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The impact of perceived service provider
empathy on customer loyalty: some
observations from the health and fitness
sector
Ebi Marandi
a
& John Harris
b
a
Bristol Business School , University of the West of England , Bristol, UK
b
School of Foundations, Leadership and Administration , Kent State
University , Kent, OH, 44242, USA
Published online: 28 May 2010.
To cite this article: Ebi Marandi & John Harris (2010) The impact of perceived service provider empathy on
customer loyalty: some observations from the health and fitness sector, Managing Leisure, 15:3, 214-227,
DOI: 10.1080/13606719.2010.483832
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13606719.2010.483832
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The impact of perceived service provider
empathy on customer loyalty: some observations
from the health and tness sector
Ebi Marandi
1
and John Harris
2
1
Bristol Business School, University of the West of England, Bristol, UK;
2
School of
Foundations, Leadership and Administration, Kent State University, Kent, OH 44242, USA
The leisure product is often dependent on the person delivering the service. The research presented
here sought to better understand howimportant the empathy component is in that personal delivery
of a service. Health and tness clubs, faced by high rates of customer attrition, traditionally promote
themselves on the basis of either price or facilities, but are these two tools the only ones that the mar-
keting of the clubs should be limited to? For this study, the impact of service provider empathy, as
perceived by health and tness club members, was examined in an attempt to better understand the
impact of the concept on customer loyalty. The ndings indicate that for those with a lowlevel of self-
responsibility for getting the most out of the service experience, those without previous experience
of gyms and those with heightened self-consciousness, empathy is an important factor impacting
upon their anxiety levels as well as on their loyalty to a club.
Keywords: empathy, loyalty, gym, service quality
INTRODUCTION
Health and tness clubs fall clearly within
the service sector and it is mainly within
the services context that the concept of
empathy is discussed in marketing. Torkild-
sen (1992) pointed out that the leisure
product is indeed an enigma: changing,
intangible, perishable, fragile and, in many
instances, dependent on the person deliver-
ing the service. The research presented
here sought to better understand howimpor-
tant the empathy component is in that per-
sonal delivery of a service. Services are
inherently relational and perceived relation-
ships are often a central part of loyalty
(Gronroos, 2000). Additionally, empathy
has been purported to be a crucial element
in all helping situations (Reynolds, 2000)
and arguably many who visit health and
tness clubs need help from the customer-
facing staff. It is natural that relationships
should be thought of as central in the
development of marketing models and con-
cepts to be used in service contexts. The
most inuential element in the service
experience is the relationship between the
service provider and the consumer (Kolesar
and Galbraith, 2000).
The role of empathy in this relationship,
whether short-term or ongoing, is dealt
with mainly in the services marketing litera-
ture as part of the service quality dimen-
sions. The notion of service quality has
been widely recognized since the 1970s in
service industries (Gronroos, 2000) and
frequently studied in the services marketing
literature (Kang and James, 2004). The com-
petitive advantage of a rm depends on the
Managing Leisure ISSN 1360-6719 print/ISSN 1466-450X online #2010 Taylor & Francis
http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
DOI: 10.1080/13606719.2010.483832
Managing Leisure 15, 214227 (July 2010)
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quality and value of its goods and services
(Gronroos, 2000). Service quality has been
positioned as the major driving force for
business sustainability (Carlzon, 1987) and
a critical determinant of competitive advan-
tage (Lovelock, 2000).
It is generally agreed that service quality is
difcult to measure objectively because of
the service characteristics of intangibility,
heterogeneity and inseparability (Zaho
et al., 2002). The prevailing approach in the
literature, however, is to apply the concept
of disconrmation of customer expectations
(Oliver, 1980). That is, the notion that custo-
mer satisfaction/dissatisfaction occurs as a
result of a customer comparing the service
experienced with the service expected. A
positive disconrmation is assumed to
result in customer satisfaction, while a nega-
tive disconrmation leads to dissatisfaction.
Hence, arguably the primary objective of
service providers is to improve service
quality in order to meet or even exceed
customer expectations.
It is generally regarded that service
quality is a multi-dimensional construct
(Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Gronroos, 1990;
Parasuraman et al., 1988, 1991). SERVQUAL
(Parasuraman et al., 1988), possibly the
most often used tool for measuring service
quality, has ve dimensions: reliability,
responsiveness, assurance, empathy and
tangibles. There is, however, a body of evi-
dence that the number, nature and weighting
of the dimensions differ between industries
and that measurement instruments should
be specically tailored to the industry in
question (Buttle, 1996; Carman, 1990; Robin-
son, 1999). Scholars writing in the sport
and leisure management literature have
made similar observations noting that there
needs to be a greater focus on people
rather than process (Alexandris et al., 2004;
Lentell, 2000).
While the number of dimensions of service
quality, and whether these dimensions are
generally applicable or situation specic,
has attracted much debate, the nature of
the dimensions has not attracted adequate
attention. In particular, within the services
marketing literature, there is scant debate
about the nature of the empathy dimension
of service quality. Particular attention
needs to be paid to the meaning of
empathy; how this dimension can be opera-
tionalized and measured, and how it
impacts upon customer satisfaction and
loyalty. One of the primary goals of service
marketers is to maximize consumers per-
ceptions of the service encounter and the
rm-consumer relationship (Hamer, 2006).
A typical discussion of the concept of
empathy within the marketing literature
asserts that empathy refers to the caring,
individualized attention the rm provides
its customers (Zeithaml and Bitner, 1996).
This is often interpreted simplistically and
somewhat vaguely. Lovelock (2000), for
example, points out easy access, good
communications and customer understand-
ing as manifestations of service provider
empathy. How does one understand the cus-
tomer? What are the processes involved in
understanding, and communicating with,
the customer? For a deeper understanding,
and a more operational denition of
empathy, one needs to look elsewhere and
the nursing and other caring sciences litera-
ture arguably provides a much more detailed
discussion.
According to Rogers (1975), empathy
involves the empathizer entering the
private perceptual world of the other and
becoming thoroughly at home in it, noting
that
To be with another in this way means that for
the time being you lay aside the views and
values you hold for yourself in order to
enter anothers world without prejudice. In
some sense it means that you lay aside your-
self (Rogers, 1975, p. 4).
Similarly, it has been suggested that
empathy involves a psychic transposition
Impact of perceived service provider empathy on customer loyalty 215
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in which the empathizer temporarily leaves
his/her own subjectivity, as it were, and
enters that of the other (Levasseur and
Vance, 1993).
Clearly, empathy is a complex and multifa-
ceted construct (Irving and Dickson, 2004).
In order to gain a better understanding of
the process of empathy, Morse et al. (1992)
proposed a model with four components:
emotive, moral, cognitive and behavioural.
The emotive component relates to the
ability to subjectively experience and share
in anothers psychological state or intrinsic
feelings. The moral component is an altruis-
tic force that motivates the practice of
empathy. The cognitive component is
based on the helpers intellectual ability to
objectively identify and comprehend
anothers feelings and perspectives. The
fourth component, termed behavioural,
refers to communication by the empathizer
to convey his or her understanding of
anothers perspective and making sure that
understanding is correct.
The extent to which the identied com-
ponents are interrelated or necessary is not
universally agreed upon. These components,
nevertheless, seem to describe the process
of empathizing clearly and in a holistic way.
Morse et al.s (1992) model of empathy,
based on a meta-analysis of the literature,
brings together two different strands of
thought (that empathy is basically an
emotional construct or empathy is a cogni-
tive construct). This model considers
empathy as a communication process that
can be taught and is hence of potential use
to managers of service industries. Morse
et al.s (1992) model was used as the basis
of the primary research in this study. The
denition of empathy adopted for this
study is as follows:
Empathy signies a central focus and feeling
with and in the clients world. It involves
accurate perception of the clients world
by the helper, communication of this under-
standing to the client, and the clients
perception of the helpers understanding
(La Monica, 1981, p. 398).
Although there has been much research
exploring service quality in the sport and
leisure management literature (Alexandris
et al., 2004; Chelladurai and Chang, 2000;
Howat et al., 1996; Ko and Pastore, 2004;
Lam, 2004; Lentell, 2000), there has been
little research focusing specically on
empathy. Before proceeding to consider the
research ndings, it is important to briey
outline the context for this work and begin
to position it within and around previously
published work in the sport and leisure man-
agement literature.
RATIONALE: EMPATHY AND LEISURE
MANAGEMENT
The research presented here considers what
impact perceived service provider empathy
by gym users would have on enhancing
their service experience and inuencing
their loyalty to their gyms. It was assumed
that depending on the level of experience
and concern with his/her weight and level
of tness, a degree of anxiety and perception
of risk (in achieving of results, the use of
equipment and encountering of other
members) may be involved. This may be
more accentuated in the current social
climate which places value on tness, slim
gures and looking good. Harris and
Marandi (2002) suggested that mediated
images of the body beautiful and increased
societal expectations have placed a greater
currency on the body than, arguably any
other time in our history (p.194). As Frew
and McGillivray (2005, p. 161) noted:
At present, the Western world wrestles with
an obesity epidemic whilst, paradoxically,
maintaining a fascination for the aesthetic
ideal body.
At the same time, according to Mintel
(2005), with the market for health and
216 Marandi and Harris
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tness clubs becoming more and more com-
petitive, retention and attrition rates will
become increasingly important factors
determining the success of health and
tness club operators (Harris and Ley-
bourne, 2004; MacIntosh and Doherty,
2007). The question is can empathy play a
role in gaining customer loyalty, alongside
physical facilities and promotional offers?
There has been much useful work pub-
lished on health and tness clubs within
the sport and leisure management literature
(Alexandris et al., 2004; Hata and Umezawa,
1995; Howat et al., 1996; Kim and Kim, 1995;
Lagrosen and Lagrosen, 2007; Lentell, 2000;
MacIntosh and Doherty, 2007; Papadimitriou
and Karteroliotis, 2000). Much of the pub-
lished research in this area has focused on
identifying dimensions of service quality
within the tness industry. As MacIntosh
and Doherty (2007) have noted, a great deal
of this work is related to managing a tness
facility. The research noted above has ident-
ied the importance of service quality within
the industry, yet little work in the sport and
leisure management literature has con-
sidered the role of empathy in environments
such as health and tness clubs.
Within this paper we also note that there
is a need for more qualitative research to
develop our understanding of certain areas
and move towards a more critical analysis
and developed understanding of the disci-
pline. To this end, the words of a range of
gym users are highlighted in this paper to
provide an understanding of their thoughts,
feelings and motivations. As Chelladurai
(2006) has noted, in relation to the work of
more mainstream management and market-
ing scholars on service quality and sources
of satisfaction, work relating to empathy
would seem relevant to our eld and particu-
larly for an area such as commercial health
and tness providers. The ndings from the
health and tness sector regarding the
importance of empathy in the delivery of cus-
tomer service experience may also prove
useful for those involved in other areas of
sport and leisure management.
METHODOLOGY
A structured face-to-face interview was
designed as part of a research study into
the place of empathy in the health and
tness industry. Using snowball-sampling
techniques, 51 members of 3 health and
tness clubs in the south of England were
interviewed over a 3-month period in 2007.
The research subjects comprised of 26
males and 25 females aged between 26 and
52. The clubs selected comprised a small
gym at a hotel, a large branch of a global
tness brand and a university gym. These
were selected so as to include gyms and
gym users of different types. Although the
basis of the research discussed here was a
structured interview, all interviewees were
encouraged to expand on their answers and
were asked to try and explain how and why
they formed certain perceptions.
The interviews were designed to examine
consumers perception of empathy and
attempted to better understand empathy
from the point of view of the consumer.
According to Edvardsson (1998), the
concept of service should be approached
from a customer perspective because it is
the customers total perception of the
outcome, which is the service. This forms
the perception of quality and determines
whether the customer is satised or not. An
ongoing analysis of the data commenced at
an early stage of the research because such
concomitant action allows the research
design to develop over time (Maykut and
Morehouse, 1994). A thematic approach to
data analysis was applied where common
thematic elements across interviewees
responses were identied. Such an approach
can help in constructing a typology and ela-
borating on a developing theory (Lewis-
Beck et al., 2003). The themes emerged as
Impact of perceived service provider empathy on customer loyalty 217
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the data was analysed in relation to the three
main research questions listed below.
The interviewquestions were basedon the
four dimensions of empathy as identied by
Morse et al. (1992). The reason for doing so,
as stated earlier, is that their model is based
on a meta-analysis of the literature and
looks at empathy in an holistic way, consider-
ing it as a process and combining both affec-
tive and cognitive dimensions of empathy.
The interview questions were based on the
four dimensions discussed above and exam-
ined the experience of rst joining and then
continuing with membership of a health and
tness club. Their interactions with the staff
were also explored. The interviewees were
also asked to speculate about the chances
of them remaining members of the club in
the foreseeable future.
The main research questions underpin-
ning this study were as follows:
1 Are actions based on empathy by health
and tness club staff important to
members? And if yes, why?
2 Who needs empathy? Can members be
segmented on the basis of the impor-
tance they attach to service provider
empathy?
3 Does perception of service provider
empathy help reduce gym user anxiety
(where it exists) and does this impact
upon a members loyalty to the club?
Although health and tness clubs com-
prise a variety of different set-ups, all respon-
dents in this study were individuals who
used the gym facilities at their club (some
used the additional facilities and others did
not). The word gym has been used in a
variety of different contexts and may
conjure up images as diverse as school gym-
nasia to the spit and sawdust havens of com-
mitted bodybuilders. We use it here as a
descriptor of an area where free weights
and resistance machines are positioned
alongside machinery used for cardiovascular
training (Crossley, 2006). In the research
ndings presented here, customer loyalty
has been looked at on the basis of health
and tness club members declared loyalty
or intention to carry on using the club
(based on a score of 110) and we have
also attempted to establish whether the
degree of loyalty is related to the perception
of service provider empathy.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Is Empathy Important to Club Members?
Analysis of the interviewees responses
showed that the level of importance
attached by members to any behaviour or
activity (service element) offered by the
staff depends on several factors. These are
as follows:
a) the level of familiarity with how to
accomplish personal tness goals;
b) the level of prior knowledge of gym
equipment;
c) the level of use of the different health
and tness club facilities;
d) the perception or expectations of the
service contract in terms of value for
money and provision of enablers for
optimal usage of tness facilities;
e) psychological factors that inuence the
level of personal self-consciousness in
relation to the nature of the service
used (i.e. tness being body-centred);
f) the level of self-responsibility adopted
in getting the most out of the service
experience (this links to greater or
lesser extent to all of the above).
Trends identied here are that the higher
the level of familiarity with gym equipment
and with how to accomplish tness goals,
as well as the higher the level of self-
responsibility for getting the most out of
the service experience, and the lower the
level of self-consciousness, all combined to
result in lower expectations towards staff
involvement in facilitating or enriching the
218 Marandi and Harris
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service experience. Such individuals felt less
anxiety about using the gym and also about
their own health and tness goals. The indi-
viduals who tted this schema tend to be
more pragmatic in their approach in the
sense that they had a strong focus on asses-
sing tangible (impersonal) features that the
service provider offered and had less need
for intangible (personal) service aspects
including staff empathy.
Individuals who answered No to ques-
tions concerning the importance of attempts
by staff to nd out their reasons for joining
the gym, being offered a tailor-made pro-
gramme, and having the benets of the
programme explained to them, justied
their response by explaining that they were
clear about their motivations, knew how to
accomplish their goals and had prior experi-
ence with the equipment. As a 29 year-old
male noted I would rather do my own thing
and not be conditioned by a programme.
Individuals who did not make much use of
the gym facilities, yet only went to their club
to use non-gym facilities like the pool or
various exercise classes, also answered No
to the questions relating to the importance
of attempts by staff to nd out their
reasons for joining and/or being offered a
tailor-made exercise programme. Individuals
who were interested in the services relating
to identication of their needs, and being
offered a tailor-made programme, had less
experience with gym usage and/or needed
higher motivational support and felt a
greater level of anxiety either about their
health and tness or about using the gym
facilities. These individuals predominantly
stated that the services referred to were
useful in identifying suitable goals and in
achieving them.
The familiarization with equipment was
largely seen as a means to an end to realize
the goals and was also welcomed due to
the need to avoid injury. As a 45-year-old
female respondent noted:
I need to know how to use the equipment,
and feel that I am competent enough to be
able to use it rather than just use it incor-
rectly. I am anxious not to injure myself.
The cognitive and behavioural dimen-
sions of empathy were important to those
who either lacked experience of using gym
facilities and/or needed motivational
support and, as a consequence, felt a
degree of anxiety about exercise. Those
who were experienced gym users and/or
had clear tness goals were much more
self-motivated and placed signicantly less
importance on staff empathy. A large
number of the interviewees who were inex-
perienced gym users but with moderate
motivational need or anxiety levels placed
value on initial staff support to provide
ease of transition from a beginner to a more
experienced gym user and in putting the
service offer to the best use.
Staff support was therefore seen more as a
means to an end rather than fulling
emotional needs. Many gym users welcomed
customized programmes for motivational
purposes, yet did not see them as crucial in
adding to their service experience or long-
term accomplishment of goals. These indi-
viduals saw themselves as responsible for
putting the service to best use. For them
there was a smaller degree of reliance or
dependency on staff. Therefore, the avail-
ability and willingness of staff to offer
advice was considered important but not
necessarily the ability of staff to subjectively
experience and share their psychological
needs. This could be interpreted that for
those who lacked experience of gyms and/
or felt a degree of anxiety, a moderate
degree of moral, cognitive and behavioural
dimensions of staff empathy was important
(but of short duration), and the emotive
dimension of empathy was less important.
The majority of the interviewees expected
to be given a tour of facilities, that the staff
would be friendly, and that the staff would
Impact of perceived service provider empathy on customer loyalty 219
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also be knowledgeable and be able to give
them appropriate advice. Harris and Ley-
bournes (2004) work highlights how in
initial service encounters, during inductions
to a facility, many providers failed to do this
adequately. On average, in the ndings of
the present study, most of these demands
were met. The importance of those factors
appeared to be due to expectations of the
service contract in terms of value for money
and provision of enablers for optimal
service usage. In this context, the intervie-
wees saw it as a basic demand to know what
was on offer and to be familiar with the tangi-
ble aspects of the service that act as the phys-
ical enabler (the equipment rather than the
intangibles) to realize their goals.
Staff friendliness and staff expertise were
regarded as crucial given that they act as
facilitators to use and optimize the service
experience based on individual require-
ments. In that sense, staff were expected to
assist with problems and give suitable
advice to help achieve goals and not to
misuse the equipment so as to incur negative
consequences from the service usage. As a
34-year-old male gym user noted:
They are supposed to be the experts. If they
dont know the answers, what chance have I
got?
A few of the interviewees mentioned that
they expected friendliness and expertise as
one of the basics ingredients of the service
agreement in terms of value for money
invested. A 38-year-old male remarked:
Sometimes you need help and you feel they
[the staff] are not approachable. It can be
really off-putting and you dont feel you
really belong. I pay good money here and
expect the staff to be there when I need
them. . . . Because the gymcanbe quite aninti-
midating place its really important to be able
to approach the staff if you need their help.
Hence, for the majority of the interviewees,
again, the emotive dimension of empathy was
not important, rather it was the cognitive and
behavioural aspects (understanding the gym
users problem, offering advice/solution and
communicating well) that were important.
Interestingly, it was friendliness and
approachability rather than the moral dimen-
sion of empathy (altruistic force that motiv-
ates the practice of empathy) that was
important in this respect.
A small number of the interviewees relied
on staff approachability and knowledge to
overcome embarrassment (implied anxiety)
relating to not knowing how to use the equip-
ment or use them effectively. This relates to
aspect (e) statedabove, that is, psychological
factors that inuence the level of personal
self-consciousness in relation to the nature
of the service used and tness being body-
centred. The gym is a dynamic social space
and one where bodies can be viewed as
being displayed (Crossley, 2006; Shilling,
2003). For many people it can be a very intimi-
dating environment and so this highlights the
need for the added emphasis and importance
on the friendliness and approachability of
gym staff. A further consideration here is
the impact of cultural factors. Female inter-
viewees of Indian origin were generally
uncomfortable about being seen, especially
by Indian men, in exercise clothes. Hence,
the reliance on the relevant dimensions of
staff empathy was greater by those who felt
a sense of anxiety and/or vulnerability.
It may be concluded that gym users
expect that they are provided with adequate
means (enablers) to make the best possible
use of the service experience in line with
their goals. As such these enablers are part
of the basic requirements of the service
agreement the expectation of value for
money and an intrinsic part of service
support (regardless of how far this support
is being used). The level of prior experience
of service usage as well as self-responsibility
(level of self-reliance) seem to act as modera-
tors of this assumption. This is evidenced by
the fact that interviewees who did not care
much for either staff friendliness or support
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were those who were familiar with the gym
equipment and how to achieve their tness
goals. They felt little to no anxiety in relation
to going to the gym and were more likely to
carry on using the gym. They relied on them-
selves for achieving their goals and did not
exhibit a high degree of self-consciousness
in the gym environment. Those that did,
and felt a lack of support from the staff,
declared a greater possibility that they
would not stay on as members.
Most interviewees attached some impor-
tance to staff caring for their goals with
regard to motivation (and thus achieving
objectives) the emotive and moral dimen-
sions of empathy. This would indicate that a
majority of gym users would like to see the
responsibility for accomplishing their goals
shared between themselves and the gym
staff. Although the answers as to whether
staff actually do care and whether that caring
is important were somewhat mixed, these
appeared to be more important for those
with high degree of self-consciousness and
anxiety as the following comments highlight:
Not really [the staff dont care], not unless I
am hiring a personal trainer at 15 an hour.
Then they would care. To them its just a
job. I am alright because I know what I am
doing in the gym and I am condent enough
to get on with it, but they should care as
others might not be as condent and so
they might need the support (Male, 37
years old).
I dont think they really know what my needs
[as a British-Indian woman] are and I dont
think they really care to know. I dont think
they genuinely empathise (Female, 33 years
old).
Most of the staff here are part-timers. Its just
a job to them and anyway you dont always
see the same ones on different visits
(Female, 26 years old).
Staff ability to relate to and identify with
the members anxieties, and how important
those were for the interviewees, was investi-
gated further. Around half of the intervie-
wees did feel comfortable talking to staff
about deeper reasons for going to the gym
such as the real reason behind wanting to
get t or lose weight. The interviewees who
were not interested in this option predomi-
nantly claimed that they did not view this
issue as part of the service agreement and/
or they did not see the relevance in sharing
such information with gym staff.
What came out quite clearly in response
to this question was the role of social identi-
cation when disclosing personal infor-
mation. There was a gender split in the
demands or requirements that the intervie-
wees had. Here men tended to be less self-
conscious in the sense that they were not
inclined towards gender-identity regarding
staff ability to relate to their personal
issues and were more problem focused.
They generally preferred someone who was
competent in responding to their need ade-
quately than relating to them emotionally.
Harris and Marandi (2002) highlighted how
gendered identities in the health and tness
sector needed to be explored to better
understand the differences in relationship
marketing strategies. The ndings of the
research presented here highlight how this
aspect is clearly related to trust in the
staff/service provider. Women were more
dependent on gender identication and pre-
ferred to have a woman to speak to in
order to disclose and address these issues.
The role of attachment groups in dealing
with personal issues and emotional needs
may be implied here and could have an
impact on member relations. As a 21-year-
old female respondent noted:
If I was going to talk to anyone about my pro-
blems Id talk to an older female trainer who
would understand me and be caring.
Johannson (1996) has looked at gendered
constructions within the gym and noted how
Impact of perceived service provider empathy on customer loyalty 221
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traditional gender ideologies are both chal-
lenged and reinforced. Further research is
needed to develop our understanding of the
gendered spaces within the health and
tness industry and particularly the domain
of the gym (Harris and Marandi, 2002). The
next section of this paper looks at the signi-
cance of anxieties and attempts to ascertain
the perceived importance of staff empathy
in relation to this.
Segmentation on the Basis of Empathy
The next question or theme explored was to
determine whether there were certain
factors which could be used to segment
members according to their degree of need
for staff empathy. What emerged from the
interviews is that respondents who were
more reliant on empathy were typically indi-
viduals who entered the service with varying
degrees of anxiety that predominantly
derived from different sources of self-
consciousness.
The issues that were mentioned in the
interviews can be categorized into object
and subject centred anxieties. Object-
centred anxiety related to the concern of
not knowing how to use the equipment and
feeling uncomfortable because of it as the fol-
lowing comment indicates:
I needed to know how to use the machines
correctly. I didnt want to injure myself.
They pack in so much into induction. How
are you supposed to remember all those
things they showyou? (Female, 50 years old).
The anxiety here is more outer-directed
and situational in the sense that the knowl-
edge to use equipment properly is lacking.
Harris and Leybournes (2004) research
based on more than 100 Customer Service
Audits (CSAs) at gyms in England and
Wales highlighted poor gym inductions as
being one of their principal concerns. In
addition to the health and safety issues
related to this aspect, there is also evidence
that not being shown how to use certain
equipment may make users scared and/or
anxious to use machinery. Five interviewees
in our study were affected by this type of
anxiety. It would appear that this weakness
can be readily overcome by adequate staff
advice.
Object-centred anxieties tend to be less
emotional in nature than subject-centred.
Subject-centred anxiety can be dened as an
anxiety that arises from a psychological pre-
occupation that is deeply ingrained in the
gym users character make-up. Such
preoccupation could be in the form of
gender-consciousness, body-consciousness
(culturally induced) or a history of poor
mental and/or emotional health issues (e.g.
previous eating problems). Around one-
sixth of the interviewees were affected by
this, all of whom were women and mostly of
Indian origin. As a 28-year-old female noted:
I have a problem with my gure, especially
around my thighs. It is important to me for
the staff to understand and help me. I need
to know the right way to exercise. I dont
want to be wasting my time, doing the
wrong things.
One interviewee falls in between the two
types of anxiety. This individual was suffer-
ing from a physical illness, which could
potentially affect his service experience and
for which special care was required.
Although anxious about it, this individual
did not include this issue as a need to be
empathised with under the service agree-
ment. He thus kept it out of the staff respon-
sibility and within his own area of
responsibility. The level of self-responsibility
adopted in getting the most out of the
service experience once again seems to
have particular relevance here.
The trend running through all the cases
appears to be that the nature and level of
anxiety determines demand on service facili-
ties and staff empathy. However, all intervie-
wees who suffered from anxiety claimed that
they thought staff did not understand these
222 Marandi and Harris
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anxieties even though it was important for
them that they did. In line with the nature
of the anxiety and the solution required,
the respondents claimed that there was a
lack of staff availability and/or staff ability
to relate to their needs. This was particularly
the case with females of Indian origin, related
to culturally induced self-consciousness with
regard to modesty in dress and carrying out
exercises in the presence of men.
Many interviewees believed that if they
had personal trainers and paid a higher fee
for the privilege there was a good chance
they would get more attempts by the staff
to understand and cater for their individual
needs (they would receive more empathy).
These women were generally in favour of
having women only hours (or days) which
they thought would probably be made avail-
able if the staff understood the nature of
their anxiety. The general conclusion here
would be that the gym users could be seg-
mented into three groups in terms of their
need for staff empathy and the degree of
importance that they attach to this (Table 1).
In the future, it would be interesting to
research how far the level of perceived lack
of staff understanding or empathy is due to
heightened self-consciousness on the part
of gym members. In other words, it may be
questioned whether the nature of a psycho-
logical inhibition (e.g. shyness) is leading to
a distorted perception of staff empathy and
understanding or whether a negative self-
perception (e.g. I am too fat) is leading to
negative social perceptions. This is worth
investigating since it was particularly those
individuals who suffered from anxiety that
tended to show less loyalty to and/or posi-
tive assessment of their gym (Table 1).
Reasons for Loyalty
The third theme investigated was what
makes individuals less or more loyal to
their gym and the importance of perceived
staff empathy in that respect. Some intervie-
wees had been members of other gyms in the
past. The reason that most of them had left
their previous gyms was change of work-
place or moving home. Importantly
however, none of the interviewees was con-
templating changing job or moving home at
the time of the interviews. Therefore the nd-
ings here ought to be noted by the industry.
In terms of customer loyalty, the central
question appeared to be the probing for
whether all needs were met, with specic
regard to whether the needs were primarily
inuenced by pragmatic or emotional
drivers. The ndings indicate that it was
the individuals who felt that their needs
were not satised and who had reported to
suffer from anxiety that were less loyal to
their gym. This applied to about one-fth of
all respondents.
If I nd a gym with better equipment and
more caring staff Ill leave. As I said before,
Table 1 Empathy and the Type of Gym User
Type of gym user Need for empathy
Experienced gym user, high degree of self-responsibility for achieving
personal tness goals, low or no self-consciousness in the gym
Little or no need (I know what I
am doing)
Some experience of using the gym, moderate degree of self-responsibility
for achieving personal tness goals, moderate or low self-
consciousness
Moderate need (be there when I
need you)
No previous experience of using the gym and/or low degree of self-
responsibility for achieving personal tness goals, high degree of self-
consciousness
High need (understand me,
help me!)
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they [staff] dont really empathise with me, I
just feel like a cow in the cattle farm. At the
end of the day its about making you a
member but I dont think they work hard
enough in trying to keep you as a member
(Female, 40 years old).
Three interviewees had also reported
anxiety but felt that their needs were met.
What is interesting here is that one of them
was the individual who did not see the staff
as responsible to solve his anxiety. Another
was a member of a ladies only club. In this
case, it appeared that initial anxiety had
actually led her to choose this type of club.
The nature of the club had then helped to
moderate that anxiety perhaps leading her
to be the only respondent who claimed
100% loyalty. The third individual reported
relatively high levels of subject anxiety
(due to previous mental/emotional pro-
blems and cultural inhibitions), yet still
claimed that her needs were met. She
referred here to the pragmatic aspects of
suitable facilities and opening times. Her
rating of only 60% loyalty (which rep-
resented the lower end on average) still indi-
cates that her loyalty to the club was
negatively inuenced by unmet (intangible)
needs. This nding complements the analy-
sis presented in the previous section in the
sense that it emerges that subject anxiety
may be a signicant and fragile factor in
rating the fullment of needs and shaping
of loyalty.
In contrast to this the majority of the inter-
viewees (around two thirds) felt that their
needs were fullled. Those individuals
scored their loyalty at an average of 70
80%. As already indicated in the previous
sections, it appears that those individuals
who took a pragmatic approach to their
gym usage showed higher levels of satisfac-
tion and loyalty. As a 54-year-old male noted:
Im satised with everything that I use, the
hygiene, the hours, the other people that
go there are just right.
This would appear logical as an individual
who is sure about their goals and how to
accomplish them would know after inspect-
ing the gym facilities whether those enablers
are provided. The same would apply to
people with needs or demands for special
facilities such as non-gym activities (e.g.
swimming or badminton).
Individuals who needed initial help with
goal setting and familiarization with equip-
ment valued help and later on seemed to
take responsibility for maintaining their level
of satisfaction. Once again it appears that
the explanation and provision of more phys-
ical or tangible enablers equipment and
basic staff engagement (demonstrating,
trouble shooting) to use the service in the
best possible way was key to having satised
members.
The nding highlighted in the previous
section, that staff interest in members
achieving their goals was important for (pre-
dominantly) motivational purposes and
largely not met, did not seem to affect
those individuals who noted that needs
were met and displayed loyalty to their
gym. The evidence suggests that perceived
staff empathy does impact customer loyalty
to a gym. This, however, is on the whole
limited to those members identied as high
need (identied in Table 1 as those with no
previous experience of using the gym and/
or low degree of self-responsibility for
achieving personal tness goals and high
degree of self-consciousness).
CONCLUSION
The ndings show the importance of per-
ceived service provider empathy in reducing
customer anxiety, improving customer
experience and having a positive impact on
customer loyalty to health and tness
clubs. This, however, is not a straightforward
issue. It appears that the higher the degree of
familiarity with exercise, the greater the pre-
vious experience of a gym, and the higher
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degree of acceptance of personal responsi-
bility for achieving exercise goals, the less a
member relies on personal aspects of the
service and more on the impersonal
aspects. The less experienced gym users,
and/or those who took less personal respon-
sibility for realizing their aims, appear to
require a more personal approach and
value the intangible manifestations of
empathy. Also, those with greater self-
consciousness (as relates to their gender,
ethnicity or a previous serious illness)
attach more importance to staff empathy. It
was found that in the case of women of
Indian origin, culturally induced anxieties
led to greater importance being attached to
service provider empathy. This is an area of
research that requires further exploration.
This study has provided some insights
from a range of gym users and shown that
the importance of the initial interview of a
potential gym user and a good induction
cannot be underestimated. Gym operators
should also use these activities as an
opportunity to segment their members and
to offer ongoing support to those who
need it. For this, databases and member pro-
les can be used and regular meetings
arranged to assess progress. More full
time, rather than part time, staff who can
get to know the members or even assigning
preferred instructors to members who
request it would be a positive step. This is
essentially to propose that communication
and dialogue play a key role in empathic
service provision and, by implication, in pro-
viding high quality service. Currently, there
is a move towards service-dominant logic
in marketing (Vargo and Lusch, 2004, 2007,
2008). One of the main assumptions of this
is that service organizations must think in
terms of value co-creation rather than the
traditional approach of value proposition.
The empathic approach and dialogue
referred to above would help in co-creating
value in different ways with different types
of gym users.
This study has made an original contri-
bution to the literature in the eld of services
marketing in sport and leisure management
by using a four dimensional model of
empathy for measuring the impact of per-
ceived service provider empathy on custo-
mer loyalty. The model of empathy
presented is one that is basically about
better communications and can be used for
training health and tness instructors for
the benet of both the members and the
service providers. It clearly has implications
for those involved in the delivery and man-
agement of other leisure services and serves
as a call for further research on empathy in
related areas of sport and leisure manage-
ment. It would also be interesting to see
what similarities and differences there are in
studies of gym users in countries other than
England. Future research also needs to
focus on the gendered dynamics of the gym
and critically explore the ways in which men
andwomen differ in their consumption of this
particular part of the industry.
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