Jerónimo García-Fernández

Client Profile of Spanish Fitness Centers: Segmentation by Loyalty and Characteristics of the Client

With the growth of the fitness sector, a concern for client loyalty emerges as managers recognize its importance. Loyalty is the client’s predisposition to select a preferred provider and the tendency to resist any persuasion from the competition (Crosby and Johnson, Marketing Management 13(4):12–13, 2004). In particular, loyalty could be assessed with objective and subjective measures. First is the keeping or repurchasing of sport services. In the case of subjective loyalty, it could be said client behavior intention or the recommendation to other possible clients. Based on these premises, the objective of this study was to examine the subjective and objective measures of loyalty toward private fitness center by sociodemographic and behavior variables. For this a questionnaire measuring longevity of membership and behavior intentions was administered to 2931 clients (1221 women and 1710 men) from 101 fitness centers in Spain. A descriptive analysis, factorial exploratory analysis, analysis of variance, and a two-way luster analysis were conducted. The principal results show five subgroups of client segments from the objective measure and two subgroups in the subjective measure. The results demonstrate significant differences in both subgroups with regard to behavior intentions but not according to membership longevity. This study suggests a difference in the subjective perception of the client and their behavior with regard to the purchase of service.

Customer 360° Method: Assessment of Customers in Fitness Centres

The efficient management of sports organisations requires a cycle of three stages. The first is an adequate planning of activities, human resources, events and all systems that can be planned in a coordinated way prior to implementation. The second is the implementation of proposed and planned actions. The third is the evaluation and analysis of the executed actions. Whilst in current sports management the first two stages are usually covered successfully, the third process is often ignored, so organisational health and success are limited. The Customer 360° Method (C360-M) guides and facilitates this process of analysis through four pillars: (a) evaluation of the variables required according to the type of customer, (b) creation of reports according to the type of customer, (c) analysis and identification of improvement possibilities by customer type and (d) implementation and follow-up of strategies designed for the improvement of each type of customer. The analysis includes the top five types of customers and processes: potential customers, external customers, internal customers, former customers, business customers and processes. Thus, for each type of customer, the C360-M examines different decision-making aspects for the organisation through validated and reliable instruments, so that at all times it is possible to evaluate what is really susceptible to improvement. This systematisation of the evaluation allows the manager to close the management cycle and the organisation to progress in the future planning and execution.