Buzz Franchise Brands Bringing New Concepts To Phoenix Region

PHOENIX, AZ — The economic uncertainty around America at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 helped bring two new concepts into the Valley.

The concepts, in home cleaning company Home Clean Heroes and pool cleaning outfit Pool Scouts, are the brainchild of Virginia-based franchising company, Buzz Franchise Brands.

The pandemic led longtime healthcare industry CEO Dan Jones and collections industry veteran Chris Poorten to sign on with the company, bringing the two concepts to the Phoenix area.

Both plan on bringing their vast experience in business management to guide the concepts to instant success in the region.

"I plan on reaching my vision by using some of the skills that I acquired over the years in management," Poorten told Patch. "There's different sets of skills that you need, managing and measuring work, planning, problem-solving, that's from a managerial standpoint.

"But the growth is going to be important as I look to build my team from the ground up and show the people that I hire that I care about what we're doing and that I'm good at motivating others."

Motivating others comes naturally for Poorten, who has coached high school basketball at Paradise Valley and Highland high schools in the Phoenix area.

It's that experience that inspired Poorten to take on the task of building Buzz Franchise Brands' Home Clean Heroes concept in the Phoenix area.

He believes that the concept, which aims to provide personalized care and professional service in an industry that often is short on both aspects to his region, which is centered around the East Valley in particular.

"I'm going to allow [my employees] to have a work-life balance as we build up in the East Valley area," Poorten said. "There's so much growth here. It's so exciting that I've moved from the north Phoenix area to the East Valley, and I've seen how much building is going on here.

"So I'd like to use, not only my managerial skills, but my mentoring skills as well, to build this concept."

The ability to grow a brand from the ground up also attracted Jones, who previously served as a CEO for several hospitals in the southeast.

Jones will bring Buzz Franchise Brands' Pool Scouts service to the East Valley region, from Cave Creek to Tempe and east towards Fountain Hills, said he'd been waiting on the right franchising opportunity for more than a decade, before finding Buzz Franchise Brands.

He signed on to run Pool Scouts' first Arizona franchise in late March, after deciding he was ready to move on from the medical industry after a quarter-century of experience.

"For the last 25 years, I've been running hospitals and health systems across the U.S. for various different companies," Jones told Patch. "And as I look to the future, my wife and I have been talking about what's post-healthcare for me. Retirement's still a long way away, but I wanted to start getting into business ventures that would keep me challenged, but also look at augmenting my personal and professional interests."

It was that drive to stay involved that connected Jones with Buzz Franchise Brands CEO Kevin Wilson, who sold the former hospital CEO on the concept's immense potential in the arid U.S. Southwest.

Both Jones and Poorten plan on opening their franchises over the summer, with Jones expressing his eagerness to hit the ground running once Pool Scouts opens up shop.

"Customer service is at the heart of everything I do, so I want to make sure that we're driving both customer experience and customer service," Jones said. "But as I look to the future, ultimately, I want to be a household name across the metro area, and be known for quality service.

"There's a lot of opportunity here. It's a very fragmented market. So I want to roll it up and set the expectation for customer service across the marketplace around what professional service looks like, and what quality pool care look like in the Arizona marketplace."

It's that drive for perfection from both Jones and Poorten that caught Wilson's eye, giving him confidence that the pair of professionals were the perfect fit for the Buzz Franchise Brands family.

Wilson said that the company had long looked for a way to add the two concepts to their existing British Swim School locations in Chandler.

He said that moving into the Phoenix area was a no-brainer, once they got Poorten and Jones to sign on.

"We feel really fortunate," Wilson told Patch. "We've got two great operators that are launching probably around the same time. So it'll be really nice to see what happens out in Arizona."

Wilson said that Jones and the Pool Scouts brand in particular are a natural fit for the Phoenix area, given the plethora of pools in the region.

"Historically, the pool-cleaning business has been very unprofessional," Wilson said. "So, our whole business model is about engaging with customers and having a very professional experience.

"And we think it's a great business, both in year-round markets like Phoenix, as well as seasonal ones."

Both the house and pool cleaning businesses are ripe for the picking, in Poorten's opinion, with the longtime coach using a sports-centric analogy to break down the future he sees for his brand going forward.

"As a coach, I have a very specific game plan in front of me," Poorten said. "And right now I'm in the process of putting the best vendors together, so that everything goes off without a hitch when we kick this thing off in July."