Going "Public" With Our Referral Program

We have for the past year been exploring a referral program with a few select customers and since it seems to be working well for everyone we have decided to let everyone in on it.    With our referral program you can make some extra cash. In fact our top referrer is earning $160.00 every month.  Sure no one is quitting there day job but hey a little extra money is always nice.

Indulge me for a moment to explain how this program came to be and our philosophy behind it.  Just about a year ago I was sitting in the spa with a couple friends when one of them tried to sell us on his energy or power boost stuff I am not exactly sure anymore.  Truly what he was selling was not just the product but the chance to go market it to others.  Having, as I am sure you have, been approached several times with different Multi Level Marketing  / Pyramid programs I was an instant no.  It is not in my DNA to sell my friends a bunch of stuff they don’t need.  Now understand this guy really did quit his day job and was making a lot of money doing this but none the less it was not for me.  Later that evening another friend made a comment that the yard looked really good and I said yes we had changed to a different gardener and his company was great. I then gave my friend his number.    That is when it came to me that here I was referring him which I was happy to do but how could that be spun into a program that could pay off like my other friend was getting paid for.

After a few cocktails and all of us getting very pruned we came up with a program for referring our pool service.  Since two of my friends were already using our company as were both happy to refer us.  They became our test cases to make sure we could manage such a program.  It seemed perfect this was a chance to make money referring a service that their friends truly needed and everyone could make a little money from the referrals.

How it works is simple you refer a friend to our pool service and you receive  $40.00 if they refer someone you get $20.00, then if that person refers someone you get $10.00 and finally if the friend of the friend refers someone you get $5.00.  Additionally you get this referral payment every six months as long as that customer stays with our service. 

Finally since we are truly professional pool company and have highly trained staff that shows up and does what they are suppose to do people are happy to recommend us. Now we are able to give back for that loyalty.  Want to learn more go to our website at www.sandiegopoolsupply.com or call us at 619-209-8939.

Pool Service Rant

So probably not good form to have your first blog be a rant so I will try my best not to.  Why do people pay good money for crappy pool service and stay with it?!?    San Diego has a ton of pool service companies and frankly having been in this business I know most are not that good but to stick with bad is just weird to me.  Seriously is it the devil you know is better then the one you dont?

I should explain what prompted this question.   We were called to do a swimming pool heater repair, excellent as always happy to do a pool repair.  Show up and learn they have pool service but the heater was to complex for him to fix; ok good enough not all companies have experience with Jandy swimming pool heaters.  First thing I notice is the high level of algae in the pool.  Secondly notice the pump basket is put in backwards and blocking up all the debris in the pipes, get that all cleaned out and running better to find the filter pressure is very high.  Take the filter out and I swear if this filter has been cleaned in the last year I would be shocked.  Finally get the swimming pool running correctly and find the heater had just tripped the high limit cut off probably because of the bad flow caused by previous problems.  Fix it and let the owners know what found, "yeah are pool guy really is not all that good and just shows up for a few minutes splashes around and leaves".  I mention that we offer pool service we would be thrilled to have them on our pool route as they are right in the middle of our San Diego pool route.  "Well good to know we will have to think about but you guys have been the best we will recommend you to everyone"  

So is it that people don't like to have fire someone?  Is it they are scared of change?  Why, seriously why would people continue to pay good hard earned money and get crappy service?   Here we run a top notch company, those on our pool route sing our praises, our rates and reasonable but yet it is like pulling teeth to get someone to change.

If you have pool service in San Diego we would certainly love to have you on our swimming pool route but more over I would like to know why people resist changing.