The Pool Tech Trap: Doing More Than You’re Paid For

Ever feel like your best service is eating your profits? We dig into the quiet ways pool pros lose time and money—free return visits, marathon storm cleanups, and “courtesy” chemicals—and share practical scripts and policies that keep clients happy while protecting your margins. The core idea is simple: set fair expectations, price for real effort, and stop projecting your standards onto customers who just want the pool blue, clean, and running.

We start by reframing the customer mindset and why obsessing over perfection can backfire across a full route. Then we get tactical. You’ll hear the courtesy-invoice method that ends free midweek trips, the go/no-go rules for locked gates and blocked access, and the 25-minute time cap that saves your day after windstorms or messy tree work. We also walk through rate tiers for heavy-debris accounts, clear communication for multi-visit recoveries, and straightforward language that resets expectations without friction.

Chemicals and equipment maintenance get their own spotlight. Learn when to pass through shock and algaecide for high-use pools, how to leave cal hypo or liquid chlorine onsite and bill retail, and why it’s often smarter than raising monthly rates. We also break down filter cleaning fees for DE and quad-cartridge systems, the pros and cons of charging for salt cell cleanings, and how local norms influence your model. By the end, you’ll have a clean list of policies, prices, and scripts that turn great service into a sustainable business.

• why most clients think “blue and fine” is enough
• return visit rules and courtesy invoice tactics
• handling locked gates and blocked access
• time caps after windstorms and tree work
• route health vs spotless one-stop cleanups
• tiered pricing for heavy debris pools
• passing through shock, algaecide, and tablets
• when to charge for filter and salt cell cleaning
• area norms and how to communicate fees
• simple scripts that retrain client expectations

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Chapters

• 2:39 The Problem: Over-Servicing Clients
• 5:03 Why Customers Don’t Care Like You Do
• 7:28 Return Visits And Courtesy Invoices
• 9:43 Locked Gates, Access Issues, And Policy
• 11:38 Time Traps After Windstorms Or Tree Work
• 15:34 Rate Setting For Heavy Debris Pools
• 17:48 Charging For Extra Chemicals And Shocks
• 20:34 Tablets, Additives, And Passing Through Costs

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:51

Hey, welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show. In this episode, I'm going to talk to you about something that happens very often out there, and that is doing too much, doing providing too much service to the customer. And of course, I'll unpack this so you kind of see the difference between your regular service and kind of overdoing it out there. Are you a pool service pro looking to take your business to the next level? Join the Pool Guy Coaching Program. Get expert advice, business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support. From me, I'm a 35-year veteran in the industry. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, I've got the tools to help you succeed. Learn more at swimming poollearning.com. I often say this and I think it's worth reiterating that a lot of times us pool pros are overly focused on kind of getting into the customer's mind and kind of projecting what we feel onto them. What I mean by this is that the pool isn't quite as important to most customers as we feel they think it is. They have a lot of things they're dealing with, they're paying their of course their mortgage, they have other payments, they have other problems that happen. And to be honest with you, there are a few people, of course, that the pool is their main focus, especially if it's a brand new build and they spend$150,000 for it. But in most cases, after a year or two, the ether wears off, the pool doesn't get used that much. The kids kind of treat it as something that's a nuisance in some cases with their busy schedule. You know, they have little league, they have other things they're doing. In the summertime, yes, it is something that is active in a lot of homes, but most of the time, most of the year, the pool is far from their minds. And if it's blue and it looks clean and everything looks good, there's no algae in there, everything seems to be running, they kind of put it out of their mind and don't focus too much on it. And that's kind of how it is with most customers. But from our end, we're kind of hypersensitive when we see it as like the customer is going to be back there looking at their pool. I better get this, you know, all these things are going through our head. When in reality, out of your pool route, 90% of the people don't really look at their pool on a regular basis. Some don't go out in their backyard for weeks on end in the winter time. So it's not something that you should be hyper-focused on and worried about. With that said, you should, of course, provide exceptional service to the customer, but there are certain things that we kind of overdo. It's just our nature as service providers to be kind of people pleasers, and we do things to an extent sometimes that overextends us, and we lose money in the process. So I'm going to go over a few things that are very common that I've done myself that you should catch yourself doing and probably find a way to kind of stop that either gradually or immediately. Something that I've kind of broken the habit of is going back without charging the customer. This can become very habit-forming for the customer where the cleaner is not working and they call you. Let's say your service day is Tuesday, Wednesday they call you saying, hey, the automatic cleaner is not moving, can you come back and fix it? Now, back in the old days, I used to swing back around and just take it out, see what was wrong, and fix it. But I realized over time that this was creating a bad habit with the customer. So everything that happened, they thought I would come back during the week and fix. And it's not something that you should be doing. Now, of course, if you're in the area and your route loops around, you can pop in. And in some situations, it is appropriate to go back and fix something. Let's say you left the timer, you know, in service mode, which has happened to me, or you forgot to do something, and you should go back and correct that. That's perfectly acceptable. But I'm talking about return visits that really serve no purpose, and you're kind of at the beck and call of the customer at that point, and there's no actual service day at this point, and you're doing extra services that you're not getting paid for. And one of my group members solved this problem really easily with his customers. It's it's uh it's something that you can implement easily, and that is tell the customer, sure, I can go back there on Thursday to take care of it. And then after you do that, you invoice them for your service call rate, whatever it is,$95,$120, and then you zero it out saying this is a courtesy visit that you went back and no charge, but any future visits for non-emergency situations will be a service charge of$95. And so you zero out the invoice, but the customer clearly knows now that going back to fix something that's not a major emergency, you know, if the filter's cracked and leaking, of course, you should go there and fix that without charging them. But if they call you for anything that's minor, they'll know, okay, yeah, I can't do this because I'm gonna be charged X amount of money for this, and I don't want to be going, I'm I don't want to pay this. It's a method that makes a lot of sense. It's easier than telling a customer, oh, I'm gonna charge you next time I come out there. If they actually physically see the invoice as zeroed out, they'll get the point very clearly that you're not at their beck and call and you're not gonna return for every little thing. Now, I get asked a lot, like, what happens if you get to the customer's house and a gate is locked? Do you come back and service that pool later in the day? And my answer to you, if the pool is going to survive a week without service, I don't generally come back and service the pool. Now, the first time it happens, I'll let the customer know that as a courtesy, I'll come back during the week and do it. But if it happens again, I'm not able to do that without charging them because I'm you know really busy and I have to come back down this way to do your pool. Sometimes I'll wait there a few minutes and they're able to get someone to come unlock it, or they'll come and unlock it. Or if I'm nearby, I'll do a stop and come back. But I let I'll let them know that if it happens again, unfortunately, because of my schedule and um, you know, I'm busy and there's no free time during the rest of the week to really come back, that I'll have to skip it and do it the following week, and they're gonna, of course, get billed for it. And people don't like paying for things they're not getting, and so they'll be more conscientious about leaving the gate unlocked. There are a few customers that are extremely paranoid and they like to unlock the gate during the service day and not give you the combination or the key. I don't know what it is, but you you'll run into that out there. Trust me, there'll be a few of these kind of hyper paranoid people that won't let you in their backyard unless they're present. So it's part of, of course, the price they pay if they forget, and therefore you're going to have to train them not to forget that, of course, or you're gonna just skip it. Sometimes the entrance is obstructed by something. It's not a common thing that happens, but it has happened to me where they were doing something, maybe they had their jet skis and they're blocking the gate, you can't get in. That's also something that you tell the customer, you know, the first time that happens as a courtesy, you can you could probably come back, you know, sometime during the week, but normally you can't do that without charging it for return visit. That'll stop the customers from leaving junk and blocking the gates on you, which does happen on occasion as well. You're basically training the customer that a return visit is going to cost money, or if you can't access the pool, you're gonna skip it that week and make up whatever cleaning is necessary the following week. Here's one that I've been very guilty of, and something that you have to fight yourself to do, and that is spending too much time cleaning a pool that's beyond the normal wear and tear, I guess, or the normal amount of debris that normally falls in there. And this could happen in a number of circumstances. They may have the trees trimmed that day or that week and the tree trimmer left a bunch of junk in there, or you may have had a mild windstorm and the pool got kind of toasted. Now, you shouldn't be spending more than a set amount of time at each pool, no matter what. And I talk about this all the time when you're dealing with the winds, you know, 25 minutes is your maximum at each pool because you have to drive between stops and get your pool route done before the sun sets. So you can't spend 30, 40, 50 minutes, an hour cleaning a pool, especially if it's been hit by a windstorm. So the customers need to be trained that you're not gonna stay there and get the pool spotless for them. Invariably, what happens anyway is that it's gonna rain that following day or a few days later, or another windstorm hits, and so it's really futile if we just spend all that time there cleaning it anyway, and it's not part of your normal service. If you get a major windstorm, you should have a service agreement. I have a one-page agreement, you can get it from me if you email me at swimming at david at swimming poollearning.com. That's David at swimmingpoollearning.com. I'll get you that one page agreement, and it has a wind policy in there where it says it will take sometimes up to three weeks to get the pool back in shape. And the customer needs to be educated that you are on a timer, you can't spend 50 minutes at their pool because you're never gonna finish your route and you'll be doing your last pools with the pool light on, or you're gonna put them on the next day, which you're kind of setting yourself up for a disaster if you have three pools left at the end of the day you couldn't get to, and you're moving them from like a Wednesday to a Thursday, then you're never gonna finish your Thursday pools or your Friday pools. So set a mental limit of 25 minutes if the pool has been hit by a windstorm or if they need some kind of special cleanup because you can't spend that time there. Now, of course, during normal normal circumstances where it's just an isolated pool where they had the tree trimmers trim, you can spend a little extra time, but I would not spend an hour there or an hour and a half getting that pool cleaned up. And believe me, sometimes I've been to pools where the tree trimmers left such a mess that yes, an hour would be probably how long it would take to clean it up. So I'll just clean the surface debris and I'll get the leaves off the bottom. I'll tell the customer that you know the tree trimmers made a mess. They probably should have covered the pool, they didn't, and I'll be back the following week to vacuum up the rest of it. And I did the best I could within 40 minutes, whatever you want to give them extra time, that's fine. But it should not be a habit of extra time, especially if the pool is one where there's a lot of leaf debris every week and you're spending extra time there all the time without charging. You should set your rates accordingly so that if you do have a pool with heavy debris, it's not gonna be$180 like the other pools on your route. It'll be more like$250 because of the extra time you're spending there, or whatever your rate is, add a little more to it for those pools that take longer, and you know which pools those are, and so you kind of have to figure out you know how you want to set your rates. They're gonna vary pool to pool in some cases, and that's one area where it should vary. Another area is when we shock a pool or add extra chemicals without passing the charge on to the customer. Now, sometimes you feel obligated to do this, and it's okay if there's a new customer and you know, maybe they've left the pump off all week, you know, they were using their pool, they forgot to turn the VS pump back on, or they left the pool in spa mode and the pool has some algae in it, and you add three gallons of liquid chlorine. Now, new customer, I would let them know that you know I shocked the pool, took care of the algae, but if there's any kind of if this happens in the future where you have to treat the pool for something that is of course not your fault, then you're gonna charge them. You'll have to charge them for the cost of the cleanup, the cost of the chemicals and the algae side. And this is something that you have to let them know ahead of time. This also kind of comes into play with those really heavy use pools out there where the kids are in there and their friends are in there all summer and the pool's being killed week in and week out. The maintenance dose of chlorine is not going to keep this pool in shape. And so, what I usually do is buy a bucket of calhypo, you know, a 50-pound bucket, leave it at the pool, or you can buy bags of calhypo, however you want to do it, or you can stack, you know, two cases of liquid chlorine there, whatever you want to do. But the point is the customer is paying for those chemicals and you're not taking it out of your pocket because that's an unusual situation where the kids are killing the pool each week, and also when there's algae or something wrong with the pool, and it's not your fault, that also falls in that category of it's on the customer at that point, and they should pay for that. So don't add anything to the pool besides maybe a courtesy one-time thing, and always charge extra for those pools or leave chemicals and charge the customer. I should say, that's kind of what I do. It's easier to sell that to them than to raise their rate in a lot of cases. You know, if you're doing the pool for 200 and you're like, hey, since you guys are killing the pool, I'm gonna charge you 230. But it's better just to keep the rate the same, but charge them for the chemicals and leave them there. Basically, anything extra you add to the pool, phosphorylmovers, enzymes, pool RX, anything like borates, whatever you're adding to the pool. There's not a maintenance dose, you know, of acid and chlorine. You're going to charge the customer for the three-inch trichlor tablets. I always charge the customer retail price or a little bit below retail price if they don't want to get it themselves for a bucket of tablets and leave it at the stop by the equipment area with a lid securely on, of course. And it's perfectly fine to pass on those chemical charges to the customers. In my opinion, that's kind of the way it has to be because you're going to lose money on those pools that you know have problems that aren't caused by you or have heavy usage. These last two are kind of area dependent, and I think you should be charging for filter cleaning. If you have the larger D filters or the quad cartridge filters, there should be an extra charge for cleaning the filters twice a year or every four months, however, you want to set up your model. But typically, here the charge for filter cleaning is anywhere from$85 to$120 to clean the filter, take it apart, clean it, put it back together. And some areas of Florida you may want to include it because you have the single cartridge filter that you're cleaning every month or so, and it's hard to bill if you're you know kind of cleaning it all the time. But for the larger filters of the areas of the larger filters, I definitely would suggest implementing a filter cleaning charge. It's kind of customary here in Southern California, so it's to be expected the customers aren't going to be shocked by it because most companies do charge extra for filter cleanings. Now, the salt cell cleaning also kind of falls into that category. Some areas, if the water is really soft and there's not a lot of calcium, you're not really taking the salt cells apart a lot, maybe every six months here in my area, but every four months we're cleaning the salt cells. A lot of companies have implemented a charge for that. They'll charge the customer for the cleaning anywhere from$25 to$45 because it does take time. You have to take the cell off, you have to soak it in the water acid mixture, put it back together. Sometimes putting the cell on is a headache, and it's one of those things that does take some time. Now, what I do a lot is I'll clean the filter and clean the salt cell at the same time. And I generally don't charge for the salt cell cleaning when I clean the filter in the salt cell with you know in conjunction with each other, but you can charge for the salt cell cleaning because it will take you some time. And you know, a lot of pool guys don't charge because we're there cleaning the pool while it's soaking in the acid water mix, it's not a big deal to us to do that. Others charge because they feel like it's a service that has value to it, and it's something that is really up to you to do. If you feel like it's not really taking up too much of your time to do, and you want to make it part of the service for the salt pools, you can you're welcome to do that. And if you want to charge for it, you're also welcome to do that because it is an extra service that you're providing for the customer that has a salt water generator. Cleaning the salt cells is something that you're going to do for them, and it's something that you may want to charge for, and it's something I think that is somewhat area dependent. I think in my area it's about 50-50 that are charging for salt cell cleanings and those that don't, so you can implement that as well. Whatever you feel like you need to charge for, it's your business, and you should charge for whatever you feel that is necessary. And I wouldn't, you know, say one way is better than another, but there are certain things that I think really hurt your bottom line, and that is of course putting extra chemicals in the pool, not charging for the filter cleaning, the time you spend doing that, and in a lot of cases not charging for the salt cell cleaning, which does consume your time out there, especially if you have employees doing it, they would want to be compensated for the little extra work they're doing to clean that salt cell, and it kind of motivates them to actually do that, you know, the check to cell, take it apart and clean it. So these are all things that I've seen happen out there, and I think you can overdo it with the customers in a lot of cases pretty easily if you're not careful and watchful of your own time, and of course, your profit margin when you're when you're allowing them to have free chemicals. That's not a good thing overall for business. It's like it's not like the restaurants that charge for like ranch sauce or extra sauces. There's a food cost there. It's really different. You're charging for your time and you're charging for your services that you're providing for the customer. If you're looking for the podcast, you can find those by going to my website, swingingpoolearning.com. On the banner, there's a podcast icon. Click on that, there'll be a drop-down menu, over 1800 podcasts for you there. And if you're interested in the coaching program that I offer, you can learn more at PoolGuyCoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have a rest of your week and God bless.