Customer service quality at commercial health and fitness centres

Abstract

Despite the interest in service quality, little research has been reported in South Africa on health and fitness service quality. The study adopted a conceptual framework for identifying factors that influence fitness service quality in commercial health and fitness centres in South Africa. A structured questionnaire containing 59 variables relating to health and fitness service quality was administered to 251 health and fitness centre patrons. A 39 item scale was finally developed using exploratory factor analysis to measure service quality along eight dimensions, namely, personnel, programming and medical, convenience and information dissemination, functionality and layout, ambience and accessibility, facility attraction, safety and support and membership. Reliability and validity of the scale was established. The human interaction dimensions (personnel) emerged as the most pertinent in health and fitness service quality evaluation. The results indicate differences in items perceived by patrons in measuring health and fitness service quality compared to those developed previously in sport and recreation studies. The implications for future research are outlined. South African Journal for Research in Sport, Physical Education and Recreation Vol. 28(2) 2006: 39-54