A pool shop that gives advice outside opening hours

Two seasons, two kinds of questions

In February and March, people come about a project. Fibreglass shell or concrete? How long does the build take? What budget for an 8-metre pool? These visitors look at the window on a Sunday, as a family, and often leave without speaking to anyone.

In July, people come with a problem. The water is cloudy, the pH will not hold, the pump is making a new noise. On Saturday morning the queue at the counter grows while you explain for the fourth time the difference between a shock treatment and routine care.

Both groups ask questions you know the answers to. Kiosky gives them that answer, in your words, while you look after the customer who really needs you.

The pages to prepare for your pool and spa shop

The assistant only knows what you write. For a pool business, the useful content falls into a few kinds of pages.

• Building: your pool types and sizes, starting prices if you publish them, the build time you quote, what is included in the price and what is not.
• Services: spring opening, winterising, maintenance contracts, repairs, with your prices and the area you cover.
• Products: what you stock and what each product is for, as you would explain it at the counter.
• The shop: summer and winter opening hours, in-store water testing if you offer it, and what to bring.

Pool quotes: how the request reaches you

A visitor who wants to go further leaves their name and phone number or email. You receive every request each morning, with the question asked. Someone who asked "how far out do you work?" and then "how much for a 7 by 3 shell?" already has a project in mind.

Unanswered questions reach you too. If three people in a week ask whether you fit pool enclosures, that is a page to add. You create it from your phone.

Set-up takes one day. You send your documents, as a link or a file, and each page gets its QR code: one in the window for building projects, one near the chemicals aisle for water care, one on the display pool if you have one.

Which stand inside the shop

A QR code on a poster is enough to start, with just the licence at €1,190 excl. VAT a year per window. If you want a tablet that shows the service in the aisle, the recommended pack is the Arkon flexible clamp arm, at €1,190 excl. VAT for the first year, with the arm free. It clamps onto a shelf or a display unit, with no drilling, right where customers look for their products.

To put the tablet up against the glass, the MacLocks Swing wall mount, at €1,490 excl. VAT for the first year, holds it on an articulated arm fixed to the wall. The tablet is not supplied and the stand is yours to keep. After that, only the licence renews.

The limits: water has to be tested

The assistant cannot see the customer's pool. It does not replace a water test and does not diagnose a pump or a filter. For chemicals, it repeats what you have written and never improvises a dose: one more reason to write your instructions with care.

It takes no orders, takes no payment and sets no build date. It answers, it points people the right way, and it hands over to you.

Finally, it only knows your pages. If you change chemical supplier or your winterising prices go up, the page has to follow, or the customer will hear the old price.