Measuring Customer Satisfaction in the Context of Health Clubs in Portugal

Headnote

The present study aimed to test the satisfaction levels of customers of health clubs in Portugal, based on a sample of four hundred and twenty six (N=426) individuals, who were members of five private clubs in Braga, Portugal. The need-satisfaction scale (Alexandrie et al., 1999) was used to achieve the objectives of the study.

The principal component analysis of the need-satisfaction scale revealed five dimensions, which were labeled as follows: facilities / services, staff, relaxation, health / fitness, social / intellectual. All the sub-scales were shown to have good internal consistency reliabilities. The descriptive statistics indicated high mean scores for all the need-satisfaction dimensions. Demographic comparisons furthermore indicated that females were less satisfied than males in the facilities / services dimension, while the most educated individuals were the least satisfied both in the facilities / services and social / intellectual dimensions. The implications of these results are discussed.

INTRODUCTION

Meeting the demand for customer satisfaction is an important task for managers in the growing competitive environment of the fitness industry today. Research in the services marketing literature has shown that customer satisfaction is closely related with positive behavioral intentions and customer loyalty (Backman & Veldkamp, 1995; Baker & Crompton, 2000; Bloemer, Ko de Ruyter, & Wetzels, 1999; Zeithaml, Berry & Parasuraman, 1996). It is also an intervening variable, which mediates the relationship between perceived service quality and behavioral intentions (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2000). The issue of customer loyalty is an important one in the sport and fitness industry (Gerson, 1999; Sawyer & Smith, 1999). Dishman (2001) reported that about half of the individuals who start taking part in sports drop out within a short period of time. With reference to the fitness industry, Sawyer and Smith (1999) reported that the average facility in America loses 40% of its entire customer base each year.

The majority of the studies in the services marketing literature have treated satisfaction as uni-dimensional construct (Zeithaml & Bitner, 1999). However, in the leisure literature, Beard and Ragheb (1990) and Mannell (1999) suggested an alternative approach. They developed the construct of need-satisfaction, which is a multi-dimension approach, based on the motivation literature. Alexandris and Palialia (1999) adopted this approach and successfully developed and validated (Alexandris et al., 1999) a scale...