fresh off the back of the lionesses win at the Euros i've popped down here to surrey in order
to meet up with eFIXX award winners Joltify they took home the award for EV installer of the year
sponsored by EV comply and much like the beautiful game we're about to find out that this is very
much a business of two halves so we stepped into the garage to have a look at the installation and
this is kind of the first half of the business in the first half of the video we're looking at the
technical installation side and we've got Martin Cook here the co-founder of what's now called
Joltify we've moved on from Jolt indeed we moved on to from Jolt to Joltify we made that transition
a couple of months back now very good excellent and it's working out very well and i actually
prefer the new name so he made a good choice there thank you good very good so tell me a little bit
about the installation so we've got a classic favorite from eFIXX we've got the Zappi 2 here
so what made you go for this particular unit in this installation so we've gone for the Zappi
because we've got a three-phase installation um it's also got the inbuilt pen fault detection
which can obviously reduce the insulation cost quite significantly yeah if you're doing
a three-phase charger to have it all built in and the RCD as well makes it a really good unit
and the customer's also talking about potentially getting solar panels as well um and we've actually
got a quite a long route so it wraps around very inconspicuously the cable routing around the top
of the garage yeah um we then run a separate ethernet cable to one of three ct clamps to the
main three-phase head and then continue around to the back of the garage with a 100 100 amp isolator
fuse board Hager that's really interesting so yeah so it's a little bit unusual this installation
because obviously we're in a domestic property not what you would call it a typical domestic
property by any means well a nice box it's rather magnificent but it's got that advantage of a
three-phase supply coming in so what how does that help out from a charging point of view so
with a single phase you can only obviously have the seven kilowatts um with the three phase here
they've got a three-phase Zappi so it's running in effect three single phases so it's hosting 22
kilowatts of charging capability yeah that's good and of course you're getting that with a
slightly lower current flow as well which means your cable doesn't have to be quite as massive
as if you were trying to trying to stick all that down a single phase which yeah we probably
wouldn't recommend so with that three-phase supply coming in uh obviously you've said that you've
run a separate ethernet cable yeah what type of cable would you normally use on a project
do you prefer having a separate data cable or is it a particular
no sorry do you prefer so at Joltify we try and make everything look as as best it can be or not
just look so it is as best as we can because it can be so we tend to use um EV Ultra cable non-SWA
which obviously contains the ethernet cable and also we pair it up with the Linian fire clips
the Linian super clips will give that really nice kind of neat finish fantastic that's yeah
and we agree with that actually we think that's a brilliant application for the fire chips and
we're big fans of those at eFIXX as you know we've done lots of videos so check those out
and also so in this case though we couldn't use that EV Ultra cable so why couldn't we use it why
have we had to use a separate ethernet on this one because we've got the main service head or
main incoming head in a different location to the fuse board so we didn't want to go into
the junction box and then split it just to keep the aesthetics neater um so we've neatly touched
the ethernet cable behind the um the five core power cable and then just run it directly to the
service heads and then the power cable back to the fuse board so it just again helps to keep
things a little bit neater and more inconspicuous excellent and it's a really good looking job we're
gonna have a look at a little bit more of it now so Martin we've just popped over to have a little
look at the incoming supply here i can see you've got your current transformers up here so what's
going on with these why do we need three of those so we've got three CT clamps on here because we've
got a three-phase insulation so they're measuring a load that's going through each individual phase
and the reason we do that is we set the charger up so the Zappi in this case to keep below a 60 amp
threshold for the property and the reason we do that is because if we keep the property below
60 amps we can do something called connection notifier to the DNO okay um the alternative
to that is we have to ask permission for the distribution network operators before we install
the charger and that can quite get quite messy because often they can come back and say no or
they can take a lot of time to come back um but this way we can we can maximize the installation's
ability to supply the charge without having to do that apply to connect process yeah and
it's interesting as well because you've got a three-phase charger installed as well yeah and
we all know that although you've got that 22 kilowatt potential charging capacity actually
most cars won't allow for that to happen anyway so i think the car got here was so it was about 11
kilowatt charging we think yeah so the car they've currently got um is a Mercedes and it can charge
up to 11 kilowatts but but it i guess with the whole um EV world it's all about future proofing
yes um because these cars are coming out the DC inverters that are built into the cars they're
increasing their capacity so hopefully in you know the next couple of years we'll find charges that
can actually utilize that full 22 kilowatts yeah nice and it's a good idea to again make use of
that connect to notify facility because it's very unlikely with the combination of car and charger
that we've got here it's very unlikely to put it above that limit anyway i guess correct yeah
smart so we've just stepped into what we could probably consider the plant room here
it's a typical plant room you've got an ethernet switch up there you've got the the DB here
and you've got the kids painting equipment down here so a very typical domestic situation
what's not typical is this three-phase dis board were there any challenges in connecting into this
existing board it looks like it's it's pretty much full up now yeah it's pretty much full up but we
we had to move some of the um individual MCB just to give us a three three pole MCB for the
EV there the top right um but no everything else is fairly standard it's obviously pre-existing
and we've just glanded into the bottom um into our mcb it's good so you've got three spare ways
but not together so there's been some jigging about there to get that to work that's good
and that one thing i noticed that is particularly pleasing about this installation obviously on this
uh this main sub main cable coming in you've got the old traditional cleats yeah but that wasn't
the way you wanted to go with your lovely new armored cable so what have you gone for on there
so we've actually gone for the Linian clips um just down there but we we love them they look so
nice and they're in line with what we do to try and make everything as discreet neat as possible
and these clips while they have their place aesthetically they don't compare absolutely so
not necessarily using those for the fire retention issues in the event of a fire preventing premature
collapse but they just look the business when they're installed don't they correct
and because we're normally doing cables outside there's not such an issue but aesthetically
yeah you just can't beat them i couldn't agree more we're like Linian in so Martin we've looked
at that lovely installation of the EV charge point we've stepped outside and we've got your
brilliantly branded uh EV there so that's the the BMW i3 is that right right all electric
i3 very nice helps with the being carbon neutral company we're saving the planet that's good yeah
um but obviously speaking of electric vehicles and the EV charge point you've installed what's
the next logical step really for anyone who's got an EV to have installed on their property solar
so solar's growing massively and with the cost of energy going up through the roof
and more and more of our customers are coming to us saying look he's done a great job with the
installation we want to do solar because they want to control the cost of their electricity
um can we can we start looking to install solar for them yeah definitely and are you kind of in
a position to start doing that straight away or is it something that you're kind of really carefully
thinking about and investing the proper time and money into so yeah the key thing with us and
Joltify is we want to do it right yeah we don't like making mistakes we do everything in the best
possible way and so i guess we're taking a slow and silly approach we're just on a solar course
we're looking at doing registrations um with MCS in the next next next couple of months um and then
we're being a place to to really start helping our customers with their solar installations
and especially with the Zappi obviously yeah absolutely yeah because we know that the Zappi 2
and solar PV battery storage it all just combines so beautifully doesn't it to give a really
economic really kind of boost once it's all installed it's so much cheaper and easier
to keep your EV fueled you can't get cheaper than free can you really you can't get cheaper
than free as we like to say here at eFIXX they'll be driving on sunshine that's great
great chatting team Martin let's go and see what David's up to cheers so it's really nice meeting
Martin and having a chat with him about the techie installation side of things but we said this is a
video of two halves and we're now going to talk a bit more about the business side of things so
you're not a traditional uh electrical contractor David is that fair today i think that's really
fair to say i said you wouldn't want to give me a screwdriver because uh i think the business
will go bust very quickly very good but you're obviously you're bringing the business now to uh
this this kind of world so what's your background where have you worked before so i suppose when i
had a proper job i used to work for John Lewis and i used to run John Lewis and Oxford street
i was the general manager there um so that was like three thousand people and uh and i kind of
left that about ten years ago opened a couple of coffee shops up i sold them beginning of this year
and for me it's about creating something new looking uh looking for businesses that have an
opportunity to be something amazing but also giving something to people as well and Martin
and i uh probably about two years ago walking my dog in Epsom common and and we thought there
must be an opportunity within you know the the whole EV market in the solar market and probably
fast forward to now we thought there was a gap in the market where you got the big boys who perhaps
were going for market share and going for sales but perhaps not always focusing on the customer
and then you've got the the smaller individual guys who had to do a great job but there's
probably a niche in the market where we said right we can probably do the medium-sized jobs and
that's what we started so uh 18 months ago Martin was out with the screwdriver i was on the phone
and uh from there to now we're hoping to take just over a million pounds in in year two three
which is great we're multi-award-winning we've won startup of the year for Kingston uh borough yeah
and also obviously we won um install of the year for eFIXX which was the complete accolade for us
just indulged me for a moment here sure so what did it mean to you when when you heard that you'd
won the eFIXX award amazing absolutely amazing um the biggest challenge uh in any business is
getting awareness of the brand and get people to know us we we knew that we were good at what we
did we were great our conversion rates we were brilliant what we did we got over 200 five star
reviews with uh Witch and Trust Pilot so that's amazing um but we needed people to know about us
so to win eFIXX award as installer of the year was absolutely amazing and we are exploiting
that to the absolute guilt and uh hopefully people actually come to your channel as well because uh
it's getting recognition for your brand as well so we're really chuffed fantastic so
those five star reviews what would you say is about your kind of business model that
sets you apart obviously getting getting 200 five star reviews there's no mean fee you know
the harshest critics of the public you know for sure as we know here on YouTube
but um but what makes your your business kind of able to do that what's your key focus that enables
it so when we first started what our mission was was to help and inform people into EV ownership
so there's also a bit of a black hole yeah and the the the industry is moving forward really
fast and it's hard people to keep up and people don't really know what they don't know yeah so
our mission was to say right let's inform let's be totally independent to all the manufacturers
and go out and support people so we do site surveys in people's homes we do it on video or
on the telephone but we'll always put the customer first and you know it's a bit of a cliche but it's
really important you know there's a couple of things you've got to get right and one is put
always exceed what the customer wants we never over promise and under deliver so an example may
be if we turned up to a job and uh the customer said they had bonding on the gas pipeline and they
didn't yeah we'll just do it yeah right we won't leave that job until 100 satisfied the customers
on their app they know how to use it and they're saying right okay so you understand that satisfied
you know everything works and then we'll send them the invoice out and say hey you
might mind giving us a five-star review and uh and that's and you know it's not rocket science for us
um but it's about doing it right and doing it right every time and if things go wrong
yeah um which they do yeah we'll stay there until we put it right yeah absolutely i think we were
discussing off-camera earlier the challenges that you had in another life when you were
making tea for people at your coffee shops that it's very difficult to get people's tea right
but it seems that you're getting people's EV's installs right which is uh you know probably no
less of a challenge it's probably because i'm not actually doing it with this with the uh with the
screwdriver probably but uh yeah but it is it's firstly i think that what you need to do is put
yourself in the position of the customer yeah and say what is that customer looking for and
trying to meet that need and a really good example is we'll go to site if we do an on-site survey
a customer say right this is where my car needs to go and this is where i want my charge point
and i'm it's the first install martin did and said to the customer whatever you want is fine and will
meet that need however there is an alternative and that is perhaps put the charge point here because
if you were to ever get a second car you could then charge both cars and the customer said that's
just amazing i would never thought about it we'll take you you know we'll give you the business
and it's it's just listening to that customer and trying to support them as much as we can
and that seems to be what's what's kind of working for us and i guess if you're trying to understand
their needs then even if you don't give them what they thought they wanted maybe you're giving
them more what they need actually yeah i think that's the thing helping them to understand why
yeah yeah and and if we can inform and then we say look these are your options and if you go with
it's amazing if you don't absolutely fine but what you want to consider is this this
and this and then that they can make an informed decision and hopefully when we leave they go do
you know what that guy that guys are amazing and then when they want solar put in they'll maybe
phone us back up and say hey guys can you can Joltify come and do solar you know or a house
rewire or something like that very good but i'm glad we circled back round to that solar PV
future on the sort of the techie install side that we were talking about with martin a minute ago
but again from a business side there's also kind of plans for the future so where does
Joltify go from here you've got a thriving good quality business award-winning business maybe
a multi-award multi-award winning business get that right um so so what's the next step
you content just running where you are and maybe just expanding in terms of you know the number of
employees in this area or are we looking bigger than that yeah okay well i think that's a great
question and um i think first and foremost i think Martin might have already said it what we won't
ever do is over promise and deliver so we want the first two years for us is to get our foundations
in place yeah so that's what i think we've done now we're starting to get a really good reputation
in the industry and and also locally we're a local company but we've got national ambition so we're
hoping to sign up our first franchisee um in the near future um and we've got a couple more in the
pipeline so what we ideally want to do is become a national brand uh through franchising model
um with martin and i as the real support and drive behind that um that that would work brilliantly
but what we're looking for are probably one of two people one an existing electrician who wants
to get into the EV world and uh and we'll support them with setting up the business and uh and um
and getting the leads and that type of thing the the alternative is someone who's never been
extrusion before um they'll go on the training course uh they'll then come to us we'll give them
an intensive EV baptism i suppose um and then they'll go off and start doing their install so
so people who want to become electrician great great route and also those who are existing but
want to be perhaps part of a part of a family which i think sometimes electricians you can be
can be quite isolating in the role yeah do you know that's really interesting that you
brought that out it's a keen observation of the electrical industry and it's something that we
we do notice when we're you know sort of on social media with some of our followers and
other people that yeah you can end up feeling a little bit kind of in a box you know and you're
not sure what other people are doing if they're having the same challenges you are so i guess
you know it's interesting because i've not i'm not aware of very many electrical businesses that are
setting up a franchise in those terms but it sounds like you're doing it under very
uh kind of controlled conditions because you want to keep that quality and that's
absolutely right um for us it's it's i suppose if you think of one of the best franchise models
as Mcdonald's and every time you get Mcdonald's it doesn't matter where you are in the world
it's bizarre it's it's the same it's really good and that's the only way we will be um and that's
the only way you don't damage your brand and i think by the way in which we will support
the new franchisees and nurture them and and give clarity to standards and you know what you get it
right first time yeah it's a lot easier you haven't got to do any retrospective work so
go in plan it properly go and execute execute it perfectly um customers loving what you've
done they'll refer you so therefore you've got a lead generation source
and also operationally you that that kind of um installation is complete you then can tick the box
you know i think you contact DNO i think i thought martin does and then we move on
to the next one in the afternoon and uh that that's it's a really good um
model that just kind of replicates itself yeah fantastic what an absolutely brilliant insight
into your your kind of business thinking and also the future of your business and who knows maybe
the future of your business if you're watching you might want to get in touch if you're interested
please doing good stuff thanks ever so much for the chat they really enjoyed that thank
you very much cheers thanks while filming with Joltify today i've been really impressed by two
different things the first is the way that David and Martin have brought together two
different personalities two different skill sets and two different strengths in order to build a
company that really is more than the sum of its parts and that emphasis on customer experience
is clearly so important and it obviously works because actually while we've been working here
the client has popped out of the house and started making inquiries about having solar PV installed
on the roof in order to help out with charging the EV so they're obviously doing something right
the other thing i've been really impressed by is the reassurance that the future of the electrical
industry really is in safe hands there's great businesses out there there's great people running
them and they're working really hard to make sure that the reputation of the electrical industry is
maintained and held high and now they're looking to expand that out to future situations as well
so it's been absolutely brilliant for me i've really enjoyed it hopefully you've enjoyed this
video and if you have please check out these videos here thank you very much for watching