Improving pool maintenance department efficiencies with smart service routes

Schedule early

Service managers should schedule maintenance crews during the slow season/winter and use prior experience to plan for the coming pool opening season. When sending out pool opening contracts, the last week of January, service managers should find they are using almost the exact same dates from year to year when booking pool opening and closing calls. For example, if a client’s pool was opened on the second Tuesday in May last year, then their contract will also be the second Tuesday in May this year.

Using technology to support service route planning

Mobile technology is being incorporated into service departments across the country in rapid fashion. This technology has had a profound effect on a pool service company’s ability to fluidly adapt to their client’s needs and expectations by giving them instant access to customer contact information, equipment, service, purchase history, and more. In an industry where mobile computing is becoming increasingly more commonplace, consumers have the expectation that companies, regardless of size, are able to access their records more swiftly and communicate even quicker.

Today’s mobile service apps for pool, spa/hot tub and outdoor kitchen maintenance crews allows them to provide this level of service whereby ensuring technicians can instantaneously send detailed information back to the office and directly into the customer’s service order. This includes information such as job status, materials, chemical readings (before and after), time spent, along with any special notes for the customer.

Those companies that are not set-up on this type of software should use the tips mentioned earlier, in addition to Google maps to plan maintenance routes, while at the same time keeping detailed records of the services performed. This way, should business management software be employed at a later time, these processes will ensure good, clean, and useful data can be imported into the software.