The last few weeks, I’ve been scheduling an energy audit of the house. The government was offering grants for certain energy efficiency improvements. However, the grant money ran out sooner than expected. All of the changes we need, will come out of pocket. Even so, I thought it best to start with the audit. This is where the technology started to mismatch my expectations.
For starters, when hiring an energy auditor, I had an expectation this would be high tech. My impression was the process would be slick, streamlined, and seamless. An easy process to book, receive, and reference over time as needed.
After some searches, I found a local company. I easily found the contact email for arranging an auditor. Though in hindsight, this should have been the first flag the process wouldn’t be as high tech as I’d hoped. I copied and pasted the email to start the message. Having now gone through most of the intake process, my expectation would have been to fill out an online form.
The reply email came quickly and included instructions on how I could sign a petition to bring back the grants. Also included was an option to message my Member of Parliament (MP) and a few other key provincial and federal government contacts. All as a way to voice my dissatisfaction that the grant money had run out so quickly. It was easy and seamless. My MP was located through a built in search by postal code.
Even though the process started with email, it seemed well organized. Then the technology break occurred. In the reply email, the company sent me a list of questions to answer, in the body of the email! They were all basic homeowner type question that could have been easily answered through an intake form. Even worse this company was losing out on an easy way to aggregate important information about their customers such as house type, year of construction, etc.
I dutifully filled out the questions in the body of my reply email. Then waited for an appointment. Now at this point, you might be wondering why I didn’t just find another company. It was tempting, but I had already done some research and this company had high reviews. So I’m hoping the inspection meets expectations.
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