20A – Growing Your Social Capital
1.
Norm Taffe, Executive Vice-president at Sunpower in California.
https://us.sunpower.com/
2.
Adan Jimenez, Semper Solaris, supplier.
https://www.sempersolaris.com/
3.
Richard Lee, Vivint Solar agent
https://www.vivintsolar.com/
1.
Domain expert
2.
Supplier
3.
Market expert
1.
Talked generally about the products of the company Sunpower. Norm Taffe
also has a blog where he posts ideas of the company with the description of
each product. Explained how my main focus should be on the product and it’s factors
into the cost because the price of a photovoltaic (PV) solar system is partly
determined by the kilowatt hours (kwh) of the system. That way it is more
efficient for the product to generate the electricity needed for different
customer needs.
2.
Semper Solaris has an average of 4.87 out of 5.00 on their scores for
reviews in California, Adan Jimenez is a supplier that specializes also in
installation. Adan mentions how their products are averagely same in prices as
the competition, but their customer services is what differentiates them from
anyone else. Their main focus is their costumers, to provide a good service and
to keep them happy is what matters the most, he invited me to visit their
website to check out the reviews. As a matter of fact, people give really good
positive feedback on their services in different locations around California(
my main focus)
3.
Richard Lee is an agent at Vivint Solar, their focus is on prices that
are cheaper compared to other companies. They have a fair share of the
marketplace but with honesty the reviews for the company are not that great.
Usually, labels of “liars” were assigned as a header for their reviews, people
complain about how they make extra monthly charges and sometimes their products
don’t even run how they should, customer care is also very vague and people
can’t get services attended within a few days, they usually delay weeks.
Richard talked to me about the packaging options for their roof panels, didn’t
give much information about the company or their products other than how much
it makes customers happy.
This exercise differs from others in the
past, direct contact with people from companies gave me a different perspective
of the market. Main focus should be customers, market is really narrow and only
few companies compete, the most effective, have customers happy with their
efficiency. Creating good quality products and fast and effective installation is
the priority in order to keep the business successful for a long time. Sunpower
also helped me learn about how variations on their products can be beneficial
because each customer has different needs and is looking to save as much money
as possible when doing an investing with solar energy.
Roy,
ReplyDeleteYour use of networking for this assignment was incredible! The people you interviewed seem to be more than qualified to assist you and provide you with invaluable information. With an idea like yours, these connections will prove to be a huge stepping stone in your quest to move forward. I actually did some research on SunPower after reading your post, and I must say they seem to know what they are doing. Excellent post!