Prepare yourself for the year ahead with insights on pricing, priorities, and challenges from 25,000+ pool pros.

This report will give you the information you need to understand the pool service landscape and crush your goals this year. The report draws on insights from a large pool of data, including input from over 25,000 users across numerous zip codes, 1700+ survey respondents, and market research to bring you information on:

Challenges for 2024 and how to anticipate and overcome industry hurdles with foresight.

What growth levers you can use to weather increasing costs.

Marketing strategies to elevate your brand.

Pricing data, trends, and benchmarks in pricing strategies.

Labor trends and information on how to attract and retain great employees.

Insights into software use and the increase in cashless payments.

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Want more information? Read the executive summary.

1. 2024 is set to be a challenging year— with rising costs decreasing margins in the industry

73% of survey respondents said they brought in more revenue in 2023 than they did in 2022. However, the majority also indicated that rising costs were the biggest challenge they faced this past year and they expect this to continue into 2024.
‍A vast majority of companies are planning to combat rising costs by increasing prices– nearly 74% of pool pros indicated that a price increase is in the cards for this year to keep revenue strong.

2. Pool pros who can think strategically about pricing and business models will win in 2024

Understanding how to leverage the four most common pricing models (per stop, per month, plus chems and including chems) to remain competitive and profitable will mean the difference between sinking and swimming in 2024.

3. Pool pros are split on which growth levers will be most impactful in 2024

Growing net profits and increasing gross revenue are in a dead heat as top priorities for 2024. The main strategies pool pros are leveraging to achieve these goals break down pretty evenly across expanding into other lines of business, reducing customer count and increasing profitability per pool, streamlining services, increasing marketing budget and acquiring routes.

4. 2024 will bring a challenging labor market, with high competition for talent

Despite finding and keeping talent being the second biggest challenge facing pool pros, 52% of survey respondents say they plan to hire in 2024. 47% said they plan to keep their staff the same size, and less than 1% of respondents said they are planning to reduce their number of full-time employees.

Owners will need to focus on retention strategies to keep employees happy in a competitive labor market.

5. There is a huge untapped opportunity for pool pros in paid marketing

Pool pros heavily favor free and word-of-mouth marketing channels, with referrals and social media dominating and referrals taking the top spot for effectiveness, according to pros.

Only 35% of survey respondents said they are currently paying for advertising, meaning there’s a big opportunity here for pool pros to get ahead of the competition and own the online space in their area.

6. Operations are becoming increasingly digital, and pool pros who evolve are reaping the benefits

Everything from basic business operations to collecting payments to purchasing supplies is going online. 75% of survey respondents reported that they are using software to manage some part of their business. In addition, in 2023 only 2% of transactions were done via cash indicating a big shift toward non-cash payments. Finally, more than half of survey respondents said that increased costs and decreased availability in physical stores have led them to start buying supplies online.