For Mark Uberecken, 2024 has been a solid year.

His company, Unified Pool Solutions, has seen steady business. The area he serves, Texas' Energy Corridor, an area anchored by Houston, benefits largely from the oil economy. However, with this year’s election, interest rates and other economic issues weighing heavily on people’s minds, he sees customers and prospects becoming more price-conscious and hesitant to spend.

With seven employees serving approximately 250 pools per week, the company has grown about as much as Uberecken wants. “I really prefer to stay more in the boutique market and the very high-quality niche,” he says. “So we take care of some pretty difficult swimming pools, some pretty large swimming pools, on the residential side.”

To make up for the increased hesitancy on the part of customers, and to position the company to act should they hit slow periods, he wanted to find new ways to bring in extra revenue. To do this, he and his staff took on a new specialty and incorporated a new way to maximize work from its current customer base.

The Right Fit

In considering new services to add, Uberecken started by adding warranty work for one of the major pool/spa equipment manufacturers as well as fire bowls – a category that fit well into his high-end niche.

But he came across a product category that is generating more demand and would distinguish him from others in the market –- chiller installation. This equipment can be added to pools and spas to cool the water -- especially useful in areas like his, where the water can maintain at 95 degrees during summer.

This also would fit easily into the company's scope of services. Founded in 2010 by Uberecken after a career in insurance, Unified Pool Solutions performs lighter renovations in addition to performing pool maintenance and repair.

Plus, he and his team liked the challenge. “We pride ourselves on being able to install things well, and those had been something that a lot of people struggled to do and do correctly, especially in our market with the higher humidity,” Uberecken says.

While this product is still in the early stages of market demand, Uberecken is getting more requests, especially as word has spread throughout the community through social media and local apps that the company offers this service.

New routine

Unified Pool Solutions also added a practice that fits easily into the service technicians' routine but can yield extra sales throughout the year.

About every six months, each pool is inspected by the tech to make sure everything is up to snuff. Techs follow the company-provided checklist, looking for things such as the condition of the tile and mastic, plaster and equipment. In addition to getting ahead of failures, they also look for deterioration that could prove unsafe for customers, such as wires and conduit that have gone loose or GFCIs that need replacement.

“It’s stuff that gets overlooked if somebody within the company isn’t actively reviewing that annually,” Uberecken says. “It’s a great place for us to discover [what’s] hidden right in front of us.”

As part of their contract, homeowners pay for a filter clean every six months. The inspections take place in tandem with these cleanings. “That’s how I pay for it,” Uberecken says. “My tech’s already going out there for the filter clean. I ask them to spend another 45 minutes going through the inspection.”

Techs take pictures of problem areas to show customers when proposing a repair or replacement.

The inspections and chiller installations both have contributed to the company’s bottom line, and Uberecken expects a good outcome when 2024 closes. Still, he hopes things pick up in 2025. He believes having the election behind us will help.

“People are definitely being more cautious about how they’re spending [money],” he says. “I hope that once we have a direction people will be ready to get rolling again.”