3 Ways Pool Service Software Can Help You Save Money
When it comes to deploying a pool service software, time and cost can be a major factor for many pool retailers. During busy season, you likely aren’t able to spend much time thinking about the best way to manage your business. And as soon as busy season ends, companies often want to protect their capital as they head into a slower period.
Many pool and spa companies are experiencing unprecedented demand for their services as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to drive customers to invest in their homes. Instead of vacations, people are more interested in staycations, wanting to add new pools or upgrade their existing outdoor spaces. This has kept pool and spa companies busier than ever with little time to think about how to sustain this growth moving into 2021. It is hard to think about investing in the future by upgrading your pool service software when you don’t even have time to stop and think about tomorrow.
However, regularly evaluating your processes and the methods in which you do business is incredibly important to your bottom line. In fact, market research firm IDC found that companies lose 20 to 30 percent of their revenue to inefficiencies every year!
Inefficiencies that could be costing you money might be attributed to one of the following:
- Managing all or parts of your business manually
- Using business management software that isn’t specific to the pool & spa industry
- Using various independent systems to manage daily operations, inventory management, or sales and marketing
An all-in-one pool service software can help you address all of the above and ultimately regain control of your bottom line by:
- Better managing finances
- Optimizing processes for efficiency
- Reducing staff time to manage operations
In this article, you’ll learn about specific software features that can help you save money, while also saving time. Especially in areas where you might not even realize you’re losing money.
Manage Finances Better
Make Accounting Easy
Do you already use QuickBooks, the top-rated small business accounting software?
To continue using what you and most accounts are familiar with, there is pool service software that integrates with QuickBooks. For those who haven’t used QuickBooks before, choosing a software with QuickBooks integration ensures that you have access to the best accounting software available. Through the integration, users have the ability to customize how the information transfers from the software to your journal entries, inventory accounts payable entries, timesheets, and more.
Embrace Online Bill Pay
Are you still sending and processing paper invoices?
Eliminate postage, ink, paper, and envelope costs by sending customer invoices out via email. In addition to saving money, you can also enhance productivity by removing time spent printing, stuffing, and mailing the invoices. Using online bill pay also removes the need to process them manually in the office. Customers can now also pay online, making the process more convenient for everyone.
Optimize Processes for Efficiency
Monitor Service Routes
Curious about the routes your drivers are taking to get to their service appointments and how that equates to gas used? Use a software that has route optimization to save money on gas and time on travel, vehicle wear and tear, technician’s time, and hours they are paid for.
Watch Vendor Prices
Vendors often increase their prices during the summer months and busy season. Use pool service software to auto-update inventory retail costs to ensure that you don’t lose money on the sale of those items.
Plan for Sales/Events
Thinking of having a sale or changing prices for a specific period of time? Use a pre-planning feature to automatically set and update prices for certain dates so you don’t have to worry about going back and manually updating them. This will also keep you from forgetting to update them.
Reduce Staff Time to Manage Operations
Save Time
There is pool service software that is integrated with multiple vendors and buying groups. This eliminates duplicate purchase order entry in different systems. In some instances, this allows for inventory items to be directly imported into the software system’s inventory and eliminates hand entering inventory data. Not only is this a time-saver, it also improves ordering accuracy and serves as a one-stop-shop for all your purchasing needs.
Retain Existing Customers
Keeping your customers engaged with the products and services you sell is critical to maintaining their interest in purchasing items from you. In addition, research shows retaining existing customers is far less expensive than acquiring new ones. Utilize the built-in loyalty reward program to track customer purchases and reward those purchases with coupons to bring them back. Automatically build customer equipment profiles when customers make purchases so you can easily access information under their profile. This is an easy way to get your existing customers to purchase products they’re already using, as well as new products.
While it may not seem easy to start the process of change, using a holistic pool service software to better manage finances, optimize processes for efficiency, and reduce time to manage operations can help save you money. Now is the time to invest in a pool service software that will allow you to keep more of your earnings from this period of high demand well into the future.
We have a thorough implementation process so getting started is easy! Our RB team is just a phone call away. We hope you’ll join our family of successful pool and spa businesses. Schedule a demo to learn more about our pool service software.
