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Skimmer training, tips & tricks

Tips, tricks, & hacks for using Skimmer to its fullest potential!

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30 Posts
jdpinson
Conversation Starter
jdpinsonConversation Starter
posted in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Skimmer Hack

Just wanted to let everyone know about a work around to text quotes and invoices. We use this all the time and it works great. Open any invoice or quote and go to the preview tab.Next go to the url and copy everything but “preview=true” at the end of the address This link will take the user to a mobile friendly preview of the invoice with a payment link or link to accept the quote.   

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D
New Member
C
Rookie Member
coltrane5000Rookie Member
asked in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
What's your work order list? - Weekly Techs...

Would you all mind sharing the list of work order types you let your weekly techs add?I need to cleanup my list!!!

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C
Rookie Member
Travis
Team Skimmer
TravisTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
🤑 See Service Rates in Your Area 💰

Looking for insights on pool service pricing in your area? You’ve come to the right place!Skimmer’s interactive Service Rate Index is built from anonymous data gathered from over 30,000 users who service more than 700,000 pools monthly.With this benchmark data, you can view the average price ranges across the country, broken down by state, region, and type of rate (per stop, per month, plus chemicals, and including chemicals).Click here to access Skimmer’s Service Rate Index Share with us what your pricing plans are for 2025 👇

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Travis
Team Skimmer
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Don’t Leave Money on the Table in 2024

This is a friendly year-end reminder to invoice your customers with outstanding balances before December 31. Start 2025 with a clean slate, and your accountant will thank you for wrapping up the year when they prepare your taxes!If you have not already enabled Skimmer’s automated invoice reminder emails, use the Broadcast Emails feature to quickly send a reminder notification to all of your customers that have an outstanding invoice (NOTE: Available on the Scaling Up & Owning the Market tiers) HOW TO USE BROADCAST EMAILS 💡The Pool Deck Community Tip - To streamline this process moving forward, ensure you’ve enabled Skimmer’s automated Invoice Reminder Emails. HOW TO SET UP INVOICE REMINDER EMAILS    

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
jcmedranoTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Who Sees What? A Guide to Using Notes in Skimmer 📝

"Who sees what 🤔?"  This is one of the most common questions I get asked on using all of our Notes sections. You likely have important details your techs need to know but don't want your customers to have visibility. Or there's information meant only for office staff.  To help you confidently use these useful features, I'm going to explain where to add notes and who can see them. This will help you keep communication flowing and everything running smoothly! Customer Code The Customer Code can be used to warn your tech of a dangerous dog or to let them know the service level to complete for the customer. This note will be visible right next to the customer's name before the tech even taps to start their route.  Who will see it?✅ Admins✅ Technicians    ❌ Customers How will it look for my tech?How to add:Go to Customers Click Edit on the Customer you want to add a Customer Code for Click Edit one more time in the white box next to the Customer's name Enter the note in the Customer Code f

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jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
Chlorine King
Skimmer Verified Partner
Chlorine KingSkimmer Verified Partner
posted in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Using Skimmer to Store Employee Records. Short, Sweet & Simple!

If you start building your company to where you have lots of employees it can be hard and a lot of extra work to maintain records of performance, write ups, etc. We figured out a way to use Skimmer to do this for us. It’s very simple and you can document on the fly whether if it’s to identify weaknesses in performance (like if they ask to be trained on the same item repetitively), an official record of conversion or even things like write ups. I think if you guys and gals watch this it’ll open up a whole new way of utilizing Skimmer to not only manage your customers, but also your employees.  

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Chlorine King
Skimmer Verified Partner
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Marketing tip of the week: Paid marketing landscape - Facebook & Instagram ads

Our final post in this 6 part marketing series focuses on social media channels. We like to say that Facebook / Instagram ads are the new direct mail, but on steroids. They are one of the best exclusive lead sources in 2024 for pool companies in most markets around the country. Ad CreativeWhen you advertise on Facebook / Instagram, you compete with many other posts for your consumers’ attention. That’s why it’s important to try out different creative to see what resonates and converts. According to Pool Monopoly, images and videos both work, but generally, images work best for their clients since they’re more succinct and to the point. According to the experts at Pool Monopoly, using an image of Skimmer’s service report email in ads is effective because it shows the homeowner that they will always be kept in the loop. This is probably the most important thing that people searching for pool service want: strong customer communication and the knowledge that the job will get done well. Ad

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Marketing tip of the week: Paid marketing landscape - Google Ads 101

Google AdWords search campaigns are the top way to get in front of potential clients who need weekly pool service. Building up your organic SEO results on Google can take years, and this essentially lets you buy your way to the top of Google (if it’s done correctly). In this post, we’ll explore the basics of Google and how to maximize your investment here. Keyword ResearchA big part of being successful with Google is understanding keyword research. Google’s Keyword Planner tool allows you to forecast and see what people are searching for on Google regarding the services that you offer.One of the biggest components of a successful Google campaign is keyword research. You always need to dig into which keywords will apply to your campaign.Check out these videos to learn more about how to conduct keyword research:[VIDEO] Local Keyword Research [VIDEO] Local SEO Keyword Research with Semrush  [VIDEO] 6 Ways To Use Google Keyword Planner for Keyword ResearchAd CopyGoogle ads copywriting is e

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Marketing tip of the week: Paid marketing landscape - online directories

This next series of posts is a paid marketing cheat sheet that reviews the industry’s main channels and explains how to maximize each one. We’re going to start with a guide for online directories.YelpYelp is one of the best-known directories for consumers, and many folks will consult it for company reviews before making a buying decision. However, there are a few things to note before you commit to running ads on Yelp.Ad structure and fees Yelp ads work on a pay-per-click basis. You set a daily budget, and they charge you per click on your profile. They sponsor your profile and put it at the top of Yelp or on a display page. However, it can be difficult to maintain this placement. If you’re going to advertise on Yelp, you must be able to respond to new leads in under 5 minutes since Yelp prioritizes companies with quick response times. As a side note, this is also a great sales best practice – being responsive to customer inquiries will help engage them while they’re paying attention t

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SWMCLR
Rookie Member
jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
jcmedranoTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
The 50 Most Popular Tags Skimmer Pros Use—Are You Missing Out?

When talking about Tags with pros, the most common question is, “I want to start using Tags, but I don’t know which ones to use. Can you give me examples of what other people are using?” Well, the results are in!Here are the 50 most commonly used Tags:1. Repair-only2. Full Service3. Weekly Service4. Salt System5. Cartridge Filter6. Salt Pool7. Residential8. Seasonal9. Sand Filter10. Cartridge11. Maintenance12. DE Filter13. Chlorine14. Chlorine Pool15. CS- Priority New*16. Commercial17. Bi-weekly18. Pool19. AutoPay20. BLAST-August 2024 Light Promo**21. VIP22. Spa23. Thursday*** 24. Sand25. CART26. Heater27. Active28. Standard29. Salt Cell30. Monthly31. Basic Service32. Chem Only33. Caged Pool34. Weekly Service Invoice35. Agreement36. Hot Tub37. Check38. ST-Premium39. Chlorine Feeder40. Pre-Auth41. Year Round42. Open/Close43. Chem Plus44. IG - In Ground45. CCOF - Customer Card on File46. No extra clean-up services47. Filter Cleaning Recurring  - Dec48. Plaster49. Recurring Credit Card50.

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jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
cshalli
Team Skimmer
cshalliTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Start Using Custom Work Order Types to Streamline Repair Assessments

My favorite thing about Skimmer's Work Order Feature is that it is fully customizable. So, when a pro recently reached out looking for guidance on how their technicians could report issues found during service using Work Orders, I was excited to brainstorm!Here's the scenario: A cleaner technician finds an equipment issue during service and wants to report notes and pictures back to the office to schedule a follow-up assessment with a repair technician or send a quote.Here's the solution: Watch this short video to discover how your cleaner can report issues in Skimmer and how you can action them with a new Work Order Type: I'd love for you to share any clever ways you're using Work Orders to streamline your repair processes. Or, if there are any workflows you're hoping to optimize, let me know, and I can try to brainstorm a solution for you! Please share in the comments! 👇

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R
New Member
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Marketing tip of the week: Crafting a website that converts - part 3

To close out our series on website optimization this post covers the importance of including customer reviews,  images, and mobile optimization. 3 rules for using customer reviews Social proof is one of the most important components in getting a prospect to convert into a new lead. They want to see real proof that others find your services top-tier and that you’re easy to work with.Use real screenshots OR embed directlyIt shouldn’t need to be said, but never fake your reviews. If you’re going to use reviews on your site, it’s critical that they’re real. You can embed reviews directly from sites like Google or Yelp on your site or create a mockup of your favorite ones to add to your site.Provide at least 4 minimum, ideally moreThe more reviews, the better! If you have a bunch of amazing reviews, embed at least 6-8 of them on your hero page in a “customer reviews” section.Choose specific, relevant reviewsWhen it comes to choosing which reviews to include on your site, it’s good to use on

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Marketing tip of the week: Crafting a website that converts - part 2

Here are this week’s marketing tips on optimizing your website to build traffic, strengthen your brand, and grow your business. Strong calls to actionIt’s best to have a few different CTAs (calls to action) on your website. “Contact Us” is usually too basic and doesn’t establish any sort of urgency or reason to inquire. Instead, try using things like “Get A Free Quote,” “Get Our New Customer Special,” etc. If you offer any special introductory deals like a free month or free filter cleans, play around with using those as well.Examples of CTAsProfessional logoProfessional logos are more important than people think. Even if you already have a recognizable brand, you can always update your logo to represent your company as positively as possible.Tips for strong logo design.Stand out in the crowd. Most pool companies use the same blue color schemes, and while it makes complete sense in terms of brand congruency, it can make them all blend together. It’s best to consider using another color

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
Chlorine King
Skimmer Verified Partner
Chlorine KingSkimmer Verified Partner
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
An easy way to communicate a lot of information with the use of Emoji's.

Happy Monday Everyone! As you know as business owners, sometimes yourself or techs have to cover other techs pools. You’ll also know that more than likely the techs doing the covering probably doesn’t know much about the property since they aren’t there each week. You know things such as is it a salt pool, which side of the house do you enter, is it an Air BNB, do you need to call in advance, are there dogs on the property and so on and so forth.In lieu of that, my wife and I were discussing this one day and we found with the use of Emoji’s we can deliver a lot of information to whoever is doing whatever pool. It’s really helpful and will make the techs day’s more efficient. Check it out!  

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Chlorine King
Skimmer Verified Partner
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Marketing tip of the week: Crafting a website that converts - part 1

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be sharing some tips our team created in collaboration with @Ryan, our partner at Pool Monopoly and member of The Pool Deck. This series of posts will focus on critical components for optimizing your marketing efforts. We’ll begin with a focus on basic web design and what elements you need to build a high-performing site.Market research indicates that 76% of customers will look at a company’s website (and online presence) before doing business with them. This is why it’s essential to have a strong, professional website for your business.These are the essential elements you need for a good website:Homepage  Calls to action Professional logo Optimized for mobile Who you are / Why you’re different Services you offer Positive real customer reviews Images The homepageYour homepage, often called the hero page, is where most prospective customers will land on your site. As such, you need to make it easy for them to understand who you are and what you offer with a

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Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
FlaviaSwims
Team Skimmer
FlaviaSwimsTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Is Auto-Invoicing a Great Fit for Your Business?

It’s been a little over a month since we released auto-invoicing functionality as part of our invoice generator, and I’m excited to share the feedback we’re getting from pool pros across the country.Pros who:1) run a billing schedule that captures calendar months (they bill for the calendar month either ahead or in arrears) and 2) generally bill customers separately for repairs and work orders (or don’t do any repair work at all)…are having the best results:They’re seeing an efficiency boost: It minimizes time spent on reviewing invoices by automatically generating them for routine pool service.   Streamlined process: It automatically handles monthly dosages and completed services, directing you only to review invoices with special cases like installed items.If you think auto-invoicing could be right for you, you can get started right here. And if you’re ever in doubt, of course call our team at (480) 718 - 2158 or email Support@getskimmer.com Thank you! Flavia - Director of Operations

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FlaviaSwims
Team Skimmer
cshalli
Team Skimmer
cshalliTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Three Tips for Optimizing Your Customer Records

Before joining Skimmer, I used the software to run a Pool Service and Repair company with my husband in Houston, Texas. I was always on the lookout for ways to use Skimmer to level up our records to cut down on extra visits and be able to provide quotes for equipment replacements on the spot. Here are a few ways to get your technicians involved in optimizing customer records during Route Stops: 1. Take Location PhotosDuring a Route Stop, technicians can easily take location photos by tapping on the “Info” tab (top left) and scrolling to the bottom of the screen. Snap photos of the pool, gate, equipment pad, overflow drains, or anything else that could help a team member or prevent an extra trip in the future.2. Add Equipment RecordsHave you ever had a customer call about a dead pump and wished you had the make, model, and serial number ready to quote for a replacement? Here’s how to add Equipment Records during a Route Stop:Tap “Equipment” & “Add” Choose the Equipment Category Sele

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Kings Pool And Spa
Rookie Member
Chlorine King
Skimmer Verified Partner
Chlorine KingSkimmer Verified Partner
posted in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
An Easy Skimmer Tip To Communicate an "Office Alert" Status Back to the Technician

Here’s a short video explaining how my company can report back to our technicians when they do an “alert office” by creating a “alert office follow up” work order. Let me know if you have any questions!  

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Chlorine King
Skimmer Verified Partner
Justine
The Pool Deck Community Team
JustineThe Pool Deck Community Team
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Compare your prices to other pool professionals💲

Given all the posts and ongoing discussions about pricing, I wanted to share the updated version of Skimmer’s Service Rate Index. This will let you quickly check how your prices compare to others within your region so you can continue to make informed decisions about running your business.  This interactive Index will show you the minimum, maximum, and median prices by state, region, and pricing model (per stop, per month, plus chems, and including chems). It is a solid benchmarking tool built from 12 months of anonymous platform data through to June ‘24 aggregated from the activity of over 27,000 Skimmer users who have logged over 253 million dosages and readings, completed over 62 million route stops, and serviced over 700,000 pools monthly.CLICK HERE TO ACCESS THE INDEX  For additional analysis of the Service Rate Index data on market variations, check out this article and interview with Skimmer’s very own @nikiacosta @jacknelsonatx in Pool Magazine™.READ NOW  

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Bduprest
Conversation Starter
jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
jcmedranoTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Send Customer Reminders For Upcoming Filter Clean

If you've set up your Filter Clean Work Orders as recurring, here's a quick tip on how to send your customers a reminder a few days before your techs go out. Step 1: Upcoming Work OrdersNavigate to Work Orders > Upcoming to select all the Filter Cleans that are due. Once you’ve selected them, you’ll Create and Schedule them. Step 2: Scheduled Work Orders💡Get these all scheduled to the same tech on the same day to make sending the reminder to your customers much easier!Step 3: Broadcast EmailCreate a new Broadcast Email and select Customers Scheduled to be Serviced as your email recipients. You'll select the date and tech to which these are all assigned. On the right-hand side, you'll see the group of customers who will receive this reminder.Step 4: Create A Message ✍️Type a short message to let your customers know that you’ll be out in the next few days/weeks to perform their filter clean service, along with any other important information they need to know. 💡To make this reminder

902
K
New Member
nikiacosta
Team Skimmer
nikiacostaTeam Skimmer
posted in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
There's a pool volume estimator in the app -- here's how to find it!

Did you know there’s a pool volume estimator available in Skimmer’s implementation of Orenda’s LSI Calculator? To get there, click on the calculator icon as shown below. From there, choose a shape, enter dimensions and voila! Note: The LSI calculator is available in the “Scaling Up” Tier, along with other fantastic features like Broadcast Emails, extra photo capacity, the ability to require techs take photos of certain tasks, and more! If you would like to upgrade your account, email support@getskimmer.com.    

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nikiacosta
Team Skimmer
jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
jcmedranoTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
What are Skimmer Tags, and how can I use them to help keep me organized?

I like to think of Skimmer as a digital filing cabinet designed to streamline your customer data management. The Tags feature is the key to creating various customer groups based on specific criteria, enabling you to quickly locate these groups and take action, streamlining your business operations.Watch this short video to discover more about the different ways and benefits of using Skimmer Tags.I'm curious to hear if you have other ways of using Skimmer Tags and how they've improved your operational efficiency so we can share best practices with all of our members. Please share your experiences in the comments👇

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jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
FlaviaSwims
Team Skimmer
FlaviaSwimsTeam Skimmer
posted in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
Let Me Make Your Life Easier: The Shopping List

Your friendly neighborhood Skimmer friend here.I’ve met many pros out in the field, and some of you have sheepishly shown me how you track your installed items in your Notes app - or the items that you need to go purchase and buy for your customers.I know plenty of you do it.  And you swear you haven’t forgotten to bill for installed items… or forgotten to purchase a part at the pool supply… are you sure though?I am here to tell you about the Shopping List! Give yourself 5 minutes to watch the following 3 videos and see how much easier your life can be.Here is how to add an item to the Shopping List...And here is how you mark an item as purchased, and as installed!Better than your Notes app. And bonus, all of this flows easily, seamlessly into the Skimmer Invoice Generator. Ahhhhh. 

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GreySharkPools
Conversation Starter
jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
jcmedranoTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
How to optimize your Skimmer Service Checklist when your customers are on different service packages ✅

I’ve talked to many pros lately who have mentioned that they have customers on different service packages. So, they need to ensure their techs are doing the correct checklist items based on the service package each customer is paying for.  There’s an easy solution for this using two of Skimmer’s features: Customer Code and Service Checklist. Step 1: Service Checklist Since Skimmer allows you to customize your Service Checklist with the items you want, add the service checklist items you include for ALL your packages to the checklist.  🚨 DON’T FORGET: Add your service package notes to the Description of the Service Checklist items. As long as you don’t add them to the Description When Complete, they will stay internal, so your customers won’t see them.  Step 2: Customer Code By adding your service levels or service packages to your Customer Code, your tech will be able to see this on their app and be able to complete the correct checklist items every time.   Once they open their route

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jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
jcmedrano
Team Skimmer
jcmedranoTeam Skimmer
published in Skimmer training, tips & tricks
How to send one-time tech notes in Skimmer 📝

You can send notes to remind your tech of tasks they don't usually do, like when a customer calls with a one-off request. This quick Skimmer trick ensures your tech gets the information the next time they service that customer.  You do this the same way you would when adding a Product or a Part for a specific customer from the Shopping List:Click Add + in the Shopping List Select Add Other for CustomerThen select the customer and their service location and add the important note for your tech’s next visitWhen your tech gets ready to start their routes for that day, they’ll see this note on their Shopping List before they even tap into any customer stops.  They'll see the note again once they start at the customer's route stop. Plus, your tech can swipe on the note, marking it as installed to let you know it was seen and completed.  Once your tech has swiped, the one-time note will not reappear. There is no need to go in and delete it from  Skimmer. Bonus💡: All notes remain in the cust

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code3pools_ops
Conversation Starter

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