CASE STUDY • Projects • UX Research • Content Strategy
Palmetto customer surveys
By 2021, Palmetto had 10 years in business and more than 10,000 solar customers. The company was built on exceptional customer service, but growth was outpacing support capabilities and NPS scores had begun to decline.
As one of many initiatives to improve the customer experience, we launched a customer newsletter—our first mechanism for direct, outbound communication. I saw an opportunity to both educate and learn from our customers and proposed a pilot survey to see what we might find.
ROLE
Survey Design • Data Analysis • Project Management • Content Strategy
COMPANY
Palmetto
TEAM
Josh Davis, Web Copywriter
YEARS
2021-2023
CHALLENGE //
Customer feedback was limited to NPS scores, support requests, and online reviews
NPS scores and online reviews were trending down
OPPORTUNITY //
Gather direct customer feedback
OBJECTIVES //
Assess customer values, drivers, and pain points
Hone messaging to better resonate with our customers
Improve the customer journey
Increase customer newsletter and app engagement
Sample survey question regarding ancillary products
BACKGROUND //
In my first year at Palmetto, I introduced internal surveys to gather quick, asynchronous feedback from various teams and stakeholders. The approach streamlined cross-functional collaboration in a dynamic environment where projects and priorities frequently changed.
Hey team! Let’s put our heads together and select which messages to test.
Please rate each hero section on a scale of 1-5 where 1 means "Meh, cut this from the lineup" and 5 means "Yes! Let's see how this performs."
There’s space at the end for questions and comments.
Hi all. I’ve distilled the ideas from today’s meeting into three messaging categories with specific value propositions for each. Based on your understanding of our product and audience, please stack rank the options, using 1 to indicate your top choice.
PILOT //
Palmetto vs. Beacon
In 2022, I piloted a customer newsletter survey to assess key drivers and pain points in the decision to purchase solar. The questions mirrored a 2021 research study conducted by SolarReviews.com and UC Berkeley’s BEACN consulting group.
INSIGHTS //
Our customers had a lot to say.
In addition to fixed-choice responses, we received more than 250 write-in comments. We labeled these as positive, neutral, or negative, then organized them by theme to identify actionable insights.
We presented our findings at an all-company meeting of 400-500 employees and distributed the data for internal use.
“One of the best investments I ever made 👏👍👊”
“I am so delighted that we’ve gone solar! I sometimes wish we’d gotten the battery’s as well.”
“You need better communications and one contact person ie project manager”
“I asked the question: ‘After solar install, what will my electric bill show and what will my comparative savings be?’ Never really got a good direct answer to that question.”
“The tax credit isn't what I thought it was or what I was told it would be.”
“It's not producing as much energy as expected.”
STRATEGY //
I applied learnings from the pilot to launch quarterly customer surveys, collaborating with product, marketing, and customer experience teams to define objectives and leverage results.
The surveys addressed ancillary products, new services and features, customer communications, policy updates, and other topics related to the customer journey.
Workflow
LEARNINGS //
We learned as much from our mistakes as our successes.
I began to structure surveys so the data was easier to synthesize and learned to mine content for customer language and ideas.
In some cases, I was able to map responses to existing customer and market data to gain a more nuanced understanding of the relational factors that shaped our customer experience.
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP //
In response to the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, we surveyed Palmetto customers on home energy-efficiency investments and how the new legislation might influence their interests and behaviors.
I synthesized the findings, my colleague drafted the report, and together, we created the company’s first white paper.
The white paper secured three news articles in industry publications.
IMPACT //
Our findings empowered teams across the company with first-party data to vet new product offerings, hone product messaging, and address pain points in the customer journey.
I became the Owner of Customer Communications and leveraged survey insights to:
Revamp all customer communications
Build a customer support center
Rework website messaging
Develop new interaction guidelines
Improve the customer portal with happy path and edge case content
Palmetto NPS scores improved by approximately 35% across 2022 and 2023.