Customer Satisfaction Research for Installation
We measure how HVAC installers, electricians, plumbers, M&E engineers, panel builders, and wholesalers rate your boilers, heat pumps, press fittings, switchgear, conduit, drainage, and other installation products. Installation satisfaction research targets the trades and channel partners who fit, commission, and resell your products on real jobs. We reach them by phone, not online panels.
3
installation subsectors covered: HVAC & Plumbing, Electrical Installation, Sewer & Waste Water
NPS
benchmarking across installers, engineers, and wholesalers in the same study
European Mechanical Installation Monitor and European Electrical Installation Monitor provide ongoing trade benchmarks
Phone-based CATI fieldwork with verified installation professionals across 56 countries
What We Measure
Product satisfaction by trade
HVAC installers rate workability, commissioning time, leak rate, manual quality, and integration with other system components. Electricians rate enclosure layout, terminal access, cable management, certification documentation, and conduit compatibility. Plumbers rate press fitting reliability, joint security, tool compatibility, and waste system noise.
Technical and on-site support satisfaction
Telephone technical support response during installation, on-site engineer dispatch for complex commissioning, accuracy of sizing tools (hydronic balancing, voltage drop, drainage gradient), and warranty escalation handling. For installers under pressure on a job, support response time is often the single biggest loyalty driver.
Training and certification satisfaction
Quality of installer training, manufacturer certifications, CPD content, digital training tools, and refresher availability. In heat pump and EV charging categories, training quality determines whether installers recommend your brand.
Logistics and wholesaler-to-installer satisfaction
Stock availability at the local merchant, next-day fulfillment, packaging integrity for van loading, return process for incorrect orders, and warranty claim turnaround. Many satisfaction failures in installation happen at the channel, not the factory.
Sales and commercial relationship satisfaction
Rep visit frequency to merchants and key installers, loyalty scheme value, pricing transparency through the channel, and responsiveness to project tenders.
After-sales and warranty satisfaction
Warranty claim handling, fault diagnosis support, spare part availability, and field service response time. For high-pressure categories like boilers and heat pumps, warranty performance is a brand-defining moment.
NPS and loyalty metrics
NPS segmented by trade (HVAC, electrical, plumbing), wholesaler tier, and project type (new build, refurbishment, repair). Customer Effort Score for ordering, returns, technical support, and warranty claims. Share of installs and share of wallet at trade and merchant level.
Competitive benchmarking
Your satisfaction scores against named competitors on every attribute. Derived importance analysis shows which gaps actually shift brand preference or switching, not just which gaps installers mention.
Subsectors Covered
Subsector
HVAC & Plumbing
Boilers, heat pumps, ventilation, sanitary, press fittings, drainage. Installer satisfaction is driven by commissioning ease, refrigerant or water handling, controller intuitiveness, and warranty parts logistics. With heat pump adoption rising, post-install support is rapidly becoming the dominant satisfaction driver.
Subsector
Electrical Installation
Switchgear, enclosures, wiring devices, cable management, EV charging, smart building products. Electrician satisfaction is driven by enclosure layout, terminal accessibility, certification documentation quality, and conduit and cable compatibility. Panel builders and M&E engineers add a parallel layer of satisfaction drivers around BIM data and specification support.
Subsector
Sewer & Waste Water
Pipe systems, fittings, drainage, pumping, sewage treatment. Installer satisfaction is driven by joint reliability, gradient compatibility, noise performance, and the quality of technical documentation for compliance. Channel logistics heavily influences installer NPS in this category.
This is a portion of subsectors covered. Contact us for a full list relevant to your installation portfolio.
How Customer Satisfaction Works in Installation
Example project: A heat pump manufacturer wants to understand why retention is dropping among HVAC installers in Germany and the Netherlands while wholesaler relationships remain strong. We design a two-audience CATI study. 150 HVAC installers per market plus 80 wholesalers per market, all verified as having sold or installed the client’s heat pumps within the past 12 months. Installers rate commissioning ease, controller intuitiveness, refrigerant handling, on-site technical support response, training availability, and warranty claim experience. Wholesalers rate stock turnover, margin structure, training pass-through, and warranty admin burden. Both audiences rate NPS, repurchase intent, and likelihood to recommend to a peer. We run derived importance analysis on each audience. The result: wholesaler NPS is high and stable. Installer NPS has dropped 14 points wave-on-wave. The strongest predictors of installer loyalty are not the heat pump unit itself, but commissioning support response time and the speed of warranty parts dispatch. Installers are losing hours on second visits. They are switching to a competitor with faster parts logistics. The recommendation: invest in regional commissioning engineers and a same-day spares network, not in product redesign. The unit performs well. The post-install experience is failing. This is an illustrative example. Every study is tailored to your audiences, product categories, and markets.
Target Audiences
This is a portion of audiences covered. USP accesses additional specialized roles depending on your category.
HVAC installers
Install and commission heating, cooling, ventilation, and plumbing systems. Reached by phone (CATI). Their satisfaction is driven by ease of commissioning, technical support response, and parts availability.
Electricians
Install switchgear, enclosures, wiring devices, EV chargers, and smart building components. Reached by phone (CATI). Their satisfaction is driven by enclosure usability, documentation quality, and conduit and cable compatibility.
Plumbers
Install water and waste systems, sanitary, and press fittings. Reached by phone (CATI). Their satisfaction is driven by joint reliability, tool compatibility, and warranty handling.
M&E engineers and specifiers
Specify mechanical and electrical systems on commercial and industrial projects. Reached by phone (CATI). Their satisfaction is driven by technical documentation, BIM data quality, calculation tools, and pre-tender support.
Panel builders
Assemble switchboards and control panels. Reached by phone (CATI). Their satisfaction is driven by enclosure quality, terminal access, configurability, and lead times.
Wholesalers and merchants
Stock and supply installation products through trade counters and online. Reached by phone (CATI). Their satisfaction is driven by margin, returns handling, stock availability, training pass-through, and rep support.
Our Advantage
Installation satisfaction research fails when you survey the wrong audience. An installer’s satisfaction with your heat pump depends on commissioning time and parts logistics. An M&E engineer’s satisfaction depends on BIM data and calculation tools. A wholesaler’s satisfaction depends on margin, returns, and rep visits. We measure all three in a single coordinated study, with audience-specific modules and shared KPIs your board can compare across the channel.
Generalist agencies do not have the databases to recruit verified installers and engineers by phone. We maintain proprietary recruitment databases of HVAC installers, electricians, plumbers, panel builders, and wholesalers across European markets, built over 30 years of continuous fieldwork. Every respondent is verified against trade body lists or supplier records before the interview starts.
Our European Mechanical Installation Monitor and European Electrical Installation Monitor give your satisfaction data commercial direction. When installer NPS drops, we can tell you whether confidence is down across the whole trade because of energy transition pressure, or whether you are specifically losing share to a named competitor.
Project Examples
A wiring devices manufacturer ran wholesaler satisfaction and NPS benchmarking against named competitors across Southern Europe, focused on identifying the top three improvement priorities per market. CATI fieldwork produced separate satisfaction profiles per market with cross-country priority comparison.
FR, ES, PT, IT
An HVAC manufacturer in the Netherlands ran a one-time customer satisfaction and NPS mapping exercise across installer and wholesaler audiences. The study identified the touchpoints with the largest gap between importance and satisfaction and fed a 12-month improvement roadmap.
NL
An HVAC brand ran ongoing NPS and Customer Effort Score tracking for retention across five Northern European markets. The CES results surfaced an ordering process problem that NPS alone had not isolated.
DE, CH, UK, BE, NL
An electrical brand commissioned an installer, engineer, and wholesaler journey study including satisfaction touchpoints across the full journey. The output prioritized digital touchpoint investment.
NL
Deliverables
- Executive summary report: Multi-audience KPI dashboard, satisfaction priority matrices, competitive benchmarks, and strategic recommendations focused on installer retention and channel performance.
- NPS scorecard by audience: Separate NPS reporting for installers, engineers, panel builders, and wholesalers, with promoter, passive, and detractor verbatims.
- Channel satisfaction map: A visual showing satisfaction scores at each chain stage (specification, wholesaler, installer, end user) so you can see where the gap actually sits.
- Satisfaction priority matrix by audience: Separate importance-vs-satisfaction plots per audience, highlighting audience-specific improvement priorities.
- Competitive benchmark tables: Your brand vs named competitors on every attribute, split by trade, country, and product line.
- Customer Effort Score report: CES by interaction type (ordering, technical support, returns, warranty) with audience-specific analysis.
- Full data tables (Excel): All cross-tabulations by country, audience type, product line, and project type. Statistical significance indicators included.
- Improvement roadmap: Prioritized recommendations mapped to audience-specific satisfaction gaps, with estimated NPS impact, implementation timeline, and responsible function.
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How do you recruit installers for satisfaction research?
We recruit from verified installer databases filtered by trade (HVAC, electrical, plumbing), business size, certification status, and project activity. Recruitment is by phone. We confirm each installer has used products in the relevant category within the past 12 to 24 months before proceeding.
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Can you measure satisfaction across installers, engineers, and wholesalers in the same study?
Yes. This is the standard design for installation satisfaction research. We use a modular CATI questionnaire with a shared core (NPS, overall satisfaction, recommendation intent) and audience-specific attribute modules. Results are reported per audience and integrated into a channel view.
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Why CATI rather than an online panel for installers?
Installation online panels are unreliable. Response rates are low, credentials are rarely verified, and feedback skews to a small group of professional survey-takers. Verified CATI recruitment confirms the respondent is a working installer in your target trade and category, which is essential for satisfaction data that will drive investment decisions.
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What sample size do we need for reliable NPS tracking among HVAC installers?
For brand-level NPS tracking with adequate precision, we typically recommend 100 to 150 installers per country. If you need to segment by company size or project type (new build vs refurbishment), sample sizes increase. We model the required sample at proposal stage based on your segmentation needs.
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How do you handle installers who only have a few minutes between jobs?
We keep CATI interviews to 15 to 22 minutes. Calls are scheduled in the windows installers are typically reachable (early morning, end of day, travel between sites). Interviewers are trained in installation terminology so the conversation flows without explanation overhead.
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How long does a multi-audience, multi-country installation satisfaction study take?
A typical study with two audience types (installers plus wholesalers) across four countries runs 9 to 14 weeks. Questionnaire design: 2 to 3 weeks. Multi-audience CATI fieldwork: 4 to 6 weeks (audiences recruited in parallel). Analysis and reporting: 3 to 4 weeks. Repeat waves are faster because the questionnaire is already established.
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Can you separate product satisfaction from channel and support satisfaction in the analysis?
Yes. We group attributes by touchpoint: product performance, installation experience, technical support, logistics, sales, and warranty. Each block gets its own satisfaction index and priority matrix. This tells you whether your installer satisfaction issue sits in the product, the channel, or the post-sale support.
Related Reports
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