Common Complaints About "The Others"

Here’s a list of common complaints we hear from our customers about some other pool companies, and what we do to make sure we learn from those mistakes:

Complaint: They skipped me

Solution: Every morning, our guys get a fresh list of the pools they will clean. After they complete each pool, they record on a master sheet each customer’s name, what the filter pressure was, whether they cleaned the skimmer and top baskets, checked the chemicals, what the chemical readings were, and what they added to each pool, and they take a picture of that master list every day and text it to us at the end of the day. After they clean every pool as they go, they text a photo of it to our group. Tommy checks the completed list against the list of every pool that was supposed to be cleaned.

Complaint: I never know when they’re coming

Solution: Our customers have a set day that we go. On the rare occasion that we can’t make it that day we text them in advance and let them know why. Sometimes a job took longer, sometimes its weather related. We work in the rain but not if its lightening. Sometimes if an employee must miss he will work on a Saturday to make up for it.

Complaint: Its someone different every time cleaning my pool.

Solution: Believe it or not, each of the 800 pools we clean per month is unique. The pumps prime differently, with different valves and different kinds of panel boxes. Some are electronic, computerized, and others are manual, but they’re all different. Our customers want to be served by someone who knows their system. And frankly, having someone they know in their back yard is also a matter of peace of mind.

Complaint: He threw chemicals in and left and didn’t vacuum.

Solution: That’s a guy who is in a hurry, doesn’t feel good, doesn’t want to do a complete job and the company he works for doesn’t have a method in place to monitor that he’s done a good job. Our method is to send a photo after every pool is clean. If there’s a leak in the bottom we can see it. And if we see it they must go march right back and fix it and send a picture again. The photos are a requirement. They also give our team member a chance to show our team that he’s proud of his work because will send the picture to the whole group. About every fifth or sixth pool we will answer him, “Hey man, that looks great! Good job!” You can stick your chest out a little bit when you can send a photo of a beautiful pool to a group. You get a sense of pride, and that’s what we want. We get EVERY leaf. A wind storm might come up 10 minutes after he leaves. Sometimes I’ll get a text from a client, “Jeff there’s leaves in the pool”, my response, “Are they on top, or on bottom?” If they’re on top, they just blew in. He was there and let me send you the photo of when he was there and what time and here’s how your pool looked today.

Complaint: He let my dogs out.

Solution: I don’t have to tell you that our pets today are part of the family. Something so simple as closing the gate behind you goes a long way. Thank God we’ve never had a customer lose a pet because we left the gate open. It’s just another way to let our customers know we care.