How LookSee vets its solar installers

Marc du Plessis, LookSee's executive head, explains:

Standard Bank’s evaluation of solar installers for both personal and business customers is comprehensive and focuses on various areas, says du Plessis.

• Reputation: The starting point for any application to join LookSee’s panel of solar installers is the reputation the company has built to date. The bank has specialists in each province who have their fingers on the pulse of the solar industry and can assess a company’s position in the local market. This also speaks to the solar installations done and their successes.

• Product standards: Solar system components should last many years, but increasing demand has seen cheap, low-quality equipment entering the market. In order to ensure our solar installers make use of reputable equipment, we request that potential providers supply us with a breakdown of their product lists as well as copies of their agent and distributions agreements with the manufacturers. These products are then checked against various sources for performance and reliability.

• OEM warranty: Having an appropriate and supported warranty is essential for the customer’s security so we ensure a letter of confirmation of the applicable warranties is provided. We add to this by checking the reputation of the original equipment manufacturer to ensure they will be able to honour the warranty, especially in the case of a major situation, such as a faulty product recall.

• Expertise: There are a number of specialist skills that go into the design and installation of a solar system. A critical element of the vetting process is looking at whether a solar installer has the relevant qualified and experienced staff to ensure an installation is completed according to the warranties’ standards.

• Regulations: There is also regulatory compliance that comes into play, so we check whether the installer has a history of complying with all appropriate municipal or Eskom requirements. This is essential as many customers may not be aware that such requirements exist and could be left with a system that isn’t up to specifications or doesn’t have the necessary permissions.

• Financial stability: Of course, no evaluation would be complete without ensuring the company itself is on firm footing. In addition to relevant credit bureau checks, we take a close look at the financial stability of the business.

Once all the information has been received, it is presented to the solar onboarding committee at Standard Bank’s head office for final assessment. 

“We know that households are looking for solar systems and installers that they can trust to do the job right. However, finding this level of background is difficult, often to the point of impossible, for most,” says du Plessis.

“LookSee prides itself on ensuring our customers get solar solutions that they can depend on, with our dedicated Solar Customer Care Team on hand to help every step of the way.”