How Summit Solar Improves Customer Experience With Aircall and HubSpot

Consumers are increasingly embracing the affordability of solar power, and governments are rewarding them for it, putting solar panels in high demand. With tens of thousands of solar panel installation companies in the U.S. alone, businesses must find a way to stand out. Summit Solar has done that by building a one-stop-shop—with consultation, design, and installation partners—and continually improving the customer experience.

Many installation companies outsource sales and marketing, but Summit Solar values owning client relationships from the beginning, hearing their voices throughout the buying journey and collecting data along the way to improve the customer experience. To have these critical conversations, Summit Solar relies on Aircall's cloud call center software with HubSpot’s CRM integration.

How Summit Solar Uses the Phone

Summit Solar's team includes marketers, inside sales reps, customer support agents, design consultants, and engineers from across the U.S., all of whom work remotely. They need to work closely with each other and with clients, which requires more than a traditional phone system.

New customers typically find the company online and start at the website. When they call the company, they first talk with inside salespeople, who provide a brief overview of products and services and determine whether the caller is a good fit for solar panels. After vetting prospects, inside sales passes them on to sales leaders known as "solar professionals," who talk customers through the cost of solar panels, potential savings with solar, panel design, and the installation process.

Along the way, sales reps log all calls and customer information into HubSpot and follow up with customers through SalesMsg after the sale is final, staying connected to customers throughout the entire journey.

Why They Use Aircall and HubSpot

Sara Kinsella, Sales Operations Manager for Summit Solar, wears multiple hats, as she manages both customer-facing teams and their tech stack. This required a lot of manual work with the business's previous communications solution. Kinsella had to manually upload calling lists every morning for her reps, and they had to manually log calls in the CRM throughout the day.

This one-stop-shop business needed a one-stop-shop communication solution that integrated with HubSpot. It needed a reliable solution that was intuitive for reps while providing management with insights that boost team performance and productivity. That's why the company chose Aircall, which integrates seamlessly with HubSpot and provides actionable data analytics.

Summit Solar's team also appreciates Aircall's sleek, modern user interface and advanced productivity features, such as PowerDialer, Live Feed, and call coaching.

"With its integration with HubSpot and SalesMsg, its ease of use and analytics, Aircall really just checked all the boxes for us that our previous solutions couldn't offer," Kinsella explained.

What a Difference an Integration Makes

Thanks to the HubSpot integration, Summit Solar's remote teams now have everything they need in one place. They no longer have to switch back and forth between tools; instead, they log information into HubSpot from inside the Aircall platform.

The system automatically logs all call activity into HubSpot, prompting them to add new notes and tags during each customer interaction. And with Aircall's PowerDialer feature, the system places calls for them, which has significantly increased productivity.

"With Aircall, our overall call volume grew 17% in the first month. The PowerDialer has expedited our sales process, and it's amazing to see how many more people we can contact in an eight-hour shift."

While Aircall and HubSpot provide reps with crucial customer data, they provide management with crucial performance data. Kinsella and her leadership team have automated much of their reporting and have better insight into call activity and employee productivity, which helps them make data-driven business decisions.

For example, real-time monitoring helps them predict when clients will call so they can adjust representative availability accordingly, making operations more efficient. Meanwhile, call tagging and analytics lets them confidently set revenue targets.

"We have increased our quotas by 10% because of the data we've gathered from call tagging and analytics from Aircall," said Kinsella.

Call tagging also yields data that can improve team performance. For example, reps use a tag called "booked on first call ce" when they close deals on the first engagement with a new customer. Leaders review calls with this tag so they can acknowledge the reps' stellar performance, which boosts morale.

They also listen to the call recordings—which are automatically uploaded into HubSpot after each call—for insights that can help other reps have more meaningful and effective sales conversations in the future.

Different Locations, Same Page

Any company with a fully remote call center needs the ability to provide coaching from afar. Aircall features such as Call Recording and Call Whispering make this process easy for Summit Solar.

Kinsella and her manager listen in on calls and review call recordings for training purposes. This helps them ensure all team members are up to speed and know how to best serve customers. The solar panel industry is nuanced, so it's critical for everyone to be well-versed and on the same page. They also listen in on sales reps' calls to hear customer feedback and glean insights to improve the sales process and customer experience.

"Call Recording and Call Whispering make us closer to the voice of our customers so we can better understand their needs," said Kinsella. "This ultimately speeds up our sales cycle and allows us to serve them better."

Kinsella is always there to help her team, no matter how far away they may be, and Aircall is always there to help, offering both support and solutions.

"We didn't receive this level of support from past providers. It felt like we never really got an answer to our questions and requests, like we were just being put off. Aircall makes us feel like a valued customer, and it's just so easy to use. We're planning to deploy the solution to other teams across the company, and we're excited to see what's next with Aircall."