Dive Deep: Exploring the World of Pool Services with RobCo

Join host Chris Bowen in an enlightening conversation with Rob from RobCo Swimming Pools. From his humble beginnings as a water delivery driver to his current role as a prominent figure in the pool service industry, Rob shares his journey, insights, and expertise. Learn about the intricacies of pool filling using tankers, the trust-based billing system, and the benefits of dedicated metered systems. Discover Rob's transition into pool services, including his offerings like liner replacements and pool maintenance. Dive into discussions on customer service, industry recognition, and the importance of continuous learning. Whether you're a pool enthusiast or curious about the inner workings of the industry, this podcast offers valuable perspectives and experiences from the depths of Rob's expertise.

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What's up guys, Chris Bowen here with Level Up the Podcast. I am joined today by Rob of RobCo Swimming Pools. Rob, tell us a little bit about yourself, man. Well, there's, you know, I'm a pool guy just like anybody else. When I go to social events, all I want to do is talk about pools and problems with pools and people with pools. You know. it's kind of like CrossFit. I guess, yeah. I'm not big on exercise. I'm still trying to get rid of my layer of winter fat from the mid 70s. But what can I say? We're all sort of kind of living the same lives just in different places, right? So, yeah. So my company, essentially I started off, I got injured. I was driving over the road transport. I got injured, I was waiting for surgery, I had my surgery, they wouldn't take me back as a driver and my buddy phoned up and said, hey listen, you know, do you want to sit there watching Maury Povich or do you want to make some money? And I said, well, those are my only two choices, I'm going to make money. So he put a deal in front of me that I couldn't turn down and I started delivering water for swimming pools and that's where I started into this. for those of us in the US, we don't deliver a lot of water to swimming pools, I guess more so here in the South. I know up North they do it a lot, but kind of walk us through what that entails and what that looks like. Well, essentially I went out, I bought myself a 5,000 gallon stainless steel tanker. We have, you know, obviously a potable water system in Ottawa that has the ability where I can hook up to certain fire hydrants and take my water right out of the system. Then I tell the city of Ottawa, I took this much water and that's what they charged me for. So do they go off kind of the trust factor there or do they actually log the gallons or leaders I guess in Canada, right? Well, okay, well, like I say, I drove over the road transport in the US for a dozen years. So I'm used to gallons and miles and stuff like that. I mean, you throw liters and kilometers at me, I'm totally messed up. All right, cool. We're on the same page. Ha ha ha. So yeah, so I mean right now they're on a trust system. I mean the entire time that I was delivering water it was on a trust system. They wanna go to a dedicated system where essentially like I pay $300, they give me a specific spigot that I can go to, it's metered, you know, and it measures the amount of gallons. With the trust system what they do is I send them a picture of the plate ranking on my tank. So. In my case, my tank said, you know, maximum 5,000 gallons, 23,000 liters. Obviously I can't take any more than that. So, I mean, the second I hook up to a hydrant, boom, I get nailed for an entire truckload. So even if I've only got a half a truckload on there, they hit me for the entire truckload, but even still declaring it is still on the honor system. Uh, so yeah, so I mean, I was picking up 5,000 gallons at a time. Uh, basically you take it to wherever the, uh, the pool is being filled. You dump her in. The average swimming pool, like 15,000 gallons, is going to take two loads in order to get into the shallow end. And at that point, they have enough water in there that they can pull their vacuums and they can do their flanges and gaskets and all that other jazz. So sometimes they only took the two loads. In most cases, it's like, you know what, let's just go ahead and fill it right up to operating capacity. And You know, they can fire it up. They can check for leaks. They can say to the customer, hey, look at this. Are you happy? Perfect. Where's my check? And you know, like that, that beats doing the garden hose thing and worrying, you know. And the other thing is the way the water system works here is that when you pay for a gallon of water out of your tap, you also pay for a gallon and a half water as far as waste goes. All right. So by me taking it right from the water system, there is no waste water billing. So they're strictly paying just for the water. So they don't have to worry about that other one and a half times. So it's actually really, I think there's something like a $75 difference between filling it up on the tap and filling it up immediately with the truck. So. we're similar here where we can usually call the city depending on the city and tell them, hey, we're filling a swimming pool. This is what the gallonage is. And they'll usually take that off the bill, but not always. So. We used to be able to do that, but not so much anymore. We also, like in the rural, we'd be able to phone up the fire department, for example, and the fire department, they wouldn't charge you for the water, but they would appreciate a donation to the fireman's ball or whatever you wanna call it. You know what I mean? Which again, is not a bad thing because again, you're putting that money back into the community. So, but they don't do that anymore. They were having too many problems because they'd show up. Like in my place, for example, we've had a fire hydrant there for almost 10 years now, and not once have they cracked it open. So if they were to crack open that fire hydrant, everybody would have black water for the next two weeks. Yeah, it'd be kind of gross. Yeah, I would imagine. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So that's one of the reasons they stopped doing that. Just so that doesn't happen. So that's, yeah. So that's the crux of how the water delivery works. And so how did you transition from that into pool service? What kind of made that transition for you? I guess you went to repairs. I can't be left alone with nothing to do. I get into trouble. In fact, one year I ran into a situation where I had nothing on my agenda, nothing to do, nothing to keep me busy. So I ended up building the garage that I'm sitting in right now, 24 by 26 or something like that, or 20 by 26. Like I say, because I was bored. I had nothing to do. So with the water delivery, that's all fine and dandy. During the summer, I was busy as sin. You know, like, I mean, I was watering grass. I was filling swimming pools. I was doing new construction, soak down, you know, like to settle the sand around the foundation and stuff. But the problem with swimming pools is again, you know, like living in Canada, they're only gonna start punching holes in May, right? Late April, early May, which means that I'm not gonna be filling pools until June. So I had June, July, August, maybe September. So I had maybe a four month operating season and it just wasn't enough. I mean, I was making enough money I could survive and pay bills, but I needed more to it. So it's like, what can I do to get this extra income without pissing off the pool companies, right? Cause obviously you start stealing their work, they get a little bit flustered. Yeah. So... I got into opening and closing swimming pools. And then along with that, the companies that I was dealing with, they didn't do liner replacements. They put the liners in the new pools they built, but they didn't actually, yeah, they didn't go after the vinyl replacements. And we're a big vinyl area. you know, probably a few grand of pop, isn't it? It's probably like five, five grand somewhere around there to do a vinyl replacement. Yeah, around five grand US maybe, yeah. Like I've had liners up here go anywhere, you know, six, seven, eight thousand, you know. But again, I priced my stuff differently because when I was delivering water, I would dump the water into the pool. Then I'd say, okay, well, who's paying me? Oh, well, my husband left and I don't have the credit card and all this other jazz, right? And then it's like... You know, and then, you know, there's probably 20% that would say, Oh, well, no, hey, listen, it's not a swimming pool without water. That's all part of the price of the pool. It's like, no, you got to check your contract. It doesn't quite work that way. So when I do my liner replacements, I automatically include the water. I include the first initial balancing of the water. You know what I mean? And it's essentially like a turnkey and people love it that way because you're not doing this nickel and dime sort of thing. Well, people want to know what it's going to cost at the very end. They don't want to get multiple charges at the end. They want that big lump sum and say, this is what I need to budget for. This is what it's going to cost me to go through with this project. And that's it. They don't want to be nickel and dimed. Yep, that... I'm sorry, I got something in my throat. And, uh, what you're saying is ex- Take a second, you're good. Thanks. That's one of the problems with not talking all day. So yeah, people hate the nickel and dime thing. So by eliminating that, and the other thing is for what they're paying for an entire swimming pool build, right, most people are like, it's like we're right on the skinny edge of being able to make this financially viable. So that extra $1,500 for water is a real kick in the shins when you're not expecting it. Well, also when you're financing the entirety of the project, and then you get to the end and all of a sudden it's, well, hold on, I wasn't planning on a $1,500 payment for this. I've been budgeting for my $300 a month for my project. So yeah, I can definitely see that. And then, you know, of course, we want to get everything done on visit one, right? So having to go back two, three, four times trying to hit it at the right time to be able to get paid, there go all your profits. Yeah, I was going to say that costs money every time you got to pull a truck out of the driveway. yeah, exactly, exactly. So yeah, so I started to fill in my early part of the season, my late part of the season by doing liner repairs and pool openings and closings. So I sort of kind of built on that and then it's like people started calling me for more and more stuff. In the meantime, I also thought to myself, you know what, and... Like my dad is actually the inspiration for this whole thing because I went over to my parents' house one day and my mom said, hey listen, if you don't wanna get screamed at, you need to leave now. It's like, why, what's going on? She said, well, your dad went down to the pool store and he's never going to be in a good mood when he comes back from the pool store. So sure enough, the door opens and closes, it's my dad. And it's like, hey dad, how's it going? It's like, Jesus. Hope you don't expect an inheritance. I just left all my money down at the damn pool store Well, what did you buy? I got no idea So I said well dad Do you want me to start taking care of your water like take care of your balancing your pool and that so you don't have? To do it and he says yes It's like okay, so not a problem and then I thought to myself you know what if my dad is this frustrated There's got to be other people that are this frustrated and maybe I can turn this into a business. So I thought it out, I came out with a plan, and that's what I started doing. I started letting people know. And I mean, this is happening in like, I think it was August. So like right at the tail end of our year, like I mean, by September 15, pools are no longer swimmable. So I mean, I had like maybe a month, right? So. I started letting people know, yeah, I'm balancing water. So I mean, if you don't want to take care of your water, let me know. So my initial business plan on that was, I'm hoping for 20, I'd be happy if I got five people committed to the rest of the season and next year. Well, I ended up with 20 plus people at a waiting list and just saying, wow, now how am I gonna swing this? you know, opens and closes to begin with, you know, you have history with these people already. You know, so you're established. And I started off like any other project, start off slow, I don't have the resources or the funds to do stuff. We had little written books, almost like the small log books for a commercial vehicle. And basically what I would do is I would test the water and I'd write down what I got and what it should be and what I was doing to correct it. Everything was all handwritten. I would leave them a copy, go back to the office, they would put it in the computer and then send them an invoice. Because I'm big on trust. I trust my clients, my clients trust me. I don't need to have them under my thumb. I'm not trying to regulate them. It's like you're free to come and go at your leisure. The thing is everybody comes and nobody goes. Yep. and it's 100% on referral. So I actually started playing on Facebook, because I was in a body cast for six weeks. I started playing on Facebook, and as soon as that cast came off and I was in rehab and all this other stuff, I got rid of my Facebook account. My insurance guy said, hey, no, man, you've got to get back on there. It's like, well, why? I mean, I just was using it to waste time. I mean, like I was the king of Farmville, you know what I'm saying? So, yeah, yeah. So this is how back that goes, right? How far back? And he said, no, he said, the reason you gotta get on there is because everything you're doing is word of mouth. And when you roll into the laneway, Mary might be on the computer saying, oh yeah, I gotta go, my pool guy's here. Wait, what do you mean you got a pool guy? Oh yeah, he comes over and he bounces my water. Need the number, send me the info. And sure enough, we ended up building it up. So. Uh, last summer, our numbers, we were balancing 13 million liters of water every week, every week. Yeah. It's a couple of gallons. Definitely a couple of gallons. Uh, so that was actually, that company was my starting point for the education because I wanted to know what the heck I was doing with the water so that I could actually balance it properly. Right. of important, I feel like, when you're, you know, working with chemicals and pools to, you know, semi understand water chemistry. Well, I was just scared shitless of getting somebody sick. That's what it was. I didn't want something getting sick in my pools. So yeah, so I took a CPO course. I signed up for it at the Canadian Pool and Spa Expo. My book showed up and it's like this thick and it's like, oh, sweet love of Jesus. I am nowhere near smart enough to do this. So I actually had enough time. I took a different water chemistry course in order to prepare for my CPO certification course. awesome. Okay. And then when I got my CPO certification, it's like, you know what, this education thing is kind of fun. So I started taking every possible course I could manage. And that's exactly what I did. So I took every course, kept taking courses. Every time a new one came up, I would take it, course upon course upon course upon course. And of course that was back when we had National Swimming Pool Foundation, all right. I took every single one of the courses that they offered. And... Then all of a sudden I get a phone call from Colorado. Hey, listen. It's Michelle from NSPF. Your name has come up on our screens here because we need somebody to be an instructor and it would take us seven years to 10 years to train somebody to the level that you're at right now. Would you be interested? Uh, yes. It's like, yeah, hello. So that's how I ended up becoming an instructor. And yeah, so I mean, it just kept going from there. So things are still moving forward, you know? Like even an inch forward is still forward. That's exactly right. Hey, you know what? As long as you're moving forward, that's what counts. It's when you become stagnant that, you know, you're no longer... at that point, you're taking steps back when you become stagnant. So as long as you continue to move forward in it, that's what matters. It doesn't matter the pace at which you move forward. No, I totally, totally agree. And like I said before, there's no such thing as too much education. So even now, I got a phone call last week. It's like, you know what? We don't have any hot tub instructors in Canada. Would you be interested in taking the course and becoming an instructor for that? It's like, yeah, you know what? Does a bear poop in the woods? I'm in. You know? So, yeah. So I'm in the middle of taking that course now. Of course, we're just starting to get to the beginning of our pool season. Um, so the phones are starting to ring up, um, you know, like again, at this time of year, swimming pools here right now should be at the highest that they've ever been at sort of things like through the season. If your pool is not filled right to the brim, you have a problem you need to address when, once you open it up, right? Like everything is, everything is something to look at. Right. Um, So yeah, so that's where we are. I love it. And so let's talk about awards a little bit. I see that you've been nominated a few times over the last, uh, several months for some industry awards. Talk us through that a little bit. I saw that you won one of the Pleaco awards as well. Yeah, so that was actually quite interesting because I got a phone call from my Pentair dealer, my rec. And he's like, hey listen, I hope you don't mind but I put your name in for this Pleco Technician of the Year thing. It's like, okay, I'm not too familiar with it. I mean, I've heard of it, obviously, like I'm in the pool industry, right? So I mean, I've heard of it but I didn't really know that much about it. And... Yeah, you know, I just kind of rode the wave. You know, everything they asked me, I answered. They seemed to be interested in what I was saying and what I was doing, my approach to things, you know, the continual education aspect of it, the whole nine yards. And when all the dust settled, I ended up getting the Lifetime Achievement Award. So yeah, that was kind of cool. And actually it's right up here. Take a look. I love it. I love it, man. That's awesome. that's the cheap one that they did for the photo thing, but they let me keep it anyway. So it's my Pleco Coaster. So yeah, so I was happy to receive that award. And again, there were a couple of little hiccups. So as an instructor, I always go down to the Atlantic Pool Show to teach. Cause I also teach for Pool Chemistry Training Institute, which is essentially HASA now. So I teach their course in Atlantic City. Okay. So I was already set up to go down to Atlantic City, the whole nine yards. Well, Pleaco, that's where they did this awards thing, right? So they're like, oh yeah, we'll give you two airplane tickets to go down to the awards. And it's like, well, no, I'm driving down because, you know, I've got to smuggle all my stuff across the border, my hot sauce and all that other jazz, right? And I'm not putting that on an airplane. So. I wasn't able to use the plane tickets. The other part of the prize is that I could take either the CMS or the CST course. And it's like, thank you. But yeah, I teach both of these courses. So I worked out a deal where I was allowed to gift it to somebody else. I've got a friend in Florida. He's a young lad, new family, the whole nine yards, trying to climb up that ladder. Money's tight. but he wants to do the education. Like he's serious about doing that. So they allowed me to gift that to him, which is cool. Thank you, Pleatco, appreciate that one. Yeah, so that was the Pleatco thing. And then on top of that, we also won the Canadian Choice Awards for education in Canada. So yeah, so I got a really nice fancy dance. He started there somewhere at the office. So yeah, so that was a big plus for us. So yeah, we walked away with two awards at the end, beginning of this year. And then just last week, we were actually up for three more awards. Yeah, so the one award we were nominated for was for pool maintenance. The second one was for customer service. And the third one was for education. Well, That's my thing, you know, and it's like just being nominated for those three tells me that we're moving in the right direction. We're doing the right things and people are noticing. Now it turns out we didn't win any of those, but it's still the nomination to me is the win. Yes, that's exactly right. That means people are noticing that people are seeing what you're doing and they're appreciative of it. And they're, you know, what more can you ask for as a business owner than for people just to notice what you're doing, you know, and the effort that's going into it. Yep, and that's what we're all about. I mean, we want to make sure everybody's happy. We had to detach ourselves from a certain area of the city last year because it was just like an hour and a half drive to get out to those customers. So we had to kind of cut back a little bit, which really, really hurt. I mean, it still hurts me inside because these people really relied on our services. Yeah, absolutely. And you know, like we're getting phone calls now. It's like, hey, are you expanding back into this area? And it's like, I wish I could say yes. And I was like, yeah, well, my pool was like green for seven years and then you had it for three years and it was crystal clear every single day. And now that now it's back to green for the last year. It's like. We can't service that area, but the phone is always open. You know what I mean? Phone me, I will tell you. So, you know, we're here to help people. The only reason we deal with money is because everybody else has to deal with money too. That's exactly right. I used to have that same kind of philosophy of, hey, if you guys have questions, reach out to me personally. Facebook, call, whatever you need to do, but I'm here to help. That's what it's all about, is just helping people at the end of the day. Yeah, yeah, I mean, you know, obviously there's another aspect. You got to pay bills. I mean, I get that, you know, but, uh, I am old, I am lazy. Right. And if I can fix your problem over the telephone, I'm going to fix it over the telephone, right? Not, not because I'm old and lazy, but because I still have to sleep at night. You know, and I'm not going to drive an hour just to push a button, hold it for three seconds to reset an alarm. when I could tell you to do that over the telephone. You know, it's no different than those calls that you get about a GFC eyes gone, uh, gone out. They've, they've redone the breaker, still can't get it to turn on GFC. I'm not going to charge you $125 to go out and turn your GFC. I on we're going to check that first before I come out. You know what, and we have aqualamps here. I don't know if you guys are too familiar with aqualamp, but those are an absolute poke in my eye because you've got that hidden GFCI inside the transformer box that nobody really knows about. And every single spring I try and tell people, hey, you gotta start at the beginning, like turn the lights on in the box. Yeah, but they don't light up. Don't worry about it. We're starting at the beginning. Push the GFCI on the side of the box. Push the GFCI inside there. Make sure the transformer's plugged in. I mean, I can't tell you how many times I've shown up. It's like, yeah, your lights aren't working because this has to actually be plugged in, you know? But yeah, you know, even when that does happen, I've got a conscience. I don't usually charge people the full thing. We tell people on the phone, yeah, it's gonna be a service call, so they're prepared for it. And then I have the option of waving it. Whereas if we... pull the yeah I'll show up and see what's happening and then try and charge for a service call it's not going to fly. no. No. You have to notify people ahead of time. Hey, you will be billed if my truck leaves the garage. That's how it works. yeah, a lot of times I don't do that. Because like I say, you know, I still have to be able to sleep at night. So. love it. Well, Rob, thank you so much for your time today, man. I really appreciate it. I hope everybody learned a lot about education and this and how important and how crucial of a role it can play in business and just being able to further your business, whatever you want to do, whether it's, you know, service related, education related, you're in a different industry, it doesn't matter what it is, education is important. maybe not as much traditional education, but education within the specific industry that you're going to be within. Yep, absolutely. Absolutely. And we have courses running all the time. You know, like when I talk about teaching, I do teach internationally. As I say, I was teaching in Atlantic City. I was in teaching in Las Vegas when the Plico thing, when I had to do my interview for them. I traditionally teach down in the Caribbean over the winter time because I hate the cold. It's work, Chris. It's work. All right. Like there's no enjoyment. It's work. Okay. So, but yeah, you know, like get that education that sets you above the rest. So thank you for your time. I appreciate it. I hope everybody had a giggle or two, learn something if you can. If not, like I say, look up, we're good. All right, brother, you take care, all right? All right, you too. Thanks again, Chris. I appreciate it.