Pool Cleaning Business 

Great Service

The first rule of having a good relationship with your customers is to do exactly what you promised. Nothing frustrates customers more than someone who doesn't achieve the benchmarks that they said they would. This includes punctuality, as people have busy lives and can't afford to be waiting around all day for you to show up after being promised a specific time.

Besides just doing what you promised you were going to do, make sure you throw in a couple little extras to win over their support- and let them know it. Make sure they realize that most pool cleaners don't throw in a free floating chlorine dispenser. The beauty of this approach is that while this only costs you a little money, it can be a big difference in the eye of the customer.

Great Troubleshooting

This is what truly separates the mediocre from the phenomenal. The ability to deal with unhappy customers in a way that seems totally unnatural will help you keep your customers around. Remember: the customer is always right. Even for the most outlandish arguments imaginable, you must always side with the customer unless it expressly violates your contract. If this is the case, make sure your clients understand that you already went over this, and make sure the contract is well understood for future problems.

The second rule of troubleshooting is to never lose your head while talking to a client. Regardless of the outlandish way they are trying to get out of a payment, it is absolutely vital you keep your cool. If you don't, not only will they use it against you, they'll spread the news to any other people interested in your service. Your image is a powerful tool. Keep it clean, and it will singlehandedly win over customers. Let it become tainted, and it will singlehandedly deny you a large portion of new customers.
 

Finding New Customers

Now that you understand the importance of keeping your customers, you must go about finding your customers in the first place. While this may seem like a gargantuan task, it's easily broken down into a few easy steps and methods that will allow you to reach a broad spectrum of customers. People love the personable nature of a small business, and you need to use that to your advantage in any way possible. Keep this in mind, and before you know it, you will have more customers than you dreamt possible.


Before you can start advertising your business, you need to find people to advertise your business to! As you own a pool cleaning service, you have to begin building a list of pool owners that you can reach out to. This is a task that, while basic in nature, can prove to be quite a challenge. Your first stop should be the local record-keeping office in your county. They will likely have a list of pool owners on file, as pools need to be legally registered with the county and state. If you're fortunate, they will give you the list after you explain why you need it. If not, you may need to do some investigating. Locate the neighborhoods that are more likely to have pools. Most neighborhoods either have a significant number of pools, or no pools at all. As a general rule of thumb, the pools are located in the more expensive parts of town. Ask around until you get a feel for where they will be. At this point, you can either drive down the street and record addresses (not at the same time! get help for this stage), or utilize Google maps to find the approximate locations of who has pools. These two tasks are best used in conjunction, as Google maps has the potential to be outdated, while driving down the street makes it much harder to locate pools in people's backyards.

Getting Your Name Out There

The obvious next step after finding the potential customers for your service is to contact them. As mentioned earlier, it's a good idea to be as personable as possible. While this will take a little extra time, it may be in your best wishes to stop by each house in person and hand them a brochure while giving a brief description of who you are and what your service is.

 

The Approach

After your brochure is completed (see next section) it is a good idea to hand them out in person. Explain who you are (noting that you are from this area as customers love local business) and what you do. Tell them what you have to offer against other businesses or independently cleaning their pools. One important tip is to advertise on the weekends, as people are more likely to be home. This being said, it's never a good idea to show up anywhere after 6 o'clock as people are eating dinner and winding down for the day. If you interrupt meals or barge in at the most relaxing parts of the day, people will dislike you from the beginning and most likely not want your service. Don't get discouraged by failure! More often than not, the person will be disinterested. Perseverance is the key in this game.

 

The Brochure

This is the key space for information. Have these done professionally- it will be a little more expensive but look great! Include a section about your likes and interests, and mention your expertise and history in cleaning pools. Mention all of the services you offered in as much detail as the space permits, and mention how this is better than the competition. Throw in a section about bonuses you give your customers to further sway them. Finally, have a section about the pricing of the different services and plans you offer.

While breaking into the market is always a challenging thing to do, it is absolutely necessary in becoming well-known for your service. While your first impression is at the door, you will really make your name by the first couple times you clean the pool. This startup stage is where it is determined if you will be able to make it, and, above all, how well you will do in this industry.

Internet Marketing

One approach that needs to be considered as well is advertising using google, yahoo, bing, or facebook for pool services. When people do searches on pool cleaning services in the area, your ads will show up and expose your business to potential customers at a reasonable cost. Just make sure you do local targeting on your search engine marketing.