business days after final inspection), create a follow-up task for the project coordinator due the next business day, post the project ID to the #pto-escalations Slack channel and tell the homeowner who will update them and by when.
- Hand off at once on: cancel, refund, attorney, contractors board, attorney general, chargeback, "the salesperson promised", loan payments that began before the system runs, or two negative messages in a row.
- Spend limit: $0. No credits, payment pauses or goodwill gestures; those are the coordinator's decision.
Example conversation
Homeowner: The panels went up three weeks ago and they still aren't on. What's the holdup?
Agent: I can check. Please confirm the service address and the mobile number on your contract.
Homeowner: 418 Juniper Lane, 555-0142.
Agent: Thanks. Your system passed the city's final inspection on September 18, and we sent the interconnection application to your utility the next day. It is waiting on the utility's review and a meter swap, so please keep the system switched off until the permission-to-operate email arrives. The review has taken longer than we expect, so I've asked your project coordinator, Marcus, to chase the utility and call you by 5 p.m. tomorrow.
Marcus receives the thread, the project record Agent read and the follow-up task it created.
What guardrails does a solar AI agent need?
Four hard limits: never promise a date that the utility or building department controls, never forecast savings or output, never give tax, legal or financial advice, and never guide anyone near live electrical equipment. Everything else is configuration you write in plain language.
What Agent must never do
- Promise PTO or permit dates. Those belong to the utility and the building department. Agent reports scheduled dates and who it is waiting on.
- Forecast savings or production. The CFPB's issue spotlight on solar financing found that some installers overestimate how much electricity panels will produce and misrepresent future energy costs. Agent quotes the proposal and the monitoring data, nothing beyond them.
- Advise on tax credits. The IRS states that the Residential Clean Energy Credit is not available for property placed in service after December 31, 2025, and the FTC's guide to solar for your home notes that tax benefits go to the system's owner, not to someone leasing or on a PPA. Agent sends invoices and the IRS page; eligibility goes to a tax professional.
- Interpret loan terms. The same CFPB report describes solar loans that re-amortize to a higher payment around month 19 unless the borrower prepays, often 30% of the principal. A homeowner facing that jump talks to a person, with the lender's contact attached. Agent does not give legal or financial advice and escalates those topics to people.
- Give electrical instructions beyond the app and Wi-Fi steps you wrote. No opening inverters, breaker panels or disconnects.
- Agree to changes. Cancellations, contract amendments, credits and payment pauses stay with staff.
What triggers a handoff
- Safety words: smoke, sparks, burning smell, water near the inverter, leak. Agent tells the homeowner to move away and call 911 if there is smoke or fire, then alerts the on-call service lead.
- Keywords: cancel, attorney, contractors board, attorney general, chargeback, fraud, review site.
- Sentiment: two negative messages in a row, common after an install delay or a surprise bill.
Data handling
Agent verifies identity before it reveals project, billing or address details, and never collects Social Security numbers, bank details or credit applications in chat; it sends the lender's secure link instead. Each connector has explicit, revocable permissions, so monitoring can stay read-only while scheduling may only book open slots. Aftersales offers a GDPR DPA and hosts data in the US, with SSO on Scale. It does not make you compliant, but your procedures and Monitors results give a reviewer something concrete to check.
Which channels matter most for solar customer service?
Text and phone carry install-day and urgent conversations, email carries documents, and portal chat absorbs status questions after hours.
- SMS. Crew arrival windows, weather reschedules and PTO news fit a text. Outbound texts need prior consent under the TCPA (see the FCC's guide to unwanted calls and texts), so keep service consent records apart from marketing lists and start with replies.
- Phone. Leaks and anxious homeowners call. Growth and Scale add warm and cold transfers, recording consent and per-brand numbers, which suits installers selling under regional brands or through dealers.
- Email. Permits, PTO letters, warranty certificates and invoices.
- Portal or in-app chat. Where "what stage am I at?" lands at 9 p.m.
- Slack Connect. Sales dealers and subcontracted crews can raise issues in shared channels that feed the same Inbox queue.
Which solar systems should the AI agent connect to?
Connect the project platform and the monitoring portal first; read access to those two answers most of the table above.
| System | What Agent reads or does | How it connects |
|---|---|---|
| Solar CRM or operations platform | Stage, milestones, documents, homeowner tasks; creates follow-up tasks | Aftersales API or webhooks |
| Scheduling or field service tool | Survey and install slots; books and moves appointments | Aftersales API or webhooks |
| Inverter monitoring portal | Online status, last-seen time, daily output, error codes (read-only) | Aftersales API or webhooks |
| Lease and PPA billing | Balances, autopay, statements | Aftersales API or webhooks; Stripe if you bill through it |
| Lender or finance partner | Lender contact; loan status only where the partner shares it | Aftersales API or webhooks |
| Salesforce, Zendesk or Freshdesk | Existing customer records; Agent can also run inside them | Named integrations |
| Slack and Jira | Escalations to project and service channels; a Jira issue for a recurring app or firmware defect | Named integrations |
Homeowners usually check the inverter maker's own app, so Agent should read the same installer-portal data your service desk sees rather than reason from a screenshot the homeowner sends. Monitoring APIs, utility portals and finance partners vary widely, so confirm specific connectors on a call. Keep stage definitions, start-up steps and warranty terms in Knowledge so Agent, coordinators and the help center describe them the same way. If you also run community solar subscriptions with utility-style billing, see AI customer service for energy and utilities.
What does AI customer service cost for a solar installer?
A regional installer's customer care team would pay about $1,974 a month at list prices, roughly 70 cents per conversation, on these assumptions:
- 6 project coordinators and service reps on Growth, billed annually, handling 2,800 conversations a month.
- Agent resolves 50%, below the 71% median Aftersales customers reach after 90 days, because leaks, truck rolls, cancellations and finance disputes go to people.
- Copilot for every rep, and 15 salespeople, field technicians and managers who only comment and approve.
| Line item | Calculation | Monthly cost |
|---|---|---|
| 6 care seats on Growth | 6 × $69 | $414 |
| Agent resolutions | 1,400 × $0.99 | $1,386 |
| Copilot for 6 reps | 6 × $29 | $174 |
| 15 salespeople, technicians and managers as Lite seats | Included on Growth | $0 |
| Total per month | $1,974 |
Conversations Agent cannot help with are free, and seats do not move with volume: a winter month with 4,000 conversations at the same rate raises only the Agent line, to $1,980. Installers needing SSO would choose Scale at $109 per seat. Teams staying in Salesforce Service Cloud, Zendesk or Freshdesk can run Agent on its own at $0.99 per resolution with a minimum monthly commitment and no seats. See pricing.
How do you roll out a solar AI agent in 30 days?
Begin with pre-PTO status, where every answer is a fact in your project platform, then move into service.
- Days 1 to 7. Tag 90 days of conversations by intent and pick three types, usually project status, PTO and app connectivity. Connect read access to the project platform and monitoring portal, agree the handoff list with operations, service and finance, and write a one-paragraph definition of each project stage in Knowledge.
- Days 8 to 14. Write the procedures or import existing macros. Replay past conversations and set Monitors to flag any promised date or savings figure.
- Days 15 to 21. Go live on portal chat and SMS replies for homeowners who have not reached PTO, evenings and weekends first, then all hours.
- Days 22 to 30. Add monitoring troubleshooting, lease and PPA statements and warranty intake. Report resolution rate, defined as in our resolution rate guide, and handoff reasons each week, and watch Insights for spikes such as offline gateways after a firmware update or a backlog at one utility.