Here at Ask the Pool Guy, our mission is simple. We call it H3, and it stands for this: Happy Pools, Happy Customers, Happy Pool Guy. We do our very best to keep our customers and their pools happy, and that makes us happy. And, if we do say so ourselves, we do a pretty good job of it. We know as well as our customers that, here in Michigan, pool season is SHORT. We don’t want anyone missing out on any more swim time than they need to, so we do everything we can to service pools as quickly and efficiently as possible, without sacrificing quality. Mark, our service team leader, is our go-to guy–and yours, too! He works sun-up to sun-down (and sometimes with a flashlight) to maintain happy pools and happy customers. But, no matter how much we wish otherwise, there are some limits to what we can do.
We often get phone calls from customers with urgent service requests. It could be any number of things, but urgent service needs get pushed to the top of the service list–like, if your heater is on fire or your pool is losing an inch of water every ten minutes (okay, okay, those examples might be a little extreme…we’ve never gotten anything quite that urgent), you will be moved to the top of the priority list. We also do our best to work with customers’ schedules–if you’re having a pool party, of course we will try to make sure your pool will be fully functional. The thing is, though, that even we have limits, because we also have schedules! For example, if you need your vinyl liner replaced in time for your daughter’s fourth birthday party, please don’t call us about it a week before the party. If you know you have an important event coming up, we will be more than happy to work with you and make sure all your repairs are complete in time, as long as you give us enough time to get it into our schedule. We understand, things happen, and sometimes the heater breaks the day before the party. We get it. Feel free to give us a call and we will do everything they can to get it taken care of in time. But, if you know you have an event coming up and you also know you need to schedule a service call, everyone will be happier (including you!) if you give us a week or two’s notice. That way, if you happen to call during an extra busy time, you can still be sure to have your service done in time.
Another thing we can’t do is work for free. This means that, even though we wish we could be more flexible with pricing, there are some things we simply can’t negotiate. It costs us a set amount of money just to get our service team on the road and out to a customer’s swimming pool. Believe us when we say that we wish we could help all of our customers for free, but we simply can’t. In addition, our team has decades of experience in the pool industry. You’re paying for the knowledge and expertise our team has–even the simplest fixes require the knowledge to “just flip that switch.” We do our best to troubleshoot with customers over the phone before we send our team out for a service call, and we try to save the service call whenever possible. That way, you get our knowledge for free and you can make that simple fix on your own. Sometimes, though, a service call can’t be avoided–and sometimes it still ends up being a quick fix. But, like we said, it costs us a set amount of money just to get to your pool, so there’s not a whole lot we can do to negotiate service call pricing.
We wish we could do it all, but we simply can’t. We will do everything we can to make you and your pool happy, though, and we are incredibly proud of the work we do. If you need to schedule service, feel free to give us a call and we’ll get out to your pool as quickly as we can. Or, if you’re not sure what’s going on with your pool, you can always call or email us and describe what’s going on–we’ll talk you through some options and help you to troubleshoot. We love our customers, and we truly do strive to make each and every one of you happy.