June 30, 2012
► Customer Feedback: A customer by the name of Lee K., from Amherst, NH stated that her general shopping experience with us was Excellent. “Tod explained to me how the chemicals in the hot tub work and work together.” “He took the time to help me understand how important it is to do the chemicals correctly.” Did any of our team members do an unusually bad job? “Previously, for the last 6 months, no one had helped me LEARN the care of the hot tub after my husband died.” She would recommend us to a friend.”
► Advertising and specials change Sunday, July 1 to: “Hot Midsummer Clearance Sale”. We are starting to become more vague, because we start to run low on things at the end of the season. Monthly sales start July 1 also: Above Ground, Hot Tub, and Billiards.
► Important: July store hours mean closing at 8 PM weekdays. Make sure you tell people when they call. The signs on the front door can change Saturday, July 30. We are closed Wednesday, July 4. We love our country and we want to celebrate her birthday. Unlike those communists and corporates who will be open then.
► Free USA ducks with purchase, July 1 to July 3.
► Last day for Maytronics mail-in rebate is Saturday, June 30.
► Happy fifth anniversary next Saturday, July 7, to Roz. Celebrate with cake in the Coffee Shop. Honestly, the date is arbitrary, because she had a break in service. But we are very happy that Roz came back!
► Tell everyone who is new to pool care; or not new but still needs help: Pool Care Lite is on Wednesday, July 18. It is an introduction to pool maintenance and pool chemistry, with pages and pages of information to take home.
► It has been a difficult rush to get Quarterly Reviews finished and to Jen before her vacation. Actually, Patrick and the others did a great job. Unfortunately, I am last. So I might miss a couple; or I might get your bonus in time, but not finish writing your review. If so, I apologize and it will be completed when she comes back.
► We are running a give-away of tickets to the Peterborough Players right now, details on the bulletin board. Just so you know, we will also have tickets to a show there on September 21 (Jane Condon (from Last Comic Standing) Raw and Uncensored). Also, we will probably have Joseph and The Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the Palace Theater 3/22/13. Both of those shows will be on board about a month before the show.
► I would like to see more variety on the people cashing out the registers at night. Mix it up – trade off jobs so more management people get to practice.
► We need to ask more questions at the water lab. Ask the Baquacil people if they are using CDX. Why? Because if you don’t ask, and change it if they do, the lab will never know. I have never seen anyone who started using CDX from a discussion in the pool store, walk down to the water lab and tell us. They don’t think they need to do so. And I have never seen one of us ask their name, and go down to the water lab to tell the lab.
Also to know: when we see a pool on Baquacil, it is always Baquacil CDX with Algaecide. You can’t expect a person their first day with a pool to know the difference. They think that if they bought a pool from us, we should know what they bought! So we need to know that the package comes with chemicals that they need: Sanitizer/Shock/Algaecide/pH/Stabilizer. However, it can not come with chemicals we can not know about without a test: mineral control/T.A.C./Calcium Hardness.
► A hint: reviewing a water test that is for opening? Use the Pool Tips™ on Opening, or the Pool Tips™ on Converting from Chlorine to Baquacil when you get to the sanitizer/shock directions. Why? Because it gets a Pool Tips into their hands, which is better and more detailed than the balancing test. Plus, the Conversion to Baquacil (which is the same as a start-up or an opening) also allows you to fill in the weekly/monthly directions – including the optional algaecide with CDX.
► Reminder: Employee discount is for you and whoever is your immediate family that you live with. So when you move out of your parent’s home, they revert to Friends & Family discount. Which, of course, supposes the cashier knows you moved out. So, if you could ask your family to mention it when you move out, and tell everyone or put it here in the news, that would be helpful.
► Sunday, July 1 will be last day parking in the back lot on weekends.
► I am still finding that 90% of the people I help buy a pressure gauge, have been using the wrong one, which is why theirs broke! So are you finding the same thing, or are you not asking how it faces? Finding them a gauge that’s going to break again, is not helping them.
► Warning if you have any outstanding safety cover quotes, measurements, or leads. Cover Logix usually produces a new price list in mid-to-late summer, with no notice to us. So if the price goes up before we get a confirmed order, the price goes up. So get those pools measured and the deposits placed.
► We have warranty books at the front counter with information on warranties. The first page has the phone numbers and contact information for Sharkline and Swimline. It also has a chart of discounts we will allow from ORIGINAL PRICE for items under warranty if the customer wants to pass on a warranty claim with the factory, and buy a replacement. Why are they on the same page? So you will remember to tell the customer. You are not providing good customer service by blowing a customer off to go fight with a factory, when much of the time, we are offering a better deal, at least after a couple of years. Let them contact the factory if they want, but let them at least know at the time, that we have offered them a back-up position.
► Internet Humor:
Idiot Number One: I am a medical student currently doing a rotation in toxicology at the poison control center. Today, this woman called in very upset because she caught her little daughter eating ants. I quickly reassured her that the ants are not harmful and there would be no need to bring her daughter into the hospital. She calmed down and at the end of the conversation happened to mention that she gave her daughter some ant poison to eat in order to kill the ants. I told her that she better bring her daughter in to the emergency room right away.