With so many new pools in the marketplace
due to the surge, and
fewer DIYs than ever (as a
percentage of pool owners), the demand
for professional pool service has grown.
Service techs need to take advantage of
every efficiency in order to keep up. This
is where automatic and battery-powered
pool cleaners can really help.
The goal is to make it easy for
pool owners to keep their pools clean
between service visits with robotic
or battery-operated cleaners, which
improves their pool experience, can
generate additional revenue and
ultimately build customer loyalty.
CLEANING CONVERSATION
Ninety-nine percent of a pool’s active
service life takes place between service
visits, so that should be the focus. The
service pro left the premises in pristine
condition, and as far as possible, that
should be retained.
One of the most visible areas is the
stairs. Stairs accumulate junk quickly
and more noticeably because their
depth is shallow. Homeowners want to
be able to spot clean those steps and
corners before parties and between
weekly maintenance trips. This is where
cordless, hand-held, battery-powered
cleaners really help. In fact, because
so many service technicians use these
vacuums, pool and spa owners often
notice how simple they are to operate
and are more predisposed to wanting to
purchase one for their own use.
Frank Disher, owner of Poolwerx in
Richland Hills, Texas, is a big believer
in the importance of educating
his customers about pool and
spa ownership, and the ‘cleaning
conversation’ is a big part of his
discussion with clients. “That’s the way
I always start my first visit with a client,”
he explains. “I don’t overwhelm them
with detail but explain how everything
works together to provide pool and spa
water that is clean and clear.” Once
Disher gets an understanding of which
aspects of maintenance the client is
willing and able to do themselves, he
can then determine which services (and
products) he and his team can offer.
The dialogue centers on making pool
ownership easy. “We are selling more
and more of the hand-held battery-operated
pool vacuums, because people
don’t want to deal with the cumbersome
hoses of a traditional pool cleaner,”
says Disher. “These hand-held units are
easy to pop into the water to spot clean.
There are also now hoseless pool vacs
designed specifically for cleaning leaves
out of pool water.”
Disher has three retail stores and
says that this season, he is bringing a line of hand-held cleaners into all of
them. “Having these units in the stores
also helps keep clients from going to
online places like Amazon, where they
pick a pool vacuum that may not be
what they need or not the quality they
want, which ends up frustrating them
when it breaks, and they have no one to
turn to with the problem. We want our
customers to avoid all frustration with
their pool, and rather just allow them to
enjoy it.”
MUD FROM ABOVE
One of the most important functions
of a pool cleaner is to help tidy up after
a common summer storm. “We get a
lot of ‘muddy rain’ in our area,” Disher
says. “That muddy rain picks up dirt
and nitrates and drops it all into the
pool which starts algae growth. It’s very
important to tend to pool and spa water
after those rains, but we can’t get to
them all the next day on our routes.” A
pool closing is avoided if customers can
drop their robotic cleaners in the water
and use the nimble, battery-operated
vacuums to clean the steps, sun ledges
and spas as quickly as possible, before
algae gets a good start.
“Pool owners like to have the tools
to allow them to swim on the day they
want, or just to have the pool look good
if people are coming over for a visit as
no one wants to look at a dirty pool
while enjoying an evening with friends
and family!”
All of this works together to help his
business, Disher says. “Our expertise,
our retail store locations, the handheld
and robotic vacs we offer, our
professional weekly service packages, it
all builds customer loyalty.”
LOANERS
There are many situations that call for a single-use, loaner unit. For example,
techs doing routine weekly service visits
sometimes find a customer’s pump is
not operating properly, and they aren’t
able to immediately install a new one.
These savvy technicians leave a robotic
cleaner with the client to keep in their
pool for the weekend, to help circulate
the water while also cleaning the pool.
Disher says that he often provides a
‘loaner’ robotic cleaner to clients when
their standard pool cleaner is in for
repairs. “What we discovered is that
this ‘loaner’ program almost always
guarantees the purchase of a robotic
cleaner that provides additional profits
for our business.”
Once introduced to the units,
clients loved the convenience of
dropping a robotic pool cleaner in the
pool between service visits, he says.
“We did wonder, at first, if the robotic
pool cleaner would affect our service
routes. But it did not. Even though we
increased our rates this year, our clients
were still happy to pay a premium
this season for the peace of mind of a
pool that has the cleaning, service and
preventative maintenance needed to
keep it working all season.”
ATTACHED SPAS
Disher explains that his market has a
lot of gunite pools with attached spas.
These attached spas can be overlooked
but their maintenance is just as
important as the main body. “They feed
into the pool, and if they’ve developed
algae colonies or have leaves, acorns
and dirt because they’ve not been
cleaned, that’s problematic. We could
tell customers to turn valves to drain the
spa…but if they don’t do it correctly…
they call back to tell us the spa drainedout,
and their pump burned up, and
then you have started a bigger problem.
“At the same time, robotic cleaners
don’t work well in attached spas, so the
hand-held pool vacuum is the perfect
solution.”
HAPPIER CLIENTS, MORE
PROFITS, LESS STRESS
When a new pool owner is first
introduced to the many steps of care
necessary to properly maintain a pool,
they are sometimes overwhelmed.
To address this problem, there is a
trend among builders to include these
machines in the price of every pool they
install, which leads to a satisfied, loyal
pool owner.
By addressing and solving the
cleaning issue early on, pool professionals
are ensuring their clients are happy with
their purchase and their company is
inherently building customer loyalty.
It’s part of an overall commitment
to maintenance. Homeowners want
their pools to look beautiful at any
time, on any day, and the cleanliness
of the pool surface is key. Pool and spa
cleaners offer a solution to customers
between their regularly scheduled service
and maintenance visits. For the pool
professional, they offer additional sales
revenue, a connection to brick-andmortar
storefronts, increased customer
loyalty and a more satisfied pool and spa
customer.
