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News, trends & training

Share articles, podcasts, upcoming training, and trade shows, and discuss trends and other interesting industry topics.

  • 55 Posts
  • 65 Replies
55 Posts
jacknelsonatx
Team Skimmer
jacknelsonatxTeam Skimmer
published in News, trends & training
Greetings from Jack, Skimmer's CEO

Hello everyone,   Welcome to The Pool Deck!  At Skimmer, our purpose is to empower pool and spa service professionals with a platform to build great l businesses. We began fulfilling this purpose by developing an all-in-one pool service management platform to simplify running your business, and from the feedback we've received, it seems to be working well.  As we continue to grow, we've heard from our customers that they would like more opportunities to learn and collaborate with other Skimmer users and our team of experts. So, we started working on creating a community space where everyone can come together to share experiences and knowledge. We understand the importance of having a safe space to ask questions to learn together.  But our purpose for The Pool Deck community goes beyond becoming a Skimmer super user. We have partnered with professionals to contribute in areas essential for helping you grow your business and achieve your goals. These experts will cover marketing, finance

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jacknelsonatx
Team Skimmer
7 months ago
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in News, trends & training
📢 Let’s talk: The State of Pool Service report is here!

Hey, Pool Deck! We’re excited about the launch of our second annual State of Pool Service Report, a deep dive into the trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping our industry. This report wouldn’t exist without your input (so thank you!), and it highlights the hard work and resilience of pool pros like you. Here are some key takeaways from this year’s report:Economic pressures like inflation and labor shortages were the top challenges in 2024 and will continue into 2025.  Many of you are optimistic about 2025 and plan to use strategic price increases to offset rising costs.  Pool pros are getting more sophisticated with growth strategies, from diversifying services to adopting new technology.  The rise of private equity in the industry is stirring mixed feelings.  Marketing has evolved—fewer lead buys, more customer engagement.  Despite price volatility, the plus chems pricing model hasn’t gained widespread adoption.  Get your copy of the report today! We’d love to hear your thought

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Travis
Team Skimmer
18 hours ago
alex
Team Skimmer
alexTeam Skimmer
published in News, trends & training
Skimmer Makes it Easy to Launch Your Own Customer PortalNews

Skimmer continues to invest in new tools designed to help our customers grow their businesses and, in turn, deliver an exceptional experience for their customers. With this goal as our north star, we are thrilled to announce the release of our latest tool, the Customer Portal. This turn-key white label feature can be easily enabled in the platform and branded with each company’s logo to enhance its brand presence and professional offering.  The Customer Portal lets you share service history details to reduce time-consuming customer calls. When paired with Skimmer Billing, the Customer Portal opens up access to additional features like invoices, payment history, and, most importantly, payment methods. It is a perfect way to encourage your customers to enable Autopay to ensure they get paid on time and spend less time chasing outstanding invoices. The best part is that this new feature is included in your Skimmer subscription—that’s right, there is no additional charge to launch it to yo

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alex
Team Skimmer
7 days ago
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in News, trends & training
A Day of Learning and Networking at Skimmer’s First-Ever Pro Summit

Earlier this week, we hosted our first-ever Skimmer Pro Summit—Austin edition. Star Hill Ranch was the perfect venue to bring together our Central Texas community of company leaders and their Skimmer admins for a full day of professional development, networking, and fun. We were so energized by the opportunity to spend that much face time with our customers and connect them with other pool entrepreneurs to share best practices and inspire them with new ideas for growing their business, finding efficiencies, and maximizing Skimmer's value.Heritage Pool Supply Group was our exclusive event sponsor, plus we had a number of contributing partners who generously donated product samples to help us create an awesome Pro Summit package in addition to some cool Skimmer swag for all of our attendees: Sensafe’s Swim Check Fix phosphate tablets PoolRx’s bacteria and algae prevention units  BluerayXL’s Mineral Purifier & Catalyst units Jack’s Magic Stain Identification Kits  Portable power banks

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twalsh
New Member
12 days ago
Travis
Team Skimmer
TravisTeam Skimmer
published in News, trends & training
A pool on the moon

How much would you charge to service it? 🤣 https://www.poolmagazine.com/pool-news/what-if-we-built-a-swimming-pool-on-the-moon/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1yHSygYxKm1TtjWPmpM2Vz1O-90sysj037TZByv4sSpfbBv5bAdmufbk0_aem_WibGSEGuyGUyK5fTer3HLg

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Travis
Team Skimmer
18 days ago
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in News, trends & training
Warm Wishes From The Pool Deck

We want to take a moment to celebrate you—our incredible customers and community members! Your hard work, dedication, and commitment to excellence inspire us every day. From long days in the field to growing your businesses and serving your customers, your success is what drives everything we do in The Pool Deck and at Skimmer.  We sincerely appreciate all your contributions to making our online community a warm and welcoming space where people can learn from one another and find answers and ideas to achieve their goals.In the coming months, we look forward to offering more webinars, workshops, and content to expand the value with every visit to The Pool Deck.While our community team will take some time off during the holidays, The Pool Deck remains open. Feel free to visit if you need to connect, find answers, or share something interesting with our members.See you in 2025!   

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
1 month ago
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in News, trends & training
Now Available: Skimmer Mobile App Tutorials in Spanish

We're excited to announce the launch of our Spanish video tutorials in The Pool Deck's Help Center. These tutorials will help you onboard new technicians and get them started using the Skimmer mobile app. We encourage you to share the link below with your Spanish-speaking team members; they do not need to be members of The Pool Deck to access this training content. ACCESS SPANISH TUTORIALS In addition to training new team members, you can share these videos on using key features with your existing team as a quick refresher. 💡The Pool Deck Community Tip: The Help Center also has training resources for onboarding English-speaking technicians. Click here to access and share this link with your team. Please let us know if you have any questions or requests for other resources. We are committed to ensuring your team has the proper training tools to master using the Skimmer mobile app.

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
1 month ago
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in News, trends & training
A Milestone Moment We Want to Celebrate With You

Skimmer has officially surpassed 30,000 users! We're incredibly proud to be the #1 pool service software platform, but this milestone belongs to you—our amazing customers and partners. Your dedication to growing and transforming the pool service industry fuels us daily, and we’re honored to be part of your journey. Thank you for trusting Skimmer to get organized, save time, and grow revenue. Here’s to many more milestones together!

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code3pools_ops
Conversation Starter
2 months ago
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in News, trends & training
Time is running out to have your say in the 2025 State of Pool Service Report

Hey Pool Deck, The clock is ticking on the 2025 State of Pool Service survey. It only takes 10 minutes to fill out, and it’s a great opportunity for you to have your input included in one of the most comprehensive industry reports in the pool service industry. Complete the survey now. Hundreds of pool pros have already shared their thoughts, and we’re seeing some interesting trends emerge in the responses.So far, 59% have said that they’re forecasting to bring in more revenue in 2024 than they did in 2023. Additionally, the vast majority (85%!) of respondents are expecting to continue that trend and bring in more revenue in 2025 than in 2024. 53% of respondents have said that their 2024 growth was due to finding internal efficiencies. This beat out more aggressive growth tactics like expanding into new lines of business and acquiring routes. Growing top-line revenue is the biggest business goal for pros in 2025, with 52% of respondents stating this as their primary business goal. Does

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
2 months ago
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in News, trends & training
Virtual 3-day PHTA CST training course

If you or your team are looking for a Certified Service Technician Class, you can register for Kevin Tucker’s upcoming three-day virtual training on November 25, December 2, and 9. Visit his website for more information and to register: Educational Leverage

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
2 months ago
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in News, trends & training
Exciting News: Skimmer is Growing to Serve You Better!

We’ve got some incredible news to share with you! Skimmer has raised $74 million in growth capital from Mainsail Partners, an investment firm that specializes in helping fast-growing companies like ours scale. This partnership means BIG things for the future of Skimmer and for pool pros like you!You already trust us to help you organize, manage, and grow your business, and with this new investment, we’re doubling down on our commitment to making your life even easier. Here’s what you can look forward to:🚀 Improved product & performanceWe’ll be investing heavily in enhancing Skimmer’s product, including making exciting updates to our customer management, reporting, and enterprise-grade features. That means more tools to help you grow your revenue, save time, and keep everything running smoothly.💡 Continuous innovationWe’re always striving to innovate and deliver new features that make a real difference in your day-to-day operations. This investment allows us to bring these innovat

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
2 months ago
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in News, trends & training
The 2025 State of Pool Service survey is now open!

Hey, Pool Deck — Skimmer is preparing our 2025 State of Pool Service report, and we need your input!  Fill out the anonymous survey linked below and let us know what challenges and opportunities you expect in 2025.Last year’s report drew on input from pool professionals nationwide with 1600+ survey respondents, and market research.This year, we hope to top that with even more relevant insights into the pool service landscape to help you crush your goals in 2025. CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE SURVEY Plus, after completing the survey, you’ll automatically be entered for a chance to win one of 4 awesome prizes:1st prize: Riptide SL vacuum valued at $2000 2nd prize: $500 in Heritage Pool Supply Group credit 3rd prize: Primate Pole 3X valued at $300 4th prize: A Skimmer swag pack The survey closes on November 15th.Also, if you still haven’t checked out the 2024 report, CLICK HERE to access all these insights and more:Pricing Data: Uncover the latest trends and benchmarks and pricing strategies.

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
3 months ago
FlaviaSwims
Team Skimmer
FlaviaSwimsTeam Skimmer
posted in News, trends & training
Milton Making Landfall

*** Post UPDATED ***Hello! I’d like to throw out there that the Small Business Administration offers disaster loans. You can see if you’re eligible here.They do require documentation. The typical documentation required to prove disaster-related damage or economic injury includes: insurance claims, photos, repair estimates, financial statements, tax returns, and other related documentation.For physical damage, it's important to document the direct impact on your property or equipment, while for economic injury (EIDL), demonstrating a decline in revenue and cash flow is key. Providing detailed, accurate, and timely information will help expedite your application and ensure that you receive the assistance you need.Naturally, it’s a little challenging for a service business to prove significant change in the business, but here are a few ideas to consider:If you took regular Skimmer service pictures on your pool and spa service route, utilize those as “before” pictures. Document the “after”

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FlaviaSwims
Team Skimmer
3 months ago
FlaviaSwims
Team Skimmer
FlaviaSwimsTeam Skimmer
posted in News, trends & training
Attributes of Routes Sold on Skimmer!

Thinking about buying or selling routes? Here are a handful of datapoints from the Skimmer universe on routes sold since June:Texas leads the way in routes sold, followed by Florida and Arizona.Monthly service size ranges from only a few service stops to 500+.2/3 of routes sold have Service Emails enabled. 50% of routes sold were enabled with Skimmer Billing.84% of all business volume was paid via online card/bank. That’s what we’ve got for now! What else are you interested in knowing about routes bought and sold on Skimmer? Let me know in the comments.

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FlaviaSwims
Team Skimmer
3 months ago
code3pools_ops
Conversation Starter
code3pools_opsConversation Starter
asked in News, trends & training
Flooded Pools

This is our first time dealing with plodded pools after a storm. What are your best tips and recommended steps to effectively clean up flooded pools and ensure they are safe for swimming?

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code3pools_ops
Conversation Starter
3 months ago
nikiacosta
Team Skimmer
nikiacostaTeam Skimmer
posted in News, trends & training
Preparing for US port strikes and possible supply chain disruptions

I spoke with an exec at a major distributor today, and he expressed that his executive team has been discussing the potential impact of a potential strike and closures of east coast and gulf region ports. As we saw with Covid, port closures and supply chain disruptions can have a direct impact on pricing and availability of chemicals, equipment, and parts. It is premature to speculate on the potential impact of the strike, but keep an eye on your chem and equipment prices and adjust your rates accordingly!Here are some suggestions to prepare for the potential impact: Consider stocking up on equipment and supplies you know you’re going to need.  If you have outstanding quotes that your customers have not approved, give them a nudge to approve the quote. Let them know that pricing and availability may be uncertain.  Prepare to increase prices in the event chem and equipment prices increase, especially if you include chems as part of your service pricing. Check out the Skimmer Price Incre

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nikiacosta
Team Skimmer
3 months ago
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in News, trends & training
Winterization tips to help your customers get ready to RULE THE POOL next spring

As pool season comes to a close for those of us in the north,  I am sharing Pentair’s recent post on how to guide your customers through winterization and turn them into repeat customers this spring.READ ARTICLE  

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
3 months ago
nikiacosta
Team Skimmer
nikiacostaTeam Skimmer
asked in News, trends & training
Salt shortages?

I’ve seen several posts in fb groups posting about salt shortages, and it looks like some folks are making a run on salt. Is this happening in your market? 

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code3pools_ops
Conversation Starter
3 months ago
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in News, trends & training
Smooth Out Seasonal Costs: Skimmer's New 12-Month Blended Rate Plan

As summer winds down, we know that for many of you, managing your Skimmer software budget can come with seasonal challenges during peak and off-peak months.That's why I wanted to let you know about our new 12-month blended rate plan, which will make being a Skimmer customer even easier without any incremental cost.This plan is designed to help you manage your expenses more efficiently by evenly spreading your current Skimmer subscription costs throughout the year. Instead of paying higher fees during the warmer months when your business is busiest, you'll benefit from predictable, consistent billing every month—no matter the season.Benefits of Switching OverConsistent Monthly Billing: No more expense spikes during peak months by smoothing out your cash flow with one predictable monthly payment. Year-Round Access: Use Skimmer to help plan and prepare for the next season. Personalized Account Planning: Access to a dedicated Customer Success Manager to partner with you on using Skimmer to

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
4 months ago
Lauren Broom
Skimmer Verified Partner
Lauren BroomSkimmer Verified Partner
posted in News, trends & training
September CPO courses

Upcoming September CPO courses can be found herehttps://www.spacecoastpoolschool.com/100-online-cpo-class/

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Lauren Broom
Skimmer Verified Partner
4 months ago
nikiacosta
Team Skimmer
nikiacostaTeam Skimmer
published in News, trends & training
Nominations for the Pentair Pool Pro Awards Open September 4th!

The Search for This Year’s Pool Professionals Is On! Pentair Pool will be searching for this year’s pool professionals who work tirelessly to make pool moments feel larger than life. Formerly known as the Pleatco Pool Tech Search, the Pentair Pool Pro Awards is a prestigious honor that recognizes and celebrates two stand-out pool professionals — one man and one woman — who are larger than life in their local communities. Other finalist categories that will be honored include the following: Lifetime AchievementYoung LeaderAdvancing TechnologySafety AdvocatePleatco Pioneer WHY ENTER THE POOL PRO AWARDS?If selected as one of the top two Pentair Pool Pro winners, enjoy the following perks:2025 Atlantic City Pool & Spa Show travel accommodations and special recognitionPersonalized excursion hosted by Pentair PoolEnrollment for a Genesis/PHTA training courseExclusive interview with an industry-leading publication, AQUA MagazineAnd more!AWARDS TIMELINENomination phase: Sept. 4 - Oct. 18,

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nikiacosta
Team Skimmer
5 months ago
Lauren Broom
Skimmer Verified Partner
Lauren BroomSkimmer Verified Partner
posted in News, trends & training
Busy weekend for education!!

Exciting 4 CPO classes going on this weekend and I am not teaching. I am actually hosting a fantasy football draft at my house this Saturday.Four of my awesome instructor teaching between in person in St. Petersburg FL with Bill Hamilton or 2 virtual CPO English classes with Stephen Ely and August A Ursin or Spanish virtual CPO class with Clemente Jesus Rivera!! I am thankful for all of my instructors. They are awesome! This class here is in Saint Petersburg going on right now in Florida taught by Billy Hamilton  with full brand new awesome class room thanks to AquaServ Pool Service and Bryan Lee Lulucki!! Beautiful!! 

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Lauren Broom
Skimmer Verified Partner
5 months ago
P
General Member
Pool MagazineGeneral Member
posted in News, trends & training
Podcast on Skimmer Service Rate Index with Pool Magazine

Had a great conversation with Niki Acosta and Jack Nelson about the service index rate. Really valuable info for pool pros that gives a 10,000 ft overview of what companies are charging in a given market. Listen in on the discussion on the Pool Magazine podcast.

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KerryS
Skimmer Verified Partner
5 months ago
DavidSPL
Skimmer Verified Partner
DavidSPLSkimmer Verified Partner
published in News, trends & training
Revolutionary Method for Treating Phosphates in Your Swimming Pool

I love new ideas and innovative products, and these phosphate tablets make treating phosphates easier than ever. Just drop one or two tablets into the skimmer, and you're done. Do they work? Yes—thanks to their main ingredient, lanthanum, they're highly effective. Watch a complete month of testing the Swim Check Fix™ Phosphate from begining to end here:  

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DavidSPL
Skimmer Verified Partner
5 months ago
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in News, trends & training
More Skimmer help is now available in The Pool Deck 🤓

Our goal for The Pool Deck is to make this your one-stop shop for everything you need to help you run and grow your business. And a key part of this expanding knowledge hub is supporting you on your journey to becoming a Skimmer power user to get the most value from your subscription. So, to help you quickly find the answers to your Skimmer questions, we have added all of the videos and how-to articles from our Help Center into the community.You can access the Skimmer Help Center from the mega-nav, and the available resources are organized by functionality to make it easier for you to find what you need.   These resources will also appear as options in your search results based on your keywords. Each article will have "Skimmer Help Center" in the title to differentiate the content from other post options and help you choose the best resource link for your search.  Check out this article to learn more about using The Pool Deck’s universal search function. 💡The Pool Deck Community Tip -

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
5 months ago

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