It’s such a competitive environment out there. There are things taking place that you didn’t usually see before.
One of the things we think about is how much detail do we want to give customers on the cost — do we want to give them a whole breakdown? Some homeowners will say, “I need to know how much the dig is; I need to know how much the steel’s going to be; I need to know how much the gunite’s going to be.” But they’re going to need all those things regardless. That would be like walking into a car dealership and asking, “How much are the seats? How much is the paint?” Those aren’t options — you have to have those things.
I don’t want to give out all our pricing for them to give to our competitors. Some people want to use all your pricing to try to get a better deal from somebody else. So we want to keep as much confidentiality as we can in our pricing structure, but still provide our clients with all the information they need to make a decision.
With most of our proposals, we give homeowners a base price and then an option list. So they can see how much the pool is, then how much it costs for a controller, pebble finish, automatic cover, solar or an upgrade to glass tile or other options.
It’s the same thing with our landscaping: We’re not going to say, “Here’s how much the subgrading for this concrete is.” But we give them prices for the different options. Then they can pick and choose what they see fit.
