Overview
Energy efficiency and generation capabilities are important to both homeowners and businesses alike. Many are looking for ways to cut down on monthly bills and never lose power during blowouts again.
That’s where US Energy Solutions, a leader in installing solar and green energy products, provides innovative solutions to help customers manage energy costs, improve comfort, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Headquartered in South Carolina, the business has a vast network of experienced service professionals across the Southeastern states of North Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
US Energy Solutions also services energy-efficient lighting, gas and electric heating and cooling, water heater services and provides expert support for their products and services.
As a regional provider of sustainable energy solutions, US Energy Solutions has partnered with some of the most qualified and experienced solar integrators, manufacturers, and suppliers. Together, they have helped countless homeowners and businesses reduce their energy consumption and save on their monthly utility bills.
This case study explores how the company uses field service management solutions to streamline workflows and improve customer service.
Challenges
No field service operation is perfect. There are always inefficiencies that can be ironed out to make the process run smoother. For US Energy Solutions, despite their multi-state presence, their overarching challenge was that their operations were still largely manual. Some of their pain points included:
Job and Service Estimates
They would often spend a lot of time on the phone with customers, discussing what work needed to be done and trying to get an estimate for the job. Long paper trails were a time-consuming process and would lead to miscommunication.
Invoicing
After completing the work, the company would generate an invoice manually. One of the main problems with manual invoicing is that it is easy to make mistakes.
For example, if an invoice is not input correctly, it could result in the customer being overcharged or undercharged. This can lead to frustration on the part of the customer and could damage the company’s reputation.
Contracts
US Energy Solutions would have to send out physical copies of contracts to their customers, leading to delays in the contract process.
Billing and Payments
The company would have to wait for payments to come in from customers, which could take a while. Getting a status update on settled charges could be a time-consuming process. The lack of digital payment options was also causing an inconvenience for many customers.
Reduced Visibility
US Energy Solutions did not have a clear overview of their operations in real-time. The lack of transparency caused them to miss out on critical information that could have helped make better decisions for their business.
Solutions
The company decided to invest in Zuper’s powerful field service management solution to help them overcome these hurdles.
With Zuper, US Energy Solutions was able to:
Create digital job and service estimates
Most estimates are now done on the field via the Zuper app. If a customer wants to see an estimate before work begins, the field rep can easily pull one up on their phone or tablet and automatically sync back to the office. This eliminates the need for paper estimates, making it easier for customers to understand what they’re being charged for.
Generate invoices easily
Zuper’s invoicing feature has allowed US Energy Solutions to create invoices quickly and easily, without any mistakes. The invoices are automatically sent to the customer via email or text.
Send contracts electronically
US Energy Solutions can now send contracts electronically. This convenient new feature allows customers to sign contracts quickly and easily without having to print or mail them.
Accept digital payments
With Zuper’s innovative digital payment feature integrated with Stripe, customers can now make payments on the spot. This has helped save time and money for both parties involved while improving the customer experience even further. Reps who are billing or interacting closely enough to upsell products/services at their job site no longer need paper invoices, which means more efficiency in office workflow and less printing costs (and potential Earth-orbiting waste).
Get real-time visibility into operations
Zuper’s dashboard gives US Energy Solutions a clear overview of their operations in real-time. The management team can easily see which jobs are queued up, which are in progress, and which have been completed. This has helped them identify areas of improvement and make changes to their processes.
