The study of exercise participation motivation and the relationship among service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty at selected fitness health clubs in Taipei City, Taiwan

The study was designed to determine what motivates customers to participate in exercise at fitness health clubs and to examine and identify the relationship among service quality, customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty at fitness health clubs in Taipei City Taiwan. The four instruments of modified Quality of Service Scale (QSS) (Lim, 2006), Customer Satisfaction Scale (CSS) (Lim, 2006), Attitudinal Loyalty Survey of Participant Sport/Fitness Clubs (ALSPSFC) (Chang, 2002), and Motivation for Exercise Inventory (MEI) (Chou and Ho, 2005) were used to measure service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and exercise participation motivation. Five-hundred-forty active members (270 male and 270 female members) at six selected fitness health clubs in Taipei City, Taiwan were surveyed during May to July 2008. Five-hundred-forty survey questionnaires were distributed with 475 valid questionnaires being received for a return rate of 88%.;Based on the results of MEI motivational factor analysis, both male and female members had higher mean scores on fitness/health aspect of motivational factor. It indicated that exercise participants were mostly motivated by fitness/health reasons, and they expected to gain improvement on overall bodily health and fitness, and function of the immune system as a result of exercise.;The results of independent sample t-test showed that there was no statistical difference between male and female customers' exercise participation motivations. This suggested that there was no statistical difference between male and female customers' exercise participation motivations, which indicated that both male and female members would be equally motivated to participate in exercise on the motivational factors of fitness/health, appearance/weight management, stress/emotion management, and social/intellectual. The results could further explain that both male and female customers perceived approximately the same level of influences toward different motivational factors; the level of the influence of each motivational factor was the only difference.;There were statistically positive relationships between service quality and customer satisfaction, service quality and customer loyalty, and customer satisfaction and customer loyalty. It indicated that good service quality result in satisfied and loyal customers, and satisfied customers result in loyal customers.;Results of the stepwise regression analysis indicated that the best predictor of service quality for customer satisfaction was "facility," which explained 86% of the variance of the customer satisfaction. "Health/fitness" was the second best predictor of service quality for customer satisfaction. Overall, approximately 92% of the variance of customer satisfaction could be explained by combining the factors of "facility" and "health/fitness". It is suggested that the fitness health club management should enhance the overall service quality emphasizing on "facility" and "fitness/health" aspects of service quality in order to generate more satisfied members.;The best predictor of customer loyalty for customer satisfaction was "normative" loyalty followed by "affective" loyalty and "investment" loyalty. It indicated that fitness health members who possess normative loyalty would have higher level of sense of necessity for clubs. They consider going to the clubs they joined has become part of their necessarily daily routine, and also they feel that the clubs they joined can provide them with needed exercise programs, equipment, or expertise which meet their interests or needs. As a result, they are satisfied with the clubs.