Why you should do a pool design meeting

For decades the pool industry preformed backyard consultations with clients. The pool was painted out in the grass and some flags were placed to represent the pool corners and concrete apron. In the early 2010's this became less important with the development of 3D design software but many pool installers continued to meet at the house. Why?

Most contractors worked out of their trucks and garages, didn't have an office to bring clients, thus making the on site meeting the only option. Clients viewed this onsite meeting as 'great service' and the installer used it to get 'IN' with the client, attempting to get the sale at that meeting. Though initially presented with a lower price, this price was just the starting point and the contractor would often use a practice known as change order contracting to bump the price once work began. Items that one would expect to be a part of a project like dirt hauling or water, were not included thus becoming a change order and extra. See OUR FIVE POINTS OF DIFFERENCE.

If the sale was not closed at the onsite meeting with a hand written quote, the contractor would leave for a week or more, do a sketch, type the quote with a promise to present back at the house. This would often lead the client to feel a sense of indebtedness to the contractor as he was creating a 'plan and estimate' and stop researching and developing their own project ideas. This process was time consuming involving multiple meetings, inaccurate hand sketches or block drawings, and 'estimating' that was still incomplete and loose on details.

In 2010 Luxury Pools and Living began the design center quoting model. This new process was created for efficiency and out of respect for our clients time. The main reason however was that it allowed us to do our design homework and create an actual and real design BEFORE we met with a family. After obtaining a site plan, aerial photos, real estate zoning, and a couple pictures of a backyard, our designers are able to create a complete and practical plan. In our process the work is done and ready to present to our clients all at once. We then spend our meeting time tweaking the space together which allows us to complete a detailed scope of work and an exact price all in one meeting. We are easily able to accomplish in about 90 minutes what used to take a couple meetings and 4-5 hours.

Meeting at the design studio is also MUCH more inclusive of a meeting. We have displays and demonstrations of pools, a variety of decorative concrete slabs, working fire features, awnings, and three huge displays we do your design work on and even a couple pools to look at. Doing true design and estimating on site simply is not that meaningful without all of those items.

It was hard at first to persuade clients to come into our design studio when literally every other pool company was happy to come right out when they received a call from a customer. Over the next five years however, other installers followed suit and most of the industry NATIONWIDE adopted our design studio model. We didn't set out to change the industry. We just put together a process that made sense and was transparent.

In the early 2020's this process began to change BACK to backyard selling and loose estimates. COVID increased pool demand and everyone from landscapers, to flooring contractors, to franchisees, all flooded the pool market as there was an increase in pool demand. The landscape contractors didn't / don't know any better and sold like they always had. Yet again most didn't have a place to bring clients for design work anyway. In 2024 we are still seeing a large number of pool contractors rush out to backyards and aggressively pursuing sales onsite.

To be clear, a site visit is an important part of the pool design and planning process. We absolutely do preform site inspections. Depending on the complexity of your site and our need to 'Feel' the space, the inspection might be before, or after our design presentation. It doesn't however need to involve you or take up your time, AND is often done by one of our production team members to account for construction variables.

If you are working with a contractor that has immediate availability and a willingness to come right out to your home, you should ask yourself, why? If they do not have a permanent place of business that you can visit and do business, again you should ask what that means.

We have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in our website and design studio. Added overhead to our business? Yes. Worth it? Yes. Over and over again. We provide our clients with more information than anyone else and we don't waste our time or yours. We are a value and efficiency focused company. We design and spend your budget the way we would a close family members money. We have applied the same focus on efficiency and value to our design and meeting process.

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