Courtesy of Omnify, a SwimSwam partner.
As important as it is to be best prepared before opening your pools, it is also fundamental that pool facilities pay equal attention while the season is about to end. Once summer is off the list, it’s time to tidy up your pool so you are best prepped for reopening in the next season. Neglecting proper maintenance and cleanliness details would only pave way for extensive and unplanned budgetary expenses which are of course damaging to a pool’s revenue and reputation.
The Ultimate End-of-Season Checklist for Pool Facilities-
While you are closing down for the winter, here’s the ultimate End-of-Season Checklist for Pool Facilities to keep your pools in the best condition no matter what season!
1. Ensure Pool Safety and Maintenance
After the busy pool season, facility owners get an opportune window to fix some of the basic maintenance needs just before spring rolls in! Apart from the normal cleaning sessions of skimming, brushing, and vacuuming the pool, go through a proper winterizing process for your pools. Adding to that, maintaining proper pool water chemistry is vital. Depending on the pool size, it is also recommended that facility operators run pool pumps at least 4-6 hours a day during the fall and winter months.
Secondly, covering your pool securely for the cold season helps. Use the best options available for pool covers that suit your pool type, weather condition, and geographical location; ranging from mesh, solid, special winter covers, and so on. Pool covers should ultimately help in filtering out debris, prevent the accumulation of melting snow or rainwater, provide superior UV protection, and keep everyone safe from accidents.
2. Audit Pool Equipment
The off-season is also a good time to review all pool equipment, and repair and reinstall anything that needs fixing. That includes technically everything that helps operate a pool- diving boards, water slides, rails, ladders, life jackets, floatation devices, etc.
Do a thorough check of your pump to make sure it’s in good working condition, preventing calcium buildup on the chlorination cell. The same goes for the filters as it is central to maintaining a clean pool. For pool winterizing, it is imperative to drain all pumps, filters, and chlorinators from freezing or cracking. Store every piece of equipment that is not used in a clean and dry place.
Advanced maintenance of pool equipment requires the assistance of a pool service company for a close inspection and complete overhaul of core equipment.
3. Analyze Budgets
This winter break gives ample amount of time to facility owners and management boards to review and plan budgets. Certainly, financial expenses are crucial to running a community pool smoothly. What were the maintenance costs in the previous season? Could you work with new vendors that help you cut your maintenance costs? What were the pool operating costs like? What were the costs of maintaining an elaborate pool staff? Could your facility use limited staff and automate backend operations using booking software?
Pool facilities could also consider auditing the types of swim classes and sessions that were offered last summer. Pick out the most popular ones, redo class structures or increase prices for the popular ones. This is also a good time to evaluate client data in depth so you can restructure your membership plans, rethink discounts, re-engage and retain inactive members.
4. Review Facility Rules
Rules are critical for the safety of a facility and its visitors. Do a thorough review of the facility rules laid down for the pool users and see if the existing rules were good enough.
Assess what rules were followed and what weren’t that might make your facility liable for damages. Were there any pool-related accidents that happened last season? How was the damage control taken care of? Could you further avert such mishaps in the future? Would it make more sense if your facility had made mandatory signing of liability waivers with rules put down by you, before clients make a booking so as to deter any possible risks to your facility.
Secondly, what were your facility rules around access management, equitable share of pool resources, or capacity management? Was it chaos at the front desk? Did your facility staff have a tough time managing a crowd? Was the waitlist uncontrollable? Or did you have to face numerous complaints from your existing members regarding facility access, rules, or booking slots? It’s all about making your facility experience worth the money your loyal members invested in.
Using a modern-age swimming pool booking and management software helps resolve many of these issues and more. It allows fair and equitable access to pool amenities so everyone can have their best time.
Guarantee no nasty surprises or tedious queues at your front desk. Build a system where your members can book their favorite slots, check-in with ease, receive every update in real-time, and get instantly informed about an open spot.
These are small things but crucial in offering an unmatched pool facility experience right from the time members step. It surely makes a big difference!
5. Nurture Community Bonds
Seasonal downtrends are an inevitable part of a pool business. One cannot expect huge turnouts day in and day out. However, one can still utilize this relatively calmer pre-season trying to engage with the existing members. As a community is central to any service business, nurturing community members and building relationships is the best way forward.
As per a recent report, returning customers spend 67% more than new customers. Hence, building loyalty programs helps a lot. Even while generating new customers, referrals from your current customers are most effective.
Word-of-mouth recommendations are strong methods not just in earning ‘five stars’ but even leads. A pool’s reputation lies in customer reviews and testimonials as they are real experiences of pool users, hence backed by powerful credibility.
Similarly, this is the best time to work on the negative reviews or any specific product or service that your customers were looking for. Doing a survey will help get a reality check and a chance to improve.
Focus on low-budget marketing strategies to keep the conversation on. Use economical marketing channels such as social media, text messages, newsletters, email campaigns, and so on to keep the engagement on.
Remember, this will only help to make your facility a popular spot when finally summer kicks in!
Conclusion
As the temperatures start dipping, pool facilities will decide to close down for the season. Maybe it’s not the favorite time for pool owners. However, pool closing time could be made worthwhile with planned maintenance and solid strategies. The above checklist will undoubtedly help you keep your pool facility in great shape throughout the year, so you are all braced up until the sun shines brighter!
Make sure you are fully equipped to implement your plans to optimize pool operations when you reopen the next season. In order to deliver the highest quality of service, Omnify offers pool facilities and HOAs an all-in-one scheduling and management system through an intuitive and user-friendly platform. Sign up for a FREE TRIAL and get started today!
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