When a Handshake Becomes a Headache

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_00 (01:02):
Hey, welcome to the Pool Guy Podcast Show.
In this episode, I'm gonna diveinto why it's always better to
have things in writing withservice agreements, different
things that you want to addresswith the customers.
It's best if everything is donein writing and not done with a
simple handshake.
And I'll go over some reallygood reasons why you should

(01:23):
really think about adopting aservice agreement for your
customers.
Are you a pool service prolooking to take your business to
the next level?
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(01:44):
Learn more atswimmingpoollearning.com.
And one of the difficulties,I'll just say this first, is
that if you already have anestablished route, let's say you
have 70 clients and you neverhad any kind of service
agreement, you may feelreluctant to have them sign a
service agreement because youfeel like it might be pushy, or
may turn them off to yourservice, or they may want to
search for someone else.

(02:05):
And there's simple ways tointroduce this to the customers.
You can say something like, Oh,you know, I had a problem with a
customer recently.
It of course wasn't you, and itit is one of these things where
I decided that I need to haveeveryone sign the service
agreement.
Now, this is not a binding legalagreement in any way.
You can, of course, still cancelservice whenever you feel like

(02:26):
it, and there's there's nothing,there's no monetary difference
with what I'm charging now.
This agreement is just showingyou basically what I'm expected
to be doing at the pool and kindof your responsibilities.
And if you wouldn't mind signingit, I know that it's retroactive
because you've been a client ofmine for two years now.
I just appreciate it, it wouldjust make things clear for both

(02:48):
of us, and it's not anythingthat you've done yourself.
And kind of just preface it thatway.
And you can, of course, I'm justtalking here off the top of my
head of how I would preface thisif I was trying to sign someone
up who had not signed one priorto getting on service.
Now, again, this is exactly whatthe service agreement is for.
It's to clarify what you'regonna do at the pool, and then

(03:10):
it clarifies what they'reresponsible for.
Now, I do have a simple one-pageone that I've been using for
many, many years that that'sreally effective, and it's
something that I would recommendthat you implement, of course.
And you can get a copy of mineby emailing me at David
Smeanpoollearning.com, and I cansend you over that service

(03:31):
agreement template.
It's really basic, and again, Ikeep it one page so that it's
not imposing to the customer,and it has all the basic stuff
in here that I'm responsible fornow.
The owner's responsibility, thepool owner's responsibility is
to maintain proper water level.
This is really critical becausea lot of times the liability

(03:54):
that we incur here in theindustry is with someone adding
water to the pool.
You add it or the employee addsit.
I just had recently a member ofmy group where the water to the
house was off, and the employeeturned the water to the house
back on to add water to the poolbecause it was low, but the
water to the house was offbecause they had disconnected

(04:14):
the water heater, and that's whythey had turned the water off to
the house.
So you can imagine the liabilitythat's entailed there in that
situation.
So we should not be the onesadding water to the pool.
The customer should be addingwater to the pool.
Again, clear access to the poolarea.
This has happened to me, and itprobably happened to you.

(04:36):
Maybe it's a it's atenant-occupied property, but
you just can't get anything backthere because there's so much
junk by the gate by the back,and there's just no way to
access anything.
So they have to clear that soyou can get to the pool.
I've had people modify this andadd also that the customer needs
to clean up any dog waste that'saround the pool area.

(04:56):
Probably one of the worst thingsthat happens out there that can
ruin your day, at least brieflyfor a few minutes, is stepping
in something and then having togo over to the side by the
garden hose and hosing off yourboot.
The worst is when you don't recrealize that and you get in your
truck already, and then you'recleaning your floor mat.
So that can be a problem.
So that's something that somepeople add to it.

(05:17):
But again, you want to try tokeep it one page so that you
don't want to overdo it byadding too much minutiae here.
Also, it clearly states to keepvegetation away from the pool
equipment.
If you're like me, you'vecleaned pump baskets where
there's weeds growing and you'rehaving trouble getting the pump
lid on because weeds areblocking the pump lid ovaring
from getting secured on there.
And then there's the late fee.

(05:38):
You know, payments are due bythe 10th of the month, late fee.
I put$10 here.
You can of course make thathigher.
It's just basically to let themknow that the payments due by
the 10th.
And then if payment is from theprevious month is not received
by the 15th, that's five daysafter the 10th, service will be
paused.
And that's important to notewhen do you stop service?

(06:01):
So if the payment for that monthis 15 days late, payment is
paused.
And so these are just kind ofthe remind them that hey, I have
a pool payment, pool invoice duefor pool service, I better pay
this thing.
And then also number six, submitpayment for repair work upon
completion.
This is something that you can,of course, be a little bit

(06:21):
lenient on with some of yourclients if they're long-term
clients and you want to buildthem after the fact for that.
You can do that.
But these are all things thatyou can put in your contract and
you can get my copy of mine aswell.
And it says this agreement canbe canceled anytime by rent or
oral notice by either party.
Ten days before the date serviceis to be discontinued.

(06:44):
So it's really something that'ssimple and easy, and it has all
the things that you're supposedto do at the stop, too.
I'm not going to go over allthose, but there's a lot of
things I have included here, andall the extra charges.
I also have my vacation daylisted here, the four um weeks
off during the year, and alsosick and injured injury injury

(07:06):
policy, as well as the rainyday, windy day policies in
there.
This is all to protect you andto also protect the client so
that you are providing reallycompetent pool service.
Most people don't mind signingone of these, and if you have
any other service like pestcontrol, they always send you a
service agreement before they goout there outlining everything

(07:29):
that they're going to do, thingsthat may be not, you know, not
included in the service.
All these are there to protectthem as well, so that there's no
misunderstanding in the service.
It's interesting that if youdon't have one of these service
contracts, which are prettysimple again and basically,
they're not legally binding,there's no lawyers involved,

(07:49):
there's something that you drawup yourself.
I mean, you could make legalbinding agreements if you wanted
to, but it's one of those thingswhere customers may shy away
from that.
I once was doing a bid on apool, and it was an attorney
that owned the property, and hecame out, his wife was really
nice.
He came out and he's like, Hey,I need a copy of your liability
insurance, I need this and this,I need a copy of this and that.

(08:11):
And I was like, Well, I don'tthink I'm gonna do this pool.
And I say that to him, but Ididn't follow up with the bid
and let that one go.
And that could be a littleover-aggressive for a customer
if it's a legal bindingagreement, which you probably

(08:44):
don't want to do in most cases.
And you can also have agreementsfor I have a few of these also
here.
I have other ones here that Ihave created.
I have a green pool cleanupwaiver, I have an acid wash
waiver.
These are all created to makeyour service look legitimate,
and I can give you a copy ofthose as well with the service

(09:04):
agreement, and that's kind ofwhat you're going for, is like a
legitimate service, has kind ofthese agreements that people
sign.
Your plumber would have you signone.
Anyone that's doing any kind ofwork on your property again
usually has you sign some kindof agreement, it's not a
handshake, it goes beyond thatbecause you want to make sure
that there's clear communicationto what your pool service is

(09:26):
going to do weekly, monthly,quarterly.
Here's some real-world examplesof where I've run into this
before when I didn't have aservice agreement.
So, during a windstorm here inSouthern California, of course,
the Santa Ana winds can wreck apool pretty badly.
And before I had theseagreements, I would clean the

(09:47):
pool, and the customer would ofcourse call me and say, Hey, the
pool is still really dirty afteryou were here, you need to come
back and clean it.
And then I would be on the phonetrying to explain to them that
it does take two or three weeksfor this to happen, and then
they come back at me and say,Well, where does that where is
that stated?
You know, I hired you, you toldme you're gonna keep the pool

(10:07):
clean every week, and the pool'sobviously not clean this week
because of the wind, and you'resupposed to clean it, and so I
want you to come back and cleanthe pool.
You can see where that wouldcause a lot of conflict,
problems for you because hey,you don't have it written
anywhere that you're gonna takethree weeks to clean a pool
after a windstorm, and you didtell them when you bid the pool
that you're gonna maintain thepool and keep it clean every

(10:29):
week for them, they don't haveto worry about anything, it's
gonna be spotless, whatever youshook hands on.
And then now you're holding thebag because the wind destroyed
the pool.
There's nothing written aboutit's gonna take three weeks to
clean the pool, and you're kindof obligated to go back there
and clean the pool at that pointbecause you have nothing
otherwise stating that you havethis policy.

(10:51):
So, here is my wind policy.
It's basically just twosentences here, or not even two
sentences, it's kind of like anumbered step system that I
created.
So, wind policy.
Pools affected by wind will becleaned in the following manner.
Number one, clean out filtrationsystem.
I left that vague because whatdoes that mean?

(11:12):
I mean for me that means pumpbasket, skimmer basket.
It does mean maybe cleaning thefilter if I need to.
I just leave it open-ended sothat I'm not bound by anything.
Two is skimming the top.
And then three, clean up leaveson the bottom, and then four
pool vacuuming.
And notice how I separated threeand four.

(11:34):
Cleaning up leaves on thebottom.
I've separated because sometimesyou're using a vacuum system and
you're not technically gettingall the dirt off the bottom at
that point.
And pool vacuuming, again, veryvague.
That means I'm vacuuming thepool.
Could be a vacuum system aswell, but this generally means
you're vacuuming the pool with amanual vacuum and you're getting
the dirt out.
So leaving it vague does helpme, but also it does have a

(11:59):
creates a policy that I canrefer to with the customer.
And of course, finally, there'sa note here that says, This
process could take up to threeweeks.
And typically here, it's reallybad, is that we'll get a Santa
Ana windstorm, and then twoweeks later we'll get a hit by
the wind again, sometimes rain.
And so it's one of those thingswhere it's gonna take some time

(12:19):
to clean the pool up, and youreally need to have disagreement
in writing for the customers sothat they can, of course, know
that you're not gonna have thatpool spotless in one week.
Another thing to reallyemphasize and to put out there
front and center is your six-dayvacation policy.
This is where a lot ofmisunderstandings can also

(12:42):
happen.
Now, there's two ways ofbuilding the customers.
Some people do it differently,but I like doing just a standard
monthly service rate.
And as you know, there's extradays in each calendar month, and
it's one of those things wherethose extra service days you're
not charging for.
So some months have fiveThursday service calls, you're
only billing the customer forfour of them.

(13:03):
The other billing method is tobill weekly, and that is that
you're billing everyone weekly,and so if there's a five-week
period during that month, thecustomer gets an extra bill and
the service rate is higher.
And if you go on vacation, youjust don't bill them for that
week.
That works for some people.
For me, it just kind of changesthe monthly rate four times a

(13:26):
year, too much for me, causessome confusion for those
customers on auto draft.
So I just like doing the monthlybilling where I automatically
get four weeks off, and you cancash those days off in as
vacation time, or days you justwant to take off to go to maybe
a family parent meeting with atthe school or something like
that, or three-day weekend,whatever you want to use that

(13:49):
for.
And the customer should knowabout this, but if you don't
have it written anywhere, theyassume that you don't take the
extra time off and that you'rejust billing them monthly, and
that extra service call that youdo, they don't charge them for.
It's just something that yourcompany does, and they don't
understand that you actuallytake that time off later on and

(14:12):
use that.
It really makes no sense ifyou're standing there trying to
explain that to the customer.
In my opinion, I've tried doingthis before where I'm like,
yeah, you know, this this thismonth here, like I'll look at
the calendar and I'll pull itoff my phone.
And if I'm standing in front ofthem, November's a bad month in
2025 because the extra the extradays are Saturday, and during

(14:32):
the week there's no extra day,Saturday, Sunday.
So that's like right there,you're in a bad position because
you just have a calendar that'snot helping you.
But in December, you haveMonday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
with five service days, so thathelps.
And you can just kind of pointthat out to them and again spend
a lot of time there, waste timetrying to explain this to them.

(14:52):
But you can just put it in aservice agreement where it says
sick day vacation policy.
In the event of a sick day orinjury, we will do our best to
make up the service day for you.
If we aren't able to make up theservice day, note that since you
are billed monthly, there are atleast four extra free service
days per year that you receive.
These will be made up by us aseither sick days or vacation

(15:14):
days on our end.
Pretty clear, pretty concise,and there's no argument there, I
don't think, with the customerat that point.
Believe it or not, the serviceagreement also will help you
kind of weed out these problemclients early.
If someone is giving you troublesaying, you know, you need to do
this every week or this, or ifthey're not willing to add water
to the pool, or if they don'tpay their payment on time, the

(15:36):
service agreement will kind ofbe an indicator right away that
this customer is someone youdon't want to do long-term
business with.
So the service agreement is agood tool for you to weed out
these customers that don't wantto abide by it.
It's pretty simple, it's prettyeasy to abide by.
And if they're unwilling to dothis, then they're probably not
a customer you would want onyour route.
But if you don't have one ofthese ahead of time, there's

(15:57):
really no way to gauge theirlevel of resistance, I guess, or
defiance to your service.
And in that case, you're kind ofleft wondering.
But this is clear, and theservice agreement, I should say,
is clear, and it's a good way tokind of weed out those customers
that just are going to betrouble.
And on the other side of it, Idid mention, and this is

(16:17):
important, that this does makeyou look like a really
professional service business.
You know, if you're doing anykind of again, work with
vendors, there has to be somekind of paperwork exchange
between you and them pestcontrol, plumber, contractor
that outlines payment, scope ofwork, and you feel more
comfortable with that companybecause professional companies

(16:40):
do have these agreements.
And if you want to lookprofessional and look like a
real pool service, you should beusing these kind of agreements,
service agreements, green poolwaivers, acid wash waivers,
anything that's going to helpthe customer understand what
you're gonna do, what serviceyou're gonna perform, and kind
of some of the expectations andsome of the things that can't be

(17:03):
achieved during an acid wash orgreen pool cleanup.
You know, for the green poolcleanup, you want to note
existing stains that may bethere that you can't see, and
that you're not gonna be heldresponsible for these stains.
A lot of times you get introuble with the green pool
cleanup after the fact yourcustomer's like, hey, that
gigantic rust stain wasn't therebefore, you you created it.
And so having that kind ofwaiver that they sign indicates

(17:26):
that they can't, of course, pullthat stunt on you because you
have this paper and you're gonnahold them to the fact that that
was a pre-existing stain thatyou're exempt from, and they
signed off on that.
And you know, will these hold upin court?
More than likely if it gets thatfar, but most of the time
customers don't go that far tobegin with, and having these
agreements are there to protectyou as well as the customer.

(17:49):
Again, you can email me at Davidat swingingpoollearning.com and
I'll email these waivers over toyou.
If you're looking for otherpodcasts, you can find those on
my website,swingingpoollearning.com.
Click on the podcast icon on thebanner.
That'll take you to a drop downmenu of over close to 1800
podcasts there for you as well.

(18:09):
And if you're interested in thecoaching program, you can learn
more at poolguycoaching.com.
Thanks for listening to thispodcast.
Have a good rest of your week.
God bless.

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