2 reasons to include patrons in pool planning
Maintaining customer relations is especially important for community pools, which serve as places for recreation and social gatherings. Therefore, pool management has to work to establish and maintain relationships with their swimmers.
Times will come when the pool needs to undergo construction or repair. Ideally, these projects would take place off season, but problems with equipment can arise at any moment. When this happens, operations will be affected, which will impact swimmers’ routines and preferred visiting hours. In these inevitable cases, strong customer relations can ease the work of pool management.
It’s never too late to start
Whether your facility is well-known for working closely with the community or could work on these efforts, there are many ways that you can improve the relations. Needless to say, pool management has plenty of responsibilities, so this may not seem as important in comparison to other tasks, but here are two reasons to reorganize the to-do list.
1. Work with upset patrons: Safety is always of the utmost importance, and when unexpected problems arise, it may affect the water chemistry or other aspects of the pool. Therefore, closing down the pool to the public may be necessary. This will affect guests directly, and they may grow upset. However, if your facility has a history of working closely with the community, these feelings may be lessened because patrons will know that you and your staff are working diligently to return the pool to its normal operations.
2. Give patrons a better understanding of pool operations: Chances are, guests aren’t aware of the ins and outs of pool operations. This can be especially true when a pool has to shut down temporarily. Feelings of frustration may overshadow guests’ understanding of what it takes to run a pool and the many safety aspects that need to be addressed. Therefore, pool managers who are close with the community will be able to communicate with patrons about these important steps and stress that the facility is as interested in returning to normal as swimmers are.
Reaching out to guests can be simple. Pool operators can hold monthly meetings, publish newsletters or maintain a social media presence. Doing one or all of these will ensure that patrons are kept in the loop and happy.
