From Insurance to 100+ Pools on Google Reviews

Today, I am talking to Mitchell. He's the owner-operator of Faker Pool Maintenance in Mesa, Arizona. Mitchell, welcome.

Ah, great to be here.

Yeah, I'd be curious to start out. What is the high-level state of your business right now? How many pools do you have? Are you solo? Do you have techs employed?

Yeah, all great questions. So I have one full-time tech — at least started part-time, but now full-time. Right now we're right around 101, 102 accounts. My tech takes care of about 65 to 70 pools a week for me, and then I do the rest. And then I do all the repairs, drains, and washes and everything else.

And how long have you been in the industry?

About four and a half years now.

And we talked briefly before about your background in sales. I'm curious — what were you doing before this and how did you get started?

So originally I ran a Farmers Insurance agency of my own up in Washington state for 10 years. We moved down here about five years ago and my plan was to get right back into insurance. I just ran into roadblock after roadblock, and the house that I bought down here had a pool. I hired the pool guy that was servicing it from the previous owner. Every week he'd come out and I'd just chat with him a little bit. I was for the most part unemployed at the time. He looked at me one day and said, "Hey, you know of anybody that wants to be in the pool business? I'm busier than it's not." And I half-jokingly said, "Yeah, me." He looked at me and said, "Really?" And I said, "Yeah, why not?" Because before I got into insurance, I did construction for many years. So I'm used to working with my hands. He said, "Come work with me for a little bit. I'll teach you what I know and we'll get you going." And here we are.

And so you got started with the guy who was cleaning your pool. You rode along with him for three months and bought 15 pools from him — am I getting that correct?

Yeah, and then growing from there. He helped me out tremendously. It was a fortunate position for both of us — he was the type of guy who never wanted to hire anybody. He just wanted to keep things simple, just him. He was already maxed out on pools, had a pretty good Google listing, and got plenty of calls. So what we worked out was, anybody who called him for service, he'd send to me. And anybody who signed up with me, I'd send him $100 as a referral. He ended up sending me about 30 accounts within my first year.

And so it sounds like you were getting referrals through your buddy's Google Business Profile. Did you have any other marketing things you figured out along the way?

For me, 99% of my business has been Google. I have a Google Business Profile and I focused on getting reviews early on. My very first customers — I would ask them, hey, would you be willing to leave a review? And I would almost always ask. And I'd say at least 80 to 90% of the people I asked said absolutely. You've just got to ask. And the best time to ask is when they're singing your praises and telling you what a great job you've done. You wait for that attaboy. When a customer says they're happy, when they say you did great work — that's when you ask for the Google review. Nine times out of ten they say, "Yeah, absolutely." And you want to strike when that iron is hot.

What would you say to pool guys who are nervous about raising prices on existing customers?

Most customers — if you're a good pool guy, they don't want to lose you over $10 or $15. It's not worth it. The ones who leave over $10 or $15 are typically the ones who never approve repairs anyway. They're the ones who balk at every little thing. Losing those customers is actually a positive. Don't be scared to raise your prices. If you're doing a good job, most people will stay.

And what's been the biggest unlock in your business — hiring a tech?

Without a doubt. Instead of me doing 100 pools a week, I'm down to about 35 or 40. And I can do multiple drains, washes, installs. Hiring a good tech has been the best thing. If you can hire someone you trust, it frees you up to do all the other things that make you more money.