The deposit is paid, then quiet
A homeowner signed and paid a deposit a month ago. Since then they have heard nothing except a request for a photo of their meter. They ring: when is my install? The office looks it up. The job is waiting on a network operator reply, and the battery model is on order. The customer is told 'soon, we're waiting on a couple of things'. They ring again the next week.
Multiply that across every job in the pipeline, and a surprising part of the office's week is spent saying 'soon'.
Why customers feel in the dark
- The steps between signing and install are invisible to the homeowner.
- Waiting for DNO approval or stock looks like nothing happening.
- Each step's status sits in a different place: CRM, DNO spreadsheet, stock sheet, scaffold diary.
- Updates are sent by hand, so they are sent when someone has time.
- Install dates change for weather, and customers learn late.
The cost of silence
Office time on repeated calls. Customers who get anxious and cancel within their cancellation period, or leave reviews about poor communication. Sales staff pulled into chasing updates for customers they sold to. And a feeling, among customers, that your company went quiet once it had the deposit, which is rarely true but hard to argue with.
A progress page driven by your own records
- Each job has a progress page with stages in plain words: design confirmed, network operator paperwork, equipment, scheduling, install, paperwork and handover.
- Stages update from your records: the CRM, the DNO tracker, stock reservation and the install schedule, so nobody updates the page by hand.
- When a stage changes, the customer gets a short text or email in your wording.
- When there is a wait, the page says what it is and what normally happens next, without promising a date you do not control.
- Install date changes, including weather moves, are sent with the reason and the new date as soon as they are made.
- Customers can ask a question from the page, which goes to the office with the job attached.
What the customer sees at each stage
| Stage | Customer sees |
|---|---|
| Design confirmed | Your final layout and equipment list |
| Network operator paperwork | Submitted, waiting for reply, or approved |
| Equipment | Reserved, or on order |
| Scheduling | Your install date and scaffold dates |
| After install | Paperwork in progress, then documents ready |
Calls about real questions only
Customers can see where their job is at any time. Waits are explained rather than hidden. Date changes arrive promptly with a reason. The office handles the calls that need a person. And the period after the deposit, which is often where trust is lost, becomes one where it is built.
Why the page has to update itself
Customer portals often fail because someone has to keep them current, and in a busy office nobody does. The progress page described here only works because every stage is driven by something that already happens: the DNO tracker records a reply, the stock reservation is completed, the install date is set in the schedule. If those systems are not yet joined up, joining them is the first job, and the customer page comes after.
That order matters. A page that shows stale information is worse than no page, because the customer rings anyway and now also doubts what you told them.
Is this your phone line?
- Customers ring weekly asking about their install date.
- Updates are sent by hand when someone has time.
- Waits for approvals or stock are not explained to customers.
- Customers learn about date changes late.