When the Pool Route Falls Apart

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Welcome to the Poolguy podcast show. It was episode I'm going to call this

bad day out on the pool route. So I'm going to go over some things that happen out there and

have happened to me that really kind of ruin your day. And of course, every day is different,

not every day can be perfect and, you know, roses and whatever butterflies.

So there are going to be some bad days out there. Are you a pool service pro looking to take

your business to the next level? Join the Poolguy coaching program. Get expert advice,

business tips, exclusive content, and get direct support. For me, I'm a 35-year veteran in the

industry. Whether you're starting out or scaling up, I've got the tools to help you succeed.

Learn more at sumipoollearning.com. Of course, traffic is one thing that for me is an irritant

living in Los Angeles County. You deal with it all the time. And my family will tell you that

probably the person that's most upset whenever there's a traffic jam on the freeway. And I've been

in some really bad traffic jams, by the way, where they're even like landing a helicopter on the

freeway and the freeway is closed for a couple hours. I think one of the worst situations I had

was when the local freeway here that I take the 210 freeway was actually closed

from the whole freeway was closed down for most of the day. And all the back roads were congested.

I think it took me like two and a half hours to drive what normally would take me 25 minutes.

And of course, that ruins your day. So those are things that you can't predict or stop or fix.

It's just something that happens. So there are a lot of things that will kind of ruin your day.

And I'll go over a lot of these here for you and you'll probably experience some of these. And

they're really not preventable. But if you know about them, you're aware that this situation can

happen and you can understand that you can work through just about any kind of problem out there

that happens. I'll start with this one. And this happens sometimes when the customers using their

pool. And they don't think about it. They're having a party on a Saturday. And let's say your

service is Thursday. And they'll leave the pool on spa mode. Have the pool running all week.

But the pool is not actually running all week in spa mode every day. The spa is coming on for

eight hours and turning off. And the pool is sitting there stagnant all week long. And in a summertime,

this means that the pool is going to develop a pretty good size algae bloom in most cases.

And the customer for some reason, I don't know why this is. They never noticed that

like the pool is not circulating or running. And you know, when you tell them, hey, you left the

pool on spa mode and you have this algae bloom. And I was there for extra time treating it.

They'll be clueless. But like, what? We know that the spa mode has that happen.

Well, it does happen. And it will happen to you on your route. So just be aware that in the summer,

when people are using their pool, this could be a problem you run into. Now there's a couple of

things you can do to let the customer know that there's going to be an extra charge for the chemicals

because a lot of times you're shocking it, treating the algae and bringing it back. But there are a

few things you can do to prevent it becoming a disaster. And you hear me talk about these chlorine

enhancers all the time. But I really believe in them because they are a way to offset a disaster like

this. And it also offset the second thing that I'm going to talk about here in a minute. If you use

a pool or X or if you use Bory's to 50 parts a million, or if you use a combination of enzymes

and enzymes and phosphate treatment every week, this really will offset this. And it's not going to be

a major disaster. It'll just be a minor annoyance in most cases because there's going to be enough of

the element, the chlorine enhancer in the pool for that four day period to kind of protect it from

the algae bloom. If you don't have the pool or X or the Bory's or if we're not using any kind of

other enhancer in the pool, there's a few other ones. I don't talk about often but they do exist

out there. Then when this happens, the pool is going to take its natural course and algae will form

with no circulation. There'll be no chlorine in the pool and it could be a big mess. So the enhancers

are really an insurance policy sometimes to worsen something like when something like this happens,

it just becomes again something minor and not a major disaster. And I've run into this before

and you'll probably run into this as well where the customer is having a pool party and they don't

inform you and you should make this known to the customers, especially those that have kids and use

the pool lot. If you ever have a chance to converse with them or when you first get to the account,

let them know that if you're having a pool party or a big event, let me know that we can all make

sure the pool is ready for it because typically you would want to shock the pool and bring it up to a

certain level and do things to the pool prior to that. Put in some non-chlorine shock. Whatever you do

to get your pools ready for a party, what I usually do is I bring the chlorine level up

to the highest point possible to where it's not going to be irritating. So about 10 parts

per million and then I will put in a couple bags of non-chlorine shock. I'll also leave a bag of

kelhyper with the customer and a couple bags of non-chlorine shock as well. And I'll tell them before

the pool party, throw in these two bags and they'll throw them in there and this will help the non-chlorine

shock. I'm saying not the kelhypo and then after the pool party, I'll have them put in the kelhypo

just to bring up the chlorine level if necessary. So these are all things that you can do

for those party situations but a lot of times customers won't tell you they're having a party.

So you get to a pool and I've had this happen before and again this is why those enhancers are really

great to have. So this is the way they pooled. That was gigantic. It was like 30,000 gallons.

They heated the pool to 95 degrees over the weekend. It was pretty crazy. They had a big party.

So when I got there, I think I was there on a Tuesday. I put my hand in the pool and it was like

still in the 90s and I was like, wow, what happened here? And of course the chlorine had zeroed out.

But fortunately for this pool, I was using two black pooler ex-units in the pump that

two separate pumps and filters and I was using two black pooler ex-units in that pool.

And really even though the pool was heated in 95 and the chlorine has zeroed out after the weekend

party, it looked actually really good. I didn't really see any algae. It was clear and I was really

thankful that I did have that pooler ex-units in that pool as my insurance policy for something

like this happening. So yes, the customers will heat their pool, have a party, not tell you,

and it's one of those things that can't happen out there and it can be a major disaster,

especially if they had the party on a Saturday and you're not there until the following Friday.

And the pool is heated and of course they tend to leave the heater on. So it's one of those things

where I text a customer and I'm like, oh yeah, you had a pool party over the weekend. Your heater

is still on by the way. So I guess it's a good idea to jump into pool and use it this weekend as

well or use it during the week and the customer usually takes back. It's like, oh man. And one thing

that can actually prevent this from happening by the way and this is area dependent. But if you're in

Southern California and the customer is with Southern California gas, they can actually get alerts

when they're using too much of the gas and this happens to one of my customers one time where he

texts me when I was on my route saying, hey, I think my on vacation, my relatives are there and I

think they left the heater on. Can you run by and turn it off? Because I got an alert saying that

I'm using a lot of gas and sure enough, I went by that pool and the heater was on and they had left

the heater on. They had to use the spa put it back in pool mode and left the heater on. So I

turned off the heater. But those alerts are important too for you as a homeowner and for you as a

pool service provider. Let the customers know that there is that alert system by the gas company.

I'm pretty sure all the gas companies have this and they'll get a notification on their phone

saying that they're using a large amount of gas. And so this is one way to prevent that kind of

heater on all week of fact and you'll be like the hero when they get an alert one day and they can

go turn off their heater. So this happens. The heater being left on a pool party and not letting you

know or leaving the pool in spa mode after a pool party. And one more thing that could happen

similar to these things is someone with a standalone variable speed pump when they're having a party

they don't like the noise of the pump. So they're going to hit stop or they're going to hit off

on it. And what happens is that they don't turn the pump back on and this is the pool off all week

basically. So I like to educate the customer that if they're having a pool party and they don't

like the noise. Yes, you can turn the pump off. It's better if the pump is running I tell them

because when people are using the pool, it's better if the pool is circulating. It's just a

better experience and of course it keeps the pool from having problems. But if they insist

on turning it off because the pump is too loud and I understand if the pump is really allowed

next to the pool. Make sure that they hit the on button again or the start button again

because let them know that unless they do that the run cycle or the weekly timer doesn't come back

on and activate and basically the pool will sit off all week long and it'll be a major problem.

So just educate the customer ahead of time that if you do turn the pump off for whatever reason

pool party is usually the reason. Make sure you hit the on button or start button again

and that will put it back in a normal time cycle. There's really no way to override that for you

and it's something that just happens out there and just be let the customer be aware of that problem

and that's usually a good way to prevent it. If it happens once I let the customer know right away

what they did wrong basically and if they're home I have them come out there and I show them

this is what turns off the pump and unless you restart it it's going to leave it off all week long.

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Other things of course out of your control is a mechanical failure with your vehicle.

It's one of those things that can't be frustrating at a Nissan Frontier that had over what

I think it ended with over 200,000 miles on this thing put a new engine in at about 120

40 I can't remember when I put the new engine in now and it just had some problems and it was

kind of a headache to have these problems but the problems you're going to have

mainly is with the starter because you're turning the truck on and off you know 20 or 30 times a

day and eventually you're going to try to turn that truck on your truck on you're going to hear

the click click or you're going to you know it's just going to be one of those things where

the starter is dead also the battery tends to die a lot because you're

turning it off and on a lot as well and so you go through a lot more batteries I think than

most normal drivers will go through and fortunately there's triple A so I like having the

triple A battery service because what they'll do is they'll put a new battery in for you if

your battery dies and then the warranty that battery of course but then two or three years down the

road when your battery dies again you call triple A and they'll just swap it out on the spot

so it's really effective because you don't lose any downtime maybe 20 or 30 minutes

if your battery dies while you're on your route call triple A and by the way you should get a

triple A membership it's not super expensive and you get three service calls per year

and hopefully you don't use them all up in that year on your truck I've done that with my

frontier and then I kind of had to borrow time from my wife's triple A card so call it in for me

but there's another story there and they also change your flat tire so all these things are

great to have the ability for them to come out and do that but the battery service is really good

because then they'll swap out the battery and you don't have to worry about it if it dies again

two years later on your route they'll come out and put a new battery in for you it is no real

downtime at that point it all admit sometimes because our own problems out there in the pool route

by not following the routine and forgetting to do things I haven't really forgot to clean a pool

I have dreams about like forgetting the clean pools you probably had these dreams before like

during anxiety dreams where you have this pool route and in your dream you forget to clean certain

pools and time goes by in your dream and you're like oh I got to these pools I missed these pools

I couldn't I didn't clean it my head one dream where I had an account where they had two pools

on the property and I kept forgetting to clean the secondary pool that was on the property this didn't

exist of course just in my dream so forgetting things that the pool are forgetting to do things

you can cause a lot of problems for yourself and I've done this on several occasions where I

forgotten to turn off the automated system I put in service mode when I'm cleaning the filter or

something and then I forget to put it back in auto mode and the customer calls and hey you know

my pool is running three days straight without turning off and then I go over there and I see

that I've put in service mode so I rarely use service mode by the way unless I have to

all this use timeout mode that way I know that in three hours I'm gonna go back into the auto mode

and sometimes the customer will call you saying hey my my app says it's in timeout mode what's

going on but I use that mode so I don't forget to turn the pool back on because if you put in service

mode on automated panel this is going to run 24-7 or be off 24-7 depending on what you have

a set for I've also forgot to put chlorine in the pool and this happens when I get out of my routine

I like to put the chemicals in at the end of my stop so I don't forget anything and if I get a

phone call or if I'm out of my routine I have to go to my truck to get something I'll sometimes

and this has happened not too often but it does happen I'll forget to put tablets in the floater

or forget to put the shock in the pool that I was going to put in and then I get back there the

next week and of course the pool has a major algae bloom and I open up the tri-carve floater

or the tablet feeder and I'm like oh yeah I forgot to put a tablet in here so I see what happened

so yeah that can happen to you so just be more cognizant of a routine than not making that mistake

and it's going to happen I mean you're going to forget to do something at the stop

it's invariably going to happen because we're human we make these kind of mistakes but if you

stay in your routine it's going to eliminate that factor by like 90% and you're not going to

forget to put chemicals in because you're in this routine that okay I do this and I'll do this

and I always look back by the way I'm leaving the account to make sure I didn't do anything like

leave the skimmer basket on the deck which I've done before you know I get distracted I'm doing

different things so I always taking backward glance at the pool to make sure everything's good

and it's as important to do to make sure that everything is set and you didn't forget to do

anything you know if you see the tri-clerve floater on the deck you know that you can put the tablets

in the pool it'll end with this one here and this is probably the one that you know besides

traffic and having car problems is something that not only ruins my day but brings my anxiety level

up to like you know a thousand percent because if you're in the backyard and you open the gate

and the dog bolts out the family dog takes off running down the street of course my anxiety level

goes up because I have a I had a husky for many years that got out and I was chasing the neighborhood

and I was worried about it getting hit by a car and almost happened a few times because she was

an escape artist for sure but my anxiety goes up to the point where it's like I can't think sometimes

when this happens and I'm chasing the dog and I'm worried about it getting hit and I'm thinking

about the family being upset so this is something that you're probably going to experience if you

haven't and you know fortunately I've never had a problem getting the dog back in the yard which

is good without usually there I'm in a suburban area so it's not like a thousand cars go down

the street but yes it can be a situation where your anxiety level goes up and you really have to

get that dog back or the customer know the dog got out and you just your day is kind of ruined

because not only do you spend 10 minutes chasing the dog and finally getting it but your anxiety

and a journal level is so high that you're like exhausted so this does happen there's really not

much you can do except be very cautious when you open the gate and don't let the dog out I carry

these chicken chew raw hide treats on my truck again on my Amazon you can but get a bag like with

100 or 200 of them in there and they're chicken flavored raw hide they're not super large they're

fairly decent size and what I do is when I have a I count where the dog tends to be a problem where

can bolt I'll get one of these raw hides and I'll toss it in there and a dog will go for it

they don't get in and out of the gate no problem and I make sure I latch the gate it's one of those

things where you're technically at fault because you let the dog out and you just want to make sure

that you do whatever you can not let the dogs get out and I've had I would say over the years

more than half a dozen dogs get out on me for whatever reason carelessness the gate didn't latch

when I thought it did or when I opened the gate the dog bolted out so it may happen just realize

that you can get the dog don't worry you'll you'll get it they'll get tired the dog knows his

neighborhood usually if it goes for walks and so the tends to run but then it goes to areas to

mark territory it'll sew down it doesn't really realize what it's doing in some cases just out for

a walk basically and so you can usually trap it sometimes the neighbor will help you but I find

that the small little dog to the ones out of the hardest because they're so fast and they'll kind

of stop and so down and bolt a different direction so it's one of those things where hopefully

nothing ever happens to the dog on your route if it does get out and something to of course be

aware of and be extra cautious of this happening and it can definitely ruin your day looking for

other podcasts you can find those on my website somethingprolearning.com on the banner click on

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should in the coaching program it can learn more at pullgaicoaching.com thanks for listening to

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