Essential Checklist: Key Features to Look for in a Pool Service Software

Introduction

Among the many new business ideas making their way into the world, the pool service business has survived for the longest time. While the pool service business may seem like a straightforward task, it involves a lot of factors and variables that need to be handled by its owners. These tasks can be quickly and effectively handled using good pool service software.

However, looking for the right software takes a lot of work and needs a lot of research. That is primarily because there are way too many pool service tool options.

But this search is worth the effort. With good pool service software, businesses no longer waste time on manual data entry and paperwork. Work orders can also be made as soon as a job appears on the schedule. When efficiency goes up, productivity goes up, thanks to pool service tools. 

What is pool service software?

Pool service software brings together the essential features of field service with tools that are made just for pool maintenance. Yet, software adoption for a pool service can be tough if you don't know what features are out there or which ones your small business needs. Hence, you must put together an exhaustive list to help and make things easier.

But before we begin with the checklist, one must know what their business needs and what is most important for your small business. Read on to learn about a framework that will help you define your priorities while adopting the software.

How to Choose the Right Pool Service Software?

1. Check which software solutions are available

• No-Code Tools 

These pool service tools have the highest customizability and can be improved based on the features your business needs. Plus, the main advantage of no-code tools is that they can be used with minimal technical knowledge.

• Field Service Management

This pool service app comes with a template filled with a set of features. Users are required to choose one template or package for their business. Hence, this tool lacks customizability.

• Developers

Business owners can also consult app developers to produce custom-made software. While this option results in tailor-made software, this option is highly expensive and can take months to develop.

2. What does your business need?

Pool service business owners will have to consider how extensive their business requirements are and how their team works to determine the features and integrations they need for their small business.

3. Understand the pool service software

Once you have a list of the features and integrations your business needs, you can compare software to see which one is best for you. Before you try the software, compare its price, how easy it is to customize, and how well it works on mobile devices.

4. Try out the software

Whether you choose a no-code tool, an FSM tool, or a developer agency, you should try out the platform to check if it has all the features you want in the software.

How to use checklists for features and integration?

The feature and integration checklist will help you figure out what your needs are and what are some essential and must-have features in your ideal software.

The best way to utilize this checklist would be to give each item a value like P1, P2, or P3 based on its importance.

P1 - very important

P2 - less important

P3 - not important

List of features for pool service software

Capture a Digital Signature

Improve efficiency and time spent signing important documents by your clients using a digital signature.

Payments

Put all your payment invoices in one place to keep track of them. Pay your field staff and office employees with this feature.

Invoicing

Keep track of what customers and clients owe you. Send invoices automatically when service is done.

Quote Creation

This feature will have templates that will help you to give quotes for commercial and residential pools.

Quote Management

This feature lets you talk and negotiate with property clients to close deals. Send them an online quote for various service packages and manage all sections in a single place.

Financing for consumers

It allows customers to pay in easy installments by offering to finance.

Quote Approval

The right pool service app lets your clients approve quotes when you send it to them.

Online Bookings

The best pool service software gives your clients different ways to set up meetings with you. You can take reservations through Google Search, social media, and your website.

Customer Management

Make a note of and keep track of important customer contact information. Describe the work completed on the customer's pool in the past. You can also remind customers automatically if they need to schedule regular services.

Customer Portal

The right software pool tool will have a customer portal where your clients can schedule appointments and ask questions regarding your business.

Customers notifications

A pool service software can notify you when a client pays upfront for your service. When you send reminders to clients about service renewals and service timings, they will also get a message from you, thus improving customer communication.

Lease Management

It is an integral part of the software for managing pool services. If your business stores virtual leases in your software, it can send automatic reminders to customers for service renewals before the due date.

Reports and analytics

Detailed reports of your pool service business can help keep track of your finances and digitally store receipts. It also lets you make financial reports and dashboards with information about projects completed, customers served, and more.

Mobile Friendly

The best pool service software can also be used on one's smartphone to get to all the information stored by the software. Mobile-friendly apps also allow users to add or change data from anywhere at any time.

Inventory management

Keep track of and control the number of materials used during the job. This could include the tools, parts, and supplies needed to fix the pool. The app also keeps track of any chemicals used to clean the pool to alert you when a chemical or supply is about to run out.

Tailor-made workflows

Create, track, and keep an eye on every job's status, such as the schedule, the work, the time when it's done, and the final payment.

Scheduling

Pool service apps make it possible to schedule appointments online. It also allows the user to consider how close one job is to the next when making technicians' daily schedules. You can also reserve specialized jobs for technicians who are better trained.

Job Management

This feature helps ensure your employees complete the tasks you give them. For example, if you ask an employee to make a contract for a client or customer, ensure the contract is completed by the deadline.

Job Checklists

Make a list of tasks for yourself and your employees, and go over them at the end of the day. It will help you remember what you need to do and won't let you forget about important meetings.

Employee Timesheet Management

With this feature, pool service business owners can check how long their cleaners take to finish a task. Also, employees can be asked to sign in and out daily so they can track how many billable hours they worked. At the end of each month, it will help your accounting team.

Employee notifications

You can talk to your employees through the app and request updates on service contract renewals, follow-ups on leads, and other tasks that are still to be done.

Recurring jobs

Make a reminder for your employees about the jobs they have to repeat periodically. For example, collecting payments from a regular client every month can be scheduled as a reminder for the employee.

Checklist for Site Inspection

The app can help you make an inspection checklist, so you don't forget any tasks during pool upkeep and maintenance. This list can include what needs to be done for maintenance and repairs of the pool.

On-Site Assessments

You can add a feature to the app that lets your employees fill in information about new clients as they visit them. For example, if the client's pool floor needs a cleanup, they can add that to the app.

Email Marketing

Send emails to leads and potential clients to drive business. With good pool service software, you can sync customer information in one place. This information can be used to design email campaigns using simple drag-and-drop tools.

Tracking employees using GPS

Keep track of technicians and vehicles all day using pool service software. Check the progress of the job and the route to the next job using the app. You can also use the tool to ensure technicians are responsible by making sure they use company inventory correctly.

Pool service app-based communication

You can talk to your employees through the app and ask them for updates on things like drafting lease agreements, following up on leads, and other tasks that are still open. 

Access Offline

You can access all business data, client information, and past jobs offline from anywhere. Stay in touch with your tasks no matter where you are.

Online Requests

Let your customer pay online or request a meeting via the pool service app.

Service authorization forms

You can also use the app to provide service authorization forms to the client so that you can execute the assigned job.

A Checklist of Integrations

Integration is essential if you want to manage your business efficiently. We have made a list of integrations for you to choose the ones that improve your business processes based on the size and needs of your business.

Payment integrations

Such integrations let you send and receive money from clients, suppliers, and employees. Authorize.net, Paypal, Profit Rhino, Stripe, and Wordplay are the most popular payment integration tools.

Accounting

Accounting integration makes it easier to pay bills and track expenses. It also gives instant information about your KPIs and lets you make reports such as invoices and balance sheets. Fundbox, Quickbooks, ResponseiBid, Sage Intacct, Sage 50, and Xero are all accounting integrations that you can look into for your small business.

Marketing

With marketing integrations, you can run social media and email campaigns to get leads and encourage customers to tell their friends about your business. Broadly and Mailchimp are tools that can be used along with your pool service software.

Automation tool

It lets you automate your work across more than 5000 apps so you can move faster. Some of the most used tools are Workato and Zapier.

Advertisements and directories

It lets you list your pool service business in your area and raise awareness about it. Google Local Search and Thumbtack are two popular tools that can help you advertise.

Storage and documentation

Please keep all your legal documents and information about your clients in one place, so you don't lose them. Dropbox Business, Google Drive, and Microsoft Excel are a few integrations you might want to take a look at.

Analytics and Customer Insights

This tool lets you see customer insights and analytics, so you can get a good idea of how much traffic and leads your app gets from both organic and paid campaigns. Convert, Google Analytics, and Mixpanel are all tools you can check.

Customer reviews

Customer reviews are a vital part of your business as a pool service business owner. It helps you meet your client's needs and give them better service. BirdEye, NiceJob, and SendJim are all well-known tools for this purpose.

Customer communication

It makes it easier for you to converse with customers on different platforms. Even your clients can contact you directly if they have questions. Podium, Twilio, and Zendesk are three integrations that can help you improve customer relationships.

CRM

It helps you give the best customer service possible. In today's market, where there are a lot of competitors, customer service enables you to beat them. Tools like Dynamics 365, Freshdesk, Hubspot, Salesforce, Zendesk, and Zoho CRM are often used.

Team communication

Popular tools like CompanyCam, Microsoft Outlook, Google Workspace, Naturalforms, Slack, Zoom, Google Calendar, Microsoft Dynamics 365, and Zoho make it easy to work with team members and stay up to date on tasks.

Payroll and HR

With ADP Workforce now, Gusto, and Workday HCM, you can ensure that internal processes like managing employees' time off and salaries are accurate.

E-commerce

Integrate Shopify, Woo Commerce, and Adobe Commerce into your ideal pool service software to list your business on e-commerce websites.

Conclusion

Several pool service tools claim to benefit your small business in the current target. But you must be aware that even if a software has a lot of features, that app might not be suitable for the stage in which your business is and offer features that you might never use.

Software that offers a lot of features in a single non-flexible pricing plan is complex and confusing to adopt. Also, paying for features that you never use is an unnecessary expense. Instead, good pool service software should offer features which are aligned with your business needs and can be customized easily.

If your business has specific needs, a no-code tool might be your best bet since these apps are less complicated and easy to customize. Our tool, UTILIZE, can significantly help small pool service businesses. What's more, you can even get a free demo and try UTILIZE yourself!