Steve Pham

2020 isn’t over yet, but I already have my hindsight goggles on. And, looking through the lens of our pool service segment, what I see is damned impressive.

Everyone will agree that it’s been a tough year. The coronavirus pandemic has thrown unimaginable and constantly moving hurdles to challenge everyone. And service companies have handled them all with grit and determination.

We know this because we asked our service company CEOs several questions in our program submission form. The first two are fairly evergreen: Describe the best business decision, large or small, that you’ve made in the past year that has positively impacted your company. And, what was your company’s biggest challenge this year, and how did you resolve it?

The answers to these two questions generally will yield useful takeaways for our readers. But this year, we added two more pandemic-related questions to find out how our service companies are dealing with this year’s unique circumstances: How was your company affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and what changes did you make in response?

The answers revealed a lot of similarities. In the beginning, many struggled to keep up and comply with the rapidly changing government mandates. But since pool maintenance was considered an essential business from almost the very beginning and for the majority of the country, service companies needed to adapt to the new normal and quick.

For the most part, it looks as if these efforts were successful. Service firms were busier than ever. I assumed that that meant revenue was up as well. This was the case for most, but not all. A few companies reported that, while they were busy, the impact from the ravaged economy meant that many of their customers had fallen on hard times through job loss or illness and could not afford to pay them.

Instead of dropping these customers, our service companies found ways to compassionately help them while still keeping their staff employed during this vulnerable time. Most were able to utilize the Paycheck Protection Program and other loans to protect their staff, and they offered payment deferment options to their affected customers. In some cases, they maintained pools for free for a month or two, until homeowners were able to get back on their feet.

It’s this spirit of generosity that characterizes our Top 50 Service winners. This was especially apparent when judging the community service portion of the program. While we’re unable to highlight these efforts in this issue due to space constraints, look for our next issue. In it, we’ll profile five Top 50 companies that serve their communities in standout ways.

In the meantime, congratulations to this year’s Top 50 Service honorees! It was hard earned and well deserved.