Comparing scheduling & route platforms for pool-service crews — real deployments, templates, and lessons learned

Pool-service operators: if your team has evaluated or switched to a field-scheduling + routing platform, please share what actually worked in the field. We’re looking for vendor-neutral, experience-based reports — concrete numbers, pain points, and the configs that made routes reliable. When you reply, please include as many of the items below as you can so other crews can compare apples-to-apples:

- Vendor & plan used (e.g., Housecall Pro Pro plan, Jobber, ServiceTitan, custom routing + CrewScheduler, etc.)
- Company size, number of techs/crews, service area (miles / zip radius)
- Which workflows the tool handles well (recurring weekly routes, seasonal open/close, automated customer reminders, tech mobile workflows: notes/photos/signatures)
- Inventory / chemical tracking and recurring billing: what’s supported, what’s still manual
- Before / after metrics (concrete): avg drive time per day, visits per tech per day, missed appointments per month, invoice turnaround time, billing collection %, route efficiency % or fuel/time saved
- Implementation timeline and resources (hours/days, internal vs. vendor support)
- Major stumbling blocks and how you solved them (recurring route drift, customers who change day every month, mapping inaccuracies, technician adoption)
- Integrations you needed and how they behaved (accounting, card payments, payroll, APIs, Zapier, QuickBooks, Stripe, etc.)
- Templates, route settings, dispatch rules, or CSV formats you copied or adapted (you can paste small examples or describe them)
- Training tips for techs and procedures for keeping recurring routes accurate (best cadence for route refreshes, who owns route edits)
- If possible, attach screenshots, exported route examples, before/after route maps, or short workflow clips

Please tag the vendor(s) you used and include the month/year you switched (to help account for recent product changes). Practical, measurable results and short, real-world tips are most useful. Thanks — looking to build a community resource of comparisons, migration checklists, and onboarding playbooks.