The Importance of Service and Maintenance in Your Pond Business

The editor asked if I would write a follow-up article to the last Waterscape issue’s article on being “Resource Smart.”He did not assign any topic, leaving that to my discretion. Gee, how about something on Global Warming? Pontification about Health Care Reform? Reminiscing about recently departed Hollywood Icons?World peace?

Nope, I think I’ll attempt toaddress an issue much more mundanebut crucial to helping you payyour bills—service and maintenancein your pond business profile.

In just the last week, I’ve fieldedphone calls from more than twodozen potential new clients whoare trying to find help with servicingor repairing a problem withtheir existing ponds. I, personally,have been out to see seven of thesepeople and am scheduled to go toyet another one tomorrow.

Keep in mind, these are newclients. I still have the clients thatI’ve built ponds for in the firstplace—those that we have retrofitted,or have just helped get theirout of balance pond back on track.These are ponds that I didn’t build,somebody else did, and they left allthis money and growth potentialon the table for me to pick up!

The new client I’m going to seetomorrow really prompted me towrite this article. Their pond, builta year ago by a competitor, has apipe leaking. Simple repair, right?Well, the customer called theinstallers and asked if they wouldsend someone out to repair theleaky pipe. Their one-year professionalwarranty period had expired and the response theyreceived was: “Oh, we don’t offerservice and maintenance and don’treally know anybody who does.Have a nice day.” Click. The clientwas willing to pay for the servicecall and will be paying me.

This isn’t new to my business.

We have built a solid and steadilygrowing service and maintenance branch. It is currently the onlygrowth aspect of our pond businessand we’re not neglecting it,we’re nurturing it. For us, this iswhat full service means. Not justdesign/install, but service after thesale. It always has been for us.

I’ve known about “residualincome streams” for years. Theyare a truly a “recession-resistant”insurance policy. If I was sellingcars, I’d sell them at reduced butcompetitive prices to gain newcustomers and then make sure Ihad the best mechanics, parts andservice departments, good tire andbattery prices, and flexible hours.You get the picture? Look aroundyou and learn from other people’smistakes and miscalculations;Lord knows I’ve made enough ofmy own.

You ought to see some of whatwe’ve seen in our years of service and consultation calls. Pipes noteven glued or the wrong glue used,weir flaps put in upside down,undersized plumbing, oversizedpumps, undersized equipment . . .the list goes on and on.

We’ve positioned ourselves inour market as the guys who takecare of people’s problems. We dothis promptly, professionally,knowledgeably and, most importantlyfrom a business standpoint,profitably.

I’m not the cheapest either.

However, the experience levelgained by myself and our staff,accumulated over thousands ofphone calls, service calls as well asa few hundred installs, makes ourpeople probably the most knowledgeablein the pond market.

We’re currently expanding intonearby markets as well. Thatwasn’t part of our business plan originally, but there just appearsto be a void that needs to be filled,and we’re willing to do it.

This brings to mind a call wereceived earlier this week fromextremely frustrated pond owners.They’ve had a pond for more than15 years but had a local competitorinstall some really good equipmenton it about a year ago. Thecompetitor has been out thererepeatedly, trying to figure outwhy they have chronic highammonia readings, with no success. He was recommending hugewater changes and suggested theystop feeding the fish that they’vehad for 15 years, causing tremendousstress to both the fish andthe frustrated pond owners.

After about three minutes onthe phone asking a few questions,it was quickly determined thatthey were using an ammonia-locking style de-chlorinator. Their testkit was the wrong kind to accuratelytest for ammonia using thistype of de-chlorinating productand was giving themartificially high readings.

Who doyou thinkthis customerwillcall whenthe nextproblemarises?

I didn’tlearn thisstuffovernight.It hastakenyears ofpayingattentionto what’s going on around us andnot being afraid to ask questions.Then, more importantly, listen andlearn from other contractors’knowledge and experience.

I’m a businessman; I’ve crunchedthe numbers, calculated the averagenumber of days in the field peryear allowed by weather conditionsin my area. I’ve calculated ouroverhead costs, and the myriad ofother pertinent factors that shouldbe considered in any business plan.I’m not going to do a service callor a job for less than the mathsays it needs to be; that’s justpoor business.

In years past, service calls andmaintenance were the gravy forour pond business, with newinstalls and major retrofits as thebread and butter. In the past twoyears, it has moved to the forefrontas the bread and butter ofour company. Again, this wasn’tplanned, but without positioningourselves where we have by offeringthese services all along, I’dvery possibly be standing in front

of a mirror practicing the phrase,“Hi, welcome to Home Depot,how can I help you today?”That’s not overly appealing tome; how about you?

In order to be fully informedand at the top of your trade, I’dlike to offer some suggestionslearned the hard way. Fixing otherpeople’s mistakes is one of the

most educational andlearning experiencesthat you’ll ever runacross; it’s very profitable,too. I wouldurge you to attend allthe educational seminars,trade shows andindustry professionalnetworking eventsthat you can get to.Not to over-use somemarketers’ petphrase, but “Can youafford not to attendthese events?”To keep your pondand water featurebusiness afloat duringthese trying times, can you affordnot to offer service and maintenance?

EDITOR’S NOTE: Dave Jones is the owner ofThe Pond Professional, Woodstock, Georgia.

The homeowner that built this waterfallused mortar on a hardware cloth bed. He obviously couldn’t keep the hardwarecloth where he wanted it, so hestapled it to the liner, loosing approximately350 gallons of water per day.