"Adam Beech has always loved tech, so in 2006 when he started his pool service company, Pool Agency, he integrated as much technology as he could. Beech says he invested heavily in a good website, Google Ad Words campaigns and review sites.
In 2008, he switched all his customers to autopay with paperless billing. The following year, he implemented one of the first software platforms in existence with a mobile dispatch app. “At first, these tech adoptions propelled Pool Agency quickly,” he says. “We had almost 20 trucks on the road by 2014.”
But, he says, the pool service company still had unsolved issues: The long process to train new technicians; pools inexplicably turning green; customers who insisted some service tasks hadn’t been completed; the difficulty in tracking chemical expenses and thus profits — these were all problems Beech was facing.
Testing pay-incentive programs, hiring more supervisors, scheduling follow-up inspections, longer trainings and more all turned out to be futile.
“I realized the reason tech couldn’t solve the problems we had was because the tech we needed didn’t exist,” Beech says. “So we built it.”