In preparation for what will likely be a busy New Year, specialty retailers need to find ways for staff to perform a wide-variety of tasks. Bandwidth for the pool and spa industry, as a whole, is always stretched thin by the demands of the busy season. This past season, in particular, forced retailers to push employee limits. Employees wore multiple hats and, as a result, our industry realized how important it is to train, re-train, and cross-train both part-time and full-time staff.

Cross-training full-time staff: 

The “slower season” provides a unique opportunity to create and implement a cross-training program. Don’t let your employees be baptized by fire to learn as they go. Develop a daily schedule that outlines the usual expectations for each employee, and then swap roles.

Best practices suggest making a two-week schedule that lists day by day what employees should learn, from new responsibilities in the retail store, working in the water testing lab, and cash-register responsibilities, to inventory control, warehouse work, or helping the service and construction departments. At the end of the two-week period, have employees take a “test” by role-playing customer scenarios. This will help evaluate the effectiveness of your cross-training program.

As you proceed through a cross-training program, you will likely discover your employees need additional training or retraining on specific products, features in your pool service software, and even the basics of water chemistry. Luckily, there are ample training tools available. Many manufacturers offer detailed training webinars, tutorials, videos and even live training, which you can use to train, retrain, and cross-train existing and new employees. For example, Bioguard offers an online training program that has modules, each followed by a quiz.

In addition, because many trade shows have been canceled due to COVID-19, manufacturers, like BioGuard, have pivoted to live online training sessions. This is a more accessible and less expensive way to train employees on a variety of topics and products. Contact your product vendor reps to find out which training is available online for your employees. And remember, the winter is a great time to get your entire staff CPO-certified, to make them true experts in their craft!

Training Seasonal & Part-time staff:  

Seasonal and part-time help during the busy season is an essential ingredient for success in the pool and spa industry. However, busy season leaves little time for adequate training.

We recommend hiring for the summer as early as December. Consider interviewing over the winter holiday season, and bring new hires in for a week of training during spring break, before the busy season starts. Bringing on staff in the spring when things are slower can be a cost burden for your company, but it’s time and money well spent. Although you may not need them in the spring, if you wait until you need them, it’s too late to make sure they will be an efficient addition to your staff.

Getting new hires into your location and working with your systems to ring up customers, run water tests, explain product features and benefits to customers with you supervising them, will pay off during the busy summer months when you don’t have the time to supervise them.

One of the best features available in some pool service softwares is the ‘practice company.’  This is a valuable training resource that allows you to simulate all the functionality of your store operations, without touching the actual system. This ‘virtual’ company allows new hires to run sales, process refunds, look up inventory—everything that employees will be doing in the heat of the season.

It might seem old-fashioned, but having a training checklist is a quick way to keep track of the progress of employee training. Checklists help new hires keep track of what they’ve learned and what they still need to cover. Be sure your training checklist provides a picture of what it’s going to look like in the summer when things get super busy.

In addition to training, inventory analysis always ranks as one of the most important areas for pool and spa businesses to address in the winter months. Your slow season is the perfect time to establish a schedule of routine counts by Product Line, Aisle/Bin, or Vendor. Inventory cycle counts will keep your inventory accurate throughout the year and reduce the headache of doing one large count at the end of the year. While you’re at it, why not look into purchasing a Memory Scanner for your physical counts, and use this opportunity to teach your staff how to use it!

Remember that the most effective way to manage your inventory is to have pool service software that provides detailed reporting 24/7 for all of your inventory locations—regardless of whether inventory is on the show floor, in a service truck, or a warehouse.

Additionally, there is no better way to provide outstanding customer service and stay ahead of competitors than to have your business software be fully integrated with pool and spa vendors and suppliers. The integration allows users to electronically submit purchase orders from your pool service software directly to distributors and manufacturers providing the ability to electronically review orders, back orders and accounts payable line items which will streamline communications between your company, your suppliers and your customers.

Another aspect of the integration is the ability to mass import all new inventory items and mass update costs on all existing inventory items. Software integration with vendors improves inventory accuracy, efficiency, and your ability to provide outstanding customer service.

Take the time to also review changes in your inventory levels and profitability of different products. Determine if you should stop selling low-profit items and focus more energy on selling higher profit products, or even adding new products.

Your company might be known as a retailer of above ground pools, spas and chemicals, but there isn’t any reason you should consider offering patio and deck furniture, BBQs fireplaces and gas stove inserts and installations.  Review the inventory reporting options within your business management software and look for trends that might make you consider offering new products that line up with your current offering or could ‘smooth out’ the seasonality of your business.

Specialty retailers have tight control of their current inventory, so they can easily consider expanding into other products and services without fear. And the winter is the perfect time for employees to learn about a new product line.

This brings us to the third, and perhaps the most important task to undertake during the slower season: re-evaluating your business software solution. In today’s pool and spa industry, the majority of retailers, builders and service professionals are using some type of business software to run their business. Now is the time to sit down with managers and staff to determine whether or not your current software systems are providing the capabilities needed to run the most profitable, efficient pool and spa business.

Implementing new software may help reduce or eliminate stressors that are currently inhibiting business development or your company’s ability to handle another big summer. Prior to researching solutions, it is important that pool and spa professionals consider what they currently have and what they are looking for in a new system. Implementing new software can improve efficiency, accuracy, and save company expenses in the long run. Today, there are many programs that can manage all business processes from sales to purchasing. Be sure to look for an option that can collect data in a system and provide accessibility anywhere, anytime.

When considering the cost of purchasing new software, do not be intimidated by its price. Rather than focusing on the software’s price, prepare a list of areas where one could generate more revenue if employees had 20 additional hours a week to follow up on sales leads, make additional service calls, or attend to customers in the store. Then check with the software provider if the solution will help capitalize on these missed opportunities.

For example, pool and spa professionals often realize their service departments offer many untapped revenue streams. These departments are a good place to start considering new software options. There are many software apps for service technicians, depending on the size and scope of the business. Some solutions allow techs to:

• accept payments while on the job
• plan their schedule for the day
• review notes
• look at the customer’s equipment profile
• send before-and-after pictures to clients after the job is done, and much more.

This type of solution is beneficial for retailers who have service departments. Also, there are several app products on the market that meet the needs of professionals working in the field. From entry-level Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking apps that monitor a service vehicle’s mileage, speed, and location to water-testing apps that check pool/spa water and instruct technicians on what chemicals to add to the water.

It is also common to see businesses that do not fully utilize all of the features their pool and spa software has to offer.  These slower months are the best time to learn something new within your pool service software, reinvent existing processes, and retool your business. Winter is the perfect time to make sure staff can take full advantage of the functionality built into your pool and spa management.

The ‘off season’ is the ideal time to enforce better use and implementation of your software, procedures, and processes. It will take additional time, so use this winter to get everyone on board with making changes to improve the way business is done. Specialized pool and spa software is designed to gain better control of your business. Enforcing use of your company’s software is key!

Right now is the best time to ramp up staff training, do an in-depth analysis of your inventory, and re-evaluate the effectiveness of your business software. You only have a few precious months, so prioritize your company’s needs and take action to help your business run smoothly when sales pick up. Don’t wait! Make the most of the slow season, before it’s too late!