Starting your own pool cleaning business is not for the faint of heart; it is inherently complicated, demanding you to be careful, diligent, and meticulous in your approach while keeping your calm and professionalism intact.
But when starting out, you are bound to make a lot of rookie mistakes. To safeguard your pool cleaning business, you must understand what can lead to business failure and how each of these mistakes can be managed or avoided altogether. This article hopes to address these mistakes and prepare you to approach your pool cleaning business with thought-out strategies that give you better opportunities for success.
1. Charging chemical costs incorrectly
Pool maintenance services require chemicals to keep the pool safe and clean. But when the pump motor needs replacement or when the skimmer is clogged, especially in the summer, the use of chemicals is high. This means the chemical costs also rise. Pool service businesses can follow one of these strategies to make sure that you are covering your fluctuations in chemical costs:
- Don’t draw a contract for chemicals. Invoice them directly.
- Draft a yearly contract, reflecting the increase of chemicals cost during peak seasons (May through September)
- Draw up a yearly contract that divides the increased chemical costs across the months.
Whatever strategy you apply for charging chemical cost, make sure that you don’t neglect it at all.
2. Not optimizing the field service routes
An efficient routing system maximizes your business potential by helping you manage your pool cleaners also known as field service pros and their time effectively.
By defining an efficient routing method, you reduce your vehicle costs and ensure your labor spends their time efficiently. This is especially important because the time wasted between jobs is non-billable. The shorter the time spent between jobs, the more profit your business will make.
Moreover, an optimized route helps:
- You manage your daily scheduling and use your resources in the best possible manner
- Reduce fuel and travel reimbursement expenses
- Lessens the overall wear and tear on your service vehicles
- Increase the utilization of service pros
3. Overlooking the miscommunication between service pros and customers
This mistake can cost your customers. Your service pros should be focusing on specific customer requests and delivering quality service at all times. This helps your business in building trust, relationships, and loyalty with your customers. When your service pros mix up customers or overlook crucial notes, it reflects badly on your business.
4. Using complex payment methods
The days of sending a paper invoice or collecting payment by mail are over. If you want your customers to have a good experience, don’t make it painful for them to give you their money. Make the process easier by using electronic and technological resources available to process your invoices and payments.
5. Not buying chemicals in bulk
If you have many clients, it is more economical to purchase chemicals in bulk. Consider buying chemicals in bulk from your local pool supply warehouse. You may end up saving more money as they might give you a deal closer to their buying price.
Bonus – the most dangerous pitfall: trying to run your growing business on paper
If your cleaning business is growing, and you are running it on paper, then you are going to have huge problems managing the business. Tracking everything in a notebook or scraps of paper will work only if you have a handful of clients. As your business grows, you will find it difficult to keep this balancing act on as you’ll find yourself missing appointments, forgetting important details, and losing money.
Avoid these common pool service mistakes with Zuper!
Zuper – an intelligent pool cleaning software that can save time, money, and effort by automating all your manual tasks. This all-in-one field service management platform allows you to have unprecedented visibility and control over your entire pool cleaning business.
‍Zuper automates routine manual tasks between you, your service pros, and your customers for a seamless, efficient solution for optimal communication and customer service. With Zuper, you can also track your team’s performance, schedule services, generate reports and invoices, and receive updates in real-time.
Zuper is dedicated to your success. Let us help you avoid the mistakes that can cost your customers. Try Zuper for free today.
