June 9, 2012
► Customer Feedback: Shane and Jacki H. from Hancock, NH stated that their general shopping experience with us was Excellent. “Everyone is friendly, helpful, and knowledgeable”. Did any of our team members do an unusually good job? “Roz did a wonderful job assisting us with our purchase, but the floor manager was also helpful.” Sales help, Operations, communications, and products were all rated Excellent. “Again, everyone is friendly and helpful, easy to talk to.” “Your products are great, your classes are helpful, and we like to know from your lab that our water is balanced!” What do we do really well? “We find your pool staff and lab group extremely helpful. It has made keeping our pool water beautiful much easier! We have learned a great deal with good advice.”
► Advertising and specials continue from last week: “Pool and Patio Sale”, plus “Gas Grill Sale”. Remember that the Gloster full page ad in New Hampshire Magazine is still available on newsstands and on people’s coffee tables!
► Thank you to Victor for recycling 136 pounds of motors to raise $20.40 for the Seasonal Local Charity Fund.
► We are celebrating Jen’s fifth anniversary with cake in the store on Saturday, June 9. We will have another Customer Appreciation Day with free gifts with any purchase on Sunday, June 10. PoolSchool102, Introduction to Pool Chemistry is Wednesday, June 13. Then I get a month off from Pool Schools until Pool School Lite on July 18.
► There were 56 One-of-These awards in May; 19 for Customer Service. Leaders in Customer Service and in total awards were Pat and Mia. This was the best batch I have ever seen, with nine making the finals for Owner’s Choice: Victor, Pat, Anne-Marie, Jen, Mia (twice), Seth, Jim, and Joe. However, Owner’s Choice was easy: Anne-Marie. Drawing winner was Corey. Thank you and congratulations to all.
► Lunch this weekend will be by Uno’s: Herb Rubbed Chicken, compliments of Patrick. Thank you Pat, this is very generous of you.
► You must have heard it in the news, that the past two weeks have been the heaviest pine pollen season in history. Why? Start with the warmest winter! Are pools cloudy? Remind the customer that most of the pollen that falls on their car promptly blows off if the car is dry. But 100% of the pollen that falls in their water get wet – and stays in the water. So whatever they do right before the pollen goes away will work like magic! In the meantime, use the skimmer bags that go in the skimmer or over the skimmer head for collecting pollen. Also, run the filter more and keep the water in the middle of the skimmer, so that it skims properly. We have the technology!
► From Victor:
– Any and all shift changes must be approved by management.
– Presently we are not hiring. Please do not hand out applications. This creates extra work for us and the back office.
► Remember, always use the Pool Tips.
► I believe I will discontinue the green boxed Tear-Aid for dry vinyl, unless anyone has a different opinion. My thought is that we can use the orange-boxed underwater one anywhere. What do you think?
► Charlie Pawlowski, assistant manager and “snow baby” from twelve years ago was just ordained last week as a Catholic priest. He will be serving in St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in Bedford.
► We are producing a new Pool Tips on algae treatment. It offers separate solutions for green algae vs. black or mustard algae; which are not really algae. It gives more detail on floccing, and gives you dose quantities on shock and algaecide in terms of bottles per pool. You should read it before you use it.
► So far this year, I have only had to bring water in from the Night Deposit twice after noon. That is the lowest amount ever. Thank you to everyone who is keeping up with it. Great job.
► I have been doing an experiment. Every time someone asks me for a pressure gauge: in addition to determining the thread size, I ask which way their gauge faces now – not which way the thread comes out of the case. When they do not comprehend, I ask if it’s easy to read because they can look right down on it, or it’s hard to read because they have to bend over to look at it from the side. So far, more than half of them are using the wrong gauge, and that’s why it broke! I assume you all know that the pressure gauge has to orient vertically so that the rain falls out of it. That’s how the filter should have come originally. Then someone changed it so it would be easier to read – which causes it to break every couple of years. Here is another reason to show why we are better than our competition over 239 times a year.
► Congratulations to Patrick for passing his NFI Gas Exam. I always knew he was full of it.
► Lunch next Saturday, June 16, will be compliments of Joe: Meatloaf from Boston Market.
► Internet Humor:
– Confucius didn’t say… It takes many nails to build a crib, but one screw to fill it.
– Confucius didn’t say… Man who drives like hell is bound to get there.
– Confucius didn’t say… Man who stands on toilet is high on pot.