Crystal Whittenton

Review of Aquatic Management Group

As a community manager responsible for 13 - 16 nei...

As a community manager responsible for 13 - 16 neighborhood associations (HOAs) per year, I worked with many pool companies for my 12 years in the industry. I worked with Aquatic Management Group since their inception in 2008. Shortly thereafter, they won over a Board I worked with and their Pool Committee and began servicing a large and difficult contract. By difficult, I mean that the clients were reasonable and friendly, but had extremely high expectations and demanded perfect results on equipment that had not been well-maintained by previous companies. AMG promised they would fit the bill and I watched, with the Board president's reminder in my ear: "You get what you inspect, not what you expect!"

Each time I checked behind them, the results were perfect. It was such a change from the constant micromanagement necessary with other companies. The Board, Pool Committee, and patrons were quickly won over. It is now 6 years later and the service has not declined in any way, and has improved as they've gained knowledge of the facility and as the returning staff has gained a sense of pride and ownership.

Overall, I worked with AMG on 6 community contracts, 3 of them large accounts with managers, multiple lifeguards, etc. and 3 of them maintenance-only. I experienced excellent service and results out of all, and I never received complaints from Board members (who are volunteers and who should not have to waste their time micromanaging paid vendors anyway). They also completed 3 mid-range renovation projects and I was impressed with their ability to work seamlessly with me. Solid communication, no surprises, and ownership of all aspects of the job, even the one-off things that popped up midway through. They took initiative and took care of things to ensure the pools ran smoothly. I was consistently impressed.

While I don't necessarily advocate for people to not have work/ life boundaries, I will say that when emergencies cropped up, I was always able to get one of the owners of the company on the phone no matter the day of the week or the time of day. If a storm or leak or power outage caused some crisis for my client, AMG was handling it for them (and therefore, for me as well). I appreciated that they made me more productive for my clients. By not wasting my time managing pools or micromanaging vendors who were not performing to promised and contracted standards, I could deliver my own duties at an even higher level as well. It was definitely a win-win-win.

I am no longer in the HOA industry, but I take time to write this review because while I was, the vendors who lived up to their promises were rare treasures. They kept us going and kept us productive. AMG fulfilled all of their promises and more to the very highest standards for 6 years and I am happy to share my experience regarding that publicly.