A stranger calls your company about a green pool. There are exactly five things that can happen next, and we sell only one of them. Here is what each one costs, what it actually does, and where each one breaks — ours included. Every price on this page that is not ours carries a public source at the bottom.
1 The default
The phone rings out and a recording asks for a name and number. You listen to it at 6 pm between the last stop and dinner, and call back whoever is still interested.
Where it breaks: a homeowner with a green pool and a party on Saturday is not waiting on a callback — he is dialling the next company on the map while your greeting is still playing. Voicemail is free because it does nothing.
2 What most of the trade does
You answer it yourself, standing over an open pump lid with a phone on your shoulder. It works, and it is the reason your customers like you. It is also the single hardest habit to keep on a 40-stop Tuesday in July.
Where it breaks: it does not scale and it never gets a day off. The calls you miss are the ones that come while you are already on a call, driving between stops, or under a heater panel with your hands full. Nobody quotes on those.
3 The rented receptionist
A call centre picks up in your company's name, takes a message, and emails or texts it to you. Real people, 24/7, and for a lot of trades it is a perfectly good answer.
Where it breaks: they take a message — they do not quote. The operator has never seen your price list, cannot tell a cartridge filter from a sand filter, and cannot say what a green-pool recovery runs on a 15,000-gallon play pool. So the lead still lands in your lap unquoted, just faster. Metered plans also mean a busy week costs more than a slow one.
4 The real answer, at the real price
Somebody at a desk who learns your prices, knows your routes, and can be trusted with a customer. This is the best version of an answered phone that exists, and if you can afford it and keep them, hire them.
Where it breaks: nothing, while they are at the desk. But the desk is empty evenings, weekends, holidays, sick days and the two weeks after they quit — and roughly half the calls a service company gets arrive outside a 9–5. The figure on the right is wage plus payroll tax, and before the month you spend hiring again.
5 What we sell
Answers in about 8 seconds — phone, website form, Google, Thumbtack, Angi, Yelp, text, email — asks the four things a pool quote needs, and gives a price only off the price list you approved. Then it chases on day 1, day 3 and day 7 until the job is booked or the person says stop. It does not sleep, and July costs the same as January.
Where it breaks: it is software, and it will meet a caller it cannot help — an angry customer, a warranty argument, anything not on the list — and when it does, it hands the call to you rather than improvising. It has no hands: it cannot drive to the house, and it cannot look at the pool. It also cannot invent a price, on purpose.
| Can it… | Voicemail | You, from the truck | Answering service | Office hire | NET |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pick up at 9pm on a Sunday | Records | Sometimes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Give a price from your list | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes |
| Answer a website form or Yelp message | No | Eventually | Some plans | Yes | Yes |
| Chase on day 1, 3 and 7 unprompted | No | If you remember | No | If told to | Yes |
| Cost the same in July as in January | Yes | Yes | Metered plans don't | Yes | Yes |
| Look at the pool | No | Yes | No | No | No |
| Handle an angry customer | No | Yes | Takes a message | Yes | Hands it to you |
| Quit | Never | Never | Never | Yes | Never |