Consult staff over new schedules, but realise you can’t please everyone
Colleagues must be made aware of this: sites can come a cropper if the ‘journey’ to a scheduled session is stressful.
Taking the plunge The pool is the hub of many leisure sites, with family splash, fitness sessions and water sports all popular pastimes. A large pool can be cleverly divided
so fitness lanes are open alongside other sessions such as aqua aerobics. A rule of thumb is to offer at least three lanes for fitness swimming to allow for slow, medium and fast swimmers and avoid frustrations of customers sharing lanes. Ladies-only swimming is increasingly
popular, but pay attention to the detail. Where possible, Everyone Active has female lifeguards at ladies-only swim sessions: it can be a scheduling headache, but it pays for itself. I recently heard about two local pools, one of which was far nicer in terms of cleanliness and modern facilities. The pools had a women-only session at the same time, but the less pleasant pool promised female lifeguards and it was their queue that went out of the door. This just goes to show the customer experience is a complex one – the devil is in the detail.
Every minute matters Every minute spent rearranging space is a minute wasted. When scheduling, look to minimise changeover time between studio classes as well as in the sports
September 2014 © Cybertrek 2014
Where possible, Everyone Active has female
lifeguards at ladies-only swim sessions: it can be a scheduling headache but it pays for itself
hall, where you should aim for one set-up and one pull-down per evening. Group blocking works well, such
as dedicating whole evenings to just one or two sports – Monday night for badminton, Tuesday for basketball and so on. That way you don’t find yourself setting up a badminton court for an hour before having to change it to accommodate a team game, before changing it back again for a later badminton booking. Customers will set a ‘night’ for their activity each week – you can do the same on the schedule. If you’re still not sure, consider that
sinking feeling when just one of four badminton courts is occupied and a five- a-side football team turns up. You have 25 per cent utilisation in the hall as you turn away 10 customers…
Beware the quiet times Being too busy is not the only thing that keeps schedulers awake at nights: under- utilised space and resources also cause concern. Quiet times are inevitable, but
In the sports hall, aim for only one set-up and one pull-down per evening
Read Health Club Management online at
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