Clear Choice in the Press
An enzyme-based product is changing the way people treat their hot tub water.
Caring for hot tub water can be the biggest objection customers have during a sale. It’s confusing, smells bad, makes their skin itch, takes too much time — all negative assumptions retailers have to work through with their customers. And as people look for ways to decrease the impact they have on the environment, now a retailer must also be prepared to speak to how green their products are.
Enter Clear Choice. Using only natural enzymes, a few drops of Clear Choice keeps hot tub water safe for use.
“Enzymes are what bacteria excrete to break down its food source into small enough pieces that it can be assimilated,” says John Warberg, founder and creator of Clear Choice. “Enzymes control many, many things in life and there are different types, but the ones we deal with are active bio-oxidizing enzymes.”
The enzymes catalyze the natural oxidation and breakdown of bather loads without producing toxic byproducts (i.e. chloramines) as chlorine does. This facilitates the growth and activity of healthy bacteria. Warberg calls this process as competitive exclusion.
“That means that there’s a reason that a pristine body of water, that’s not polluted or not overrun with nutrient loads, is clean, healthy and sustains itself,” Warberg says. “It does that because it’s ruled by healthy bacteria. Even if a pathogen gets in there, healthy bacteria are much more aggressive and they’ll out compete them. So the bad [bacteria] can’t get established.”
Warberg says sometimes it’s hard to convince people that some bacteria is actually good for the water, but that resistance is waning since launching Clear Choice to the public in 1997, and as other industries adopt similar approaches to sanitization.
Warberg has worked on bioremediation projects across the country and for several industries, including food-processing plants, golf course ponds, and some Las Vegas casinos have hired him to clean up their swimming pools and fountains. Clear Choice came about when he decided to develop something he could use in his hot tub at home. After about a year of perfecting it, family and friends started asking if they could use it too.
If you’re surprised you haven’t heard about Clear Choice yet, don’t be. Since Warberg developed the product for himself, he’s been happy to let growth come organically by word of mouth. He’s picky about the dealers he’ll let sell it; since he gives them exclusive territories, he wants to make sure they’re as sold on Clear Choice as he is. When one of his dealers went out of business in Florida, Ed and Margaret Bell, who own Adventure Hot Tubs in Sarasota, Fla., started having people come in and ask them if they carried Clear Choice.
“We researched it and used it at home, and we really believe in it,” Margaret says. “It’s nice because there are no chemicals in our store and you really notice it when you walk in. A lot of people appreciate the health benefits of it, and the fact that it’s so easy and simple to use.”
Getting a hot tub set up on Clear Choice is a three-step process. First, you run Spa Prep through the tub, then drain the water. Next you add new water, which you run through the provided pre-filter, removing metals and minerals. Then you add the enzyme drops. “After you use the tub for the day you put in four drops,” Ed says. “And if you don’t use the tub, you don’t have to add anything.”
The Bells have had success with Clear Choice and are bona fide advocates, but Warberg knows some retailers might not be as enamored.
“The people who we converted to make our product the frontrunner in their retail stores, initially they were going to lose some income,” Warberg says. A four-ounce bottle of Clear Choice can easily last for a year, according to Warberg. Not only that, but while using Clear Choice customers won’t need to purchase extra chemicals because it’s a stand-alone natural product. Which all adds up to fewer dollars from chemical sales.
But, Warberg says, retailers eventually can get that revenue back, a hypothesis he has tested. When Clear Choice first came out, the company worked with retailers, who already kept good customer records, to track and measure their sales. What they found was typically only a small percentage of original customers remain loyal to a store for their chemicals. But, after doing specialized mailings about Clear Choice, stores were able to bring back a significant number of its customers as well as gain new ones.
A similar reason Warberg says retailers may not find Clear Choice is for them is because a tub’s components will hold up better when Clear Choice is used, cutting down on service calls. Great for customers, but not always great for a service department’s bottom line.
But, as Warberg points out, happy customers mean not only more Clear Choice sales, but also more hot tub sales as friends talk up their positive tub ownership experience to their friends.
“It’s almost revolutionary,” Margaret says. “You can tell we’re big on it.”
Spa Retailer: Inside the Hot Tub Industry 12th September 2011
