Poolside Problems: Managing Difficult Clients Like a Pro

A customer tells you “no” on a repair you know matters. Now what? We dig into the uncomfortable but real part of running a pool service business: handling resistant customers who don’t want to fix equipment, don’t want to spend money, or don’t understand the risk you’re trying to prevent. I walk through how I think about customer service in a safety-driven trade, and why the phrase “the customer is always right” can be dangerously incomplete when you’re dealing with pressurized systems, electricity, and chemicals.

We start with a scenario that every pool pro eventually faces: a cracked pool filter. What looks like a small crack can become a serious hazard under pressure, and I share a simple analogy that helps homeowners finally grasp the stakes. We also talk about the practical side of repairs, including why swapping only the top or bottom of a filter can be a bad bet, and why sometimes the only responsible recommendation is a full replacement.

Not every customer refusal requires you to walk away, so we contrast safety-critical issues with more flexible ones, like a dead salt cell on a saltwater chlorine generator. If the customer won’t replace it, we cover how to convert to a chlorine pool, what to watch for with salt levels and total dissolved solids, and how setting expectations up front can prevent surprises later. Then we zoom out to route management: the one-for-one rule, how to gracefully drop a difficult account, and why trees, debris, and ancient equipment can quietly destroy your schedule.

If you want clearer boundaries, better client conversations, and a stronger pool service route, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a pool pro who needs it, and leave a review with your toughest customer pushback story.

• why “the customer is always right” breaks down in pool service, plumbing, and electrical work
• how to explain a cracked pool filter as a serious safety hazard
• why replacing only the filter top or bottom often makes little sense
• when customer refusal forces you to discontinue service
• how to handle a dead salt cell by converting to a chlorine pool
• how to set expectations when selling a saltwater system, including salt cell lifespan and replacement cost
• using the one-for-one rule to drop unworkable accounts
• how untrimmed trees can make weekly maintenance unrealistic
• when old pumps and filters turn a pool into a time sink 

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Transcript

Coaching Program And Quick Sponsor Note

Why The Customer Isn’t Always Right

Cracked Filters And Real Injury Risk

When Refusal Means Ending Service

Dead Salt Cells And Conversion Options

One For One Rule For Clients

Trees, Debris, And Maintenance Limits

Old Equipment That Drains Your Time

Wrap Up And Where To Learn

SPEAKER_00 1:03

Hi, welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show. In this episode, I'm going to talk a little bit about how you deal with customers that are resistant, and these are customers that don't want something fixed, or they may be resistant to other things that you're suggesting to them with their particular pool, and things that do need to be addressed, and that's why, of course, you're bringing it up, and sometimes you're going to face resistance to this. 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. Of course, it's important to remember that you are in a service business and the customer in the service business is always right. And that saying, of course, really opens up a can of worms because the customer may not have the correct information to make their decision. They may be making this decision based on monetary factors, and they may be making a decision that is actually a safety risk for them and their families and for yourself as you take care of the pool. So just saying the customer is always right is something that, of course, is the moniker of customer service, but there is something to be said about the pool service industry and any other industry like plumbing or electric electricians that makes this a little bit different. It's not a hotel you're operating or a restaurant or a retail store. And I'm not even sure where this customer's all right came from. I think it's just an attitude that you're supposed to have towards the customer to make them feel like they're empowered. And of course, everyone wants to feel this way. When you go to a restaurant and they burned your steak and you want them to recook it, you're right they burned the steak. And it's you're kind of right you're paying for it to get it re-cooked. But in the pool industry and electricians and plumbing, there is a built-in safety factor that you have to understand regarding yes, the customer doesn't want to do something, but there is a risk on the other end of it that potentially could be harmful. I'll give you this example. Let's say that you discover that the filter has a crack in it. This happens a lot out there, and it seems to be something where the customer thinks, well, if there's a crack, it's not a big deal. But it's just like anything, the if if they if their gas tank had a crack in it, they probably wouldn't drive their car because the the car could catch on fire. And the same thing with the pool filter, with a small crack in there, it's going to expand, and there's a potential for it with all the high pressure, and there's a lot of pressure under the filter, by the way. I've heard stories of people that had not put the clamp on correctly, and the filter lid exploded off and blew over to the other side of the house. And of course, if you look at the filter, there's a picture of someone being killed basically when that filter lid pops off. So if there's a crack in the filter, there is the potential for this safety hazard. And customers are resistant to replace it because it doesn't look like it's a big deal. You know, it's a crack, sometimes it's a pinhole crack, sometimes a small amount of water is tripping out of a hole. And to to replace the entire filter because of that doesn't seem logical to a lot of people, but just use the gas tank analogy. If your car had a you know a hole in the gas tank, would you drive it, even if it was a pinhole? If they have an electric car, I guess you can say, you know, if the battery, if the battery had a small acid leak and it was starting to, you know, get out of whatever, you know, the those batteries are pretty large. Would you drive that car still? Same thing with your pool filter. Would you run the pool, knowing that there's a potential for this thing to explode and leak water? Of course, is the one thing. The second thing is if someone's standing there at that time, it could be really a dangerous situation. It is something to really emphasize. Now, the options for the customer, in my opinion, are pretty limited. If it's if the crack is on top, generally you can get into their top portion, but they don't match too well when they manufacture these filters, they're manufactured together. And I've replaced tops before that didn't exactly match the bottom perfectly. The bottom filter crack, the same thing you're gonna have an issue with matching the top of the old filter. The problem is the cost of just buying the top or bottom is almost prohibitive, you know, when you buy one or the other. The manufacturer doesn't really sell these like this to make money, and the profit margin is is one of those things where you know if you buy the whole filter intact, you pay more, but if you buy one component, it's it's not economical. So I usually just try to sell the customer an entirely new filter at that point and explain to them that you know there's not much they can do about it, and if they want to replace the top, you can do that or the bottom, but there there is no guarantee that the pieces will fit together properly. And you have an older top, or maybe a if the if the bottom cracked or top cracked, you have an older bottom with a new top. It doesn't make a lot of sense to put a new top on a 10-year-old filter, or a new bottom on a 10-year-old filter, 8-year-old filter, however old it is. It's better to get a whole entire new filter. This does take convincing, and if the customer does refuse to do the replacement, you already know the hazard of it. There's really not much you can do as far as like having him sign a waiver or you recording and documenting this because you're continuing the service of the pool at this point, and if something were to happen, I believe liability would fall on you. And so you want to make sure that if the customer refuses to do that, you would probably have very limited options on your end. The best option would be to discontinue service until they replace it. Unfortunately, that's where you have to go, in my opinion, as a safety precaution for you yourself, and for any kind of potential hazard or liability in that case. And you know, this let the customer know that since the filter is cracked, they don't want to fix it, you'll have to stop service because of liability concerns. And sometimes that moves them, sometimes it doesn't. But the new pool companies are gonna come and discover the filter has a crack in it, and they probably shouldn't take that account. But there are some customers that will just not be reasonable at this point, and your option, in my opinion, is just to stop service at that point. There are other less dramatic equipment problems that wouldn't require you to stop service. I'll give you an example. Let's say that the customer has a salt water system, the salt cell has passed away, it expired, no longer working. We call that a dead cell, and they refuse to replace it. And I I get it, I mean, you know, some of the assault cells, especially the you know, the intellichlore cells, can't be cost prohibitive, you know,$1,000 for a new cell, somewhere in that price range. Doesn't make a lot of sense to the customer when you can just use trichlor tablets or calhypo tablets or liquid chlorine or calhypo to maintain the pool. And it would take you many seasons to get to that thousand dollar price tag. So I understand the pushback. And a lot of times when they buy the salt system or get it installed, they're not really aware of the fact that the salt cell is a wear product, it's not really mentioned a lot when the people sell it. I always tell the customer look, if you're gonna get a salt water system installed, just be aware that the salt cell is only rated for about 10,000 hours and it may last just about three or four years, and you got to replace it. And here is the cost of the salt cell currently to replace it. Who knows what it's gonna be in four years? Of course, you don't know. Just give them the current price and let them know that this is a potential in the future, and that way they're completely aware of the of everything that goes with the cell. You don't have to make a big deal out of it. The way I do it is I just when I sell my salt system, I say the cell is actually aware part, it's rated for about 10,000 hours, and just be aware that you're gonna have to replace it. And your particular cell costs$900 to replace, but you know, that's in the future. This is gonna save, of course, a lot of money on chemicals at this point. I won't need to you won't need to put a lot of chlorine in the pool, and this is gonna produce the chlorine for you at the at the pool. And most customers are okay with that. No one really thinks too far ahead. It's like when you buy, you know, if you lease a vehicle, you know, you drive it for three years, and you already know when you leased it at the dealer that there's a residual of you know$38,000 or$40,000. You don't really care too much at that point because you're just driving it for the three or four years, and you figure you'll get to that point and figure out what you're gonna do then. Same thing with a salt system, not quite at that high level of cost, but it's the same kind of attitude where people don't think too much about what happens three or four years down the road. But the salt cell will die and will need to be replaced. A lot of customers refuse to do that. Would I stop service? I wouldn't. I would just turn it into a chlorine pool at that point. If they don't want to replace the cell, that's really up to them, and you can't force the issue. You'll just have to convert that pool to a chlorine pool. You may have to drain half the water out of that pool, you have to let them know that there may be a partial drain needed to reduce the salt level in the pool because the total dissolved solids is too high to maintain it. But in a lot of cases, when the salt cell dies and the salt level is at 3,000 parts per million, you can pretty easily convert that to a chlorine pool. Salt is probably one of the least factors and total dissolved solids that affects the pool. And I've easily converted pools with dead cells to chlorine pools, no problem. It's kind of a bummer, but it does happen out there, and it's not something that you know it is something you can avoid. You can try to sell them a new cell, you can you can look at off-market cells, which sometimes are hit and miss, but ultimately if they want to switch to a chlorine pool because they don't want to replace a salt cell, there'sn't a lot you can do as a pool service provider. There's a couple more that are a little bit in the category of you may want to stop service when you do the one-for-one rule, and this is when you get a new account that's really good, maybe it's got a lot of cement on the deck, no trees around, the customer is really nice, and you just picked up the account, and you have an account that you don't really like for various reasons, but a lot of it has to do with the customer, not addressing issues, then you may want to drop that pool. And the way I usually drop the pools is by telling the customer that you know I don't tell them anything about their pool because you don't want to get any kind of pushback or negative reviews. I just let them know that unfortunately I'm overbooked, I have too many accounts, and I'm consolidating, and I'll have to stop service on your pool. And if the pool is something you can recommend, you can always say, I can recommend to someone else to service it. If it's something you don't want to recommend, you can just say, I don't really know anyone in this area that can service pool. You can go on Yelp and try to find a new pool service provider, but at the end of the month, I'm gonna have to stop service on your pool, and it goes off pretty well. Your people understand when you're overbooked and overworked, and they'll let you off the hook at that point. So this one here would be one that you may want to consider not going forward with service. And this is if the pool has if the yard has a lot of trees in it, and the customer refuses to trim the trees, and these pools are really tough because you know, first rain, first windstorm, everything gets blown out of the trees into the pool. And during the week, a lot of debris will fall into the pool, and trimming the trees actually moves the needle tremendously in the case where you have trees around the pool or near the pool, and you know they need to be trimmed, and the customer refuses to trim them for various reasons. I mean, it's not cheap to have trees trimmed, especially in areas like mine, where just trimming one small tree is like three or four hundred dollars. If they have six or seven of them, you're looking at two or three thousand dollars. But trimming the trees does really have a positive effect on the pool. And so if you notice that the trees need to be trimmed, it's a good idea just to message the customer saying, you know, the pool is getting a little out of hand with the leaf debris, and you know, I know that you haven't trimmed the trees in about three years, and is there any way you would it be possible for you to schedule a tree trimming because the pool is becoming harder and harder to maintain? Now, of course, logically, if you drop this pool a month or two from now, they're gonna understand your reasoning, even if you say you're consolidating, they'll they'll know that you were complaining about the trees not being trimmed because they haven't trimmed it, and then you stop service. They could probably put two and two together, but a lot of customers don't go that far, especially when they don't want to spend money on tree trimming. You can just let them know that you're not no longer able to service the pool. But I get a lot of this, and I've had experience over the years with customers that just flat out refuse to trim their trees, and unfortunately, the only option for me, the only viable option, is to discontinue service when I get a really good account that will replace that account. Really old equipment is another thing that you have to deal with, and this is something that is a case-by-case thing. If it's a pool pump that's not really efficient, you know, I've had many pumps where I can't even manually vacuum the pool if I wanted to, because once you connect the vacuum hose to it, there's really no suction, and it's it's just useless to even try to manually vacuum a pool. Fortunately, in this day and age, there's a lot of tools available where manual vacuum a pool is not completely necessary. You know, you have the Vac Daddy, you have the bottom feeder with the cartridge filter assembly, and you have a lot of different various battery-operated cleaners like the WaterTech Precision version 10, where manual in the pool isn't entirely necessary. So that's not necessarily a deal breaker, in my opinion. But if the equipment is really old and you're struggling to maintain the pool, you're adding extra chemicals, you're spending extra time there, then that does become a problem. You know, a really old filter, again, a really old pump that's not really pulling the water very well. I've had pools and very rare now with brass pumps, and those tend to wear out to where there's really nothing happening when when the pool when they're operating. Yes, the you know, they're pulling water, but it's at a very slow rate and it doesn't really circulate the pool well. A lot of leaf debris falls to the bottom, the pool doesn't look that healthy, and a lot of times the customer is really reluctant to replace the old equipment because it's still working and the pool is still kind of functioning. And this is one thing where it's hard to get them to move because nothing really is broken. And if the pump were to burn out, then you you'd have more leverage. But complaining about it and telling them that you know it's harder for you to service the pool doesn't usually do anything to them. They're paying you and they have very little you know interest in how difficult the pool is to maintain or how how easy it is to maintain, and so they're not going to replace the equipment. Again, I usually will tell them that they replace the filter and pump. I'll give them a discount on that, you know, the combo install. But if they're unwilling to replace their equipment and unwilling to do anything to the pool, and you're struggling with it because it is difficult, it's not something impossible, it's just one of those things where it's irritating and you know you you would be much easier with newer equipment, then you may want to do the one-for-one rule where if you get a new account with new equipment, it's a great pool. Then, of course, let these let the customer know that you're consolidating and you'll no longer be able to surface their pool. It's not something that you have to do immediately, but it is a pain point in a lot of cases when the equipment just isn't functioning that great and it makes it more difficult for you to clean the pool. Use your judgment in all these situations, but just understand that the customer that is difficult to deal with, sometimes the ultimate solution is just to remove them from your pool service route. If you're looking for other podcasts, you can find those by going to my website, swimmingpoollearning.com, clicking on the podcast icon on the banner. There'll be a drop-down menu with over 1900 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. God bless.