Survey Response #1: Communication Gaps After the Sale 

John: So this has not been rehearsed. The first one is: “I had to reach out multiple times just to find out when they were coming. I spent thousands of dollars and still had to chase them down for updates.” 

Brad: And I’m going to say that they’re absolutely right. Because what happens is we get extremely busy, and when a salesperson sells a product — especially like on an above ground pool or a semi-inground pool — there’s not a lot of work that they have to do in order to get the job ready for the construction department. Basically, the financing goes pretty quickly. There’s not a lot of site visits and drawings and all because we ask the customers — due to the price of the pool, to try to keep the price really competitive — we give them flags and say put this flag where the center of the pool goes, put this flag where you want the filter system to go, another flag for where the dirt goes, and put this flag out for the sand guy to deliver the sand where it’s okay for him to put it. We ask for it to be close to the pool. 

Not a lot of work for the salesperson. The above ground pool and the semi-inground pool gets sold and then it gets in line. The customer has to get the pool paid first. So there’s some issues like that that have to be resolved before we go and build the pool. But the timing is basically: you buy the pool and then you wait your turn to get it built. And there’s nobody in the office — at least last year — that has any idea of when that’s going to truly happen, and it’s a little bit of a balancing act. 

Well, last year we had Ashley in the office doing way too many things. We try to keep everything as affordable as possible and not just throw in another person into the mix just to take care of that between-time of construction and build. So we loaded Ashley down and it got to be too much, and we’ve kind of missed the mark on this. 

So now we have — and this is where Jamie needs to be because he’s been helping me day in and day out to try to fix this one problem — we’ve got a project coordinator that is helping out on the jobs. We’re asking for Ashley to be relieved by the project coordinators in the inground pool process so she’s better able to stay in contact with the homeowners along the way. 

John: Streamline the internal communication process. 

Brad: Yeah. And you’ll see — we may have to skip over some of these and edit some because some of it is going to be a little bit repetitive. There’s maybe a dark hole — I think there’s one mentioned. I did read over these a little bit last night. There’s a little bit of a dark hole where people go to wait until their pool is in line to be built. 

I don’t know that in the absolute busiest time of the year that we’re going to nail that 100%. But we’re surely going to give it our absolute best. 

John: I don’t know how important it is. I think that’s part of the reason why we do this kind of stuff — it’s to show the customer, hey, we haven’t forgotten about you. This happens with every customer. There’s a certain period of time where you’re just in line. Everything’s completed, you’re ready, and the only thing that you’re waiting for is to be next. And it might be that we’ve got 10 pools ahead of you and you just got to wait a couple days. And it’s also impossible when you’re in construction to know exactly when everything — 

Brad: Well, there’s another one. I’ll hit on that here in a little bit. But it’s hard to know because we don’t know if we’re going to hit a water line that wasn’t marked and we have to get off the job and then go back. Or it could be parts missing from the manufacturer that we have to wait on. It slows us down. And I will tell you — I think it’s human nature for people to look at the best possible scenario and give that, because people think they can build more than they can build. 

I had the owner of Tringlers in Paris, Tennessee tell me one time — these guys would come in wanting credit and they would say, “Man, you got to give me credit. I’ll make $300 a day.” And he said, “What they made is $300 a day one time.” And now they think they made $300. So we built eight pools one week. Now we think we can do it every week. And we don’t budget in time for mishaps. 

John: And also, we’ve got better track on that now. We had Casey on and actually talked all about the process — him, if you find, you know, a little bit about how we do the semi and the above grounds and how long it takes him. And he’s trying to get that faster in some cases. 

Brad: There are ways for us to get another gear. But anyway — “had to reach out multiple times” — we’re working on it. I promise you. And so far this year I haven’t heard that type of feedback. I try to keep — I watch all the reviews, I watch all the survey results, and so far so good. But as of this — this is April 21st, 2026. So we’ll see sometime in June how we’re doing. How about that? 

Survey Response #2: Honesty and Quality Concerns 

Brad: “Not one person connected to Aloha told the truth or did quality work.” Okay, I’m just going to flat out deny that now. And I would say — but here’s what I’m not going to say — that nobody — but we live on the truth even if it hurts. I would rather you own your mistakes and not tell lies. And I think that we have the body of work to prove that. I’ve got the customer base that will go to bat for me on that. I don’t allow — I don’t accept lying, and if there’s somebody in our company that is not aligned with that ideology, they’re going to need to get in line. That’s not acceptable. And I’m not going to say that — I guess I shouldn’t say that this is not true, but if it is true we’ve definitely got some work to do. 

John: Because it does seem like hyperbole to say not a single person that they ran into. You know, once you upset someone, it starts to feel that way. Certainly. It’s mean tweets, right? 

Brad: Yeah. But you’ve been here for a while. I mean, you’ll vouch for me, right? I mean, I’m paying you to say this. 

John: No. Honestly, this is — you know, through all the trainings we do and the podcasts and everything, we look behind to see how the sausage is made way more than most of the companies that I’ve ever worked for in my entire life. And giving those customers the opportunity to see behind the curtain and see the wizard — nobody, no company is perfect, but I definitely think that I’m proud to work here. 

Brad: I obsess over it. I don’t mind telling you. I was on the phone with two different customers yesterday trying to make sure they were taken care of. Not as a result of somebody telling a lie, but — 

Survey Response #3: Feeling Abandoned Post-Contract 

Brad: “We felt tossed aside once we signed a contract.” Which is a similar statement as the first one. The salesperson sells and does their job and it’s done, and then you wait in line. So we’re really trying to get better at saying, “Hey, I see that you got a pool — you’re number X in line,” and get that communication down between the sale and the build. 

And I’ll tell you, it’s not easy because we have almost like a full-time job. I’ve sold actually four pools this year so far, and I find myself thinking, you know what, I haven’t talked to this person in X amount of time, and I just have to check in. I feel like checking in, but the busyness of the day — taking care of what’s in front of you. I get it. And so we’re working diligently to get better at that. And I’m going to say fingers crossed it’s working. 

Survey Response #4: Jobsite Cleanliness 

Brad: “They left trash, tools, and even mud in the street. I had to clean it up myself.” Okay. Yeah, I know that hurts. Probably happened too. In fact, I’ll tell you, three weeks ago I had a similar complaint. Basically what happened was the guys got rained out and the rain just came down so hard that they left everything in the yard. I’m sure it looked like a yard sale of our equipment. They left and — I don’t know about the mud in the street, but that’s just something that we’ve got to get better at. 

And I don’t know exactly if this was an inground pool or semi-inground or above ground, and if it was the guy that we hired to dig the pool that did it. Regardless though, I’ve just got to take this and say — like, I want to text the guys right now saying hey, don’t leave mud in the street. That should be a no-brainer. 

John: Can I just do that right now? 

Brad: Go for it. 

John: Yeah, actually — just be like, hey, make sure when we leave — 

Brad: Yeah. The mud in the street — I don’t know, I’m trying to imagine how upset I would be about somebody leaving mud. And it’s not on my property, it’s not on my — actually, I remember being in Jonesboro getting called down by the neighborhood or the city about it. It’s miserable to work and you can leave a long track of mud going down the street. 

And how do you fix that? I guess you just have to get out with shovels and scrape it off. 

John: Shovel it off. Yeah. Because the trucks leaving will track. You’ve got three or four trucks that deliver sand and rock and then you go in and out with your equipment and it’s a big mess. 

Brad: Hold on just a second. [Brad texts the construction team in real time] “Hey guys, just a reminder — I’m reading some survey results and there is one person complaining about mud being on the street that they had to clean up themselves. And I really don’t want people to have to say that about our company, period. I’m actually doing this while on a podcast talking about it. It’s pretty freaking embarrassing. So, I’d appreciate your help in helping us get some sort of process where at the end of the day, we make sure we don’t leave a mess out there for customers. Period. Thank you.” 

John: And he just sent that to the construction thread on our internal communications. Are you on that? 

Brad: I am, because I see where we can film. I see what we could do, and so I see when it comes through as well to verify that it’s real. Living proof, you guys. 

Discussion: Trash and Debris Management 

Brad: The trash and the tools — I get that. It’s a construction job. I mean, what I don’t want them to do is bury the tools. I don’t want that to be a parting gift. I want them to bring them home eventually. But if there’s some tools out in the yard — we do ask that they clean the job up at the end of the day. And we also ask that they take our garbage bags that we supply and don’t leave any garbage, with the exception of above ground pools and semi-inground pools. 

The reason is we try to get that as the most competitive price it can be. Typically people have garbage pickup and we can take that to the street for them, or we leave it — basically what we do is we take the filter box, then the pool boxes, and we put all the pool boxes in the pump box. 

John: You say pool boxes? 

Brad: The above ground pool kit comes in three or four boxes. A lot of times you can nest them into one another and then nest that into the filter box, which is the biggest box, and leave it. Then tape it all up, then take it to the road for the people. Or a lot of our customers are rural and they just burn it. They burn cardboard and sticks and wood and things. 

Because every little thing adds up in cost. And we certainly wouldn’t mind looking at — take a dumpster out here and then price out the cubic footage. 

John: Do we offer that with the customers? If it’s a trash — like, as an addition? If I want to — I don’t want to fool with it on an inground pool — 

Brad: On an inground pool we do, we bring it out. We don’t actually do that on an above ground pool. But I’ll say as we go through here, we should see some other things that we have changed that help — based on some feedback. Like you said, do we offer that? We should start offering that. I didn’t even think about that. I guess if I don’t want to fool with it — I’m getting an above ground pool and I say, “Hey, what’s it going to cost me to have you haul that away?” And I absorb the cost of it. 

John: Seems like that’s reasonable. I think it’s worthwhile. 

Brad: I think it’s worthwhile. Let’s put you on the spot on the camera. 

John: No, I think it’s a great idea. I can — if you put me on the spot too much, I can always say, “Hey, John, would you edit that out?” 

Brad: That’s pretty embarrassing. It’s pretty embarrassing, I’ll tell you. This whole thing is — because as trying as we might and as many happy customers as we have, there’s always — we’re always going to try to get better. That’s what I wake up every day living, breathing, eating, sleeping, and drinking. And swimming. 

John: Hey. Yeah. 

Brad: Right. Okay. So, we got to make a note — we’re going to offer — 

John: I put that — I’ll remember. If nothing else, whenever we go to edit this, I’ll be like, “Oh yeah, I should remind Brad of the time –” 

Brad: It’s a good idea. Are you going to really do that though? 

John: Oh, Pat. Pat, she’ll do it. There we go. 

Brad: “Hey, we need to come up with a program for hauling garbage off for above ground pool and semi-inground pool owners.” 

John: You’re seeing in real time how we’re reading the surveys. We’re seeing things and then we’re coming up with ideas and we’re fixing them internally, but in a way externally — you’re again, this is how the sauce is made. They’re watching in real time changes. 

Brad: My mind right now — they’re begging to get out. That’s how it works. I probably get 30 texts a day of, you know, “we ought to film this” or “start doing that” or “do some training on” — people say that I’m — 

Survey Response #5: No Response to Messages 

John: So, next survey question: “I sent pictures and messages and got no response.” 

Brad: Okay. Same kind of thing. And it truly is. I think what they’re talking about is it going into Service Titan. Service Titan is our service software and not our construction software. But we use it as both because once people enter into Service Titan, then those pictures that they’re sending in — and nobody is responding to — is now permanently in their file. So we can refer to them forever. And also the text is permanently in their file. And also any phone calls that they make to that phone number is recorded and permanently in their file. 

And I’ll back up and give props to the service team. We’ve got four people in the service admin. That being said, we’re still currently missing calls, and so I’ve got Jamie working tirelessly trying to figure out how in the world we could miss a phone call. It’s frustrating for everybody. 

And it’s April and May for the most part. In June things start tapering off. I always tell people that it is impossible for me to staff year-round enough people to handle the load for two months. Right now you need 20 people, but in two months you’re going to need four again. And then in December and January, I’m going to need one maybe. But I’m going to have four. And I feel like at this point we’re going to have to keep a solid four people in that service office. 

John: No, I take some responsibility for the service calls. Well, and I blame you. 

Brad: Yeah. 

John: This last month, because in the flyers that went out — 

Brad: Oh yes! I forgot to put — I didn’t forget. Everybody, we all looked at it, and I guess for whatever reason, the only phone number in there — you know, there was a website URL, there were QR codes, there were all these other ways to contact us, but the only phone number that existed was the one to service. So, everyone decided to call service at that moment. 

John: Do better, John. 

Brad: Yeah, just do better. So, next survey answer. 

Survey Response #6: Equipment Training 

John: “We spent thousands and no one showed us how to use the equipment.” 

Brad: Okay. So when we build an above ground pool — these pools are anywhere from seven to probably $15,000 at the most. And that’s a lot of money. But when you look at the amount of exposure — meaning the amount of liability and the amount of profit, or the lack of profit — we’ve always made it where the customer comes in and they get their pool training at the store because they need to come in and bring water in and get their water training at the store. 

But at this point, after hearing that several times — that nobody showed them how to take care of the pool — the thing we came up with is offering a pool school for a price. An on-site pool school, because somebody’s going to have to — you got to wait until the pool gets full. Well, by the time the pool gets full, the builders — and a lot of times our builders are more qualified to build than they are to tell people how the pool works. So I’ll have to send somebody else out there and give them a training if they want an on-site training. 

So we’ve come up with a couple of things. One is a FaceTime training where somebody can get us on FaceTime and we can walk them through, and I think there’s a way to record on FaceTime so they can reference that. 

John: Is that — you think? I’m not sure about FaceTime? 

Brad: FaceTime. Yes. You can absolutely record on FaceTime. 

John: I immediately thought of Facebook for whatever. Everything’s face-face this, face that, right? But yeah, we could absolutely record that. They could — we could do a Teams meeting for that matter. 

Brad: Exactly. And last year we started doing a poolside know-how class. Lisa, our pool guru — she teaches it every Saturday at a location. And that’s all posted on social media. We make sure to announce where all the locations are when she’s coming up, and it’s like an event. 

John: Is it available on a Teams meeting where customers can get on? 

Brad: Not yet. You know why I got the phone up here, right? Because I’m going to tell you to do better again. 

John: Yep. Not yet. We are working on that. I got to get with Lisa this week and we’re going to try to make sure that — 

Brad: I just got to get her schooled up. Have you recorded one? 

John: No. The day that we started to, the weather was not permitting. 

Brad: The weather forced us out. I don’t know if you’re — this is indoor. This is an indoor class, I’ll have you know. But she wanted to do it out near the pool filter and all that. 

John: Anyway, that’s fair. We’re on it. I’m on it. We’re going to get that taken care of. 

Brad: But there are pre-recorded videos already. You can find them on our website. You can find them on our YouTube. I’m going to set this phone down. There’s several opportunities for customers to learn. I’m taking a lot of heat here. I’m trying to — 

John: I know. I’m with you. I’m sweating. 

Brad: I’m glad you are, because I’m sweating too. 

Survey Response #7: Overpromising 

Brad: “Do not sell pools until you can actually execute the build with quality and customer care.” 

I will say — I will argue the quality to the end of time, because if there’s something that is not right, we always fix it given the opportunity. And the customer care thing is a lot of exactly what we’re talking about. But the title of this is called “overpromising.” And I don’t mind telling you, that is — I’m going back to the guy who makes $300 a day. He made $300. And our inability to practically gauge how long it’s going to take for us to get to a job. 

I’ll say this: this year it’s been a very dry spring and we’re not having that as an issue. Last year it was a miserable spring. They say like a 50-year or 500-year rain. Last year we had all the rain of a typical year by the half year. I think by July 1st it was already the full year’s worth of rain and then some. So it was a tough year. We’ve had a good spring weather-wise. So we may not hear that. That doesn’t necessarily mean we’re getting better. 

John: And I would say on something like this — I get it. The customer — your feelings are valid. We hear you. And me being a marketing guy looking on the outside of how they handle things, I do see how they take these comments seriously, and it hurts, and they try to fix — they’re constantly trying to fix things. So that’s part of what doing the surveys — 

Brad: And there’s no point that Brad had to expose all the surveys and of course all the negative ones. We could have got on here and just read all the good things and everybody — but to be able to come on and say, to read the negativity and then to say, we’re addressing these things. We don’t want more of this. We would love to just be able to say, “Hey, everything, all the feedback’s positive.” That’s never going to happen in a company this size. There’s always going to be somebody that has an issue, but it’s going to be fixed. It’s going to be taken care of. 

Survey Response #8: Pool Cover Delay 

Brad: “Still waiting on my pool cover seven months later.” Well — that’s fair. However, if they get their pool in January and it gets built in March, then they will pay for their cover, but we will install it exactly at the time that we winterize the pool, which can be October. So actually, it could be 10 months — or 11 months if somebody wants their pool closed in November. 

In this case, I’m sure there was something that happened that they were unhappy about. There’s a video that we recorded that explains: we don’t order the pool cover until it’s finished, because it’s not like you just say, “Hey, I need a large pool cover for this large pool.” It’s measured for the specifications of each individual pool. Every pool cover is a custom pool cover. 

And when it gets difficult is if somebody has a fountain around their pool — an immovable object right up to the edge — and the cover needs to span across the edge about a foot. Typically, ordered covers are safety covers. Safety covers have springs that are screwed into the concrete. The safety side of it is the springs hold up humans and animals if they were to get on top of the cover. 

Well, in order to have that cover made around an obstruction — if you’ve ever seen those sheer descent waterfalls that sit right up on the edge of the pool and they may be six feet, four feet wide — the cover has to be made around that obstruction. And then if you get into a curvy pool, it could take lots of back and forth between us and the manufacturer to get it right. And sometimes we get it wrong. And guess who pays for that? Guess who has two thumbs and pays for that? These guys. 

I can see it could be extremely frustrating, and it could be just something that fell through the cracks. And so this might be a good time to say it — my number is 731-431-8199. If you ever have any problems, I live to take care of customers. This is one of the things that maybe had they had that number, I would have been able to help people. 

John: Yeah. If they called at month three and said, “Hey, what’s going on, Brad?” 

Brad: And they shouldn’t have to. Not that it’s their fault. 

John: No. And they shouldn’t have to. But there is that. But you can. 

Survey Response #9: Overall Frustration 

Brad: “Had I known how frustrating this would be, I would have gone somewhere else.” 

Well, that’s fair. And I don’t know what to say other than I hope by now that you don’t feel that way. And I can assure you that if anything ever happens with your pool that is out of warranty, and you see the way we take care of our customers — when we’re not truly obligated to take care of our customer, how well we take care of the customer — I hope by then they will see exactly why it was still a great choice to go with us, even though it was frustrating. 

And I’ll say this: if this was an inground pool, I would never tell anybody that this is going to be the happiest thing you’ve ever embarked on, because sometimes it’s just not. It’s a construction project. And some people have said it’s like building a house but worse. And I think it could be worse because you have to be involved. 

When we finished building our house, I would have people coming into my — but we weren’t totally finished, but we had to move in. I’d have people coming in to the house while I was sitting there eating breakfast with my kids. So unnerving. So I understand — you want people out of your yard. 

I live, eat, sleep, and breathe is productivity and finishing jobs. I have metrics for my construction team. They actually get more bonus if they finish the job — finish an inground pool in three weeks. It only happens probably 40% of the time, I would say, but that’s our benchmark. 

Closing: The Purpose of Transparency 

John: I think we could have done this more justice had we gotten the exact customer and known the category of pool. 

Brad: I’m surprised you didn’t have us call the customer while we were — 

John: Exactly. We’re going to frustrate you some more by putting you on a podcast. Oh, you know what we need to do? We need to get these people on the podcast. We need to see if someone — you know, someone that had a really bad experience, if they would come on and kind of highlight three or four of them. Like if they were still amped about it and they were coming at us on the thing — it’d be hard. 

Brad: I’d be saying, “John, I really want you to edit this.” But you couldn’t do it, right? 

John: I think people would watch that without edits. 

Brad: Yeah. We could always go live. 

John: Exactly. That’s not a bad idea. 

Brad: Okay. So — I guess the moral of this story, the Aesop’s fable of all of this, is that you sincerely want to get better. We’ve actually put this into — and there’s another podcast with Jamie and Pat on it where we talked about our new core values. Used to be FEED, now it’s SERVE. And the very last E stands for “exceed expectations of the customer.” And that’s what we really want to do with every single project. 

What we’re doing here by doing the surveys, by exposing this on a podcast, by saying these are the things that we want to exceed your expectations — we want to get better. 

My phone number again — it happens to be 731-431-8199. And when we get the survey results in — it’s automated. So every customer that goes through the build process gets this survey, and it’s still going on. It’s ongoing. 

I love the positive stuff, but the positive stuff is — to me, it’s like, you’re supposed to do that. The constructive criticism is so welcome, and it challenges us to get better. And a lot of these are construction criticism. 

John: Oh, I see what you did there. 

Brad: Yeah, really good. I like word play. So we’re going to get better. Surveys are going to continue. We’ve had some really glowing surveys so far this year, but again, it’s a year where the weather’s been good and we’ve been allowed to get a lot of work done. So we haven’t been so backlogged as a result. And I do think that some of the things we’ve put into play have helped people give us the nicer survey results as well. 

If you look online and look at all of our reviews, if there is a negative one, I go in and do everything I can to make it better or respond to it. And sometimes people will change the review, and you don’t see that. In some ways, I wish they would leave them, because they could see what we’ve done. 

John: That’s a good point. We were also looking at the reviews that we have, and we’re considering doing another podcast just reading some of the one-star reviews and then talking about the things we did to address — I use the term “royal we” — it wasn’t always me. It’s this guy. 

Brad: What was done to correct that one-star review and to make it better. One of the things that I noticed that I think is neat is you directly tie the five-star reviews to employee performance. 

John: And what’s the bonus you give for a five-star review that somebody gets? 

Brad: It depends on the category. Construction, service gets a review, retail gets — but they get a monetary bonus. It varies between where you’re at. 

And here’s what gets on my nerves — I’ve had a text come to me that said something like — I had a customer screenshot a text and they said, “I get a bonus for a five-star review.” And I tell them, that’s not how it is. It’s not that way. You give excellent customer service where people want to give you a review. You don’t tell them. Even though we’re exposing that — the idea is to incentivize people giving excellent customer service and get an organic five-star review without telling people. 

But the other thing is: do you think somebody’s going to lie? Do you think somebody’s going to get on there and lie because somebody did a bad job for them? I pray not. Because that’s not the way it’s set up. I incentivize it, but I tell them that you give excellent customer service to make it where they want to give you the review. 

John: And to be fair, I think a lot of companies do this. I just did an insurance transaction, and at the end of it I got a survey and it said, “Hey, if Steve did a good job, do you want to give him a bonus?” It even let me select what prize to give him. Whether or not — I don’t know if he ever got it, because it’s not like he’s like, “Hey, thanks, John.” But I was like, “Hey, he really handled me. Give him a free lunch.” 

Brad: That’s really cool. And now another thing that totally exposes us in this light that I think balances it out is the automation of Service Titan — it sends out the “hey, do you want to give this guy a five-star review.” So the people who aren’t happy, they’ll immediately go on there and give the one-star review. So it’s an automated thing. 

They actually say that for every positive review, you know, typically people don’t give positive reviews as quick as they want to give negative reviews. 

John: No, exactly. You’re real quick to jump on there and be like, “These people screwed up. They did terrible. I hate them.” As compared to, “Hey, what a wonderful job they did.” It’s like one to five, I think, is the number if I recall. Don’t hold me to that. 

Brad: No, you got to verify everything now. Yeah, but I’ve also read something that if there’s one person saying something wrong, there’s nine or 10 other people that just didn’t say anything. 

John: Well, yeah. When there’s smoke, there’s fire. 

Brad: And I guess now would be a good time to ask people: if you liked this podcast, leave me a review so that I can finally, you know, maybe I can get in on some of this pay action. That’d be cool. I can get some of those bonuses. 

John: If you want to mean tweet us, get in the comments. Tell us how terrible we were. Maybe we’ll read it sometime. 

Brad: Yeah. Just make those suggestions down below. Tell us the things that you would like to see. We don’t get a whole lot of comments. Or if you wanted to say something nice to lift our spirits, you know, it’s been pretty tough. 

John: There you go. 

Brad: But we appreciate you joining us once again on another Aloha Pools and Spas Deep Dive podcast. We appreciate your subscription. Subscribe to the YouTube channel and you’ll get these. But we do more than just this. We try to put out some other informational videos on YouTube. We try to do some things that are like your pool school to help answer some of these questions that people have. It’s on there. Dig deep, you know. Look at our website, alohapoolsusa.com, and find some of the videos that we release there. Leave us feedback on these if you want. 

So, other than that, I would say dive safely. 

John: And do them. Yes. 

— End of Episode —