Store name: Buddy's Pool Service
Number of stores: 1
Specialty: pool service
Location: Cockeysville, MD
Established in: 1979

In 1979, Buddy Poe and his wife, Loretta, started a small business in the basement of their house in Cockeysville, Maryland, offering to open and close pools during swimming season and clean them regularly throughout. It didn’t take long for Buddy’s Pool Service to move out of the basement.

But despite the steady increase in size and number of services, Poe still took annual physical counts of his inventory and processed sales through written invoices. “We needed better inventory control and reporting. And we wanted to set up point-of-sale terminals,” says General Manager Terry Brown.

In 1997, Buddy’s Pool Service installed CounterPoint software. As a result, Brown not only has better control over the business, but he’s also seen an increase in profits. “For
the past five years, we’ve consistently seen between 5% and 10% annual growth,” he says. “Since we installed CounterPoint, we’ve experienced the same growth, and
we’ve seen a definite increase in profit.”

Buddy’s Pool Service takes full advantage of CounterPoint’s features. Brown uses CounterPoint’s Serial/Lot Number Tracking Option to track the parts he installs in new pools. In addition, he stores information about a customer’s pool in CounterPoint’s customer profiles, and mails out information about upcoming store promotions to his clients. He plans to use CounterPoint’s Customer Loyalty Program to reward his
customers for frequent shopping.

Brown especially likes the ability to barcode his merchandise. “The ability to print your own barcodes is very important, because about half of the items in this industry do not
come from the manufacturer already barcoded. In addition, the barcodes allow us to label items without putting a price on the item. We can then make price changes in the system.”

By taking the plunge and acquiring CounterPoint, Buddy’s Pool Service is growing its sales, profits, and business management skills, and is sure to run swimmingly for years.