Service Perceptions in Fitness Centers: IPA Approach by Gender and Age

Abstract

Background: The number of fitness practitioners has increased in the last decades. A deeper understanding of user perceptions is required for better service design. Methods: An importance-performance analysis (IPA) and correlational analysis were performed on a sample of 414 members (173 women and 241 men) with a mean age of 32.33 years (SD = 11.50) and recruited from 25 fitness centers of Community of Madrid, Spain. Results: The results show that women’s levels of importance and performance are higher than men in most of the service attributes. Women also correlate with a higher priority than men in core elements of the service, such as the variety and number of activities, personal training and fitness service quality. Female members feel more attracted by services like swimming pools and other peripheral services, like a welcome pack and medical or physiotherapist service. According to age, older members feel less satisfied than young users with the cleanliness of activity spaces and with the safety of lockers. Conclusions: Differences in perceptions by age and gender were identified among members of fitness centers. These results should be considered by private and public organizations to provide the best practices and tailored services for engaging more people in physical activity.

Best Practices for Fitness Center Business Sustainability: A Qualitative Vision

“…This is not considered an essential area in fitness centers, since the profile of customer usually seeks more specific facilities. This finding also shows consistency with previous quantitative literature [15].…”

“…In this regard, specific segments of fitness customers have previously been identified according to their exercise motives [13] and sociodemographic characteristics [14]. Additionally, differences in service perception according to gender and age have been established in previous research [15].…”

Walkability and Fitness Center Prices, Opening Hours, and Extra Services: The Case of Madrid, Spain

“…Especially for fitness centers with a low-cost model, service convenience (where walkability would be integrated) is tightly related to user perceived quality, user satisfaction, and client loyalty [39]. In fact, regarding fitness centers and their locations, previous studies have shown that clients are willing to commit to even a 30 min commute time to the facility if the perceived quality is better [39], while a 15 min commute time positively influences the client's adherence to the center, leading to the client's involvement in a longer membership and longer member continuity [37,40,41]. This is especially important for increasing levels of physical activity and, subsequently, impacts citizens' health.…”

“…It has been shown that a swimming pool is not considered essential, but influential and attractive for customers at the moment of gym enrolment, even if swimming pool use rates are low [37]. However, the swimming pool is not always a profitable space, especially for fitness centers whose main focus is not related to aquatic activities [40]; therefore, gyms located in better locations (i.e., with a more expensive rental or surface fee) prefer not to dedicate a big surface area to these aquatic services.…”

Importance-Performance Matrix Analysis (IPMA) to Evaluate Servicescape Fitness Consumer by Gender and Age

“…Therefore, if the consumer perceives the aspects of servicescape as positive, they will have a greater chance of being a loyal customer [ 10 ]. In turn, gender or age could be presented as determining variables in the perception of the different aspects that make up the servicescape, due to their differences in the perception of sports services [ 11 , 12 ].…”