As part of an emerging trend, two Arizona swimming pool companies have entered the software development space.
One such company is California Pools & Landscape, a PSN Top 50 Builder based in the Phoenix area. The company is targeting consumers with its Dream Book app, which it launched in March.
The brainchild of company President Jeremy Smith, and spearheaded by Senior Manager Nicole Shoppach, the app is the company’s first foray into software development. Shoppach worked with Smith to conceive and execute the idea, then they commissioned an outside company to design and create Dream Book.
“His passion project became my passion project,” Shoppach said.
Described as a “Houzz on steroids for backyards” and available free of charge for all handheld Apple and Android devices, the app serves as a design and information center where users can read feature stories and swipe through high-res images of pools, spas, landscapes and backyards. The photos can be saved to a personalized Dream Book. Users also can upload their own images and even create a 3-D virtual tour of their outdoor space.
Although it serves to help guide potential California Pools & Landscape clients, the app can be used by anyone seeking inspiration, particularly new millennium home owners.
“This is what our customers are wanting. ... They want customized information at their fingertips. It’s a springboard to a whole new generation of California Pools customers,” Shoppach said.
The experience was so positive, Shoppach added, that the firm already has developed a second app that will serve as a customer portal. It is expected to launch in May.
The second app was created within the pool industry to help service technicians conduct business.
Cameron Craig, co-owner of Phoenix-area service and repair firm Super Swim Pools, launched AquaSuite in February. The pool management software app includes route tracking, automatic billing and repair tracking from start to finish. “It’s a full-fledged service and repair app that industry pros can use to run their businesses more smoothly,” said Craig, who also has a decade of experience working as a software developer.
“When I first got started in the industry, I noticed that keeping track of chemicals and billing and good customer contact info on our phones was a big hassle,” he recalled. “So I began looking at software offered to industry professionals and wasn’t impressed.”
AquaSuite reflects a major shift to streamline all aspects of a service business and remove paper completely from the equation, he explained. It also offers users and their clients the ability to communicate effectively about each job, pointing out the importance of using technology to target the millennial demographic. However, it is simplified for any level of user.
Craig, a 25-year-old self-professed entrepreneur, says he is taking advantage of an undeniable paradigm shift in the industry. AquaSuite is meant to be self-contained, he said, so professionals don’t have to combine more than one app to get all the functionality they need. His app aims to address these issues using insight from his dad and business partner, Jim Craig, a 35-year industry veteran.
“Everything that goes into the software is touched by my dad, and I get immediate feedback, and we make adjustments so that everything is benefiting the end user,” Cameron Craig explains.
