Dispatching 1600 Pools

Today I am talking to Alex from Everclear Pool Service. Alex, welcome to my podcast.

Yeah. Good morning. Good morning.

So I'd like to hear where you're at in the pool service business right now. I know you don't own the business, but you're a significant employee at Everclear Pool Service. I'm curious where your business is at, roughly? How many people working for it, how many pools?

Yeah, absolutely. I'm the lead dispatcher. In terms of the hierarchy in the business, it's about the third position. I organize most of the work for the employees here at Everclear pools. I joined about 2020 - so six years ago. It's the largest pool service provider in Mojave County. We service 1,600 pools in Lake Havasu and about a few hundred in Bullhead, Kingman, and Parker. My position in the company is to organize our employees using my knowledge that I've gained from ASU to guide the company as well as myself through that.

Yeah, because we have that background in mind. That's how we originally became friendly. I'm going to ASU right now and you're an ASU alum.

Yes, absolutely. It's pretty cool. And it's funny enough that pools, of all things, I was not expecting to be involved with. But the industry - it is a very good trade and it's a good industry to be in. There's a lot of knowledge bases that are involved in pools. It's not just simply skimming leaves out of a pool. There's a lot that goes into them.

How did you get into pool service?

I originally went to ASU for chemical engineering, and I had to work the whole time through the process. Engineering is a very demanding major, so I ended up switching to just chemistry as a pure passion. I was already halfway through, so I might as well have finished. I really liked chemistry. Upon finishing, I graduated with a bachelor's in chemistry. Due to personal circumstances, I moved back to my hometown here in Havasu. I was working a fast food job because I needed to earn some money. The owner of Everclear came into the fast food establishment - I was working the front desk at the time - and he gave me his card.

That was seven years ago. I kept it in my wallet for a long time. Eventually I called him back and came in for an interview. With the background in chemistry, it really helped me in the industry. Starting as an engineer helped with the pumps, and chemistry obviously with the water. It really was just a guy in my hometown handing me a business card and just a shared ideal. After some thought and time, I just joined the business.

This is interesting. A lot of the people I've talked to have been pool service business owners and not of businesses as large as yours. What are your responsibilities as a lead dispatcher?

We use a pool service software called Skimmer. Because our business is uniquely large - even in Arizona, it's a lot of pools - this software has been incredibly helpful. We've kind of manipulated the software uniquely so the dispatch team, there's three of us, can operate the business efficiently on a day to day basis.

As the lead dispatcher, the guys in the field are on a property taking a picture and reporting it to us in the office - the desk jockeys. We see those reports as they come in through email on Outlook. We then sift through those emails daily from the reports, from the techs, and assign them to different locations that we can address individually daily. I'll come in, we'll sift through the notices or notifications from yesterday and as they come in, then call the customers and communicate with the techs about getting problems solved.

Everclear also has a retail location in addition to providing service and maintenance. What are things that someone who is interested in getting into retail would learn from having a retail location?

What I've seen from the retail side is that the pool industry is very saturated. There's a lot of pool people, but not a lot of places that people can buy expert advice. There's Leslie's, everybody knows Leslie's. You can go to Walmart for certain things. What I've noticed is that people do like having a physical establishment that they can go to and talk to somebody about their problems. A lot of times, people don't want to pay for services - they want to be able to do something themselves.

Being able to direct people well and have well-priced product for the community is beneficial not only as a business for profit, but also beneficial to customers. Especially in the pool industry, a lot of people are left in the dark. The retail store provides us an opportunity to make a little bit more money - not much - but also reach out to retail customers who can eventually become service customers, which is what you really end up wanting.

On the service side, when we're talking about retail and selling items, people can get stuff online very easily. It's very difficult to say, "Hey, buy this for $180" when you can go to Amazon and get it for half that cost. The retail store provides an opportunity to sell closer to the price that Amazon would, but less than what it would cost for service. Customers are not comfortable buying something for $180 when they know they could go to Amazon and buy it for cheaper, especially if they're intending to install it themselves anyway.

How many of the regular customers who come into the retail store are homeowners versus other pool service business owners or technicians?

In terms of customers versus pool professionals, I would say maybe 10% of our customers are pool professionals, maybe 15%. Those pool professionals have other options they can go to for products. That 10% of pool professionals that do come are here because we happen to have something that the regular wholesale providers in the location don't. We just happen to have it in stock when they don't, or we're open every day. We're open on Sundays, and we're open on Saturday at 3:00. Most pool professionals already have access to places like SCP or Heritage Pool - where they can get these products. So the pool professionals coming to us is really about happenstance and convenience.

How does a retail pool service store work as a business? What are the fundamental traits of it?

We buy from wholesale providers like SCP and Heritage as well. Most people know the more you buy at once, the better deal you get. So we have formed relationships and partnerships with certain brands that have given us deals on large volume of product that we can then sell at a reasonable rate. We're buying the same product from the same vendors at these wholesale warehouses and then, with contracts from these manufacturers and product providers, selling it to the public. For the most part, you're not allowed to just buy something wholesale and immediately turn around and sell it publicly unless you're providing a service, unless you make deals with these vendors to sell at retail.

What are some things that you've learned in the pool service business over your time? Early mistakes you made or lessons that would have saved you time?

The lesson that I've learned in the industry that is most helpful is that it's a relatively new industry compared to something like landscaping. But there's a lot of people who have a lot of knowledge already and have already made the mistakes that you don't need to. I would recommend listening to the people who are already in the pool industry.

Also know that the pool industry is changing right now because of technology and software. These old heads know how everything works, but us new people are changing with the technological times. The partnership between the people with experience and the people who are attempting to learn and add to their knowledge is very important.

The last thing I think people in the pool industry should know is that you're better off sticking with one manufacturer and one set of products that you really like and know work, rather than jumping through hoops for profit. It's better to earn a little bit less profit for stability and repeatability than to be jumping through hoops with different parts manufacturers. Stick with the same type of products. Listen to your pool professional, don't just decide to get Amazon stuff or product from Home Depot. Listen to your pool providers and push your customers to get good stuff.

All right, great. Thank you Alex for being on the podcast today. If people want to learn more about Everclear Pools, they can go to your website. You guys are in Lake Havasu. I appreciate your time on the podcast.

Yeah, absolutely Parker. If you have any other questions, feel free to give me a call. I'd love to share any other knowledge that I have. Do directed questions though, because I'll go on a tangent for sure.