Customer Journey Research for Installation
Installation purchase decisions move through consulting engineers, panel builders, installers, wholesalers, and increasingly end-customers before a product is fitted in a building. Each audience enters at a different stage, uses different information sources, and holds different decision-making power. We map the full decision chain through phone interviews with the people who specify, procure, and install, from heat pumps and switchgear to ventilation and smart building controls.
4
journey research phases
30+
years of exclusive sector focus
6+
installation audiences recruited by phone
20+
countries of CATI and IDI fieldwork
Our clients
What We Measure
Specification and Compliance Journey
How engineers and specifiers translate codes and energy regulations into specs, which sources matter, and where specs get overridden once installation begins. How rules like ErP and F-gas shape the shortlist.
Installer Brand Selection
How installers choose between brands at purchase: the weight of habit, training, wholesaler advice, install ease, and loyalty programs. Where a spec or customer request constrains the choice.
Wholesaler Counter and Stock Decisions
How wholesalers decide which brands to list, stock deeper, and recommend, the role of rebates and exclusivity, and how they influence brand selection at the moment the installer buys.
Channel and Touchpoint Mapping
Which touchpoints installers use at each stage, where they create friction (slow technical advice, missing product data, complex spares ordering), and how digital adoption differs by trade.
Friction Points and Moments of Truth
Where the journey breaks: an installer abandons a brand, an engineer reverts to a familiar spec, a wholesaler steers to a competitor. Which breaks cost most, and how they vary by country.
Subsectors Covered
Subsector
HVAC
Long-life-cycle products with strong installer brand loyalty and high dependence on training and support. Brand preference forms during apprenticeship and is reinforced or broken at the counter.
Subsector
Heat Pumps
Fast-moving, with regulatory tailwinds, subsidies, and a shortage of certified installers. Now often involves the homeowner as co-decider, so both audiences are researched.
Subsector
Plumbing and Sanitary
Wholesaler-driven, where counter dynamics outweigh upstream marketing. Substitution at purchase is high.
Subsector
Electrical Installation
Specifier and engineer influence rises with project complexity; for residential, the installer's habitual brand preference dominates.
Subsector
Panel Building and Switchgear
Lower-volume, high-value, engineer-led specification and panel-builder execution. Covers both the design office and the panel shop.
Subsector
Smart Building and Building Automation
KNX, smart thermostats, BMS, IoT controls. Systems integrators and engineers join traditional installers, adding decision points and longer cycles.
Subsector
Sewer and Waste Water
Wholesaler-driven with secondary brand visibility, where listing depth and counter recommendation outweigh end-user pull.
Subsector
Solar PV and Energy Storage
Cross-trade (HVAC, electrical, roofing). Research clarifies which trade controls brand selection and where the customer enters.
Subsector
Tools and Test Equipment for Installers
Repeat purchase with on-site brand exposure. Focus on trial, peer recommendation, and wholesaler stock depth.
Note: This is a portion of the subsectors and product categories we cover within installation journey research.
How Customer Journey Research Works in Installation - Example Project
Example project
Scenario: a heat pump manufacturer wants to know why its products are recommended by engineers and homeowners but installers default to a competitor at the wholesaler counter and during commissioning in Germany and the Netherlands.
Phase 1 (Explore): 15 IDIs per country across HVAC installers, consulting engineers, and counter staff, 45 to 60 minutes by phone, mapping the AS-IS journey from specification to commissioning and identifying where substitution happens.
Phase 2 (Validate): a CATI survey with 150 installers and 75 engineers per country quantifies substitution frequency, ranks the reasons (price, training, commissioning ease, wholesaler relationship, rebate), and sizes each friction point by commercial impact.
Phase 3 (Shape Future): a co-creation workshop with 8 participants per country produces a TO-BE journey map with prioritized interventions: which training to expand, which support channels to strengthen, which wholesaler relationships to deepen first.
Output: a validated AS-IS map per country, a quantified friction-point matrix, a co-created TO-BE journey with action plan, and an executive summary deck.
Note: This is an example of a typical project design. Every study is tailored to the specific product category, audience mix, and geographic scope.
Target Audiences
Note: Audience mix is tailored to each project based on product category and distribution structure.
HVAC Installers [CATI]
The heart of the installation journey for heating, ventilation, AC, and plumbing categories. Strong brand habits shaped by apprenticeship and on-the-job training. Reached exclusively by phone with trade-specific screeners.
Electrical Installers [CATI]
Cover wiring, switchgear, lighting, and increasingly building automation. Strong wholesaler counter relationships. Phone recruitment with screeners on company size and product category involvement.
Plumbers [CATI]
Sanitary, drainage, and water systems. Often overlap with HVAC work in smaller installer companies. Wholesaler counter dynamics dominate the brand selection moment.
Consulting Engineers and M&E Specifiers [CATI / IDI]
Specify systems on larger commercial and public-sector projects. Drive performance, compliance, and lifecycle requirements. IDIs are particularly effective because they can walk through a specific recent project.
Panel Builders [CATI / IDI]
Build electrical control panels and switchgear assemblies. Influence component-brand selection at the build stage even when the upstream specification names a different brand.
Wholesalers and Distributors [CATI / IDI]
The critical link between manufacturer and installer. Influence brand selection through listing decisions, stock depth, counter advice, and rebate programs. IDIs with purchasing managers reveal how listing decisions actually get made.
Facility Managers and Building Operators [CATI]
Drive replacement and maintenance decisions, particularly relevant for service-led businesses, commercial HVAC, and energy management categories.
End-Customers (Homeowners and Facility Managers) [CAWI / CATI]
Increasingly involved in product brand selection in high-involvement categories like heat pumps, smart thermostats, and energy storage. For these categories, the journey must be mapped with both installer and end-customer perspectives.
Our Advantage
Installation customer journeys do not follow a clean linear path. A heat pump might be recommended by a consulting engineer, requested by the homeowner, ordered by the installer at the wholesaler, swapped at the counter for a brand the wholesaler stocks deeper, and then commissioned by an installer trained on yet a different brand. Each of those handoffs is a potential point of failure. We know where they happen because we have mapped them across hundreds of studies over three decades.
We do not use installer panels. Every installation professional in our studies is recruited directly by phone, verified against company size, product category use, and decision-making role, and interviewed by a specialist. Wrong respondents produce structurally wrong journey maps. A generalist agency using online panels will tell you the journey has five stages. We will tell you which stage loses you the most installer preference and why.
Our European Mechanical Installation Monitor and European Electrical Installation Monitor give us standing benchmark data on how installers operate across the major European markets. When we run a custom journey study for your category, we can contextualize your findings within broader sector patterns: where the wholesaler is gaining or losing influence, where digital tools are being adopted, where training gaps are widening. That context is not available from any generalist research provider.
Project Examples
A major electrical products manufacturer needed to understand purchasing decisions among electricians across Switzerland’s three language regions. We combined 10 qualitative IDIs with 100 quantitative interviews to map the full electrician journey, identify digital friction points, and inform go-to-market design.
DE, FR, IT
An electrical products manufacturer ran a journey study across installers, engineers, and wholesalers to understand the buying decision chain for selected product groups. Output included an integrated journey map showing where influence concentrates and where decisions are handed off between audiences.
NL
A global electrical manufacturer ran an eight-country qualitative journey study of electricians from discovery through maintenance. Output: market-by-market journey maps showing differences in digital adoption, wholesaler relationships, and the precise moments at which brand decisions are made.
DE, MA, BE, AR, IN, VN, MX, ES
An electrical manufacturer mapped the buying journey for electrical products, including digital opportunities, in two emerging markets. Mixed-method design produced an actionable journey map and a roadmap of digital touchpoint priorities.
SA, TR
A premium HVAC manufacturer ran NPS and Customer Effort Score tracking across five European countries focused on the post-installation phase of the journey, identifying where service failures eroded loyalty and quantifying their impact on share of wallet.
DE, CH, UK, BE, NL
Deliverables
- Validated AS-IS journey map per audience and country, need recognition to post-installation
- Friction-point matrix with quantified commercial impact scores, ranked by priority
- Touchpoint inventory: which are used at each stage, how they perform, where gaps exist
- TO-BE journey map (with co-creation) and prioritized interventions with assigned ownership
- Country comparison of where journey dynamics converge and diverge
- Verbatim quote bank by audience type, journey stage, and country
- Raw data file (SPSS or Excel cross-tabs)
- Executive summary deck (5 to 8 slides) for board or management committee
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How do you map the full specification-to-installation journey when consulting engineers, installers, and wholesalers all play a role?
We interview each audience separately and then overlay the findings to produce an integrated journey map. Each audience sees the process from their perspective. The integrated map shows where influence concentrates, where handoffs occur between trades, and where the original specification gets overridden at the wholesaler counter or in the panel shop.
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What sample sizes do you need for an installation journey study?
For qualitative exploration: 8 to 15 IDIs per country per audience type. For quantitative validation: 75 to 200 CATI interviews per audience per country. The exact numbers depend on how many subsegments you need to analyze (e.g., residential vs. commercial, replacement vs. new build, certified-trained vs. general installers).
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Can you run installation journey studies across multiple European countries simultaneously?
Yes. We routinely run harmonized multi-country installation studies across 3 to 10+ markets in a single project. Questionnaires are translated and adapted for local trade terminology. All data is collected and analyzed centrally so country comparisons are directly possible.
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How long does an installation customer journey study take?
A typical three-phase study (qualitative IDIs, quantitative CATI, co-creation workshop) takes 10 to 14 weeks from briefing to final delivery. A single-phase qualitative study can be completed in 6 to 8 weeks. Timelines depend on country count, audience mix, and whether wholesaler counter audits are included.
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How do you reach installation professionals like heat pump installers or panel builders?
We recruit directly by phone using trade-specific screeners. We verify active project involvement, product category usage, and decision-making role. Online panels are not viable for these audiences. Phone recruitment is the only method that consistently delivers verified, qualified respondents at the sample sizes journey research requires.
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Can journey research be combined with satisfaction or brand studies?
Yes. Many of our installation projects combine journey mapping with NPS measurement, satisfaction scoring, or brand funnel analysis. The journey framework provides the structure; satisfaction and brand metrics are layered onto specific stages. This gives you both the “what happens” and the “how well it works” in a single integrated study.
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At what stage should we commission installation customer journey research?
When you are losing share at the wholesaler counter, seeing high substitution rates, or watching specifications not convert into installed brand presence and you do not know which stage is failing. Also before launching a new product, entering a new country, or revising your training program, when you need to understand the installer decision process before designing your go-to-market.
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