The Truth About “Budget” Pool Customers

Ever had a client say, “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” while you stare at a rusted filter and a pump on life support? We’ve been there. This episode breaks down the real-world tactics we use to manage budget-conscious pool owners without sacrificing water quality, service standards, or our sanity. From aging equipment that “still runs” to two-hour runtimes in peak summer, we unpack where to accommodate and where to draw a hard line.

We start with the classic dilemmas: old pumps, rebuild-only requests, and short warranties that shift risk onto your shoulders. Then we move into strategy. We explain why automatic cleaners are a cornerstone of our business model, how they slash vacuum time and keep pools clean between visits, and what to offer when clients hate the look of hoses in a designer pool. We also tackle runtime math—why circulation beats chemical band-aids—and show you how to present costs and benefits in clear, simple terms that build trust.

We round it out with boundaries that protect both sides. You’ll hear our policy for DIY filter cleaning and how to handle missed cleanings without drama, plus the exact offboarding language we use when a client won’t align with the basics. The theme is simple: set expectations, document options, and know when to walk away. If 10 percent of your clients create 90 percent of your stress, pruning that 10 percent can make your route faster, cleaner, and far more profitable.

If you’re ready to streamline your pool service, reduce callbacks, and work with clients who value your expertise, this conversation lays out the playbook. 

• defining budget-conscious clients and why they strain service
• examples of old equipment, rebuilds, and warranty limits
• bending where it helps versus where it harms
• runtime minimums and why chemicals can’t replace circulation
• automatic cleaners as a core business rule
• aesthetic objections and robotic alternatives
• DIY filter cleaning pitfalls and firm maintenance policies
• graceful offboarding scripts to avoid conflict
• the 10 perc

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Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Topic Setup
• 2:26 Who Budget Clients Are
• 3:46 Old Equipment And “If It’s Not Broken”
• 5:51 Rebuilding Motors And Warranties
• 7:10 Bending To Keep The Account
• 8:36 Low Runtime And Unsustainable Service
• 10:12 Letting Clients Go Gracefully
• 11:50 Cleaners As A Core Business Rule
• 14:19 Aesthetic Objections And Robotic Options
• 15:54 Demo Cleaners And Time Savings
• 16:57 The “I’ll Clean My Own Filter” Trap
• 18:37 Resources And Coaching CTA

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 1:03

Hey, welcome to the Pool Grey Podcast Show. In this episode, I'm going to talk about customers that I guess for all better terms, I'll just say that they're budget conscious. There's another word for it, but I don't want to use it because people I've gotten pushback when I say this in my podcast, and people get offended when I use this word. But these budget conscious customers, and I'll give you some tips on how to really work with them on your pool route. And of course, there may come a time where you just have to let them go. 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 swimmingpoollearning.com. And so these budget conscious clients come in all shapes and forms. You're going to find that there could be multimillionaires, which for some reason seems to be the bulk of these particular clients. There could be people on a tight budget struggling to make ends meet, which is a percentage of these clients as well. Could also be a cultural thing where saving money is kind of ingrained in their culture. Regardless of where they're coming from, I think the element is always going to be the same, or the element you're dealing with is always going to be the same, and that is the frustration it creates in your business. And this is a real thing to where you may even lose your temper at some point because it gets to the ridiculous level to where you're thinking, who would, you know, consider something like this? I'll give you a few examples of things that I've run into before. And this one is, you know, typical. The pool equipment is really old, and you approach the client, you know, hey, your pool pump. You may take on the account thinking they're going to upgrade, and you they never will upgrade in some cases, but you approach them saying the pool pump is really on the last leg and the filter needs to be replaced. And the first thing that this customer said to me was, Well, is it broken? And you know, that's when you're you know you're in trouble at that point because they have the old adage, if it's not broken, don't fix it. I said, Well, it's still working, but it's at a point where it's not really pulling the water well. I can't really manual vacuum the pool that well. And of course, there the first thing he said to me is, Well, I don't really care too much about how the pool looks actually. I just want to make sure that it's blue. So if it's a little dirty all the time, it's not a big deal. Again, can't win there because my argument that I can't clean the pool properly is gone at that point. And then, of course, the filter was an old uh CM filter. You know, it was before Pentair Bottom, and it's it was really hard to put together because it's it was just old and a terrible filter as far as condition goes, it was rust all inside it. The customer I showed him like all the stuff that was wrong with it. He's like, Well, I mean, you can still clean it and it still operates, right? Again, can't win there because it was operating even though it took me longer, you know, to do things with it. And anyway, long story short, nothing was replaced and the equipment limped along. Finally, the motor burned out like a year later, and that was a pretty easy sell in some respects. First question he had was can you rebuild it? Now, you can rebuild motors to a point. The biggest uh reason why you can't rebuild the bearings is if you can't get the motor apart properly. So if it's really old and rusted, chances are you're not gonna be able to take it apart properly to put the new bearings in. So, of course, there's a point where you can't even rebuild the motor. And even in that case, most places where they rebuild them give you a three-month warranty. So there's no guarantee that it's gonna hold up. There's a lot of factors that cause the bearings to overheat and the coils, and so you know, rebuilding it, yes, if they are insisting on it, you can do that, but you can also let them know that there's really not a lot of guarantee with that, and a lot of people will just have you rebuild them, which is weird, but you could take it in and get it rebuilt, and they may ask for a used motor. Again, it's one of those things where if they really are budget conscious, you have to just go along with it and get a used motor at that point and put it in. If you want to keep that client, that is. And I think this leads to the first point here, or bullet point number one, is you have to kind of bend to the budget conscious client so that you can keep the account again if you want it and make them happy. It may be frustrating for you. Yes, it's very frustrating, but if you understand where they're coming from, this is just their way of life. This is how they operate, this is how they become a millionaire by just being budget conscious. So don't take it personal. It's they do this with everything, and you'll probably see it around their property, you know, things that should be replaced or just repaired, things are kind of put together in a way that you kind of scratch your head. But as long as you realize that this is kind of how they are, and it's nothing against your business or your business model, because you like to sell new equipment, you like everything running, you like the pool looking great. I had this doctor on my route who fought me tooth and nail with his runtime, and he never used a pool. He always joked about filling it in with dirt. He regretted building a pool. He's been in this house forever. You really can't keep a pool totally algae-free and clean with a two-hour runtime in the summer, and he was fine with extra chemicals being put in this pool. I try to give him a math equation, like, hey, you know, uh, you know, me charging you extra for these chemicals and and all the algorithms and whatnot is probably more than running your pool. He was really opposed to even getting a variable speed pump. He didn't want to spend the money on that. He didn't buy the fact that within like a two-year period or a year and a half period, you're gonna get your money back. Because running the pool two hours a day saves him a lot of money. And you know, it's it was to a point where it was a struggle to maintain the pool. Eventually, you know, you have to let certain clients go because it's not sustainable, and this is something that you also have to understand. So, bullet point two would be there comes a point where you just let the customer go, and of course, you let them off nicely. You don't say that because you know you're you're unwilling to spend money on your pool or you're unwilling to run the pool a proper amount of time, I have to cancel service. I think that may be offensive to some people that are budget budget conscious and you don't want to offend them because then of course they may leave a negative review online. I simply tell them that I'm overbooked, I have too many service accounts, and I'm consolidating my pool route. And unfortunately, I have to let certain clients go. I hate to lose customers, but I just have too many clients at this point, and your pool is one of the pools that I'll have to let go. And if you want me to refer someone to you, and by the way, you know, don't refer somebody if you don't really want someone else taking the pool, just them just let them know that you don't really know anyone else in the area, the service is pools, and they can go on to Yelp and look for somebody. And it's one of those things where you may get to that point where letting them go is your only option. Unfortunately, that does happen, and I've had to let a few customers go over the years because I just couldn't deal with the pool in the condition it was in, with the fact that they were unwilling to spend even a dime on their pool, which is unfortunate, but it does happen out there. And of course, if you've been doing service long enough, you've run into these people that just like like to spend zero money on their pool. Here's another one that you may run into. This was someone who was pretty wealthy, it was not quite a rental, it was just a pool that it's just a home that she had for adult kids, had a pool, and of course the adult kids couldn't take care of it, so I was doing the pool service for the pool, and I recommended an automatic cleaner for the pool. And of course, the first thing she said was, I don't need it, I have you, I don't need an automatic cleaner, and so there's no need to have this machine in my pool. And I gave her a really good price on one. I think I quoted her like 250 for something that I would lose money on because I know how she is, and again, that's another thing that you have to realize is that if you're losing money on these clients, it may not be worth it. And I just was kind of new, and I didn't really care if I lost a few, you know, 20-30 bucks on a cleaner. I just wanted to get one in the pool, and of course, she refused to put a cleaner in because she didn't want to spend the money on it and because I'm doing the pool. So, bullet point number three is that you may have customers that are budget conscious that are contrary to your business model. So, my business model is that every pool on my route has an automatic cleaner, without exception. It's one of those things where the automatic cleaner does two things for your pool route. One, it keeps the pool clean all week long. Basically, you're there for 20 minutes and the gardener comes, the wind blows. You can't be there maintaining the pool all week long. Automatic cleaner, a suction side cleaner or a pressure side cleaner will keep the pool clean all the time out there for you, basically, if you have the right setup. And that means that when you get to the pool for your weekly service, you're not needing to do a full manual vacuuming of the pool, which saves you time and effort. And if you multiply that over 80 pools, it does make a huge difference out in your pool route where you just spot vacuuming pools, getting the areas where the cleaner misses. Of course, the cleaner gets clogged up with debris sometimes, and you have to clean the pool and get it back in shape. You know, different things happen, but an automatic cleaner is part of the business model. So sometimes a customer that is unwilling to buy into your business model is a customer that you have to move out of your pool service because you don't want to make any exceptions really to your business model. Maybe something different. It may be that you want the customer to maintain the proper water level, which is another thing that is a problem with people that don't want to spend money, or you may want the customer to run the pool a certain amount of time, and that is part of your business model. If they don't agree with that, you wouldn't service the pool. But automatic, an automatic cleaner in the pool is something that is part of what I want my customers to agree to, and so this customer not agreeing to it. You know, once you get an account and you can use the one-for-one rule, you get an account with an automatic cleaner. You can just get rid of the one that is refusing to have that cleaner put in their pool. Now, there's other reasons why they refuse besides budget. I should say this too. You may get someone who doesn't want it in their pool because they don't like how it looks. This is very common for a really pretty pool. And I agree, it doesn't look that great in there if it's an infinity-edge pool and it looks beautiful, then you have this cleaner in there with the hoses. For those clients, you can sell them, of course, a cordless robotic pool cleaner or a corded one that you could put on a program and they could take it out of the pool when you're using it. But there are options for those that don't like the look of it. There's definitely options of cordless cleaners or cleaners that you can put in for a weekly cycle and pull out of the pool. It's a bit of a hurdle sometimes for those clients, but the ones that, of course, are pushing back because of the cost of it, and sometimes I'll throw in a demo cleaner and just let it ride in the pool without even charging the customer. I use a lot of Hayward Navigators and I just throw them in the pool. For those clients that don't mind the automatic cleaner but don't want to pay for it, and it's one of those things that saves me time, so I I don't really mind sometimes just putting one in for certain clients. I'll put an old Zodiac Ranger in and just call it a day at that point. And this last one really bothers me the most, and it may not bother you as much as it bothers me, but it are it is those clients that want to clean their own filter. They don't mind you doing the pool service, and they're fine with you charging a monthly for pool service, but when it comes to the 95 or$110 filter cleaning charge, they don't want to pay that. And I've had a customer that was extremely insistent on cleaning his own filter. It was a quad D filter, and he was, I clean this thing, I don't want you to clean it, I don't want you to charge me to clean it. If you charge me to clean the filter, I'm gonna cancel service. That's how adamant he was about him cleaning his own filter. And of course, you know exactly what happens when the customer says they're gonna clean their own filter. So it came time for the filter cleaning. I clean my filters February, March, and then again in September, October. So September rolls around and I just message him saying, Oh, it's time to clean your filter. You know, this is the time, the six-month period where you clean your filter, and then he'll message me back, which is typical of someone like this that's doing their own filter. Sure, I'll I'll clean it this weekend. And of course, I get there the following service day, week, and the filter hasn't been cleaned. He didn't do it over the weekend. Then I'll message him again saying, Oh, just a reminder to clean your filter. He'll be he'll say something like, Oh yeah, I just got busy and I'll I'll definitely do it next weekend. A week goes by, you get there the next time, you know where this is going. And this is a pattern that develops with with the customers that are insistent on cleaning their own filters. It makes maintaining the pool really hard for you. And it's one of those things where it should be something that you do if you're doing if you have the full-size filters like we have here in California, quad D filters, D filters, the quad cartridge filters. This is something that's important to maintain the pool. So the last bullet point here is I really wouldn't advise letting the customer do anything that affects the quality of the pool, in this case, cleaning the filter. You know, if they insist on cleaning the salt cell or maintaining the salt cell or the filter, these are things that affect your ability to keep the pool clean and really affect how the pool looks, and I would not leave it in the customer's hands. And so if they really are insistent on cleaning their own filter, I'll give them the benefit of the doubt. But it's one of those things where I'll let them know too that if it gets to a point where I have to clean the filter, I'm going to do it. The threat to cancel really is not something that he went through with because I actually had to clean his filter and I billed him for it. He was a little bit upset, but he kind of understood that he didn't have time to do it. And I think he cleaned it subsequently the next time, then he missed another one. And eventually the pool was not worth it to me, limping along on a filter. You know, the quad D filter had no backwash, and so it was one of those things where the flow was affected, everything was just deteriorating to the point where I could not keep this account on service. So you're gonna run into these situations with these budget conscious clients out there, dealing with them in different ways, but ultimately, ultimately, the end result or the best way to deal with them is to eventually move them off your route and get a better client because it is frustrating. I'll admit that everything I stated here, all these things that happen are frustrating. It should be frustrating to you as well. And I think the frustration is the biggest thing that you're dealing with here when you're dealing with these kind of customers. And at some point, you're gonna have to realize that 90% of the problems on your pool route come from just 10% of your clients. Getting rid of those 10% is basically gonna make your pool route 100% enjoyable. And a lot of that 10%, unfortunately, are these budget conscious clients out there. If you're looking for other podcasts, you can go to my website, SunlyPorlearning.com, on the banner. Click on the podcast icon. There'll be a drop down menu with over 1800 podcasts for you to listen to at your leisure. And if you're interested in a coaching program that I offer you can learn more at coolguycoaching.com. Thanks for listening to this podcast. Have you rest of your week and God bless.