interview
“We’ve always set out to have the friendliest facilities in town, and have worked hard to achieve that”
so we’re trying to approach it from a different perspective, asking some of the questions that haven’t always been asked.” Courteen continues: “We also
recognised that, with spas, understanding exactly what the customer does is absolutely critical. Our bespoke CRM system, BOOST, pulls information from our Gumnut spa management software and our website every 15 minutes, building a picture of what every single customer does. We know when they’ve visited, what treatments they had, what they bought, how much they spent, where they got the information about the offer from, and so on. “Customer care emails and follow-ups
can then be automated, with feedback either triggering automatic referral promotions when positive, or else being forwarded to regional managers to follow up if negative. We’re also able to mine the data to create targeted offers, filling time slots that are falling short of capacity and driving up revenue.”
community focus So back to The Shrewsbury Club, and Mosaic’s latest venture into owned facilities. Why this club in particular as its first acquisition? “We felt it had a loyal membership
base, a great staff team, development possibilities – it’s a big site with space for a spa, which we’ll develop this year – and was in a location that fitted our kind of demographics but that wasn’t right for bigger operators. All the core facilities
were there too – it just needed a bit of direction and some TLC. We’re spending £0.5m on bringing it back up to scratch.” The Shrewsbury Club is already a
rebrand from its former incarnation as The Welti Club, so why not relaunch under the Fitness Express or Imagine brand? “We just didn’t think that either brand really worked, in part due to the extensive tennis offering. It’s a satellite high performance centre for the LTA, running one of the more successful junior programmes in the country. More important still, we wanted to
recognise that this is a local club for local people – a part of the community. That’s what makes it unique, and we didn’t want to lose that. And the best way of getting that message across was to give it a name that reflected that. “We’re looking at how we work with
local schools, for example, and have made contact with local NHS teams to offer pre- and post-natal exercise programmes. We’re getting involved with the football club and hope to forge links with social services, creating a food bank where members will bring in food that’s distributed to local people who are in emergency need. We’re looking at partnering with local agencies to deliver courses in our club – parenting, marriage, drug-proofing your kids. “Our vision has always been to make a
difference to people’s lives, and through Fitness Express we’ve done charity work in Uganda. I think we’ll do something similar in Shrewsbury, but at a local level. We want to make the club something that the town is proud of in terms of what it gives back to the local community. He continues: “Budget clubs have done a great job, and that forces the
Mosaic is spending £0.5m on “TLC” for The Shrewsbury Club
34 Read Health Club Management online at
healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital
rest of us to question why they’ve been so successful. And the answer to that question, if we’re honest, is that a lot of the time the difference between what’s being offered elsewhere in the sector versus what’s being offered by the budget clubs isn’t enough to justify the price difference. Going back to coffee again, the premium charged by the likes of Starbucks proves that people don’t always want the cheapest option. “The biggest challenge and the biggest
opportunity in the fitness sector at the moment is segmentation. We have to look at how to create clubs that can charge a premium price – that have loyal raving fans who are prepared to pay more. “There’s bound to be the odd budget
club appear in Shrewsbury before too long. Our challenge is to make being a member of our club so worthwhile that people won’t want to give up paying £58 a month to go and pay £15 in a budget gym.”
talk is cheap So what are Courteen’s plans going forward? “Over the last 25 years, we’ve established a proven track record in running hotel-based health clubs and day spas, but at the moment the jury’s out on whether we can run our own clubs. “In five years’ time, first and foremost
I’d like to have demonstrated that we can do that successfully in terms of customer satisfaction, staff development and profitability. Funnily enough, I remember saying the same thing about spas seven years ago. “But talk is cheap. Plans are easy. What
I hope is that, if you were to interview me again in five years’ time, I’d be able to talk just as enthusiastically about all the things we have done, rather than all the things we hope to do.”
healthclub@leisuremedia.com kate cracknell
may 2012 © cybertrek 2012
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