Service has lived a charmed existence. While great forces have devastated other sectors of the pool and spa industry (and certainly the economy as a whole), pool and spa service has continued to provide a steady living for its workers in a tranquil setting, almost as if the industry itself were private property.
When the recession wiped out 90 percent of the pool construction market in Florida, service workers continued to maintain their properties. As retailers have fought the grim, ongoing struggle against internet and mass merchants, servicers have suffered only a glancing blow, sustained by their base rates for cleaning and water care.
And out in the wider economy, taxi drivers and travel agents and librarians tell a similar story of livelihoods ravaged by societal change in the internet age, but through it all, service has remained as peaceful as the grounds of a suburban home on Tuesday morning.
A large percentage of the service community remains to this day sole proprietors who run their own businesses, shape the outlines of each day and answer to nobody but the customer. In the world today, who else can say that?
This is not to diminish the challenges that go with the job. The SOI survey is packed with short stories and comments about crazy customers, cheating competitors and struggles with the physical demands of working outside under the hot sun. Service pros are bedeviled by ever-changing regulations and technology, and online retailers undercutting prices for equipment. Finding good workers to staff service companies these days is like hunting for Blackbeard's treasure.
Still, even with all that, these are good times in pool and spa service, and that is clear from the descriptions of individual days on the job last year. One guy did a great job on the equipment and was invited to the barbecue that night. Another saved a mom's pool party for her son — and brought the woman to tears. Another lady, on a particularly hot day, invited her service tech to go skinny-dipping in the pool he'd just cleaned. Few jobs provide such opportunities.
As far as the service sector economy, that also retains the health that has marked it for many years. Over 90 percent of you said you were doing at least ok, and three quarters said it was more like good or great. That stat speaks for itself.
