June 17, 2017
► Customer Feedback: A Service & Repair Report Card was received from customer Laura G. from Mason, NH. She rated us Excellent on most points. “I called 3 times for a problem and the person who answered the phone never made my request known until I spoke to a manager. Kurt and I are extremely happy with both techs that have come to our house. They are professional, polite, and informative. I have absolutely no issues. They represent your company well.”
► By the way, if you look through “People Are Talking” for reviews on our service, you will notice that they like us when we finally do the work, but we tend to get lower scores on our answering their call and calling them back.
► New advertising and weekly specials start Sunday, June 18: “Super Summer Savings”. Everything else continues from last week.
► GREAT JOB last weekend. The cold weather followed by hot weather brought out some crowds. Thank you.
► Please. Help me and your customer. When you sell a special order item that has a “Rush” or “Next Truck” price, say so, in writing, on all three copies. It takes me ten minutes to go back to the beginning and figure out what you meant. And if the customer thought it was coming in two weeks, and the Next Truck order was six weeks, they are angry when it’s late.
► Technically, the Napoleon Free Accessory Sale ends June 19, and that’s when they stop paying for the accessories. However, we will continue the sale until July 1 so that we don’t confuse people. The same goes for the Saber Free Accessories. They stop paying on June 18, but we will continue it until July 1 and pay for it ourselves.
► I was helping a customer in the store last week, who has been a customer for six years. I was numbering her chemical bottles and she said “Oh, no one has ever done that for me before.” So I am wondering: am I the only one who does that?
► In order to move inventory before it’s too late, we are duplicating three products at unbelievable low prices, into other parts of the store: Softswim Filter Aid, Softswim Filter Cleaner, and Softswim Stain and Scale (mineral control). All half the price of other products. We are also putting all Soft Soak products at half price.
► Repeated from May 27th:
Cashiers: PLEASE don’t send people to the pick-up door unless you are sure that we have what you are sending them back for (I know that’s a preposition, but I’m in a hurry). Because it’s a REALLY big pain when it’s not there – particularly if you put it on a receipt. What is likely to cause a problem? Liners, solar covers, solar reels. Possible problems: filters, pumps, automatic pool cleaners. You were the only person who could check, because you had the inventory right in front of you when you rang it up.
► PLEASE put the date, time, and your name on messages. I had to waste 15 minutes finding who left a message, to get the right phone number. And I want to return the oldest calls first. It’s important.
► Watch the 1½” x 30” reinforced vinyl tubing inventory. We are about to run out. Once we do, we will replace it with 1 ½” x 36” tubing, that has a black stripe. And we will change the sign and Retail Pro.
► Please tell me when we can’t find a pool or grill supply that the computer says we have. I can’t fix a problem if I don’t know about it. Like 700 pieces of plastic liner coping. But once I know, I can fix it.
► A Seasonal Reward$ email went out Friday, June 16. It has a $5.00 coupon with a $19 purchase – our most popular coupon last year. It also has the warning below. It was very effective years ago in our print advertising – back in the older days, when people read print advertising. Ask your parents.
Plus, our best advice for any pool store:
Avoid any pool store if you need extra help, the first two hours on a very hot day. It’s like rush hour! Ten minutes after we open, we have four cashiers, four water testers, twenty of us working, and lines are a dozen people deep. For ninety minutes! The next person walks in, gets taken immediately at the Water Lab, the Parts counter, the cash register, and Customer Pick-Up. We’ve been ready and waiting for you all year. We have plenty of help, but we cannot hire qualified, knowledgeable people to work one hour a day, six random days a year. We want to help you whenever you wish to come in, and we want you to have a great experience, too.
► Maytronics is doing some Google advertising intended to send customers to our website, or to theirs; where they are offered a free demo by us, plus a factory rebate if they buy a cleaner. I need a note every time someone uses or even mentions them because they won’t do it again if we cannot point to results. Note: we do free demos two ways: buy a new cleaner and bring it back if they don’t like it. Or, we will rent them one of the rental units at no charge for the first three days, with the second day price thereafter. We still need a deposit.
► I’m not sure if you trained on this, but Maytronics now separates their units into classifications: A.G., Standard, Classic, Premium, Commercial, and Institutional. Why? Because they make at least 30 different cleaners just for stores, plus at least a dozen for the internet. Their website describes the classification of their cleaners to help the customer decide what they want, but not the actual cleaner name. So a customer coming to us from the website knows the classification that they want, and it’s your job to show them the cleaner. How? As usual, it’s on the sign! The comparisons are right under the original price.
► Once again, we are WAY cheaper than Namco on their newest sale flyer. No room to post it here, but the above ground comparison is in the lunchroom and the pool supply comparison is in the Pool department.
► Repeated from two previous Gull News this summer: the pool steps cost more than inflatables, so we do not clutter the steps with toys, so that the customer cannot see them. We put Swimline or sand holders on the bottom step only, and nothing on the other steps.
► Events during the next couple of weeks:
June 18: Father’s Day ~ FREE Gifts for fathers, future fathers, and fathers-at-heart, 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM.
June 24: Happy Birthday Patrick and Rose: FREE birthday cake in the coffee shop, while supplies last.
June 28: SABER grill Visa Card Factory Rebate sale begins.
June 30: Final day Maytronics Factory Rebates. Save up to $125.
July 1-3: FREE Independence Day Gifts while supplies last.
July 1: Summer store hours start: Mon – Fri 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM, Sat 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Sun 11:00 AM – 5:00 PM
► Laughter, The Best Medicine by Reader’s Digest:
How many fatalists does it take to screw in a lightbulb? What does it matter? It’s just going to burn out anyway.