Fig 2 Percentage of members reporting frequent uplifts, and uplifts they fi nd enjoyable


Learning a new piece of equipment Updating an exercise programme Attending a new class


Completing a challenging workout Meeting friends


Fitness staff speaking to you Achieving fi tness goals


Reception staff speaking to you Encouragement from fi tness staff 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 Frequent uplift Very enjoyable 7


72 9


68


11 73


44 85


11 69


21 58


28 87


25 44


18 66


Fig 3 Cancellation rate by hassle frequency and annoyance


No locker available No parking space Toiletries run out


No towels available Cancelled class


Equipment broken down


Changing facilities not clean Fitness staff not speaking


Reception staff not speaking Queuing for equipment


Interaction with both reception and fitness staff is highly valued by most health club members


The most frequently occurring


uplifts are completing a challenging workout, achieving fi tness goals, and being spoken to by fi tness and reception staff. Achieving fi tness goals and completing a challenging workout were nearly always reported as enjoyable. Other enjoyable uplifts that were reported were attending a new class, learning a new piece of equipment and meeting friends. As with hassles, we can rank uplifts


in order of magnitude of benefi t by combining their reported frequency


with enjoyment level. The top fi ve are: ●


Completing a challenging workout ● Achieving fitness goals


● Fitness staff speaking to you ● Encouragement from fitness staff ● Reception staff speaking to you


September 2014 © Cybertrek 2014


20 21


26 20


22 20


26 20


17 22


16 23


17 22


31 18


27 19


34 19


0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 Cancellations per 1,000 members per month


Frequent and annoying Never


Future intent But do hassles and uplifts predict future cancellations? Figure 3 shows the cancellation rate (cancellations per 1,000 members per month) according to whether members say a particular hassle never happens to them, or if it happens frequently and is annoying. The highest cancellation rates are


seen among members who say they have to frequently queue for equipment and fi nd it annoying, and members who say fi tness staff frequently ignore them and they fi nd it annoying. Compared to members who say these two hassles never happen to them, the risk of cancelling increases by 80 per cent and 72 per cent respectively. Interestingly, members who say they frequently have to queue for equipment,


but who don’t say it’s annoying, do not have an increased risk of cancelling – queuing for equipment only increases the risk of cancelling if members say it happens frequently and it annoys them (7 per cent of members). However, the risk of cancelling is


increased if people report that fi tness staff don’t speak to them (28 per cent of members) irrespective of whether or not they fi nd this annoying. This suggests that fi tness staff frequently ignoring members has a bigger overall impact on retention than having to queue. The smaller number of members


reporting frequently being annoyed by queuing for equipment is primarily due to this hassle being restricted to younger males: just 6 per cent of middle-aged women report queuing for


Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital 43


PHOTO: WWW.SHUTTERSTOCK.COM


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