Of course if you ask us what is the best solar company in Nigeria? We will simply tell you that Wavetra Energy LTD is the best solar company in Nigeria. But this is not all to it. Most times, its not about who the best solar or renewable energy company is, but its about the key indicators that shows that a renewable energy company in Nigeria is reliable.
Right now we have thousands of Nigerian homes and businesses that have adopted solar, yet, millions more know absolutely nothing about going solar. When it comes to buying a generator, the average Nigerian already know about how it works and they only may be concerned about the pricing and quality. But when it comes to switching to solar energy, most people still ask you “Does it work?”
So in this post, we shall focus on the factors or qualities you should look out for before choosing a company to install your solar system.
So it will be hard to rate all renewable energy companies in Nigeria as we may not have sufficient data to do that. Say then say 5 years ago, there were fewer solar companies in Nigeria but right, there are loads of them. So with our over ten years experience, we will show ‘how to determine the best solar company in Nigeria’ and not the best solar company in Nigeria.
How to determine a reliable and best solar company for you:
Here are the things to look out for before choosing a solar company:
- Customer service: Now this is the first thing to look out for. Before choosing a solar company to do business with in Nigeria, you must ascertain the reliability and availability of their customer service channels. Please always remember that solar companies are actually selling power to you. Because of this you must make sure that during your initial conversation with them, their support system is readily available and that their customer service is friendly to you. Take this for example, what if you choose a company to provide power to you and let’s say you encounter an issue with your installation by 9pm, don’t you think you will be glad if your installer will be very responsive to provide a solution or at least a remote diagnosis?
So I personally recommend the solar company must have
a) a telephone line that you can reach at any time of the day.
b) A responsive email address. That is if you send them an email, they should be able to respond same day at least.
c) An active Whatsapp line. If this Whatsapp line is automated, it may help but I prefer a whatsapp line with a real human behind it.
d) An active social media pages. Its not enough to have Social media pages like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter but it also should be active. - Technical Support: Your preferred solar company must have an in house technical team. What I mean is that there must be at least an in-house solar technician that works for the company full time. The rest of the technicians may be outsourced but there must be somehow that works within the company. Why is this necessary? Companies with in-house solar technicians are more responsive to customer queries and installations. For example, if you call the office for a technical inquiry, the sales person may ask you to send an email or call back in 30 minutes, if they do not have a technician that works full time with them. If they do, she will simply transfer the call to him. Also when you the client want your site to be inspected or you need a solar installation urgently, it will be easier for the company to send out their team immediately or schedule a date for the installation than outsourcing another person that may disappoint.
- Product availability: This one is tricky but not really very compulsory. We recommend that the solar company you choose should have a direct access to the solar components for the installation. He should be a registered distributor of at least the primary components like solar panels, Inverters, batteries, etc. This means that your solar power provider will be able to sell these components at an affordabe rate and they will also deploy them them to your site whenever you need or place order for it. At Wavetra Energy LTD, we import some of the components and we are exclusive distributors of others here in Nigeria. Customers can always place order via our website www.wavetra.com or visit any of our physical stores.
- Physical location: Yes we are not discouraging startups that start from their homes and with only internet address, but we recommend that the solar company you do business with should have a verifiable physical location. This is important so that you will now exactly where to go to and meet real people physically when the need arises.
- A clear warranty policy: Most times, solar power installations is in millions of Naira. This is indeed an investment and all the risk should not be on you the client. Choose a solar company that understands this and protects you in case of any damage or malfunction of system. These days, most companies claim to offer warranty but its only when an issue arises that you can really confirm if they do. First of all, I strongly recommend you choose a company with a clearly written and defined warranty policy anyone can make reference to when there is dispute. Don’t just take them by their words, their should be a clear statement from them that anyone can make reference to. For example, see Wavetra Energy warranty policy here.
- General company user review and public opinion: Last but not the least is after you have verified all the information above, you must proceed to find out what people say about this company. Are people generally happy about their service or where they left unsatisfied after doing business with them? User reviews, especially the negative ones are hard to manipulate. Go to their Google business page and Facebook page to check out user reviews of the company. Also visit other business directories to see what people are saying about them.
The only demerit of user review is that most times, satisfied customers do not go online to give a company a star review. Most times, people remember to give out a review after there is a dispute that was not resolved in their terms. Of course even good companies can not satisfy every body the way they want, so thread with caution here. You will only raise an eye brow when there is a consistent negative review of that company say 2/5 or even 3/5 on the average for about at least 10 reviews.