First Solar, Inc. is an American photovoltaic manufacturer of rigid thin film modules, or solar panels, and a provider of utility-scale PV power plants and supporting services that include finance, construction, maintenance and end-of-life panel recycling. First Solar uses cadmium telluride as a semiconductor to produce CdTe-panels, that are competing successfully with conventional crystalline silicon technology. In 2009, First Solar became the First Solar panel manufacturing company to lower its manufacturing cost to $1 per watt and produced CdTe-panels with an efficiency of about 14 percent at a reported cost of 59 cents per watt in 2013.
The company was founded in 1990 by inventor Harold McMaster as Solar Cells, Inc. and the Florida Corporation in 1993 with JD Polk. In 1999 it was purchased by True North Partners, LLC, who rebranded it as First Solar, Inc. The company went public in 2006, trading on the NASDAQ. Its current chief executive is Mark Widmar, who succeeded the previous CEO James Hughes July 1, 2016. First Solar is based in Tempe, Arizona. As of 2010, First Solar was considered the second-largest maker of PV modules worldwide and ranked sixth in Fast Company’s list of the world's 50 most innovative companies. In 2011, it ranked first on Forbes’s list of America’s 25 fastest-growing technology companies. It is listed on the Photovoltaik Global 30 Index since the beginning of this stock index in 2009. The company was also listed as No. 1 in Solar Power World magazine’s 2012 and 2013 rankings of solar contractors.
| Key people | Michael J. Ahearn, Chairman of Supervisory Board, Mark Widmar, CEO |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1999 (as First Solar Holdings, LLC) |
| Traded as | NASDAQ: FSLR S&P 400 Component |
| Operating income | US$516.66 million (FY 2015) |
| Net income | US$546.42 million (FY 2015) |
NPS is a customer loyalty metric that measures customers’ willingness to not only return for another purchase or service but also make a recommendation to their family, friends or colleagues.
It is a powerful and effective technique, which can greatly increase a company's revenue if used properly.
The main advantages of NPS are close correlation with a company's growth and easy collection, interpretation and communication of the data.
Net Promoter Score is a number from -100 from 100.
Scores higher than 0 are typically considered to be good and scores above 50 are considered to be excellent.
The industry average for Energy is 0.
The final Net Promoter Score of a company strongly depends on a context in which the satisfaction is measured.
Consider an example: If First Solar sends out NPS surveys immediately after purchase, they are tracking their customers' initial excitement and the checkout experience.
On the other hand, if they survey their customers a few weeks after the purchase they are also tracking how satisfied their customers are with their products and services over time.
Therefore, comparing the NPS score of First Solar with your own without any further context is not that useful.
What is extremely useful though, is using the NPS methodology to track the satisfaction of your customers over time. That's where Customer.guru comes in.
How are your customers satisfied depending on:
We have estimated the Net Promoter Score of First Solar based on the publicly available information
including the sentiment of the company-related tweets, 3rd party reviews, and Alexa ratings.
Do you think this information is incorrect? Report incorrect information. Do you have more accurate data? Submit NPS score.