How to Increase Pool Attendance for Commercial Pools
When you’re the owner or manager of a commercial swimming pool, one of your main goals will naturally be to attract more customers to your facility. After all, more visitors means more income.
That may sound easier said than done, but there are a number of relatively straightforward steps you can take that can help.
Here are our six top tips for increasing attendance at your commercial pool.
How to get new visitors to your pool
1. Understand your target market
If you want to get more people visiting your pool, you need to market your business to your potential customers. But before you can start to do that, you need to understand what sort of people actually make up your target market.
What are the kinds of things that make them decide how to spend their leisure time? Are they looking to use your pool to get fit, have fun with friends and family, or encourage their younger children to get used to the water and learn to swim? What kinds of facilities are they likely to expect to make their visit more enjoyable or more rewarding?
Once you know what your potential customers are hoping for from you, it’s much easier to give them what they want!
2. Understand your competitors
Once you know what your customers are looking for, your next step is to examine similar businesses in the area to see how you fit in. But remember that you won’t just be competing with other commercial pools. For example, for those looking to get fit you’ll be competing with gyms, while for those looking for things to do with young children you could be competing with playgrounds and soft play centers.
When comparing your business to those chasing similar types of customers, you need to consider what you can offer that is different, what you can do better and whether your pricing policy is competitive with those other options. Things that set your business apart from others are known as your unique selling points (USPs) and should be considered an essential part of any marketing strategy.
3. Offer special events and discounts during quieter periods
Like many other businesses, swimming pools have periods when they’re busy (usually at the weekend) and other times when there’s hardly anybody there at all (usually weekdays, when many people are at work or school). Unfortunately, no matter how few people are there at any one time, you’re still having to pay for heating, lifeguards, and other ongoing costs.
Offering discounts on your prices during those times will hopefully tempt in people who otherwise might not think about visiting a commercial pool. It’s also worth thinking about putting together promotions and offers for the sort of people most likely to have spare time during those quieter periods – you could, for example, introduce ‘mother and baby’ classes on weekday mornings.
4. Introduce dedicated times for different groups
We’ve already mentioned the possibility of ‘mother and baby’ classes on weekdays, but the idea of having dedicated times for different kinds of users is one that could be spread more widely. For instance, those who want to do nothing more than swim lengths to boost their fitness levels can often find that family groups and youngsters learning to swim can get in their way and disrupt their rhythm. And the same is sure to be true the other way round too!
Special times for families, classes and those doing lengths will enable each of those groups to enjoy the pool in their own way, uninhibited by others using the water for different purposes.
5. Improve your facilities
Quite simply, the better the facilities you can offer, the more likely people are going to want to visit your pool. Local swimming pool builders and designers such as Burleson Pools can carry out upgrades and commercial pool renovations on older pools to bring them up to date and make them more attractive to potential users.
They’ll also be able to offer all kinds of enticing extras you can add to your pool, from atmospheric pool lighting to a range of fun water features such as bubble fountains and waterfalls. And don’t forget to add toys and inflatables for the youngsters to enjoy if you’re running dedicated times for family groups, while diving boards, slides, flumes, saunas, spas and hot tubs are all also likely to prove popular with a wide range of visitors.
Having an on-site restaurant or cafe can also help encourage visitors to make more of their visit – after all, swimming is a great way of working up an appetite! – as well as providing a welcome source of extra income.
6. Promote your business more imaginatively
Once you’ve understood your potential customers, worked out your USPs, devised promotions and identified groups of swimmers you can incentivize, you need to find effective ways of reaching those people and telling them about your business.
A good website including lots of pictures of your pool and facilities – plus clear details of any special deals, discounts, and dedicated times – is a must, but you should also be making full use of the many benefits that the different social media sites offer. Encourage users to leave feedback and share their experiences, while you could also run a blog like this one to provide insights into what goes on behind the scenes at your facility and give useful safety and fitness tips.
Burleson Pools has been helping commercial customers in and around Huntsville, AL, and Nashville, TN, with their pools for well over 50 years. From full-size Olympic pools to water parks and community pools, we’re your local experts in everything to do with commercial swimming pools.
Want to know more? Then get in touch with our friendly team of swimming pool professionals today!