Industry insights
How solar installers use AI voice and SMS agents to respond to leads in seconds, qualify homeowners before the site visit, and book appointments around the clock — with sourced industry benchmarks and implementation guidance.
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Residential solar has a math problem. The average cost per lead runs $206 blended across channels, cost per click has risen more than 300% since 2017, and aggregator platforms sell the same lead to three or four installers simultaneously. The installer who calls first wins. Yet Blazeo's 2026 Speed-to-Lead Benchmark Report found that 81.2% of companies responding after one hour report losing leads to faster competitors — and top-performing solar companies still average 15 to 30 minutes before first contact.
That gap between lead arrival and first conversation is where solar revenue disappears. AI voiceAI voiceAn artificially generated, natural-sounding voice produced by a TTS model. Thoughtly supports a library of AI voices and brand-specific cloning. and SMS agents close it by responding within seconds, qualifying homeowners on roof type and ownership before a truck rolls, and booking site visits directly onto your calendar — around the clock, including the evenings and weekends when more than 40% of solar inquiries arrive.
This article breaks down five specific use cases where AI agents solve lead conversion problems for solar installers and home energy companies, how Thoughtly's platform supports each one, and what to watch for on compliance and implementation.
| Use Case | Channel | Expected Outcome | Thoughtly Fit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Instant lead response | Voice + SMS | Sub-60-second contact on every web and aggregator lead | Speed-to-lead trigger, CRM webhook, auto-dial |
| Qualification screening | Voice | Filter for roof type, ownership, shade, utility, credit before site visit | Variables, rule-based outcomes, mid-call actions |
| Appointment setting | Voice + SMS | Book and confirm site surveys with calendar integration | Calendly / Cal.com / Acuity action, SMS confirmation |
| Aged lead re-engagement | Voice + SMS + Email | Reactivate stale leads from prior campaigns | Outbound campaigns, CRM read/write, suppression lists |
| After-hours coverage | Voice + SMS | 24/7 coverage for evenings, weekends, and storm-season surges | Always-on agents, warm transfer during business hours |
Solar leads lose value faster than almost any other home services category. When a homeowner submits a quote request on SolarReviews, EnergySage, or your own website, they are comparison-shopping. Multiple installers get the same lead. The first company to have a real conversation — not an autoresponder email — books the appointment.
Most solar sales teams rely on inside sales reps to work inbound leads manually. Even well-staffed teams take 15 to 30 minutes to make the first call. Reps are in meetings, on other calls, or off the clock entirely. Meanwhile, Velocify research shows a 391% decrease in conversion likelihood when response time slips past one minute.
SolarReviews reports an 80% contact rateContact rateThe percentage of inbound leads your team actually reaches by phone. Most B2C teams hover around 25%; Thoughtly typically delivers 90%+. when leads are called immediately. For a team buying 100 leads per month at $206 each, the difference between a 15-minute response and a 60-second response can mean 20 to 30 additional contacts — and at a 33% lead-to-appointment conversion rate, that is 7 to 10 more site visits per month from the same spend.
A site visit costs a solar installer $150 to $500 when you account for the sales rep's time, travel, and proposal generation. Sending a rep to a property with heavy tree cover, a rental unit, or a roof that is five years from replacement burns money. The qualification call should happen before the truck leaves the lot.
Human reps often rush through qualification to book the appointment, especially when they are paid on sits. They skip questions about roof age, homeownership, utility provider, shade, and credit — then discover the deal is dead on-site.
SolarReviews data indicates that lead-to-close rates average around 6% industrywide. The gap between a 6% close rate and the 8 to 10% rates that top-performing teams achieve often comes down to qualification discipline — sending reps only to homes that can actually go solar. A consistent AI-driven screen on every lead tightens the funnel before you spend travel dollars.
Booking the site visit is only half the battle. Solar appointments have high no-show and cancellation rates because the gap between the initial call and the visit can stretch to days or weeks, and homeowners cool off or forget.
Reps book appointments on sticky notes or unsynced calendars. Confirmations go out as a single email that gets buried. When the homeowner does not show, the rep loses a half-day of production and has no automated way to rebook.
Automated confirmations and day-of reminders via SMS directly reduce no-show rates. When a cancellation does happen, the AI agent can immediately re-engage the lead and offer a new time — recapturing appointments that manual teams typically lose to the callback pile.
Every solar company has a CRMCRMThe system of record for leads, contacts, deals, and activity. Thoughtly reads from and writes to your CRM continuously. full of leads that expressed interest six months or two years ago and never closed. Maybe rates were wrong, maybe the roof was not ready, maybe the rep never followed up past the second call. Those leads still own homes, still pay electric bills, and may be ready to revisit the conversation — especially when incentive structures, utility rates, or tax credits change.
Manually re-engaging thousands of aged leads is not realistic. Reps focus on fresh leads because the close rate is higher, so the dead-lead list grows quarter after quarter.
Aged leads cost nothing to acquire because you already paid for them. Even a 2 to 3% close rate on a re-engagement campaign against 5,000 dormant leads generates 100 to 150 new site visits — pipeline that would otherwise sit untouched in your CRM indefinitely.
The Blazeo 2026 benchmark report found that over 40% of high-intent inquiries arrive during evenings and weekends. For solar, the skew is even sharper: homeowners research solar after work, compare quotes on Saturday mornings, and submit forms on Sunday afternoons. Most installers have no one answering the phone during those windows.
A form fill at 8 PM on a Friday sits untouched until Monday morning. By then, two competing installers have already made contact. The lead's urgency has cooled, and your contact rate drops from 80% (called immediately) to well under 50%.
Recovering the 40%+ of leads that arrive outside business hours means your lead spend works around the clock. For an installer spending $20,000 per month on leads, that is $8,000 worth of leads that were previously going unworked until the next business day.
Thoughtly's home services solution is built for the exact workflowWorkflowAn automated, multi-step process — usually triggered by an event (form fill, new lead) and orchestrating one or more voice / SMS / email actions. solar installers need: pick up every call, qualify before the truck rolls, and book the appointment while the homeowner is still on the line.
Specific capabilities that matter for solar teams:
Deploying AI agents for a solar installation business is not identical to a generic lead-gen setup. Here is what to plan for:
Solar lead follow-up operates under the same telecommunications and consumer protection rules as any other outbound and inbound calling operation. Key regulations to account for:
This article is informational and does not constitute legal advice. Consult qualified legal counsel for compliance decisions specific to your organization.
Yes. AI voice agents can ask structured questions about roof type, age, ownership, utility provider, shade, monthly electric bill, and credit range. Each answer is captured as a variableVariableA named value the voice agent stores during a conversation — caller name, intent, qualifying answers — and uses to drive routing and post-call actions. and used to route the call — booking qualified leads and dispositioning unqualified ones — just as a trained inside sales rep would, but consistently on every call.
Thoughtly agents use natural-sounding voices with sub-350ms response latency. Depending on your state's regulations and company policy, you may choose to disclose that the caller is an AI assistant. In states with two-party recording consentRecording consentState-by-state legal requirement to disclose call recording. Some states require all-party consent; Thoughtly enforces the right script per state. requirements, disclosure at the start of the call is required regardless.
Each lead source — SolarReviews, EnergySage, your own website, paid social — can trigger the AI agent via a dedicated webhook or CRM automation. The agent's greeting and qualification script can be customized per source, so an aggregator leadAggregator leadA lead purchased from a comparison-shopping site (EverQuote, MediaAlpha, etc.). Quality varies; Thoughtly handles the high-volume, low-conversion follow-up profitably. hears a slightly different opening than a homeowner who submitted a form on your own site.
The agent is trained to set expectations rather than quote a price. Solar system costs depend on roof size, complexity, local incentives, and financing options that require an on-site assessment. The agent explains that a site visit is the next step to provide an accurate proposal, then books the appointment.
Thoughtly integrates with HubSpot, Salesforce, GoHighLevel, and other CRMs via native integrations or webhooks. Every call disposition, qualification answer, and booked appointment writes back to the lead record. Your sales reps see a clean pipeline of qualified, booked appointments and can focus their time on closing instead of dialing.
