The examination of fitness service satisfaction

Abstract

Perceptions of fitness service quality were studied among participants in three different fitness programs and/or clubs, including a university exercise clinic, a commercial health club, and a city wellness center. An instrument was designed to examine both the aspects of fitness services that consumers perceived to be important for their service experience, as well as their level of satisfaction for each of these fitness service items. Twenty-four of the 26 importance and satisfaction subscales utilized in this instrument were found to be statistically reliable and valid. All of the fitness service subscales studied received a mean score of 4.05 or higher, indicating that participants was generally satisfied with the services that they perceived to be important for their fitness service experience. Only four of the 17 fitness service subscales and items compared showed a significant and meaningful difference between importance mean ratings and satisfaction mean ratings. All four of the significant mean differences indicated significantly higher satisfaction scores over the importance scores, suggesting that the respondents were satisfied with the fitness services provided. The MANOVA results were significant for 11 importance subscales [Wilks [Lambda] = .61, F(22, 586) = 7.5, p <.05] and 11 satisfaction subscales [Wilks [Lambda] =.52, F(22, 586) = 10.35, p<.05]. Among the three locations sampled, the university exercise clinic respondents and the city wellness center respondents indicated many of the same importance and satisfaction ratings forthe various fitness aspects studied, while the community club respondents differed on many of these ratings.