Customers’ expectations of service in Greek fitness centers: Gender, age, type of sport center, and motivation differences

This paper aims to identify the aspects of service delivery deemed most important by the users of Greek fitness centers and to examine whether their desires differ according to the type of fitness center they use as well as according to certain demographic and motivation patterns. The aspects of service delivery desired more by sports centers users refer to the tangible elements of the facilities, the personnel attitudes and abilities, attributes related to the cost of participation and items related to the programming and scheduling of services provided. The findings also suggest that significant differences of desires exist between males and females as well as between users of public and private sports centers. This paper is a useful source of information for fitness centers management to identify their customers' wants, take action to improve service delivery, and establish standards of performance to address the identified customers' needs.