We know that customer service ranks up there with a quality product to ensure that customers walk away from their pool purchasing experience happy. That's why Top 50 Builder candidates are invited, as an option, to undergo a customer service survey by the firm GuildQuality to assess customer happiness.
However, 2020 and 2021 have served up some of the toughest customer-service challenges in history. The grouping of historic demand, staff shortages and supply-chain delays converts customer service into a tightrope walk. So we thought we'd ask our customer-service superstars to share theirr secrets.
Of those who participated in the program, the following ten scored the highest with clients. Read how they keep customers happy.
CALIFORNIA POOLS AND LANDSCAPE
Chandler, Ariz.
Describe the policies and practices that help your company treat customers as you would want to be treated.
We have developed an app that the customer can use to view all the documents, payments and scheduling history of their project. The app shows them what is scheduled in the short term. It also gives a customer a more extended time view of milestones that are waiting to be scheduled.
A messaging feature allows clients to send text messages to key personnel and attach pictures. The answers scroll like a text string and are archived by subject and time so they can be referred to in the future. We use the messaging part of the app to update them as well, with pictures and information.
Our policy used to be to call every client every single day. Today’s clients do not want phone calls; they want information at their fingertips to be sourced when they wish to review it.
Our goal was to have the app manage 80% of our client’s information needs. As a result, we can spend our time managing the 20% of customer needs that require customized attention.
Describe your biggest customer-service challenge since the pandemic began. How did you overcome that challenge?
Demand continues to grow and supplies of every commodity are severely compromised. Our customers are tired of pandemic excuses and of having to reduce expectations.
But excellent customer service is about relationships, and relationships require that we look at the world with a perspective that is not our own. It is so easy to fall into the habit of looking at what we do from our own perspective, especially when we are overworked or stressed. But we must, “put our customer’s glasses on,” or see everything as our customer does. We practice this regularly through role-playing and distribution of customer stories. Our leaders are asked to represent this in every interaction with customers, employees, vendors and trade partners.
Having our customer glasses on gives us empathy and understanding, which make us want to spend the time necessary to have a great relationship with our clients and understand what they are going through. And we realize that putting our customer glasses on makes it way easier for them to put our glasses on, and relationships are built, stronger than if there were no challenges.
How does your company manage and qualify leads in a way that is efficient yet customer-service-friendly?
Our Customer Concierge and Marketing team are dedicated to ensuring their first involvement with CPL is both inspiring and educational! Through video, articles and communication strategy, we can service more than 200 inquires per week while maintaining a personal connection with the client.
We realized that when you are a potential pool buyer, it is tough to find relevant and trustworthy information regarding purchasing a pool, whether it is cost information or timeframes. Over the past year, we developed a learning center on our website dedicated to providing all the information one needs to make an informed buying decision. Our goal is to answer every customer’s main questions before they click or call us! We want to empower buyers by answering their questions that no one else in our market is answering.
Doing this gains the buyer’s trust with our company.
GOHLKE POOLS
Denton, Texas
Describe the policies and practices that help your company treat customers as you would want to be treated.
We are constantly advising our staff to build relationships and treat clients like they would want to be treated. Better yet, we encourage them to treat clients like they would their Grandma.
The following is part of what we share with our staff members concerning The Grandma Principle: “How would you treat your Grandma if she was the customer? You would likely be extremely kind, patient, thorough in your explanations, and you would truly do what is best for her 100% of the time. Now ask yourself: Is this how you treat all of your customers?
“Jeffrey Gitomer, business author and speaker, says that when we speak to a customer, a good way to “test your talk” is to silently end each sentence with “Grandma.” In other words, if it sounds like something you would say to your grandmother, say it. If not, don’t.
“He uses the following examples:
• “Sorry, the coupon expired yesterday, Grandma.”
• “We are all out of stock and I don’t know when we will get more, Grandma”
• “That’s not my department, Grandma.”
• “It’s our policy, Grandma.”
“Just remember: If you wouldn’t say or do it to your grandma, why would you say or do it to your customer?”
Describe your biggest customer-service challenge since the pandemic began. How did you overcome that challenge?
Meeting and managing customer expectations during the sales and construction process has been our biggest challenge since the pandemic began. There are several things that we have done to help overcome these challenges. Among those improvements, we now include our clients in a group text with the construction superintendent and project manager to discuss the schedule and to address any possible questions our clients might have. We also have implemented a new construction management software to better organize and coordinate the construction process.
How do you handle supply-chain issues and delays with your customers?
We have been very fortunate to have an inventory team that has kept us from running out of the majority of key equipment components. As soon as a project is sold, we make sure that we have the necessary equipment — if we do not, then we figure out a way to acquire it, regardless of the cost.
How does your company manage and qualify leads in a way that is efficient yet customer-service-friendly?
Probably the biggest problem we had to solve is that the majority of our prospects had no idea how much a pool cost and did not have a realistic timeline in mind. In addition, we occasionally had problems pre-qualifying all leads. So we came up with only one conduit for all of the leads to come in — a questionnaire on our website, which can be filled out by the prospect or by the staff member who takes the call. In addition to obtaining the prospects’ basic information (name, address, contact information, etc.), it also asks about certain features that the prospect is interested in, a budget range, as well as other information. We encourage all prospects to read through the New Pool Planning Kit on our website.
AMERICAN POOLS AND SPAS
Orlando
What policies and practices help your company treat customers as you would want to be treated?
As demand increased, we noticed a lack of communication with construction clients. We hired a customer-service representative to bridge the communication gap with homeowners and set realistic expectations on the pool construction process. We communicate with homeowners bi-weekly via emails and have eight superintendents who oversee the jobs.
How do you handle supply-chain issues and delays with your customers?
In addition to setting a realistic time frame, we prepare customers for shortages of certain materials. For example, we noticed some tiles were out of stock or discontinued. So when clients choose their finishes, we require them to select two different tiles, in case one goes out of stock or is discontinued. This saves clients an extra trip to our showroom and helps avoid project delays.
How does your company manage and qualify leads in a way that is efficient yet customer-service-friendly?
We saw upfront that many people shopping around were not as serious, so we had our marketing specialist serve as the first point-of-contact for all leads. She set the realistic starting prices as well as project timeframe to see if it falls in line with the homeowner’s pool plans.
We have created an efficient method by contacting our website leads with an email that goes over starting prices, project time frame, homeowner’s responsibilities, etc. This helped our time management.
POOLS OF FUN
Plainfield, Ind.
What policies and practices help your company treat customers as you would want to be treated?
We are pushing the culture internally to think of our customers as "clients." Customers shop at the big box stores. Clients shop at the high-end department stores. This shift in perception is helping us to ensure we are providing our clients the best services and best overall experience with working with us.
Describe your biggest customer-service success in 2020-2021.
We started the previous year surveying our service clients to determine areas where we shined, so we could share these best practices across the team. Through these surveys, we also were able to identify specific training opportunities for our team. Post-survey follow-up showed marked improvements in areas we identified to be critical to the customer experience. These included improved communication, quick and reliable follow-up, and personal appearance.
How does your company manage and qualify leads in a way that is efficient yet customer-service-friendly?
We contact every new lead within 24 hours with an introduction to a design consultant and an opportunity to schedule a meeting right then on that consultants calendar. We have added tools like Calendly and DocuSign to further support the existing systems. Our team members are empowered to resolve client concerns and provide the service and/or support they need in a timely manner. Any client concerns or questions are vetted by our Customer Concierge to ensure we are providing resolution to the best of our abilities.
SPARTAN POOL & PATIO
Norman, Okla.
How does your company manage and qualify leads in a way that is efficient yet customer-service-friendly?
We built out interactive calculators on our website that allow customers to input the parameters of the pool and get a real-time ballpark price. This has been a huge hit! After the potential customer has checked boxes on the features they want in their pool, they submit the calculator to our sales team who now has a qualified lead that is aware of the price range they fit into. This gives us leads that are knowledgeable about the available features and the cost of those items.
What policies and practices help your company treat customers as you would want to be treated?
We make a big deal out of people walking through our doors! We call them by name and try to make them feel special for being in our store. Each customer is treated as though they made our day better by visiting us, not that they inconvenienced us in any way. This culture and environment has given us the reputation of being a company that is able to help our customers long after the installation of their pool.
Describe your biggest customer-service challenge since the pandemic began. How did you overcome it?
Keeping inventory in stock has been a challenge for the past 12 months. We put our available cash towards stocking up by an extra 25% in 2021 in hopes of being able to provide our customers with everything they might need. This investment into our inventory has paid off for us already and given us the ability to get our customers up and running after the massive winter storm we had in February.
GIB-SAN POOL & LANDSCAPE CREATIONS
Toronto
Describe your biggest customer-service success in 2020-2021 and how you achieved it.
Our biggest customer service success in 2020-2021 was the creation and launch of our E-commerce website with both curbside pick-up and delivery options. This was one of the best service successes from a pivot perspective. When our retail store doors needed to close in March, 2020, we created and launched an E-commerce platform within two weeks to ensure that we could still serve our clients’ pool and hot tub needs. There was a great deal of advertising and awareness that we needed to establish over time but, generally speaking, our clients adapted to using our online store right away.
In the first four months of 2021, we have already sold more than what we did in 2020. It has been utilized more and more by our clients. While we still remain in the same lockdown situation, the site awareness has led to increased conversions on a daily basis.
This site has been especially utilized by DIY clients.
Without this site, we would have lost significant revenues based on our city and regional lockdown measures. Our store has been forced to remain closed to in-store traffic, only permitting curbside shopping for nearly a year. Rather than clients simply buying what they need from a water chemistry perspective, we were able to promote, products, toys and accessories to ensure that we still were moving our inventory effectively.
Another success was our decision to create COVID-19 signs to be posted on each and every active job site. This was valuable for various trades, our team, clients and neighboring properties to feel safe and know we are diligent with our COVID response.
How do you handle supply-chain issues and delays with your customers?
Providing the client transparency, setting realistic expectations, and having selections done as soon as possible contribute to issue prevention.
We also practice and work on empathetic listening to better communicate with our clients. We share in their frustrations, but we keep them focused on the end goal which will be a lifetime of enjoyment in their backyard resort.
MOREHEAD POOLS
Shreveport, La.
Describe the policies and practices that help your company treat customers as you would want to be treated.
Our policy of allowing team members to have varying levels of authority to make decisions and judgment calls when dealing with customers is most helpful in end-user experience. Retail and service team members can offer discounts to customers of varying levels without management approval, and our construction division can utilize value-add services to diffuse situations if needed.
Having the authority, and/or empowering our team contributes to overall customer satisfaction.
Describe your biggest customer-service challenge since the pandemic began. How did you overcome that challenge?
Our biggest challenge has been the timeline when it comes to starting a project. We feel we have addressed as best we can by constantly communicating updates and delays.
Pre-construction gifting is something we are looking into heavily as a way of filling the gap between construction agreement and execution with gifts, such as tumblers, towels, etc.
Describe your biggest customer-service success in 2020-2021. How did you achieve it?
Our biggest customer service success this past year was continuing to execute projects and not lose a single day due to shutdowns. While it required tons of time and extra precautions and developing new procedural measures, not only were our customers grateful, but our actual team members were thankful and seemed to be motivated by continued employment and assurance of the future.
How do you handle supply-chain issues and delays with your customers?
We communicate up front where we think delays could take place and what expectations should be once they sign our agreement, once we begin construction, and as we approach finish out. As our back log continued to grow throughout the year and we began to see anxious customers in our construction queue, we began to proactively reach out and inform them of delays, accelerations, product shortages, etc.
KEITH ZARS POOLS
San Antonio
Describe your biggest customer-service success in 2020-2021.
Our biggest success came in “Febrrrrruary” this year. Our area went through a freeze, and many clients lost power for multiple days. When power was restored, we received substantially more customer care requests than we are accustomed to receiving. Our first priority was to talk to every inquiring homeowner. We had more phone calls, voicemails, emails, etc. than the customer care staff could answer in a timely manner. We were able to address the overwhelming amount of requests with the help of other departments. It became an “all hands on deck” type of mentality, and the whole company seemed to rally around the situation. All office staff reached out to clients, letting them know that we had received their requests and, with their patience, we would be back in touch.
From reception, construction, rehab, maintenance and marketing, all picked up a piece of the load to get us through this period. We even had commission sales people spending half their day calling clients back.
What policies and practices help your company treat customers as you would want to be treated?
Our best practice is to listen to our clients. It helps them feel comfortable that they are being heard and helps us understand what their expectations are in all facets of their pool needs. The policy of understanding each individual Partner’s vision for their pool and ongoing pool care is done by keeping track of the progress and history of all service work that has been completed.
AQUA POOL & PATIO
East Windsor, Conn.
How does your company manage and qualify leads in a way that is efficient yet customer-service-friendly?
When leads became overwhelming, we created an email that we customize to each potential client. There is no way we could have our sales staff visit every lead — the numbers were and continue to be overwhelming. So the email ultimately qualifies the lead, but also explains things such as the overwhelming demand, the fact that we build gunite pools only, and our time frames. It guides them to our very in-depth FAQ page on our website, and asks them to reply if they are still interested after reading. We have saved tremendous time and been able to close deals quicker by using that simple email.
Describe your biggest customer-service challenge since the pandemic began. How did you overcome it?
Initially the biggest challenge was getting the customers to believe we were working in a safe and responsible manner. We started sending all crews out with only one employee per vehicle, instructed customers to stay inside or away from the construction site when we were in the yard, and educated customers about our internal safety policies — wiping down vehicles each evening, wearing masks, allowing no outside staff inside the building.
All of us are blessed that our work is primarily outdoors so we are inherently safe. We just had to educate the homeowners that we truly are and get their permission to start or continue construction. When we shared our policies with our customers, they were 100% ready to allow us to work in their safe spaces.
SUNSHINE FUN POOLS
College Station, Texas
Describe your biggest customer-service challenge since the pandemic began. How did you overcome it?
Labor and material shortages were and continue to be the biggest customer service challenge. We have worked through this by being honest with our clients and fully explaining the industry-wide supply-chain issues. Pairing that customer education with the discipline to know our capacity and avoid over extending has been the key to success.
Increased demand has created a backlog for pool starts. We have used this backlog to our advantage by ordering equipment and materials long before they are needed on site. By doing this, we can mitigate long lead times or have plenty of time to reselect and source other options.
Describe your biggest customer-service success in 2020-2021.
The biggest successes last year have been to better our relationships with our major material suppliers. When faced with industry-wide issues, we have all worked together to build a team to mitigate shortages and delays. Realizing that everyone — builders, manufacturers, skilled trades, etc. — relied on the other to be successful created a team approach to scheduling, ordering, and production.
What policies and practices help your company treat customers as you would want to be treated?
Pool construction is major construction. Most homeowners don’t realize the magnitude of the process. Being fully transparent and setting accurate expectations from the very beginning is the key to a successful project.
