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Big news: New England Clean Energy is now #2 in the entire country for the number of consumer reviews on SolarReviews.com, the largest consumer-generated solar reviews website in the U.S. That’s out of more than 3,000 solar companies represented on the site. Not bad for a small local company!

We remain #1 in New England–actually the Northeast—for number of reviews, a position we’ve held for a few years now.

But how proud should we be of having a lot of reviews? As one of our Facebook followers posted, “Just because you have a lot of reviews doesn’t mean you’re good.”

Point taken. When it comes to consumer reviews, it’s about quantity and quality, right? Having hundreds of reviews but most of them negative doesn’t say much for your company. And having a very high rating based on a handful of glowing reviews doesn’t rate you—at least in my book–as highly as the company with a slightly lower rating but far more reviews and far more positive reviews.

I think most people get this. That’s why when we shop on Amazon, we look at the number of stars and the number of reviews, to get some perspective.

Just the Facts Ma’am

So, to put our #2 rating in perspective, I give you these facts:

  • As of this writing, our rating is 4.90 out of 5.00.
  • As of this writing, we have 268 customer reviews.
  • Of those, 92% are 5 stars, the highest possible rating.
RatingNumber of ReviewsPercentage of Total
5 Stars (Excellent)24792%
4 Stars (Very Good)176%
3 Stars (Average)2<1%
2 Stars (Poor)1<1%
1 Star (Terrible)1<1%

And some more facts:

  • That’s more positive reviews, not just reviews, than any other installer in the region.
  • That’s more positive reviews than many companies have total reviews!
  • The closest competitors in the northeast are a New York-based installer with 162 reviews and a Maine-based company with 134 reviews.
  • In the states we serve—Rhode Island, Massachusetts and New Hampshire– the next closest has 126 reviews.

In other words, we have a lot of reviews, we have a lot of positive reviews, and we have a high percentage of positive reviews. I don’t think even our skeptical Facebook follower can find a negative in that.

Humble Pie

Lest you think I brag too much, here is my dose of reality on this subject:

As the saying goes, There are lies, damn lies, and statistics. There are a lot of ways to slice and dice data, and every installer can find something to brag about. One has the most kW installed ever, or last year. Another has installed more systems. Another has the highest rating on SolarReviews. (Ratings change with every new review so we don’t publish ours often.) But in my humble opinion, no statistic matters more than how satisfied your customers are.

Not every single one of our customers is happy. I wish I could say they are, but we’re human and we’ve made mistakes. We’ll make more mistakes.

Not every customer posts a review, and happy customers are more likely to than unhappy ones. At least we ask all of our customers to review us—we don’t cherry-pick the happiest ones as I believe some installers do. (If a company has no average or negative reviews, be suspicious.) We do this because negative feedback helps us be better. And frankly, it makes the positive rating mean that much more.

I know our #2 standing is tenuous. Many companies install a lot more systems than we do so we might very well be passed someday. We might have been knocked down a spot by the time you read this for all I know.

Final Word

The truth is, we’re only as good as our last installation. But for today, I’m going to savor this achievement.

And savoring it means recognizing our customers, because we could not have achieved #2 without them. The fact that so many customers took the time to post reviews says something about their commitment to the planet and helping people go solar.

I also want to recognize my co-workers, because it is their work every day that prompts customers to write these positive reviews.

You can read our reviews here on SolarReviews, or for a more digestible collection, we rotate a dozen testimonials every few months here on our website.

 

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