Authors: Eirini Peitzika, Dimitra Kissa

Title: Service quality expectations for different groups of users in fitness centers industry

Abstract

Service quality expectations are well acknowledged to affect customer’s purchase evaluation process of services and consequently levels of customer satisfaction. Therefore, the identification of customers’ desirable levels of service quality and the management of these expectations by delivering the appropriate service quality levels are considered very important for service industries.

The main objective of this study was to investigate the most important dimensions of service quality among users of fitness centers’ services and to examine whether there are variations in customer’s service quality expectations of an excellent or superior fitness center, based on demographic variables such as age, gender, educational level, income, and additional factors such as type of fitness center, type of membership and customer’s incentive regarding the use of fitness center’s services.

Using a sample of 216 users of fitness centers’ services in Greece, we collect data through a structured online questionnaire. The results reveal that the most important quality dimension of users’ expectations is Assurance, while the least important dimension is Tangibles. T-tests and analyses of variance also suggest that there are significantly important differences regarding service quality expectations among different demographic groups of fitness centers’ users. Also, groups of customers selecting different types of fitness centers and with different incentives hold different expectations.

This paper provides useful managerial implications for service marketers and fitness centers’ managers regarding resource allocation decisions, as well as the development and implementation of marketing and segmentation strategies. Lastly, directions for further research will be discussed.

Keywords: customer service quality, expectations, fitness centers

JEL classification codes: M31, L83