An owner notices the level is down by an inch. She rings on a hot Tuesday in August, convinced the pool is cracked, and is quoted for a leak detection visit.
It is thirty degrees, windy, the cover has not been on for a week and four children were in it on Sunday. There is no leak.
Why this matters to both sides
Because a call out that finds nothing costs the owner money and costs the company a customer's confidence. Triaging properly is better business than attending everything.
Publish the container test
A container of pool water on a step, both levels marked, compared after a couple of days with the pump running normally. It separates evaporation from a leak and any owner can do it.
Explain evaporation honestly
That it varies enormously with weather, wind and cover use, and that a noticeable drop in a hot windy week is frequently normal. Owners have no reference point.
Ask about the cover
Whether one is used, how often and whether the pattern changed. Covers reduce evaporation substantially and a fortnight without one explains most reported losses.
Ask about usage
Swimmers, splashing, children, backwashing and anything that removes water without leaking. Backwashing in particular surprises owners.
Ask how much and how fast
Measured rather than described. A stated drop over a stated number of days is the only useful figure and owners give impressions instead.
Ask whether it changes with the pump
Losing water only when running, only when off, or both. It is the most diagnostically useful question and it narrows the cause immediately.
Ask what is wet
Ground around the pool, a plant room, damp patches or unexplained wet areas. It frequently locates the problem before anybody attends.
Explain the common causes
Fittings, the liner, pipework, the filtration equipment and the structure, and that each needs different investigation. Owners assume a crack in the shell, which is rarely the answer.
Explain what a detection visit involves
Methods, duration, what can be found and what cannot be guaranteed. Owners should know what they are buying, which is the same clarity as heater and pump fault enquiries from pool owners.
Publish the cost
For detection and for common repairs. Owners delay while imagining a catastrophic figure.
Say honestly when it is not urgent
A slow loss in high summer can wait for a proper test. Telling somebody that costs a visit and earns a customer, which is the honesty in hearing test booking questions from worried families applied to a different anxiety.
Explain what a genuine leak costs to put right
Owners avoid investigating because they imagine excavation and a ruined garden. Publishing what the common repairs actually involve, and that many are straightforward fittings work rather than structural, is what persuades somebody to find out rather than topping the pool up all summer.
Connect it to ongoing service
Because an owner with a maintenance arrangement would have caught it, as in pool maintenance plan questions owners ask first.
Answer the triage at any hour
Owners notice on a Sunday afternoon and worry all week, and a published test they can start that day is what they need, which is the quick start approach in a soft launch assistant on one page.
Getting started
Publish the container test and the triage questions, give honest guidance before attending and capture the details at any hour. SpideyChat for home services businesses answers from your published pages. Try SpideyChat on your own site, or read about capture on the features page.