Pool & Spa Marketing on a First Name Basis

Learning to work at The Get Smart Group is no small venture. I tell Scott (and all of our new employees) that I felt like I was riding on top of a flying rocket ship for the first six months. Weekly meetings with Ali helped me keep all of the pieces together and, eventually, everything started to click. I wish I could give clients a look at what goes on behind the scenes. It’s a lot like opening the back of a grandfather clock… there are lots (and lots) of moving parts and they all work together.

One hurdle new employees face at The Get Smart Group is connecting the dots to determine who we’re talking about on chat and in meetings. In Google Drive, folders are organized by business name. In Slack, channels are organized by business name. However, when we talk or chat with each other, we use client names.

Adam has a question about his eCommerce store.
Jim wants to set up texting for their sales team.
Rob wants us to pause ads because they can’t keep up with all of the leads.
Sara would like an Excel copy of the report.
Jeff needs to add a new salesperson to Infusionsoft.

To be honest, I hadn’t thought much about using client names until COVID-19. Government shutdowns forced business owners to change their plans… literally overnight (and sometimes hourly). Referring to each business owner, general manager, and salesperson by name helps us to really understand that these are real people who are impacted.

No Cookie-Cutters Here

We are not a cookie-cutter pool & spa marketing firm. There are no drag-and-drop templates here. Everything we create is unique for that particular client’s needs. Calling our clients by name makes that even more real… in good times and in challenging times.

Could we make our new employee training process more efficient by referring to everything as the business name? Probably. But increased efficiency isn’t our goal here.

Case and point. I have two options when I take my kids to school. I can take the highway, which means from my house to school is a 7-minute commute. Or, I can take the route that runs along the river. It doubles the amount of time it takes me to get from my house to school. However, along the river, we often see deer and a heron who looks like a cranky grandpa. My boys and I have made lots of great memories during the extra 7-minute drive. Had I been focused solely on efficiency, we wouldn’t have those.

Just Smart Cookies

New employees at The Get Smart Group come to us with marketing experience or experience in the pool & spa industry. Frankly, they are smart cookies! And to be frank, they have to be to keep up with our fast-paced environment. But I never want to be so fast-paced and efficiency-focused that we lose sight of what makes us different from the competition. All of us at The Get Smart Group love what we do, and who we get to do it for. And we’re happy to continue calling all of you (and our future clients) by their name.

Kristan Hart

As a little girl, I would sit down to dinner in the back of my family’s small business and watch the news while we ate. I would hear stories told by the newscasters, then I would grab my microphone (ahem, wooden spoon) and pretend to be the reporter on the scene. I’ve always been a storyteller with my eye set on working in television. I took my first writing job as a TV News Producer when I was 20 years old and was Executive Producer at age 22. As I finished college and discovered my passion for writing, I found a stage that’s much better than the local TV station: the Internet. My work was previously limited to TV and print, but the Internet meant I could tell stories across the globe. A lot has changed in the nearly 20 years since I took that first writing job: a punny husband, two active boys, and a move several states away. What hasn’t changed is my passion for writing. Through every transition, I’ve been able to continue writing (and get paid for it). I’ve written hundreds of thousands of words, and I still love it. My job at The Get Smart Group combines my passion for writing with the deep respect I have for business owners. I remember my parents working nights, weekends, and even holidays to make sure their business was a success. I’m thrilled to be part of a team that comes alongside business owners to provide what my parents didn’t have: support. Let me create error-free content for your website and social media so you can get back to what you do best: running your business.