Context
In 2016, hundreds of Sunrun salespeople across 50+ branches in 20+ states were giving individually crafted explanations about going solar. New customers were often confused about contract terms, solar billing, and project timelines. This confusion became a major driver of cancellations before installation—only half of signed contracts led to activated installations.
As a founding member of Sunrun's newly formed Customer Realization team, I mapped the customer journey and built a system to track why and when customers changed their minds. The pattern was clear: customers weren't asking questions about unknown unknowns, and throughout their journey, small gaps in understanding grew into deal-breakers that drove cancellations.
My Role
I led the development and scaling of a Verification Call program - a proactive outreach that would connect every new Sunrun customer with a Solar Advisor shortly after contract signing. My responsibilities included:
- Program concept development and validation through customer interviews
- Building the call script and process flow
- Salesforce integration requirements and testing
- Training call center staff and sales teams
- Managing stakeholder adoption across sales, call center, and technology teams
- Tracking program effectiveness and iterating based on data
Approach
Prototype with Inside Sales
I developed an initial call script addressing the most frequent cancellation triggers: unclear billing expectations, confusion about timelines, and contract terms. I personally called newly enrolled customers to test the dialogue and gather feedback about their likelihood to proceed.
Early results were promising - customers reported clearer expectations and higher confidence. I trained a select group of Solar Advisors to scale the test.
Build for Scale
Working with Product and Engineering, we architected a custom Salesforce object that would record customer responses and integrate with Sunrun's Outstanding Document Indicator (ODI). This integration meant new projects would only advance after completing the verification call or meeting narrow exemption criteria.
The system needed to be flexible - different product types and locations required different questions. We built dynamic scripting that served the right questions to the right customers.
Drive Adoption
We phased in gradually. At first optional but encouraged, then mandatory. I tracked adoption with Regional Sales Directors via weekly reporting and routine meetings.
The integration with ODI created natural incentive alignment. As salespeople worked to move projects through approvals quickly, they began preparing customers for the call during initial consultations - effectively improving the sales process itself.
Impact
Business Metrics:
- +10% realization rate - Customers who completed the call were 10% more likely to reach installation vs. those who didn't
- +16 NPS points - 100 days post-install, customers who completed the call scored 16 points higher than customers who hadn't
- 95%+ completion rate - Over 95% of new customers now complete this call
- Reach - More than 100,000 families have completed the call annually since launch
Regulatory Impact: As of summer 2019, verification calls became a required consumer protection measure in California. My program was ahead of the curve and positioned Sunrun for effortless compliance in California and beyond.
Organizational Learning: The program demonstrated that proactive customer education drives both satisfaction and conversion. Sales teams began naturally incorporating verification prep into their consultations - improving the quality of the initial sale.
What I Learned
Behavior change requires integration, not addition. The program scaled successfully because it became part of existing workflows through Salesforce ODI, not a separate task to remember or add on.
Early prototyping validates assumptions cheaply. Testing the script myself with real customers before building technology prevented expensive false starts and equipped me with the first-hand knowledge to build the right tool.
Incentive alignment beats mandates. When the call helped salespeople get projects approved faster, adoption skyrocketed.
This project taught me how to drive systematic change in complex organizations - balancing stakeholder needs, building cross-functional alignment, and using data to prove impact.