The REAL Reason Staying On Schedule Is Important.

Ever since we posted our West Cave wrap-up last month, we've gotten a lot of questions about the completion time for that project. Specifically, people are surprised by the build time. After all, seven weeks to build a pool of that caliber is a pretty quick turn-around. But at Ranch Road Pools, we offer 8 week build times as our standard - and we proudly stand behind it. If you read Reflections regularly, you know we take a lot of steps to mitigate delays wherever we can throughout the lifecycle of our projects. In this post, we'll talk about why.

First of all, staying on schedule is about way more than giving your customer a "splash date." Yet, most early schedule conversations tend to be centered around two things: clients are eager to utilize their new investment as soon as they can, while pool builders are happy to promise quicker completion times because it's good for cash flow and/or they can start another project quicker.

And that's not to say that these two factors aren't important. They're just not the most critical reasons to provide (and then execute on) a swift, on-time pool delivery.

The real reason staying on schedule is important is because it's incredibly stressful for anyone to live in a construction zone.

About halfway through a project, customer's question's inevitable change from "How much longer before I can swim?" to "How much longer before:

• I can let my dog in the backyard without getting dressed and taking him out on a leash?

• My children can go play outside safely?

• I don't have to explain the noise to my neighbors?

• My backyard is safely secured with a fence again?"

Every homeowner has to make these sacrifices to some extent when installing a pool, but if weeks turn into months, this can become a major disruption in the lives of our customers and their families. At Ranch Road Pools, we hang our hat on our customer service, and we understand how important it is to build a clean, concise schedule and then stick to it.

I once had a retired pool builder jokingly tell me, "The best way to stay true to schedule is simple. At the start of your customer's project, tear your own fence down and put a backhoe in your yard until you finish the project. Then you can wake up every morning and explain to your family why it's still there. I bet you don't go one day over schedule."

It's a humorous but powerful sentiment about understanding your customer's needs. And while there are always potential external delays that are out of our hands (permitting, etc.), we are passionately committed to doing exactly what we promise, from our first meeting to your first swim.

- Jeremy