It’s safe to say that almost every pool builder builds spas or sells portable hot tubs. And with swimming pools offering bigger profits, it’s easy for spas to be forgotten.
That’s what was happening to Seasonal World in Clarksburg, N.J., until two years ago when the company decided it was time for a change.
“We sat down and said, ‘If we are going to do this, let’s make a conscious effort on it,’” says Anthony Schiavone, senior vice president of operations at Seasonal World. “So we went out and hired the right sales people, a sales manager and [started to] build [spa sales] with a good brand as well. We incorporated a lot of proven tactics that work in other areas of the business.”
Schiavone’s father, Tony Schiavone, founded Seasonal World in 1980 and continues to run the business.
Along with Anthony, Tony’s sons Christopher and Mark, as well as his wife, Bea, work in the business.
Besides selling pools and spas, Seasonal World also converts its showroom into a Halloween and Christmas superstore.
Schiavone says revamping the spa department meant a more focused approach on customers.
“I think we really try to understand the buyer,” he says. “Try to educate them on the process as well as offer design consultations with the spa. We offer free home consultations on spas trying to build that complete spa-scape. So, we made a real push to streamline our processes, making sure that we are truly understanding the client’s needs and not just trying to find something in their price point.”
Another relatively new avenue for the company is its online presence. When asked about their best form of advertising, Schiavone says, “Most recently we’ve had great success with Facebook; we have 1,800 followers now. That has always been good for interesting promotions to help drive traffic into the store. We have a large email database that we keep our customers informed of legitimate offers and updates. Those work well.”
Schiavone says it took some testing to figure out the best way to leverage social media to their advantage, but he feels they are on the right track.
“We review the nature of the post, the promotions that we are offering, and the content regularly just to make sure that the page is not stagnant and talking about nonsense,” he says. “We try to make sure that whatever we are offering to the community is varied, makes sense and is relevant. We also try and reward those people who are our longtime followers with various promotions or Facebook-only events like extended hours at certain times of the year. One thing we’ve noticed is that we’ve been able to maintain our ‘like’ count as opposed to it really fluctuating. So once we acquire a ‘like’ or fan, we tend to stay in it for quite some time.”
However, like almost every retailer interviewed for Stars over the years, the majority of business still comes from referrals.
“Our greatest lead source, our greatest conversion of sales I am seeing, is that first- or second-hand referral. That is really just a matter of taking good care of the people who do refer you and taking care of any new and existing clientele,” Schiavone says.