Tracy Bond, owner of Great Valley Pool Service in Frazer, Pennsylvania, pragmatically shares the benefits and drawbacks of paying per job and paying per hour, explaining that, while paying per job seems to create more incentive for techs to maximize their time, hourly pay tends to produce better-quality work.
Frank Disher, owner of Poolwerx Keller in North Richland Hills, Texas, observed a “throwing up of hands” among pool service professionals throughout his career when it came to the topic of drowning prevention. He attributes that to a frustration within the industry because, regardless of a pool company’s preventative measures, it could still be held…
Pool Scouts, the pool cleaning and maintenance franchise with 101 territories nationwide, is continuing to surf the wave of the post-pandemic boom in pool construction, breaking revenue and franchise sales goals along the way. The brand saw a revenue jump of 77.8% in Q3 of 2021 versus Q3 of 2020, with sales rising 76.3% year-to-date,…
After almost two years of utter COVID chaos in the world, it’s time to look beyond the pandemic toward the future for the pool service industry. “Pool service is pretty resilient, no matter the conditions,” says David Hawes, president and CEO of H&H Pools in Dublin, California. Growth, he adds, is inevitable over the next…
For many pool service professionals, the question of whether to raise prices can be tricky. The biggest concern, of course, is losing customers, especially if the company operates in a competitive market. Unlike building a pool, where the rising cost of materials is more readily apparent, raising service prices may not be palatable for customers….
For pool pros, the pandemic has had a surprising twist: A major uptick in business. “This has been one of the best years we’ve ever had. It’s been pretty crazy,” says Justin Lex, operations manager at Swimming Pool Services, Inc., a Wisconsin-based company. “Everyone is stuck at home and trying to build a pool or…
The Pool Scouts franchise, which offers pool service exclusively, spans eight states: Texas, Mississippi, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, Florida and Tennessee. Fortunately, state mandates restricting businesses during the coronavirus pandemic have deemed pool service essential in all states the company serves. “In this kind of [social distancing] environment, you want to make sure…
Misty Knight, technical sales manager for Zodiac Pool Systems, says her customers become like extended family. Bryan Banta, owner of B&B Pools in Pompano Beach, Florida, can attest to that. “Misty answers the phone when others don’t,” he says. “She’s available to me when I need her.” Establishing a strong B2B relationship between pool professional…
Not everyone provides service quotes to customers in the same way. Some go through a checklist with the customer over the phone, while others send a technician to do a visual inspection. No matter the method, there’s no denying that some sort of assessment ahead of time is crucial. No customer likes to find unforeseen…
In the history of the pool industry, there have been few franchise businesses. Pinch A Penny, a swimming pool retail and service franchise, started in 1976; it was the lone franchise for years. So for an industry that hasn’t seen a new franchise company since 2012, adding three in the last five years seems like…
Tiffiny Consoli wasn’t looking to go into the pool business. She was just looking to own a business, any business, that made sense. “I didn’t have one thing I was particularity good at or knew I wanted to make bagels every day,” she says. “It wasn’t like that. I wanted to have a business.” Since…