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We would like to take this time to thank all of the attendees for coming out to our Pool School Classes. We had another tremendous year and look forward to next year’s. If you have any additional questions, feel free to ask us using our Facebook page or by commenting on this post.

Thanks again and we hope you have a great swimming season!

And Lynn White posts pictures of Water Works Pool & Spa employees, as well as informing customers of seasonal store hours and manufacturer rebates.

Welcome to the world of Facebook, retail-style.

“I just want to be on the cutting edge of things,” says White, whose store serves Tuscaloosa, Ala., and the surrounding area. “I don’t want to be the one that’s left behind. Plus the pool and hot tub industry is very visual, and this [medium] plays right into that.”

By fall 2009, Facebook, the online social networking phenomenon, had attracted upwards of 80 million users in the United States alone, with thousands more joining each day. Analysts believe nearly 25 percent of the American population currently subscribes to the free service.

And it’s not just the younger, computer-savvy generation — it’s seniors as well. Consider this: In the first six months of 2009, the number of Facebook users aged 55 and older grew by 513 percent, according to analytics company iStrategyLabs.

With millions of potential consumers accessing so much information in real time, the marketing possibilities are endless. And a small but growing group of pool and spa retailers already have embraced the mechanism. Whether it’s used to keep customers informed, share tips and advice, enhance an online presence, or simply foster a sense of community, Facebook has evolved into a powerful business tool.

Why they use it
Kobylarz, co-owner of Splash Pools in Horn Lake, Miss., created her store’s Facebook page in summer 2009. Actually, her daughter did most of the initial work. But from that point on it’s been all Trish.

“For me it’s great,” she says. “I can just put a quick note up there, and it allows for a lot of communication with my customers.”

The Splash Pools page had just over 200 “fans” (similar to “friends” on an individual’s page) by fall 2009. That means whenever Kobylarz updates her store’s page, those 200-plus fans are e-mailed instantly about what she’s added, provided they opt in to notification.

The next several months should see The Pool & Spa Store’s Facebook page expanded as well. Management at the Fayetteville, Ark., store launched their retail page in early fall, and sales associate/office manager Kim Cox is eager to connect with her network of customers.

But first and foremost, she says, it’s about telling folks where she is.

“We’re a new store,” Cox explains, “and we’ve only been at this location since July. So we’re trying to let people know we’re here and that we offer pool and spa supplies as well as a focus on service.”

A Facebook user herself, Cox invites her personal friends to join her store’s retail page. And she sees a developing relationship with her company’s more traditional online presence.

“Our store Website has more of a business focus, whereas Facebook is somewhat of an ongoing thing,” she says. “It’s more for people who already know about us — a way for us to speak more personally to people … You know, we are very social people here in the South.”

How they use it
Niagara Pools & Spas in Blackwood, N.J., has served the South Jersey area since 1957. Marketing director Giovanisci, who maintains the company’s Facebook page, plans to begin building it with 52 years worth of expertise.

And he feels that gives Niagara an advantage over fellow retailers in the area.

“Our competitors definitely aren’t on it,” he says. “I imagine they don’t have the people to do it. But if we’re providing information to customers and nobody else is doing it, they’re going to trust us.”

Nor is updating the page time-consuming, Giovanisci says.

“The only part that takes any time is thinking about what you’re going to say — and if people get engaged and you get overloaded with questions or requests, that would be awesome,” he adds. “Every question is a sale, or an opportunity to push them to the store.”

In fact, one of the keys to success, experts say, is not allowing social networking sites to dominate your time or attention.

Another turn-off can be too many posts, or irrelevant ones that clog up your connections’ feeds, or stream of updates.

“If you put too many ads on there it’s going to nauseate them, and they’ll drop you,” says White from Water Works. “I may put some specials up, or post a picture of a hot tub I’m looking to move, but you don’t want to alienate people because you’ve bombarded them with information.”

And then there’s perception.

White says updating the store’s Facebook page can get tricky, especially when she reminds employees not to manage their own pages during business hours.

But there’s another school of thought that holds if you’re not updating the page regularly, it tends to grow stale.

Blair Lynch, operations manager at Mermaid Pool, Spa & Patio in Anderson, Ind., updates his company’s page every few days. He believes that should be increased to a daily pace.

He also sees Facebook as a way of re-energizing the business, where he can post specials with discounts that drive customers to his store during slow times of the day or week.

In the offseason, he posts recipes for customers of his store’s grills and barbecues, as well as promoting charitable ventures.

“They’re going to come to the Facebook page to see what’s going on with us,” he says. “And sometimes it’s not as much telling them to buy as it is giving them information that’s relevant to them and the industry. It puts us out there in a different way.”

By Dan Schechner | 1.29.2010
From: Pool And Spa News

How do you compare 2009 with what you’ve seen in the 30 years before?

It’s really where you’re coming from. If you’re looking at gross overall numbers, obviously 2004 was kind of the high spot for everyone. Then the next few years, you had a little change in ’05, then the downturn accelerated the next few years. But it really depends on where you’ve been and what your expectations are. It’s different, though. I’ve been the president of the company for about six years, and I’ve been running it for about 15 years, and I really have not seen anything like we saw last year.

How has the economy in the Northeast affected things?

It pretty much blends in with the national economy, but I don’t think our housing in the Philadelphia metro area has been hit as hard as some other areas. It’s a mature area, so it didn’t have the acceleration that other places did. It seems like housing has ground to a halt no matter where it is, but while the general pricing is off, it hasn’t dropped 20 to 30 percent in this area like it has in others. I think we’re better set for a recovery because of that.

I think the worst time was February of last year. The new administration was taking over, there was just very little business and people didn’t know what to expect. And there was all the nonsense going on in the financial markets the previous quarter. It really just put the kibosh on everything. But we got little glimmers of hope throughout the rest of the year, and we were profitable. It’s a different type of business. We’re doing more service, things like that, and we noticed that the median price of tubs has come down. People aren’t buying the expensive tubs — people have changed their buying habits for sure.

What models do you carry?

We carry Jacuzzi right now, but we’re looking at carrying some others. Their offerings haven’t changed that much, but their upper end is selling less than it was, but still doing fairly well.

Do you think manufacturers should be getting away from the bells and whistles and concentrating on bringing the prices down with more basic models then?

I think people still want a lot of pop and sizzle for their buck. They want more in a lower-end tub — maybe not to the extent of a television, which was a little over the top. But people still want the stereos, and they do well, and they’re looking for jazz and horsepower. They want to see a tub that’s fully featured in the $5,000 or $6,000 price range, where a lot of times in the past that buyer was in the $7,000 or $8,000 price range.

There is a variety of stuff that the manufacturers are starting to produce in that range, and it looks pretty good. They’re functional and people will buy them.

Are the higher end manufacturers working to get more into tubs for those lower price points then?

I don’t think they’re concentrating their efforts on that end of the market. I think they recognize that when a customer wants all the features along with the quality and a warranty, people realize there is a price to pay for that type of product. When you get into the lower price points, you’re not going to get a five-year warranty, or, if you do get one, there’ll be a proration or other out-of-pocket expense.

So manufacturers are aware that people will still pay for quality, and they’re coming out with some higher-end models, too.

Do you see things returning to where they were a few years ago?

I think there’s a huge market out there that’s still untapped, but it’s going to lag the economy; it’s going to lag housing. But, yeah, I think we’ll see some big numbers again and I think they’ll come back to very close to where they were. It goes in cycles. We’ve had ups and downs before.

We saw a study a manufacturer did a while ago about household penetration and they were talking about some really big things for the spa industry as a whole, and their projections held true for about two years. Then, of course, consumer buying habits started to change. Instead of them rushing in and saying, “I’ve got to have a hot tub,” it was, “OK. I’m going to shop a little more.” This started out back in the third quarter of 2004. But to answer your question, there’s a lot of demand out there. It’s a great product. I call it a life-changing appliance. It changes what you do when you get home, when you wake up, it changes your weekends. There’s a big market for them.

Other dealers have told us they’ve learned lessons about running a leaner business once things turn back around. Is that your plan?

We all feel that way right now, but when things get rockin’ and rollin’ you can throw that right out the window, because if the customer wants it, you’d better have it. I don’t mind having inventory, but right now we’re running leaner and there’s much less in our warehouse. We’re not making early buys like we’ve done in the past. Some of that is because manufacturers aren’t changing their lines as rapidly.

You can run lean, but there will come a time when that takes a backseat to having product ready for the consumer. So that kind of messes up the “going lean” thing.

Sales staff will be a derivative of the number of sales and how many customers are walking through the doors. That will obviously increase once things get going again.

Advertising is tough. I don’t know where to go. I don’t think anyone does. There’s so much internet stuff going on, but I don’t know. That’s the million-dollar question right now: How do we attract consumers without throwing money at everything. Maybe the best thing we can do is just love the people we have and try to get them referring as best as we can. That’s always where we’ve gotten a lot of our business.

Comments or thoughts on this article? Please e-mail barrett@aquamagazine.com.

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