Could health clubs follow the check-in methods used by cinema chains and airports (left), and move away from staffed reception areas?
“TRADITIONALLY, STANDALONE CLUBS USE PERSONAL SERVICE AS A WAY TO DIFFERENTIATE THEMSELVES”
in the entertainment industry and applied it to our sports and leisure management software products. Gedling Borough Council and Medway Council, for example, is currently installing self-service kiosks to complement the work of its reception staff, allowing customers who’ve pre- booked to register their attendance and collect their receipts without going to the reception desk.” This extent of automation is fantastic
for a busy leisure centre or cinema, but a standalone health club is unlikely to have the same footfall and, therefore, queue problems. It’s also unlikely to offer the same range of activities, requiring high levels of organisation, as a leisure or sports centre. A much lighter solution is therefore required.
customer expectations
But here’s the question: traditionally one of the ways in which a standalone health club differentiates itself from a
june 2010 © cybertrek 2010
much larger centre is in the level of personal service offered. This service starts at club reception. But at a staffing cost of £20,000 a year or more, and with the availability of automated check-ins, is the cost of service at reception providing good returns? As many health club professionals
already know, the traditional model of health club operation has changed. We no longer have a simple formula of
‘one size fi ts all’. Now there are ‘high service’ clubs and ‘low service’ clubs, and their respective pricing refl ects their service offering. It’s exactly the same as the comparison between traditional airlines and low-cost airlines. FitSpace is one of the new breed of
budget fi tness operators with eight clubs now running a very successful low-cost, low service formula. Kenny McAndrew, MD of FitSpace, sums up the company’s approach to customer service at check-in: “The expectation of the customer regarding a low-cost
business, whether it be a low-cost airline or low-cost health club, is not what it is for a full service business. Customers don’t expect waiter service in fast food restaurants. Customers don’t expect full service treatment and pampering with low-cost airlines. It’s the same for low-cost fi tness. “We have CCTV covering front desk
and we operate a fl oating staff who supervise our automated check-in and who are able to attend to customers at front desk if necessary. But we’ve deliberately designed our membership management technologies to be wholly automated, to save operational costs of a fully-attended front desk reception. It’s not dissimilar to the supervision available at Tesco or Asda over self- service tills. There are attendants available if necessary, but the primary transaction relationship here is between the customer and the machine.” FitSpace’s front desk member service automation, in which kiosks manage
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healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 49
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