---
title: "Pool & Spa News: Pool Scouts Leader Learns Important Lessons from Early Stages of Professional Career"
url: https://burnaze.com/article/00d9faab-4758-4024-9013-2058daf16eec
source: "1851 Franchise"
original_url: https://1851franchise.com/poolscouts/pool-spa-news-pool-scouts-leader-learns-important-lessons-from-early-stages-of-professional-career-2704748
category: "Fitness"
industry: "Fitness"
published: 2017-11-02T16:11:00.000Z
modified: 2026-11-01T02:32:23.354Z
image: https://newimage.1851franchise.com/cdn-cgi/image/quality=85,format=webp,width=1280,height=720/story/featureImage/6f5157a4c36c4e8eb9431cfb483f708e4748.jpg
---

# Pool & Spa News: Pool Scouts Leader Learns Important Lessons from Early Stages of Professional Career

**TL;DR:** Michael Wagner, President of Pool Scouts, learned the importance of customer service from his early job as a busboy at China Harbor Restaurants. He now trains Pool Scouts technicians to provide exceptional service, including extra touches like bringing in newspapers and cleaning pool areas.

*originally published in 1851 Franchise on 2017-11-02. [Read the original](https://1851franchise.com/poolscouts/pool-spa-news-pool-scouts-leader-learns-important-lessons-from-early-stages-of-professional-career-2704748).*

## Story

As a 15-year-old, Michael Wagner began working at China Harbor Restaurants as a busboy on weekends and during the busy summer months. The minimum wage job paid just $2.12 per hour, so Wagner relied primarily on providing superior customer service in order to get higher tips.

This job taught Wagner a valuable lesson on the vital role customer service plays in the success of a business, carrying this through with him through a number of other positions including valet, bellman and ultimately, President of Pool Scouts.

"It’s those little things that make such a big difference in my business life today," Wagner said in an interview with Pool & Spa News. "Pool Scouts service technicians don’t just clean customers’ pools. They bring in their newspapers and put them on the porch. We clean off their decks and pool areas, we put away the kids’ pool toys in the backyard, we bring in their trash cans from the street."

By training technicians using the tactics that he's learned throughout years of customer service experience, Wagner has helped Pool Scouts' gain an unparalleled level of respect and trust from their customers.

"When customers come home and find a clean, swim-ready pool that they can immediately dive into, it means that they have one less thing on their plates to deal with and that generally makes them very happy," said Wagner to reporter Dana Robinson. "But when they find that the little extras have been done as well, that makes them even happier."

## Entities

- 1851 Franchise (publication)
- Fitness (sector)
- customer service (topic)
- Pool Scouts (company)
- Michael Wagner (person)
- pool maintenance (topic)
- business success (topic)

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Originally reported by 1851 Franchise (https://1851franchise.com/poolscouts/pool-spa-news-pool-scouts-leader-learns-important-lessons-from-early-stages-of-professional-career-2704748). Summarized by Burnaze (https://burnaze.com/article/00d9faab-4758-4024-9013-2058daf16eec).