September 28, 2013
► Customer Feedback: We received the following letter from Brenda & Bob A.:
“Thank you very much for the mug and candy in the mail! It was so nice of you to send it. We enjoyed the candy right away, and we’ve used the mug. The Oceanic pool that we purchased from your store is really great! We’re thankful to have such a high quality, nice looking pool! Seth patiently answered all my questions before the purchase, and Patrick answered some questions too. They both seemed very knowledgeable and were nice. They helped me make the right decisions. They were friendly, did not rush me and explained everything well. They answered all my questions by phone and at the store in a patient manner. We chose Pools by Us Plus to install our pool and they did a wonderful job from the initial conversation to the installation. A great crew of men came here to install the pool and Melanie was very thoughtful. Keith Barker, the electrician, was also great.
The pool is wonderful, sturdy, sure to last many years and provide lots of good memories for our family and guests. I’m thankful that this particular pool was available in our area at your nice store. Thank you for caring about your product and giving us the best to choose from, and for caring about us as customers. Your staff is friendly and helpful. It was a good buying experience for us. Joe, the delivery guy, was also very thorough and kept us informed. Your store has everything we need and we look forward to coming in again to say hello, especially to Tod, who sold us our first pool around 1990. We still have the original paperwork from that purchase, and we always remembered him.”
► Advertising, department promotions and weekly specials continue from last week: “Billiard Clearance”. All monthly promotions continue from last week. This month’s color is gray.
► Dixie died last week, and was buried near our pond, where she loved to play and swim. She was 14.
► Birthday cake for John’s birthday, in the Coffee Shop on Saturday, Sept. 28 and leftovers Sunday.
► New store hours start Tuesday, October 1st. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday 10-6; Thursday, Friday 10-8; Saturday 10-5; Sunday 12-5. That means we open at 11AM Sunday, September 29th and are open until 8PM on Monday, September 30th. Please check your schedule again. It may have been changed.
► Six people looked us up on Yelp last week. One clicked to our website, and one clicked to directions.
► The Target Winter Kits are triple action kits, not double action like the Robelle kits. As with the Robelle kits, though, they are 19% to 33% stronger than the Target kits from 2011. The new signs have right on them, in bold print what’s in them. Not “algaecide and clarifier”, but cold weather formulations of ammonium chloride, a cationic polymer, and an artificial esther. If the kits only had regular algaecide and clarifier, we wouldn’t bother to sell them.
► Please keep some Winter Sheen calendar reminder labels at the register and offer them to people purchasing Winter Sheen 16. The main reason people stop using it is because they forget to add it.
► All safety covers come with a diagram of the cover’s shape and strap locations. Please photocopy it and attach it to our copy of the customer’s yellow receipt. It will be really handy to have in 15 years.
► From Mia: I wanted to put a note in here to remind everyone of the danger of the chemicals we are working with. Sometimes we get too comfortable over the years and need a wakeup call to remind us: I unfortunately received that call this weekend. One of my cousins and a dear friend’s younger brother were out closing pools on Saturday for the pool store I used to work for in Michigan. They were in a terrible car accident where the driver of the vehicle was trapped and 12 men couldn’t get him out. The pool chemicals in the van started on fire and they could do nothing but watch. Thankfully my cousin will be fine with some time to heal his wounds. Please, please be careful with all chemicals whether it is here at the store, at home, or in your vehicle.
► We changed the Safety Cover Installation price list to include an installation onto existing pegs ($8 a peg) with a footnote as to what that includes – a lot. This is in response to people who remake a cover and think it will be easy to put the buckles and springs on, and properly tension them – which can only be done at the pool. We also increased the cost to measure a pool when we need to also locate existing pegs, to $150. It’s way more work and responsibility. Once again, they can deduct that from the $8 a peg if they have us install.
► Quarterly reviews and bonuses should be ready October 4th.
► Congratulations and thank you to Mia, for a remarkable job teaching Pool School last Wednesday. She was incredibly well-prepared; knowing every slide without looking beyond a quick glance. She was personable, warm, and funny. Rather than stand behind the podium where she could read the slides, she stayed front and center, looking right at the crowd. She was the best teacher we ever had, including chemical company trainers who taught for us in the 1990’s.
► More stupid criminals: I live in a semi-rural area (Weyauwega, Wisconsin). We recently had a new neighbor call the local townships administrative office to request the removal of the Deer Crossing sign on our road. The reason: “Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! I don’t think this is a good place for them to be crossing anymore.”