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In our report we have discussed how Gold Spa and Fitness Club eels with clients, how they operate and what services they provide. What is their pricing method, how they deal with vendors and moreover how after the providing and giving a health and fitness experience they still keep in touch with their client to increase their memberships and build customer loyalty. Furthermore, how they manage their human resource and are able to provide exquisite quality at the spa and gym.
For this purpose we conducted an interview with the Hrs Manager Muhammad Susan Aziza and Manager gym Mali Karma. In the end we hope we were able to do Justice to the health provider services of Gold Spa and Fitness Cub. Introduction Iberia Town is the force turning the vision of Pakistan into reality. The latest project by them is the Gold Spa and fitness Club located on the 3 rd floor of The Mall of Lahore. It is a health club like no other in the entire country. Gold offers its clients a large variety of health related services.
The Gold Gym equipment is by ‘Life Fitness’, the leading brand in training equipment, and the Gold Gym trainers are highly qualified individuals with years of experience. The Spa at Gold offers a wide range of massages, scrubs and other services and the masseuses are internationally qualified and experienced professionals. The Gold Club also offers a Salon that is being operated by Awkward Rica and his team of experts. Gold Spa offers a range of different full body massages. The internationally trained masseuses excel at what they do.
Here is a list of the full body massages: 1) Arrived Massage 2) Traditional Thai Massage 3) Balinese Massage 4) Swedish Massage 5) Deep Tissue Back Massage 6) Traditional Japanese Shiatsu 7) Indian Head Massage 8) Loom Loom (Hawaiian Massage) 9) Four Hand Massage 10) Herbal Massage 1 1) Aroma Hot Stone Massage Core and Supplementary Services Services of marketing is a sub field of marketing, which can be split into the two main areas of goods marketing (which includes the marketing of fast moving consumer goods (FMC) and durables) and services marketing.
Services marketing typically refer to both business to consumer (BBC) and business to business (BOB) services, services, all types of hospitality services, car rental services, air travel, health care services and professional services. The range of approaches and expressions of a marketing idea developed with the hope that it be effective in conveying the ideas to the diverse population of people who receive it. A service product comprises all elements of service performance, both tangible and intangible, that create value for customers.
The service concept is represented by: * A core product * Accompanied by supplementary services Health club business is becoming popular nowadays because people are more conscious about their health. Due to hectic work schedule, work-related pressures and changing lifestyles, the health of people is adversely affected. Stress, hypertension, heart disease, cancer and obesity related diseases are becoming common as quoted by Hrs Manager Susan. Due to lack of time, the tendency to indulge in Junk food has increased leading to various health disorders.
Lack of physical activity and sedentary lifestyles are some other reasons. There is hardly any physical activity involved in the workplace or at home due to mechanization. People are realizing that exercise, proper nutrition and relaxation are the keys to good health. As a result, the health club and spa business is booming in Pakistan. Gold Spa and fitness club tends to provide the consumers with an experience like no other in the city. It started its operations in January 2012, and targets the Section A and B customers.
It is a people processing service and according to Mr. Susan the core service is to provide a recreational, physical and mental activity which includes that of gym, pool, and spa. Health clubs and spas are excellent ways to rejuvenate one’s body and soul. An individual’s energy level reduces over a period of time. The spa is an ideal place to get a body massage, facial and other body treatments under one roof. One can pamper oneself and also simultaneously socialize with friends in Gold spa. It offers entertaining workouts for bodybuilding and fitness in the form of a gym.
The supplementary services include giving people physical grooming which includes a Awkward Rica Salon and to enrich he experience of a fitness club a cafe (Cafe Panic) is also opened to provide you with the best of health snacks and foods. Facilities at Gold Spa and Fitness Center Luxurious health spas offer different types of facilities, such as saunas, shower rooms, gymnasium, and beauty treatments like facial, manicure, pedicure etc. Including a wide range of beauty treatments will ensure that the business earns more profits. Nowadays, obesity is a common health problem and people are obsessed about losing weight.
The healthy diet regimen is used as a weight loss therapy. To keep the steady inflow of clients, it is important to make innovative hangers in fitness programs as and when necessary depending on client feedback. One should include traditional and modern methods in a spa and fitness center, so through meditation and yoga. In short, a good business plan for a Spa and Fitness Center will address the needs of clients, help them improve their health and bring happiness into their lives. What is interesting to know that Gold Spa offers all of the above to its clients.
Let’s have a look at the services provided by Gold Spa and Fitness Center. The gym is equipped with machinery by ‘Life Fitness’, the top gym equipment brand in the world. The facility is very spacious and is divided into three parts: Cardiovascular, Weight training and personal training sections. The Personal Trainers are knowledgeable and well experienced professionals that can guide the members and help attain whatever goal you have set. They will provide you with a complete assessment of every member and provide a starting point for each member according to their need and limitations.
They also have a body analyzer that is easy to use and very accurate. It provides the user with detailed composition of their body such as fat percentage, muscle percentage, limbs’ strength ratio etc. The treadmills are equipped with cable television and a music library and headphones. The window in front of the treadmills looks out at the swimming pool for a spacious and cooling view. The swimming pool is approximately 15 meters long and 5 & 1/2 feet deep. It is temperature controlled, meaning it is cool during the summers and heated in the winters, making it operational all year round.
Life guards are on the watch throughout the day, every day. The pool area also has several beach chairs where one can relax during their swimming session or after it and enjoy a snack or drink from the cafe. Gold Spa and Fitness Club is offering the facility of a Turkish Hammy. It is a bathing area where clients can come and relax and cleanse themselves after a good workout, before a soothing massage or as a simple rejuvenating experience. The Jacuzzi is for four persons at a time. The Jet water is highly soothing. The ultimate relaxation and comfort is provided here. Use the Jacuzzi, sit and watch T. V. R chat with your friends while the water gives the body a heavenly massage. Using hot stones to massage the entire body, the Aroma hot stone massage seems to connect the flow or paths of energy together in order to rebalanced the physical body, motional mind and soaring spirit as one. As the stones cool the healer replace them with hot stones again. The feet are extremely energy sensitive and are also stimulated in Hot Stone Massage. The Balinese massage uses a combination of gentle stretches, acupressure and aromatherapy oils to stimulate the flow of blood, oxygen and “IQ” (energy) around your body, and bring deep relaxation and wellness.
This works deeply to soothe damaged tissue, and relieve strained muscles and Joint pain. Four hand massage is a type of massage therapy which involves two therapists working simultaneously, creating a choreographed massage. Clients can request special attention for one area of the body, such as the back or legs, and the therapists can tailor the session to the needs of the client. Many people enjoy four hand massage because they find it extremely relaxing, and they enjoy the sensation of being pampered. Consumption of any product or service involves purchase and use.
To develop perfect marketing strategies, first of all we need to understand that how consumer makes the decisions about buying and using services. Service consumption can be divided into three principle stages: pre-purchase, service encounter, post-purchase. The three stage model of service consumption model help us to understand how individuals recognize their needs address the perceived risk, search for the alternatives solutions, and then evaluate their experiences through their level of expectation which finally creates the value to it.
Pre purchase stage In this particular stage the consumer who wants to use the product or service he/she will be going through different phases of the pre purchase stage in which the consumer will confine all the aspects and try to base the decision accordingly. In the service sector it very difficult to evaluate the phase because of the intangibility of the arrive hence the service provider would create the prestige value through their past experiences which would lead the foundation.
In this process the foremost important stage is of creating the awareness among the consumer to acknowledge its value. When we discussed the consumption model we came to know through interviewing the HRS Manager of Gold Spa and Fitness Club Mr. Susan, whose focus was also on the first phase of pre-purchase of creating the awareness among the community. He told us that consumer needs to know the complete information about the service because the response is based on his or her desires.
Hence, Gold Spa and Fitness Club when starting out did not care so much if they were making a loss, but focused solely on provided good quality. As Gold Spa and Fitness Club, there is no compromise when it comes to the quality of work. The reason for this was that through this the word of mouth increased and the reputation of Gold Spa and Fitness Club became good. Through this behavior Gold spa and fitness club has been able to convince their clients before the service has been provided that they will be able to deliver what is necessary to achieve the quality required.
Moreover, he said to us that very person’s decision to buy and use the service arousal of any particular need and once the need is recognized, customer starts to look for the solution and that requires searching for information and sometime advice. They as an organization need to provide the complete information. In which they can clarify the need of the consumer and try to explore the solution to their need such if that at the induction level the clients are given a full tour of the whole spa and gym where there is a physical evaluation done before any further assessment.
After the physical evaluation and assessment, the other steps are preceded. Service Encounter After learning about the service the consumer moves on to the core service; the core service of Gold spa and fitness club is to provide health related services. The intangibility is the key factor of the service provider to perform their duty or service consider them for the next time. This stage comes across different phases starting from the placing an order, the induction course, or even submitting an application.
Gold Spa and fitness club is more of into each of the phase from coming to the reservation till the billing process because Mr.. Susan believes that the number of memberships don’t matter for their many it’s Just the quality which maintains the and builds more customer interface and they don’t believe in the conventional way of approaching to the customer they consider to be more oblige when people approach their organization for availing their health services because of providing the better quality with best service.
By this means they try their level best to enhance their flower with more complimentary petals. During the service delivery, many customers start evaluating the quality of the services they are receiving and deciding whether it meets their expectation. Eventually that moment creates the impact and persuades the customer to have a sense of satisfaction. Which leads to the ‘moment of the truth? Gold Spa and fitness club encounters to the High-contact service. That means their entails of a high interaction between the service provider and the customer.
The consumer’s exposure to the consumer provider takes on a physical and tangible due a lot of interaction among them. Usually large corporate clients are very highly involved like for example with the service that and treatments that are being are offered by the spa and the qualified trainers at the gym. However, Gold Spa and Fitness Club also comes across many low involvement members as well, who trust Gold Spa and Fitness Club to provide quality blindly. And this has happened because of the reputation that Iberia Town has managed to attain.
Moreover, the activities that take place behind the sets are dealt mainly by the operations manager and the gym manager of Gold Spa and fitness club. They deal directly with the vendors and make sure no hiccup occur. Each manager is performing their duties under the consideration of single head supervision to provide the best quality. All these aspects create the value in the consumer’s mind which provides the harmony and satisfaction. Gold Spa and Fitness Club’s major focus is on this phase which creates the goodwill of their company through providing the satisfied customers.
Post-purchase stage During the post purchase stage, customer evaluates the service performance they have received and compare it with their prior expectation. These expectations relate to the customer satisfaction and future intentions. The resulting expectation it could be a negative or positive discrimination eventually positive expectation would lead to the surprise for the customer creates the customer delight. The whole process of achieving the right goal is based on the last most important phase depending upon the phase of feedback of the customer.
This is the baseline of the post purchase right solution to their problems of achieving their needs. That is why Golden Spa and fitness club should focus on the feedback process because it will give a more consumer oriented approach technique and for that they will have to make sure that a good word of mouth would is present to achieve the desired targets. Also clients are given evaluation forms after they have ailed the service. So they should be in ouch with their customer at least every two weeks after the experience at gym and spa for post communication.
Iberia Town through their connections with television channels and magazines should manage to help the client achieve good public relations so that customer can be willing to enter in a long-term relationship based on their effective post encounter service. The Flower of Service To understand the flower of service it is necessary to comprehend what is the nature of the service that is being provided. As the level of customer involvement varies from service to service.
Now as for our service, health related services, falls under the process of people processing. The reason for this is that there is a lot of interaction between the customer and the service provider. Hence, the flower of service for Gold Spa and fitness club has to be very specific. Moving on to the flower of service, the core and the supplementary products of Gold Spa and fitness club need to be identified and understood properly. It is a people processing service and the best of health snacks and foods.
Moreover, the supplementary services they offer on the bases of which they are able to create and more importantly maintain their actor of exclusivity is that the offer public relations to their corporate clients Now taking into consideration the facilitating factors of the flower of service for Gold Spa and Fitness Club: Information: Now customers often require information about how to obtain and use a product or service. In the case of Gold Spa and Fitness Club, since they do not advertise a lot the information is carried out through word of mouth and referrals.
At Gold Spa and Fitness Club they are firm believers of the fact that if they provide a good quality service word will get around through the clients ND more potential customers will follow. The service hours they offer are very relaxed and flexible. Furthermore, in the initial meeting that takes place between the customer and Gold Spa and fitness club it gives an induction level course to all questions and queries are handled and discussed. Order Taking: Order taking at Gold Spa and Fitness Club is done when the client visits. For corporate clients and for private individuals and families the same reception is used. N this initial meeting the they are looking for. What Gold spa and fitness club has to offer and the costs associated. Later, Gold Spa and fitness Club offers them various membership details and then the package is offered. Billing: This aspect is very simple and does not involve any stress as they simple charge the membership fees which include an initial amount and then monthly charges. At Gold Spa and Fitness Club they hold the philosophy that if the customer is not stressed out he or she will feel more comfortable and a good relationship can be maintained.
Payment: Again this aspect is simple. Payments through cash or credit are accepted happily. As Gold Spa and Fitness Club believes on building a reputation for themselves so being lenient in this specs helps them go a long way in the books of a client. Now taking in to consideration the enhancing elements of the flower of service for Gold Spa and Fitness Club: Consultation: As it has managed to be successful in a very short amount of time and has been able to create a good name for themselves in the market their advice is given a lot of thought.
The reason for this is that they have become famous for creating a wonderful ambiance and giving a healthy experience to its members. Hence, they offer extensive consultation to their clients at every step which includes personal trainers in gym and facilitators in Spa. Hospitality: The most prominent ways that Gold SP and fitness club provides hospitality to their customers is by creating a very friendly and comfortable environment for them to be in. Furthermore this is achieved by having various teams and individuals comprising followed by three managers.
This helps them be more efficient and helpful towards the client. Moreover, the factor of security is also very essential. As their client list is mainly of upper middle class and upper class citizens providing them proper security is very key. Through this the comfort level of the client is increased even more. Safekeeping: Now, this aspect can be understood by a simple notion. Gold Spa and Fitness Club strive on this fact that they are able to provide quality within the membership fees and never try to decisive the client and tell him up right what can and cannot happen.
Moreover lockers are available for the safety of personal possessions. Exceptions: When providing a service that relates health services many exceptions need to be made. It is a good way of maintaining healthy relations with the customers. As many problems can arise and many complaints. So first and foremost Gold Spa and fitness club attempts to not make any mistakes but if any problem occurs they perform any type of request that a client may have.
Distribution and role of intermediates Distribution is usually associated with moving boxes to retailers and other channels for sale to end-users. In a service context, however, we often have nothing to move. Experiences, performance, and solutions are not being physically shipped and stored. In addition, more and more informational transactions are conducted via electronic and physical channels. We will first discuss the options for service distribution and delivery. Several factors have an impact on distribution and delivery strategies for services.
Does the nature of the service or the firm’s positioning strategy require customers to be in direct physical contact with its personnel, equipment, and facilities? If so, do customers have to visit the facilities of the service organization or will the service organization send personnel and equipment to the rely on personal channels. Individuals with greater confidence and knowledge about a service/channel tend to use impersonal and self-service channels. Customers with social motives tend to use personal channels.
Convenience is a key driver of channel choice In case of Gold spa and fitness club customers have to visit the service site because Core services for people processing and possession processing services require physical locations. Cost, productivity, and access to labor are key determinants to locating a service facility The following factors need to be considered. The convenience of service locations, elaborate statistical analysis using retail gravity models is sometimes used to help firms make decisions on where to locate and operational schedules important when customer has to be physically present
Traditionally, schedules were restricted. Service availability limited to daytime, 40 to 50 hours a week , Sunday historically considered as a rest day in Christian tradition, Saturday in Jewish tradition, and Friday in Muslim tradition but Today. For flexible, responsive service operations services are provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, around the world. Some organizations still avoid 7-day operations, but Gold spa and Fitness Club is open 7 days a week from am to 10 pm. The roles of suppliers in this business such as the Gold spa and fitness club are equipment vendors, the cosmetics provider and the under vendors.
Now what Gold spa and fitness club does is that they get the things from the vendors and put them in stock in their warehouses. But in some cases they need to hire the vendors when they require their expertise. Their gym equipments are provided by the life fitness company, USA. Gold spa and fitness import all spa treatment from various well-known companies around the globe. According to the General manager of Gold spa and fitness club their vendors do no tend to take their work seriously.
They are really careless about their commitments and their time Ramee allotted to them. But no matter what they do, it is not possible to deliver to 100 percent perfection but still there is a chance of human errors. At Gold spa and fitness club they deal with all of this in a very meticulous way and the operations and security managers are responsible for dealing with the vendors. Therefore they manage to solve the problems, which arise due to the vendors so hence they deal with it by being efficient and effective in their processes.
If a problem arises due to unforeseen circumstances or some problem which occurred due to mismanagement hey try to solve the problem at first and if they are unable to do so they try their best to compensate their customers and offer expectations that this would not happen again in the future as they don’t compromise with the quality they offer. Furthermore they tend and try to make good relations with vendors and they book them in advance so they can avoid such problems at first so they don’t occur at the very first instance.
Blue Printing and fail points are the actions performed both on stage and off stage by the staff of the company to make sure that the tasks performed are up to the standard. Blue printing is also used to analyze the various contact points which a consumer indulges in with the staff, managers can use it to analyze the areas/departments of the company which lack behind others and need serious improvement, example of it in our case would be that the person responsible for valet parking takes wastes too much time before catering to the need of the other customers.
Blue printing is a replica of what is to be done to make sure that every department of the company runs smoothly. It can also There are three basic stages of blue printing * Introductory Stage * Delivery of core product The drama concludes Introductory Stage Introductory stage of blue printing describes the various activities which take place both off and on stage when a consumer comes to the Gold spa and fitness club.
The first step in this process would be that consumers first calls to check the timing of the club and asks for the various packages which are available, the backstage activity in this step would be that various packages are prepared by the management keeping in mind various aspects such as the amount of services offered, the market segment which the management intends to cater etc.
Then the next step in this process would be that the consumer comes to the location which in our case is mall of Lahore. The valet parking officer will take car keys from the consumer and then take the care down in the parking area while another office will lead the consumer to the fitness club. Now consumer will be taken to the reception of the club. At the reception facility of handing over the coat is available if the consumer wants.
At the reception he would be shown packages which the consumer can avail either they want to purchase membership or they Just want to avail the service once. Delivery of core product This step is when the core service or product is delivered to the consumer. This step is the most important part as if something goes wrong in this step; the whole experience of the service will diminish no matter how good secondary services are because the main service is the core product on which the whole experience depends.
After consumer selects the package plan and the service which he/she wants to avail. Now in our case considering that the consumer wants to have a relaxing experience by having a massage the consumer would be taken to massage area, if it is vacant, but if it is in use the consumer would be taken to the waiting area f the spa which would be made to ensure that the experience of it is relaxing as well as soothing.