20
Florida Pool Pro
sm
• August 2014
Helping with resolutions
By Coby Moore, CM Custom Pool Designs, Inc. /
DIGGING UP IDEAS
Recently I have been getting many calls from
people wanting advice on their swimming pools that
were just completed by another contractor. They
are concerned that the pool was not built correctly.
As a contractor this is a very difficult situation to
get yourself into because most of the time you are
going onto one of your competitors’ job sites with
a heated homeowner. I feel that we, as pool professionals, need to approach
these situations with respect to both parties.
It is very easy to take this situation and make yourself look like the best
builder around and pick the job apart. We need to just listen to the concerns
of the homeowners and try to advise them on why it is like that or what could
be done to fix the problem. Tearing the pool out and starting over is not the
answer and trying to make the builder look bad may get you tied into problems
you might not want to become involved in.
Sometimes the homeowner just needs to hear from a non-biased person that
it is just the way it is and that it is within industry standards. You are listening
to one side of this story and probably don’t know what was on the contract or
what was talked about during the design phase of this project. Some people
just have very high standards and believe everything has to be flawless. In
handmade projects there is room for some error and we need to remind the
customer that this is not a perfect process.
We need to try to help each other out because one day this could be one
of your projects and you wouldn’t want to be thrown under the bus by another
pool pro. I am not saying to favor the contractor but if you handle this situation
with expertise you will help the homeowner with what they should do to try to
get the problem solved. I have seen some horrible jobs and have also helped
homeowners with what steps they should take to try to resolve the situation.
You can leave from the job knowing that you did the right thing and honestly
helped out the situation not just your reputation.
