10 Counter-Seasonal Essential Strategies - Mondays, Business

This episode covers the challenges and opportunities of pool service businesses during winter, including cost management, database maintenance, and team engagement strategies. Learn practical tips to streamline operations, enhance professionalism, and maximize revenue in the off-season.

keywords

pool service, winter business tips, database management, team engagement, cost control, pool maintenance

key topics

• Cost management for island service trips
• Database cleanup and client follow-up
• Using photos and measurements for efficient service
• Team involvement and process improvement during winter

Sound Bites

• "Your database is the value of your business"
• "Merge and clean your client data regularly"
• "Photos serve as proof and quality assurance"

Chapters

00:00
Introduction and guest introduction

01:14
Challenges of island service trips and costs

01:58
Managing costs and pricing for island services

03:15
Impact of seasonal changes on pool service business

04:08
Preparing for winter: pool hibernation and maintenance

06:40
Winter cleanup: database and photo management

08:37
Importance of maintaining a clean client database

11:07
Strategies for identifying and merging duplicate clients

13:44
Using photos and measurements for service efficiency

16:46
Starting winter projects: cleaning and process improvements

20:33
On-site documentation and client communication

24:18
Using photos and GPS for quality assurance

28:19
System cleanup and data management

33:28
Follow-up strategies and scheduling reminders

39:50
Team engagement and winter productivity

40:05
Fun and camaraderie in team challenges

41:11
Closing remarks and call to action

Resources

• BufferZone
• Xero Accounting Software

Transcript

SPEAKER_04 0:53

Good afternoon, good evening, good morning, good whatever time of the day it is that you are listening to this. You're listening to Mondays Down Under on the Talking Pools podcast. And we're really grateful to have you with us. Today, as always, I am joined by my esteemed colleagues, Shane in New Zealand. Hey Shane, how are you?

SPEAKER_00 1:12

I'm very goodly, thank you.

SPEAKER_04 1:14

I am very well. And of course, we are also joined by Nick in Brisbane. Hey Nick, how are you?

SPEAKER_01 1:22

Goodly. Thanks. How are you?

SPEAKER_04 1:24

Good, good.

SPEAKER_01 1:25

I'm back on the tools this week. One of the technicians is off. So I'm off to Stradbroke Island tomorrow. So yeah, very, very fun.

SPEAKER_04 1:33

So Scott actually got to do, I don't know whether it was Stradbroke. Did Scott do Straddy while he was there?

SPEAKER_01 1:38

No, no, he went to one of the other islands.

SPEAKER_04 1:41

Yeah. So quite a few islands that they've got to get their cars on a barge, go across, do the jobs, and come back. Quite unique.

SPEAKER_01 1:52

Yes, about about an hour, an hour there, an hour back. So yeah, it's uh catch up on a bit of paperwork and call some customers while you're waiting.

SPEAKER_04 2:01

Is it costly to get the cars across on the barge?

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Yeah, I think it's around about$240 now. Wow. They uh I'm assuming they're running diesel. Like everything, it's just going up and up and up. Although it is going down a little bit at the moment, but how long for, who knows?

SPEAKER_04 2:19

So how do you allow for that in the costings of your servicing?

SPEAKER_01 2:24

So the it is obviously more expensive for a service over on the island. So everyone pays it an extra fee uh to get us there. Because once you add up the time for the technician on there or myself tomorrow, um, and the cost of that, it it adds up pretty quickly. Because you're limited with your time over there as well. So you you've got a barge to to get back, and if you miss that, then you sleep it on the beach, I suppose. Or the back of the van.

SPEAKER_04 2:51

Yeah, so yeah, you because you've got the vehicle going over and coming back, so it's 250 for the round trip.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Yeah, I think it's two two thirty, two forty. Depends on the time of year as well. So it actually gets more expensive for school holidays, and then you have less sometimes the barges get cancelled, so it's very difficult to manage.

SPEAKER_04 3:12

And then you've got two hours of lost revenue time because the technicians sitting on the barge waiting. So that's yeah, that could be really costly. And then what you might only get six jobs done for the day?

SPEAKER_01 3:27

Would that we try and get some more, so we there's a lot of holiday homes, resorts, and things like that. But yeah, it's um it's a good, it's a something a little bit different. Um is a nice I don't know if you've been to Stradbroke Island, but it is pretty beautiful up there.

SPEAKER_04 3:41

Yeah. Yes, I know like it's quite quite a like especially for for Scott, I know it was quite a unique experience taking a service vehicle on a barge and going over for the for the day to do the the day's work. But it just you would have to add like almost like$50 to each service job that you did just to to cover costs.

SPEAKER_03 4:05

But then I suppose people that are there that are they're used to spending that.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

Yes. Well, at the end of the day, if it's not Nick's company, it's somebody else that's going to be charging the same, if not more. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 4:17

Very true, very true. I think that would probably be a fairly unique experience, even in Australia.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

I'm sure it is.

SPEAKER_04 4:25

Yeah, it wouldn't be there wouldn't be a lot of places that service businesses would need to to do that. So I suppose up the Whit Sundays, Hamilton Island, Early Beach, that sort of thing, they might have something similar. But um, you guys in Queensland always do things differently, so let's face it. But speaking of things different, we are really starting to get into winter as everybody's starting to feel a bit of a chill in the air. And well, I know I've got my other boots on under this desk, so trying to keep a little warm. But I think are you noticing, Nick, in the shop, the foot traffic reduced somewhat?

SPEAKER_01 5:01

Yeah, definitely a little bit of a push after Easter. We had a few extra customers in, but yeah, the water temperature and the night temperatures has has really dropped. So the that pool water, especially for us Queenslanders, is getting a little bit cool. It's probably around 25, 26 degrees now. That's too cold to swim for sure.

SPEAKER_04 5:21

I always thought that was funny, like when I was up there and I'd have people come into the shop and it was I was hot. And I would say to them, like, you kids enjoying the pool, and they go, Oh no, it's too cold to swim yet. It's like it was like 28 degrees, 30 degrees. I'm going, This is hot. And they go, Oh no, the pool's still cold. Like it's still cold, it's only 26 degrees, 28 degrees. And I go, Yeah, that's swim and so um, yeah, but I suppose winter's knocking on the door. We are still in autumn, but we typically know here in the southern hemisphere that once we get past Easter and the school holidays, depending on how the year lays, of course, then we get to Anzac Day. And I don't know about you guys, but for me, Anzac Day was always the turning point when you like, okay, now we're into closed down mode or hibernation mode for the pools. Turning the chlorinators down, turning the output down. Obviously, still dealing with a lot of leaf litter because it's autumn. But yeah, things are really starting to close slow down, and people are playing the old I'm not swimming anymore, I don't need my pool service card. Getting that?

SPEAKER_02 6:41

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 6:42

So, what do we do through winter? Shane, have I drummed this into you enough?

SPEAKER_00 6:48

I think you have myself and all the other well, you should have drummed it into all the other listeners. But yeah, definitely a cleanup of, you know, your database. We were talking earlier, something that I've been doing pretty much all day today, is cleaning up my Google Photo albums. And for the most part, I would say maybe 95% of the 2500 photos I deleted today, just over the last year, have all been swimming pools, a lot of them are duplicates, terrible, you know, distorted photos, photos that we're probably never ever going to use again, not really good quality to use on social media. So that's been my mission today. I still haven't got through it, it'll probably be another day again tomorrow, but one really good thing apart from cleaning it up that come out of it is just going back and looking at some of the photos and then remembering like maybe I should follow up on this client. Did I follow up with them? You know, should I follow up with them again? So, piece of paper next to me, there's about five clients that I'll contact tomorrow and just follow up with them, whether it was a pool pump that they were thinking about getting and had a slight leak, and you know, they were reluctant at the time to get it done. Let's see how it is now. There was another one which a pool was leaking, but they had it was it was just after some really bad weather that we had on the west side of Auckland. They had a lot of flooding in this area, and then they the engineers come out and said, uh basically you're gonna need a new retaining wall. The garage outside is starting to shift, so that was gonna be a huge expense to them. And the client was saying, you know, this is our priority at the moment. For now, we'll just keep the pool ticking over as it is. But at some point they were gonna get need to have new plumbing. I think the skimmers from memory, yeah. The skimmers were both cracked and leaking, so they could manage to keep it ticking over using the main drain, but you know, it's a client that I haven't reached out to for quite some time, so he's on the list. So it makes sense tidying things up, you know, no matter what it is, whether it is your database or whether it is your Google Photos at the end of the day. And you know, I'm only 12, 11, 12 months into my photos. There may actually be some more that I can actually follow up on. So it's only a good thing, like it's a good thing you're drilling this in.

SPEAKER_04 9:31

It is, it's really important. Like your database really is the value of your business. If you don't maintain it, you can't send it to it. So you can't do emails, you can't do SMSs, you can't do a marketing campaign to a database that's dirty. But also, from an ongoing perspective, it's easy, easy to maintain if you're only maintaining it. Like you're not doing a massive cleanup. BufferZone actually, and I know you use BufferZone Shane, is really good in that you really struggle to create duplicate clients because the it alerts you, doesn't it, Nick, to that there's a duplication in address, like you've already got this address in there. It won't let you actually create another one.

SPEAKER_01 10:21

Yes, yeah. But if the the wording is slightly off, then potentially it might be if it's a a crescent or or an abbreviation or a street versus street. So there is still work that you need to go through and and just check those things.

SPEAKER_04 10:35

I thought because well maybe it was the way I use it, because I always did like the the Google search, it searches for the actual address, and therefore you can't get the spelling wrong because you're pulling it from the Google search. Uh, because yes, that is a like a common thing I see with clients' databases. And I have been there with clients where we've had to, they've had like 5,000 in their client base, and they know that they don't have that many clients in their area. And we sort the first thing I would say to anybody is sort by address. So sort by address and look for duplicates in the address. Some databases are easier than others. It depends if you separate the street number and the street name. I do like it when you can do that because you can sort by street name first, then sort by street number, and then it's easy to see the duplicates. You can also then pick up on the area errors where the street name is different. So, like you're saying, Nick, if you've got street abbreviated or street the full name, you might actually have two listings that are different just purely by that. And it allows you then to consolidate them and you can merge them with most systems. So really important to be able to do that. And also looking, because some files are more full than others. So you might have somebody who has an email and an and a um mobile phone number. Their street address might be incorrect, but you can then merge and make sure you take the right information with you so that you've got a complete picture for that that client and making sure that it's current. And it doesn't hurt to reach out to those clients and ring them and say, hey, I'm just updating my database. I can see here we've accidentally created two files for you. Can you just double check for me your mobile phone number and your email address? Well, you probably rang them on their mobile, so it's not that one. You know, you know what I mean. And I know, Nick, this is something that you guys do in your business. And I would urge all retailers to do it, and as we did in ours. So when somebody's ringing up to book a job, getting your staff to get into the habit of, uh, yes, Mrs. Smith, I can book that in. Just while I've got you, let me confirm your mobile phone number and your email address to make sure that we've got the most current ones on file. And then that way you're constantly keeping it up to date. So I'd say, Shane, fantastic that you're doing this. Really well done. But put things, puts now put steps in process so that you don't have to, the job's not as big next time by putting in those double checks by checking the name and address and the or the name and the email address each time you're dealing with that that client to make sure that it's current and that it's clean. And exporting the data out, it's actually really easy. Most systems allow you to export an Excel spreadsheet and then from that Excel spreadsheet sort by address, and then you can actually really easily see the duplicates. Maybe you've got an old tenant in there or a previous owner. The names might have changed. You can tell generally by the activity. Most of them tend to have an activity date in the exported data. You can tell then too, if it's the most current one. There are lots of tips and tricks with that. I do have a document that I give to my clients. So if anybody wants that, they can reach out. And it's something I'm I'm happy to share if they want sort of my tips and tricks. I also love to color code so that it makes it really easy when you go back into the database and you actually want to clean it up. You've got them all colour coded, you know exactly what they're doing. So things like that. Shane, how many screenshots did you have on your phone?

SPEAKER_03 14:33

I have a habit of accidentally taking a photo of my screen. Do you do that too?

SPEAKER_00 14:39

Yes. Yeah, there was a lot there. A lot. I'm sure it's the same with everybody, you know. I think everybody takes so many photos nowadays. And it's so much easier to for myself. I can't speak for everybody, but I'm sure it's the same for a lot of people. If you're using Google, for instance, it'll get up to it's a hundred gig, and then it'll just say, you're at your limit, pay five dollars a month to get another hundred gig. And it's like, okay, done. I'll just pay, I'll just pay another five dollars. Then the next thing you know, you're up to 200 gig, then a terabyte, and it's like, and you know, when do you stop? Yes. So yeah, folders are great and they come in extremely handy. And yeah, again, that's something that you can upload into Buffer Zone as well. The client's file, they have their assets, so you can upload whatever pool pump they have, filter, take a photo of the pool, the skimmer, anything that you want, and you can match a picture in regards to whatever piece of equipment they have. But another thing that I was a little bit slack on is measuring the surface area of the pool. So we measured every swimming pool and got their leaderage of the pool, but we did unsave in every client the length and the width. Now that's very handy if you want to quilt a coven, a blanket, and also a heat pump as well. So this is one thing again that we're going to be doing over the winter months, just updating all these little things that can make a big difference at the end of the day. Um, and as we mentioned a few weeks ago, if you can't get back to that property and you need to get the surface area of that pool, use Google Earth. That's just as good a tool as any. Yeah, you've got the many little measuring points on there.

SPEAKER_04 16:35

I don't know whether I'd be gained to order a pool blanket off a Google Earth measurement, though.

SPEAKER_00 16:41

Just to give an estimate.

SPEAKER_04 16:46

No, well, this is something like people always ask me, like, where do I start? Well, the best time to start, as they say, what was it? The best time, there's two times, two best times to plant a tree, and that was either today or 20 years ago, if you want shade. So the next best time is today. But of course, so we we can only do what we can do. And making a start and cleaning up your database and getting your staff into habits of actually creating the data that you want is absolutely invaluable because we're leaving money on the table. If people know it or if we know as business owners, what pump that client has, what filter that client has, the skimmer basket, the cleaner, whether they've got a blanket and roller, whether they've got heating, those sort of things are so important. It's not only important to know what they've got, but it's also important to know what they haven't got. Because they're the people we want to market to. So if somebody, I want to know somebody doesn't have a robotic pool cleaner. Um, I want to know if somebody's got a suction cleaner, because then I can upgrade them to a robotic pool cleaner. But if they don't have a blanket and roller, that's a classic opportunity to market to that client. If they don't have heating, again, another opportunity to market to that client. So you want to look at your using your database as a great marketing resource for tailoring information to the client that is extremely relevant to them. It's tailored marketing and they're a captured audience. You know that they've got a pool. You know that property's got a pool. People move, pools don't, as I love to say. So don't waste that opportunity. You're in their backyard and make the most of it. But everyone goes, Oh, but I've got like a hundred pools, two hundred pools, three hundred pools. Probably Nick, how many hundred have you got?

SPEAKER_01 18:49

There's a lot there after 40 years.

SPEAKER_04 18:52

And so you you want to um start somewhere. And so for our regular service clients, unfortunately, we did do this before our service list got too big. My husband Scott did all of his every pool that he used to service on a regular basis. He went in, he jumped in, he took a photo of, he actually got the skimmer basket out, the vac plate out, the deck lid, and put all three of them in the photo right beside the skimmer box, took a photo of it. So we could identify back in the shop, we could identify whatever basket, whatever deck lid, whatever vacplate it was. Now, obviously, once you're in the no, you know that this deck lid goes with that back plate, goes with this skimmer basket. It's really easy to identify it. But for somebody who hasn't got years of experience, it's easier just to have an individual photo. So those ones that got photographed. The pump got photographed, the compliance paint plate on the on the pump got photographed. The filter got photographed from a distance, and then the compliance plate or the information plate on that got photographed. The same with the chlorinator, so taken again from a distance, and then just the the badge. So we tried to be as all inclusive as we could, and then we even got out the measuring tape and measured the pool length and width. We took photographs of the pool lights and even the suction covers underneath the water. Obviously, water needed to be still for that to happen, but it gave us something to work with in future. So if a service technician said, I need a new main drain cover for this pool, or I need a new light for this pool, we could jump on their file in the office and see exactly what they had. It made doing the quoting so much easier. And it made us look so professional to the client. We were able to react very quickly to situations, we were able to give very thorough and efficient and effective quoting. So it it really helps. But I made a point of I actually went out with the service technician because at that stage we only had two service technicians, my husband and a full-timer. And I went out for a whole month with him doing his whole service round and did that on every single pool. You could ask your service technician to do it, but we knew he had a full run. And so while he was doing the service, I was doing all the paperwork. And it worked extremely well for us and paid dividends moving forward. And then we had a clean slot starting slate for the rest of the pools that came on board. When they came on board, it was just part of the onboarding procedure that the service technician would undertake that at the first service. So we would allow extra time so that information could be entered into the system. Nick, do you have something similar?

SPEAKER_01 21:55

Yes, very similar. We normally take the photos of the pool, the filtration, those plates and things like that as well. So we'll know the size of the equipment. And as you said before, just to quote, it is so much easier. But we use the photos for everything. So with some of the newer technicians that need to install, let's say, a replacement chlorinator, I can say, hey, I would probably do this and I would cut here and I would do that, just to give them a little bit more, make them a little bit more comfortable in doing it, so they're not just walking in there blind. A lot of new technicians, when they go out for the first time to a property, um, what we'll get them to do is sit down in the morning and familiarise themselves with it. So if they see a valve there that, oh, what's that valve for, or what does this look like? Um we put photos in of um difficult pools to find. We do one complex which has probably about 10 pools on the one site. So you've got to be able to navigate to get to the right pool. It's All in there. So just said it's the little things that make you look that so much more professional with it. If you get a customer that has per potentially sold or new customer and you've been out to their property before, they've just purchased it. If you have that information when they walk through the door, they will they will just take her advice because they know how thorough you've been. Um you get to start off on the right foot with the customer.

SPEAKER_04 23:20

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And I think the team then appreciate it. Like at first they're all going to go, oh my God, you want me to do this? Like seriously? How much time do you think I want to spend on site at each pool? But they very quickly see how beneficial that is down the track. How things can happen automatically. So if they type on the on the job sheet needs new skimmer basket, they don't have to explain which skimmer basket it is. The office can immediately just jump in the file and do that. But we're also talking before that we also take photographs at each job, like as it's completed, as evidence of the work being done. Now, again, it shows a level of professionalism goes on the invoice or the job sheet to that client so they can see that the work has been has been done. But it also is a bit of a safety net for your staff. So they might not really appreciate having to stop their day to take the photographs, though it's so easy these days with iPhones and and whatnot. But they see the dividends when someone questions, hey, Joe was here today and they didn't empty my basket. Well, got photos.

SPEAKER_01 24:40

It happened, it happened to me the other day. A really big unit came in very unhappy on Saturday. And I was like, oh no, what's what's what's going on with this one? And he was unhappy with it. We added algeicide and clarifier, and I showed him the photo. I said, The pool looks cloudy. He said, Well, it didn't look like that when I seen it. So probably because you've seen it after he added the clarifier and the algae side, and it's clean, having that information to just say, hey, there you go. And he had nothing to come back with.

SPEAKER_04 25:11

And it's the same with even with um the GPS in the vehicles. We had GPS in our vehicles, and also the clocking and on starting and stopping of jobs. Because of that timestamp. So you can actually say, like, to the client, they were there at 10.32 and they left at 11.05. Um, and the GPS in the vehicle confirms that. And so it goes to show, and I always used to say to myself, I'm not doing this like to basically be your well, I'm not stalking you. Yeah, I'm not micromanaging. I'm actually using this to support you should a c customer query you and it gives me everything I need to to have your back. And um and and it's really it's really valuable. So we've got a little bit off topic there, but it's all relevant to what we've we're putting into our software systems. So um what else is on your agenda, Shane, that you're going to be doing on your to-do list since it's paperwork week?

SPEAKER_00 26:24

It is, yeah. So we need to go through a very detailed health and safety procedure. So when we when we employed last year, we did have a health and safety policy, but it was it was very basic. It was enough to get us through. Now we've looked into a lot more uh detailed health and safety procedure, and this this is going to be one which will continue with the business as we grow as well. So I think it it was 138 pages, and it has a lot of different policies in there. So this is something that Sammy and myself will need to go over in the next couple of weeks um and fine-tune it. Very exciting. I know everybody's on the edge of their seat listening to this, but it's needed at the end of the day. It is, it is, and it's yeah, you you have to you have to have these procedures in place and you have to cover yourself if there is any form of an incident. Yeah, so that was one. Uh we're going through a very detailed SEO at the moment. So the whole process today of the photos is our developer needed, he sent us a link to his Google Drive, and he just said, upload as many photos in there as you want, and then the team can just pick and choose and add it into here, there, and everywhere. So that's what started the process off today. Xero, our accounting software. I'm sure many of us this side of the world are very familiar with it. We were using Xero for probably three and a half years, I think, before we started using Buffer Zone. As soon as you subscribe to BufferZone and they sync with each other, the contacts move over to Buffer Zone. At the start of Buffer Zone, I wasn't, shall we say, I didn't put the clients in correctly, shall we say? So there was a lot of double-ups going through the system. So this is something that I need to go through and basically merge or delete all the duplicate uh clients which are in buffer zone and zero and that yep, as you were saying earlier, Lee. This is something that's really important because if you want to market, I don't want my marketing material going to another pool company that I've um subcontracted for in the past, shall we say, or some of the suppliers, for instance. So having that good clean slates, yeah, is is very essential going forward. And it just takes time.

SPEAKER_04 29:12

It's amazing what a weight these types of things put on you as well. I find when I go through, it's very cathartic doing these cleanups. Maybe I'm weird. Um we all know that. But I actually find it's like a load is lifted. If you've got something, uh it's almost like a cloud over your head where you know you've got this problem, that this system isn't quite clean or it isn't doing what you want it to do. And it's just something that wears like it's like that little man on your shoulder. It's like, fix me, fix me, fix me. And getting it done, it lightens you. You go like it's almost like you can breathe again. And so I would implore people out there listening to make a list of the things that are weighing you down, the things that you always wanted to get done, or you keep saying, I'll do that in winter, because guaranteed, if you don't document it, you're gonna get to the end of winter and you won't have done it. So make sure you you write that list, that wish list of the things that you want to get done. We're at the start of winter now. Let's make this a really productive winter, and then you will have an even better summer. But one thing you mentioned, Shane, that I really want to jump on is the follow-ups and the money that we're leaving on the table. So there's jobs there that you could go back to. There's people there that you might not have had contact with for quite a while. You don't necessarily want to reach out to those that you've done service work or or if you've had a retail store, you might not want to reach out to the ones that have been in the shop or or had a service done in the last 30 days, but you'd like to reach out to the lot the ones that haven't been in for 60 days or 90 days to see, hey, can I do a casual winter close down for you? Or a prep your pool for winter so that you're not going to have chlorine going through the roof. You're not going to have a high electricity bill because your pump's running unnecessarily. Maybe their robotic pool cleaner needs a service. There could be lots of different things that you can use your database as a source to marketing to those, let's say, irregular clients and really tap into that as a winter resource for your business. But following up on your quotes is an absolute must. And it's amazing how many peat businesses don't. We did have a system in our business whereby, and I was using a system different to Buffer Zone. I would have given my right arm to have a system like Buffer Zone that could run my service and my retail as it does now. But we were running a service-side software program, which was really good. And I was using it to the nth degree that I could. And we actually created follow-up jobs. So we did track all of our follow-ups and make sure that they were reached out to within a couple of days of their quote. Do you have any questions? Um, and then a few days later, hey, we haven't heard from you, just wondering what your thoughts are on this, because we're trying to leave room in our schedule for you. Um, or even the fact that, hey, we quoted on this 12 months ago, like you said, Shane, quoted on it previously, they haven't taken action on it. This is an opportunity for this winter. Maybe they needed a sand change and then and or a filter replacement and they didn't do it last winter because dollars didn't allow. Maybe they're they're more likely to do it this winter. So things things like that. What do you do in your business, Nick? I know you do a lot of quoting through Buffer Zone. Does it have do you use it as a follow-up as well?

SPEAKER_01 33:04

Yes, most definitely. So the once the quote's sent, it just stays on the dashboard until you either accept or decline it. So it's there, top of the page, nice and easy to see. And it's that visual reminder to actually go back through and touch base with that customer. Because sometimes they might go through their junk mail or they might get busy and forget about it. Um, you know, you could send it if a customer comes through the shop and just maybe wants a, you know, they're not interested now, but you know, you've planted the seed and then they they you want to come back to it.

SPEAKER_04 33:36

Does it have the ability to be able to schedule a reminder for down the track? I'll have to know.

SPEAKER_01 33:44

No, it it is something that, yeah, there there's a few things there. Um, yeah, that that would be we don't want to overload the customers, but having something that could remind them within seven or fourteen days, um, I'm sure it could be added in.

SPEAKER_04 33:58

Or even reminder us. So whereby like you could have a accept, decline, or postpone. And if we could postpone it three months, six months, whatever that might be. I used to have a lot of I actually had on the whiteboard in my office a list of winter jobs. So and I implore everybody out there to do this, a physical list. Whether it be on the computer, on a whiteboard, wherever you keep it, you need to keep a list. Because clients will say to you, I won't get that done now because the pool's being used, I'll get that done in winter. And we go, yeah, yep, no worries. And we go, yeah, I'll chalk that one up to the memory. Boom, boom, not gonna happen. And memory will not hold that long, write it down. And so that's what I used to do, whiteboard. And the service guy's got in the habit of using it too. So if they had a client that said, Oh yeah, I want to do a media change on this on the filter, or they'd talk to the client about doing a media change on their filter, and they said, Oh, we'll do it in winter, write it on the board. And then that way, what gets written down gets done.

SPEAKER_01 35:09

We're just just thinking a little bit of a workaround in that. You could make the date whatever you want. You could put the date for six months, three months for that quote. So yeah, you just put that in the future, and then when the days roll around in three months' time or winter time comes around, it's gonna pop up on your dashboard. And we've used that for various similar sort of things, so we don't forget. That's good to know.

SPEAKER_04 35:29

But yeah, it'd be good to have the postpone on the quote. So you've quoted it, they're not ready to accept it yet. Can we postpone it? Um, so yeah, some handy things there. Is there anything, Nick, that you like to do with your team through winter that helps generate income or actually not even helps generate income, just makes you use the time more effectively and efficiently?

SPEAKER_01 35:54

Yeah, look, we did a a lot of stuff over the first initial years with Buffer Zone and and sort of realizing any tiny little mistake that would happen, or or something that we could improve on. So that was one of the biggest things. It's like, okay, how do I stop this from happening in the future? And a lot of that revolved around the water testing and making sure that we're um giving right advice to ionizer pools, or we're not adding, you know, too much copper, or we're not doing this. So that was a a major thing that I spent a lot of time on initially with winter. And that just pays, paid a lot of dividends now that you know we can more or less guarantee that most customers are gonna walk out with the right advice. And the technicians know that if that structure and everything is set set up correctly, that they're not gonna add in the wrong chemicals. They're not gonna overdose it, they're not gonna add too much of this or that, they're not gonna add two or three kilos of stabilized uh chlorine into an indoor pool or something along those lines, it's just not gonna give them the option for it.

SPEAKER_04 36:59

It's it's a fail-safe method. And I think and I think prior to that, you used to do what I used to do, and that is actually have customer cheat sheets. So if the listeners out there don't have their system, doesn't have the ability to do what Buffer Buffer Zone can do in having those fail-safe instructions that everybody is singing from the same hymn sheet, we have the cheat sheets so that the staff would all grab the same cheat sheet, it would have the same process on it, you would just fill out the amount of the chemical that you were adding or the type of chemical that you're adding so that the client knew exactly what to do. And again, it's the consistency of information given out. So there's lots of processes and procedures that you can really tweak in your business that can make you operate more professionally, more efficiently, more effectively, more consistently. Um I think is is the key. And using winter as the time to do it because we all know we don't have time through summer. We're just dealing with the chaos that surrounds us. And using winter effectively. Yes, we all love to sit back and go, sure, like, let's breathe. Um, and that's great. And people need to take holidays, totally get it. And you need to go to splash, totally get it. Um but we need to make a hit list, the things that you want to get done, the things that are weighing you down that you want to solve, and then you will come out of winter feeling really good about what you've achieved through the winter process. And I would even say to you, take your staff along with the ride. Like if you've got a team, whether that be a team of one or ten or more, um, sitting down with them and going, okay, guys, like we're our bottlenecks in the business. What would you like us to do better? What would you like to us to do differently? Let's throw all the ideas up on a board and really get them to buy into it. And then you can even get them to take some of the responsibility of those tasks on board and actually take some ownership. And you might actually find that that really inspires them and motivates them. It shows that you have faith in them, that you have confidence in them, that you value their input and that you're prepared to take things on board. Just because it's the way I've always done it doesn't mean it's the right way, doesn't mean it's the only way. Somebody might come in with a different aspect and go, hey, why do we always do it that way? Let's have you thought about this way. Yeah, sometimes it might work, sometimes it might not. But give it the time of day, give it breathing space, round table discussion. Let's see what works. You might find your cust your staff come up with some terrific ideas of actually bringing revenue in through winter. And I think they really value being valued. So YouTube team, I think they can be your biggest asset through winter, especially. Yes, we would like to say that they're probably our biggest cost through winter, but they're our biggest asset. And so actually don't see them as a burden through winter, see them as an opportunity and let them be part of that journey and come on that ride with you. See what you can do as a team. Really bring bring together and unify, and you'll be stronger for it.

SPEAKER_01 40:44

Challenge, I've put down challenge to the guys. Find the mistake in the system. Find something, you know, pick on me, find the mistake that I've put in there. You know, they they like to get one up, you know, find it, and and that creates a bit of camaraderie and a bit of fun around it as well.

SPEAKER_04 40:59

Yeah, completely. Absolutely. It creates a bit of competition. It's always it's always good, it's always fun, and and they enjoy the the rivalry, like dig the elbows in. I'm sure they'd always like to get one up on you, Nick.

SPEAKER_01 41:15

Yes, yes. Well that now the latest thing is is podcast topics. Maybe you should talk about this on the podcast. Oh, maybe you should do this. But we've got a few more listeners, so all the boys are listening now.

SPEAKER_04 41:26

So now I then would say, Nick, let's go one step further. Put it up on one of those whiteboards.

SPEAKER_01 41:33

Yep. In the back office. I told them they got an email like everybody else. No special treatment here. You need to sell the appropriate podcast hosting.

SPEAKER_04 41:45

Thank you both for joining me on today's podcast. I hope that our listeners have got something out of it. I hope that it motivates and inspires you as we go into the colder months to drive your businesses forward, to bring in more profits, to increase and improve your productivity and profitability. Remember, if you've got any topic suggestions, any questions, then reach out to us at talkingpools at gmail.com and Rudy will send those suggestions or questions out to the most applicable host. And I think I have finally nailed that once and for all, and I won't bubble over it anymore. How's that? But thank you all for listening. Thank you, Shane.

SPEAKER_02 42:32

Thank you. Thanks for having Shane.

SPEAKER_04 42:35

And we hope to have you again with us next week on Talking Pools Mondays down undercrew. See you guys.