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Browse key issues that many residential energy efficiency programs need to address. Select a topic below to see related resources, including case studies, presentations, tools, calculators, templates, and more.

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Community events allow for face-to-face contact with target audiences and provide a venue to deliver messages to potential customers by trusted sources.

Community-based social marketing aims to change the behavior of a target audience within a group, neighborhood, or town based on principles of behavioral psychology and community dynamics.

Competitions and challenges among households or towns are intended to increase program participation by creating a sense of urgency and tapping into people’s competitive spirit.

Business operations and sales training can help contractors generate leads, convert leads into upgrades, and use processes that ensure quality in their work while promoting customer satisfaction. Training may cover budget planning, marketing, sales, customer service, scheduling, project management, and quality assurance.

Cost-effectiveness tests compare the benefits of a utility or non-utility program’s investment in energy efficiency with its associated costs. The five most common tests used by public utility commissions are: the participant cost test (PCT), the utility/program administrator cost test (PACT), the ratepayer impact measure test (RIM), the total resource cost test (TRC), and the societal cost test (SCT).

Customer engagement tactics aim to increase the likelihood that a customer will participate fully in a program by forming a relationship between the customer and the program or contractor. From pledges (which provide contractor leads and engage potential customers without requiring a full commitment from them) to testimonials (which encourage homeowners to share their upgrade experience with others), engaging customers in multiple ways can help increase program successes.