Customer satisfaction in private and public fitness clubs in north of Iran

Survival of sport organizations in today’s competitive world depends on their customer’s satisfaction. The aim of this study was to determine customers’ satisfaction in private and public body building clubs in north of Iran. In this descriptive study a questionnaire was provided to all subjects to determine demographic characteristics and satisfaction factors. A total of 390 sample, 175 men and 215 women were selected. The x 2 , independent t-test, mann-whitney U test and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were performed for comparing groups. There was significant difference between the overall customer satisfaction in private and public body building clubs (p=0.001), and also significant difference existed between the customer satisfaction from equipment, fee, accessibility factors and staff quality. So that regarding these factors customer satisfaction in private body building clubs was higher than public body building clubs, but no significant difference was observed between customer satisfaction from health and social and training programs factor in private and public body building clubs. Also, no significant difference in satisfaction factors between men and women was observed. Men’s purpose and motivation to participate in the club were fitness and champion but the woman’s goal of participating in clubs was health, weight control, peace building and socialization and the differences was statistically significant.


INTRODUCTION
Serving the customer is the newest development for every institution, though the oldest one as well.The most secure way to survive and succeed is offering good quality services in order for customers to be reminded of the service (Seifali and Goudarzi 2009).One of the most important issues organizations are dealing with at present competitive conditions is to get informed about how much customers are satisfied and their views about performance of the organization, its products and services.
The capability of closely monitoring customers" satisfaction will prepare the ground for livening on in competition arenas and getting a more share of the market.Most of the organizations have developed ways to collect information about their customers" attitudes.To use a system which can attain a true numerical index of a customer satisfaction is of great importance.This is even more important for the service-providing organizations which provide their customers with intangible products (NourOlNesa et al., 2008).
Most sports organizations understand that they cannot keep customers satisfied for a long time on a luck basis.They have learned from sporting contribution the key to keep the sporting customers and to make benefit is continuous effort.A plan to accurately measure customers" satisfaction is a significant point to reveal so *Corresponding author.E-mail: salamat_neda34@yahoo.com.
An increase in marketing researches in industry especially in clubs and fitness salons results in more competent managers who get more familiar with the needs, preferences and motivations of the participating individuals in clubs, getting them more satisfied, attracting more people, hence the success of the sports organization and the increase in public health (Parks, 2003).Ehsani (2003) in his research titled "the analysis of preventive factors of physical activities' explained that one of the efficient factors for attracting more individuals, women in particular, toward fitness salons is to offer high quality services, and another one is to establish clubs in frequented and public centers.Kouzechian et al. (2009) concluded, in a research called "a study of efficient factors in the customers' satisfaction in public and private men fitness clubs across the city of Tehran', there was a significant difference between the customers" satisfaction in private and public fitness clubs the most important factors of which were the satisfaction with the quality of employees, equipment and the physical environment (Kouzechian et al., 2009).
Measuring customers" satisfaction in the context of health clubs in Portugal, Theodorakis (2004) suggested that women were less satisfied than men in terms of equipment / services and most of the educated people were the least satisfied with mental / social equipment.Deniz (2006) found, in his study entitled "investigating customer satisfaction with health care and fitness clubs in Turkey", satisfaction with society, (spiritual/mental) health, hygiene, equipment, physical environment and employees" treatment are the most influential factors leading to customers" satisfaction.Rodriguez and Guerrero (2008) in their study entitled "Tangibles as predictors of customer satisfaction in sports services" expressed that significant relationship was found between the different dimensions of service quality and customer satisfaction.Wan (2010) concluded that customer satisfaction and service quality are factors that directly relate to high customer loyalty.So, the aim of this study was to evaluate customer satisfaction of sport clubs in north of Iran.

METHODOLOGY
We conducted a descriptive study.The study population was the customers of private and public fitness clubs in north of Iran who had at least a 6-month background of physical activities.Cluster random sampling was used because of the nature of the population.Accordingly, of all the 24 private and 8 public clubs, 12 were selected randomly and proportionately.120 individuals from public and 270 from private clubs were selected as the participants.
It was a researcher made questionnaire including demographic characteristics (age, sex…), objectives and motivations of participating in club and satisfaction domains.The validity of the questionnaire has been confirmed by authorities and professors of physical education management field, for reliability estimation Cronbach alpha coefficient was used (α>90 was for each domain of satisfaction).
10 of 400 questionnaires were discarded because of failure to complete the questionnaire, so statistical analysis was done based on 390 questionnaires.A total of 390 sample, 175 men and 215 women were selected.Data were described as mean and standard deviation or frequency (%) as appropriate.The x 2 , independent ttest, mann-whitney U test and ANOVA were performed to compare groups, and for analyzing the data SPSS.V.16 were used.A р value <0.05 was considered significantly.
Total questions of satisfaction were 30, and overall score was between 30 to 150.The questionnaire included five domains: social satisfaction, health satisfaction, equipment and physical environment satisfaction, quality of employees" satisfaction, training program satisfaction and other services (fee and access to club) (Table 5).

RESULTS AND FINDINGS
In total, 390 individuals participated in the study.175 (44.87%) were men and 215 (55.12%) were women.Comparing the satisfaction in different demographical aspects, the education level of the individuals studied proved to have influenced total satisfaction.The academically educated individuals" satisfaction was significantly less than that of non-academic ones (p<0.001).The times clubs attended in a week were different in terms of total satisfaction of the individuals studied, so those who attended clubs 2 to 3 times a week were less satisfied (p=0.028).Table 1 represents the comparison of the individuals" satisfaction based on all the demographical characteristics.
The findings show that there was a significant difference between customers" satisfaction in private and public fitness clubs, and between satisfaction categories (equipment and physical environment, fee and access to clubs, and the quality of employees), but there were no significant difference between customers" satisfaction about social factors, health and training programs.The satisfaction in different categories for public and private clubs has been represented in Table 2.
According to Table 3, there was no difference between men and women satisfaction in any satisfaction categories.Men and women were only different in their motivation for participating in fitness clubs.Women"s motivation for health improvement, weight control, appeasing and socialization was stronger than the men"s, the difference of which has been statistically significant, while men are more motivated than women for gaining physical fitness and championship, which causes a statistically significant difference.Table 4 shows these motivations for men and women.
According to Figure 1, in private fitness clubs, about 65.2% of the customers had completed and 33.7% partial satisfaction, 1.1% being unsatisfied.Public fitness clubs provided 43.3% complete and 50.8 % partial satisfaction, with 5.8% of the customers unsatisfied.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
According to the findings, there is no significant relationship between the satisfaction with fitness clubs and the demographical characteristics (age, job, gender).This finding was consistent with GoharRostami"s ( 2007), but was different from that of Afthinos et al. (2006) who reported that there was a strong statistical relationship between age distribution and customers" expectations at private and public fitness centers in Greece, and the existence of 13 differences between men and women in terms of what they expected of the service quality.The possible reason why there is no relationship seems to be through differences of statistical populations, cultures, thoughts and beliefs; furthermore, the men in Iran were as careful about clubs" status as women, they wanted high quality services.Moreover, the job types of individuals including university students, the employed and unemployed, had no influence on their views and expectations.
In addition, there was a significant difference between the customers" satisfaction and their education.These results were consistent with those of Theodorakis ( 2004) who found that most of the educated individuals were the least satisfied.Because the education level is an important factor influencing their satisfaction or dissatisfaction, and the more educated individuals are more broad-minded and knowledgeable, as a consequence, they have higher expectations and the quality of the supplies and services is more important to them.
The results indicated that there was no significant statistical relationship between the satisfaction of customers participating in fitness clubs and different sports background.This does not correspond with that of GoharRostami ( 2007) who considered the differences in sports background as an influential factor affecting customers" satisfaction, concluding that individuals with more than 3 years of sports background were more satisfied than those with less sporting background.It is because of difference between populations.The relationship between the customers satisfaction with the club and the times they attended it per week was another finding, which was compatible with that of GoharRostami (2007) and Lamyuet (2009) who reported that most of those who participated regularly in physical activities more than 3 times a week were more interested, motivated and satisfied than those who did irregularly (once a week).The possible reason for such relationship is that individuals who were completely satisfied with their clubs prefer to attend 4 to 7 times a week otherwise they prefer not to make any attendance at all.Regarding the findings, the only significant statistical difference between men and women was in their aims and motivations for participating in fitness clubs.Men"s goals and motivations for participating in the clubs were physical fitness and championship, but women"s were health improvement, weight control, appeasing, and becoming sociable.These results correspond with those of Ehsani and Shamsipour (2005) and Lamyuet (2009) who discussed that the intention of most women to participate in clubs were keeping in shape and fit, and losing weight.The present study showed that the most important motivations for physical activity are health and fitness, respectively.This was consistent with Lamyuet"s (2009).It shows women are emotionally different from men; they are more sensitive about good looking, health care and fitness than men, they give great importance to themselves, and always look for a way to control and lose weight.Furthermore, they appreciate social relationships more than men do.In addition, it was found that the difference between customers" social satisfaction with public and private fitness clubs was not significant, that is, the public ones have the same influence on socialization and meeting new individuals as the private ones, and there were a friendly relationship and good social atmosphere in public clubs.The result is compatible with that of Kouzechian et al. (2009).Probably, it is because north of Iran is small in size and has an integrated people and culture.People have more peace in smaller towns, so they have better relationships and greater intimacy.
Additionally, the satisfaction with health care in private and public fitness clubs was not significantly different.This shows that satisfaction with health factors were something separate from the type of clubs, which is inconsistent with what Kouzechian (2009) concluded.It is because the role of public clubs in public health, appeasing and stress reduction is as important as that of private ones.
As the results show, there was no major statistical difference between satisfaction with equipment and physical environment in private and public clubs.Customers in private fitness clubs are more satisfied with equipment modernity, repairing and substituting them on time, temperature of training salon and changing rooms than customers in public clubs are.Therefore, more appropriate internal and physical environments, and more modern supplies and equipment should be provided for public clubs.This finding is compatible with that of Ehsani and Shamsipour (2005), Kouzechian et al. (2009) and Naderian et al. (2007), who deemed good quality equipment, standard modern supplies, and appropriate physical environments among influential factors in customers" satisfaction.The reason why this relation stands could be having no independence to determine the ends, prices, services, purchases, and to use new assets which lead to inefficiency of public agencies (Kabolizadeh, 2005).
We found that customers" satisfaction with public and private fitness clubs with the quality of employees was different statistically significant, that is, customers in public clubs are less satisfied with the way employees, managers and instructors treat them and instructors" role and instructions; in addition, the management and employees of public clubs are less careful about customers" personality and less consider their desires; in general, employees quality in a public club is less than it is in a private one.These results are consistent with those of Behlekeh et al. (2005), Naderian et al. (2007), Kouzechian et al. (2009), Seifali and Goudarzi (2009) and also with Frier (2000), Choi (2001), Deniz (2006), and Bodet (2006) who reported that employees" behavior quality, social interaction, care for needs and desires of the customers were among the important factors in customers" satisfaction.This relation exists because: there is no system which monitors managers" performance; there is no financial arrangement, social ends are replaced with economic ones; and there is no independence to employ and expel employees and to pay the roll and remuneration.All these are the factors which influence the efficiency of public agencies (Kabolizadeh, 2005).
Another result was that there was no significant relationship between customers" satisfaction and training programs in public and in private fitness clubs, that is, customers in both clubs held the same degree of satisfaction with clubs" training programs and their progress, so there were creativity and innovation in these programs, which did not correspond to what kouzehchian et al. ( 2009) concluded.Probably, it is due to specialized staff design and implements for exercise programs.Furthermore, there was a significant statistical difference between customers" satisfaction with other services (access, buffet, and fee) in both clubs.Customers in private clubs were more satisfied with fee and service provision like buffet, etc. and access to the club than those in public ones, which meant that public clubs did not offer good services in exchange for the fee they received, and it was difficult to gain access to them, because they were few in number.This was consistent With what Kouzehchian et al. (2009), Ehsani and et al. (2009) and Clubhaus Magazine (2002) concluded that easy access was one of the factors in customer attraction and satisfaction, and also with that of Behlekeh et al. (2005) and Naderian (2000) who suggested that the amount of fee was effective in attracting and satisfying the customers.What maintains this relation is that the private fitness clubs are 3 times as many as the public ones in here, so that customers" access to private fitness clubs is easier.Although amount of private clubs" fees in Iran are 3 times as much the public ones, customers are more satisfied with private clubs, because of their good quality services and easier access to them.These correspond to the results of Shamsaei et al. (2009), which indicated that it was easy access to a fitness club and good quality services rather than the fee received which had a more important role in attracting most of the customers.
Finally, with the fifth hypothesis tested, it was observed that the customers" total satisfaction was of significant difference in private and public clubs, which is consistent with that of Kouzechian et al. (2009) and Afthinos et al. (2006).
The most important factors causing the difference between private and public clubs are the satisfaction with equipment and physical environment, fee and access, and employees" quality, respectively, which resulted in customers' higher satisfaction with private clubs.Moreover, the satisfaction factors in men and women were not different at all.The only significant differences between males and females were their goals and motivations for participation at fitness clubs, which were physical fitness and championship in case of men, but health care, weight control, appeasing and socialization in case of women.
According to the findings, it became apparent that satisfaction level in private fitness clubs is by far more than that in public ones due to several reasons.Because of rivalry, its goals, profitability, and management issues, the private sector is very different from the public one.The government owns the public fitness club for which public interests is aimed, and profitability is not a priority.Consequently, competition and improvement of service quality are not important in these clubs.In contrast, the most important goals in a private fitness clubs are profitability and competition with other clubs, thus club managers put a lot of effort into attracting more customers and look for a way to enhance the quality of services and provide their customers with more satisfaction.

Figure 1 .
Figure 1.Comparison of total satisfaction percentage of customers with public and private clubs.

Table 1 .
Comparison of total satisfaction based on demographic characteristics.
Data are mean ± standard deviation.*Statistically significant.

Table 2 .
Comparison of satisfaction in different fields for public and private clubs.

Table 3 .
Comparison of satisfaction in different fields for male and female.
Data are mean ± standard deviation.

Table 4 .
Distribution of motivations participating in sport clubs for male and female.
Data are frequency and percent.*Statistically significant.

Table 5 .
Questionnaire of satisfaction filled by all participants.