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Recently we’ve been having some discussions about clients and their expectations. Some of our clients seem to think it is our job to deliver a perfect pool all week long. That is definitely our goal, but...is it reasonable?

For weekly maintenance, it is our job is show up once a week, and with our expertise measure chems, balance water and if no lightning present net, brush and vacuum your pool. Inspect the equipment and leave your backyard secure. That’s pretty much it for your average week. Obviously notify is there is an equipment issue, etc.

Once we’re done, if nothing significant changes in that pool in the next 167 hours until we return, the pool will still likely be crystal clear the following week. However, if the client hosts a huge pool party or just has 5-10 kids in it every dayor there are heavy rains or your lawn service puts a bunch of grass in the pool…you get the point. We cannot anticipate every eventuality and we can’t add so much shock or tabs on their service day to account for all of these unknown potential events.

We are going to begin setting the expectation through our TOS and through emails to our clients that we need their help. Just like in between visits to the doctor you have to take your medicine, eat right and exercise...between our visits you need to do the following:

  1. Maintain water level at the middle of the skimmer.
  2. Empty skimmer baskets between visits during times of year with heavy debris. You can call us and we can do it but there will be an additional visit charge.
  3. Remove toys and floats from the pool to avoid blocking skimmers and to avoid attracting small children to the pool.
  4. Shock your pool - Keep some shock on hand. Add 1 roughly lb per 10,000 gallons after parties, storms, or heavy debris like lawn clippings. Brush to make sure it doesn't sit on the bottom. Make sure the pump is running. Don’t swim for 4 hours to allow for dissipation. The average pool in the US is about 18,000 gallons. Don’t want to mess with it? We can come out and do it for an additional visit charge. Just call us and tell us you had a party or heavy rains..
  5. Tell us ASAP if something’s wrong.
  6. Update your contact info if it changes.
  7. Don’t adjust pump or settings—you hired us to manage the pool, let us handle it.

I welcome any feedback you might have.

 

Thanks,

Richmond E. Holly
Crocodile Pools
E. richmond.holly@crocodilepools.com
W. https://crocodilepools.com
W. https://www.skool.com/pool-route-to-riches

I would agree that you have to set an expectation, but that has to be done up front during the bidding and signing process.  You should have a service agreement that the customers agree to after the bid and all of these things are explained to them.  The service agreement will outline what your service includes and what the customer is responsible for.  This can be a slippery slope, so I would advise being careful of what your expectations of the customer are.  

 

I will argue all day that customers think we are their property managers when in reality, we are paid to clean the pool, balance the water, and check that the pool is running properly.  That being said, I would never tell a customer they are responsible for shocking their pool.  I think with that, you are asking for trouble.  I would ask that we be notified of high bather loads like parties and such so that we can plan accordingly, and if it's excessive, there will be a chemical charge, but telling them they are responsible for shocking their pool may cost you customers.  I’d imagine you’ll hear a lot of them ask “then what am I paying you for?”

 

Best advice would be to sit down, develop a service agreement, explain that during the in-person bid, and then get them to sign off so that you're covered.  

I would agree with Tru-Blue especially regarding shock.  Never leave chemical dosage to clients.  We send out reminder emails through skimmer to address issues such as if we have a storm, we tell clients to run the system, empty baskets, net etc.  Give them basic reminders of items they can do without messing anything up.

We will send emails periodically, especially near holidays when parties may take place to do net, run the system etc.  We used to ask clients to let us know after they had a HUGE swim party so we could stop over to check the chems but its ironic that all clients had HUGE swim parties.  I think this was an opportunity for clients to take advantage of us trying to be pro-active and not really having parties.  Just an FYI we are in Scottsdale AZ and we only service one zip code so our field supervisor can easily stop by and put his eyes on a pool.

Hope this helps 

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