Increase Attraction
Parkwood Leisure and Cherwell District Council revamp in partnership with Precor to meet their customers needs
Listening to customers needs formed a major part of Parkwood Leisure’s recent investment into three of its leisure centres: Bicester Leisure Centre, Spiceball Leisure Centre and Kidlington and Gosford Leisure centre, which it manages on behalf of Cherwell District Council.
Using Net Promoter Score (NPS) results, alongside GYMetrix, which analyses use of equipment alongside customer surveys, and advice from equipment provider, Precor, the leisure management company was able to refit the leisure centre gyms based on significant main themes that ran across all the sites, as well as ‘quirks’, individual to each facility.
Alex Godfrey, Regional Director for North and Midlands, Parkwood Leisure, explains: “Whilst each site had slightly different results, we found some key themes, such as a reduction in fixed resistance equipment and getting the right balance between CV equipment and functional training space. It was clear people wanted more space to do their own exercises, so at all sites we increased the functional training area on offer and added more free weights.”
The analysis from Precor and GYMetrix showed the biggest of the three sites, Spiceball’s 130-station gym, previously had too many stations for the size of its membership. “This presented a great opportunity for us,” says Godfrey. “We didn’t just want to fill it with kit, we wanted to make sure we included the right kit, and the additional space enabled us to include two of Precor’s fun Queenax functional training rigs; a Bridge to provide the wow factor as you walk into the main gym and two Queenax wall units in a separate section that can be seen from the road.
“It’s all about the curb appeal. Our gym is situated next to a roundabout on the main route into town. Passersby are used to seeing people on stationary bikes but now they can see quite clearly that we offer something different. Budget gyms in the area have had a significant impact on us, and so Cherwell District Council has been a big supporter of the investment. We want to separate ourselves from the budget clubs and show we have a high end offering. The Queenax wall units help us to do just that.”
The Queenax Bridge in the main gym is used to drive PT income and for small group classes three times a day, whilst the wall rigs give members a quiet area if they want to do their own exercises when Queenax classes are underway.
“Holding classes on the gym floor gives the fitness suite an atmosphere and encourages other members to take part too. Usually group exercise classes are held behind closed doors, people come out looking drained, but other members have no idea what exercises they have been doing,” explains Godfrey.
“The customers are really happy with all the equipment we’ve installed, but the Queenax at Spiceball has had the most impact; previously our functional training section was just a matted area. It’s exceeded all our expectations. The quality of the Queenax training was really good too, and our staff learnt loads of funky stuff, in addition to the Queenax-specific exercises.”
Unlike Spiceball, floor space in Bicester Leisure Centre’s 96-station fitness suite was very restricted. “It’s a booming town, but the footprint of the gym means we are limited in the number of stations and number of members we can cater for,” states Godfrey. “Every piece of kit counts, and if equipment isn’t being used to its full capacity it has a massive impact on our customers.”
With this in mind, Bicester kept the same overall number of stations, but changed the percentage of each type of kit, working from customer feedback and statistics on their use. “We had a number of niche machines, which we switched for more of Precor’s Discovery strength and Icarian strength cable machines, as members can use those for niche exercises as well as more traditional exercises.”
Parkwood took the decision to install P62 consoles on all cardio equipment, including treadmills, cross trainers, bikes and award-winning AMT’s, giving members individual access to Precor’s networked fitness platform, Preva, for the first time; meaning they can set personal workout goals each week, choose relevant targets – distance, calories or duration – and select an individual long-term focus, for example losing weight or toning up.
“It’s proved really popular with our customers, and also means we can now use Preva’s Business Suite to report on the usage of each piece of equipment going forwards,” says Godfrey.
The £800,000 refurbishment plans for all three sites included redecorating the fitness suites and ensuring the customer journey flowed properly. As Godfrey explains, it wasn’t just a case of dropping in new kit: “We had ideas on how the gyms should look, but working with the team at Precor enabled us to explore different options, using their CAD designs to find a solution that we were all happy with. With Precor’s help we have also redesigned and redecorated the grungy free weights areas into pleasant environments for everyone to work out in and are now seeing all ages and both sexes taking advantage.”
Kidlington and Gosford Leisure Centre also benefited from a Queenax rig, as well as an increased free weights area and upgraded CV and strength stations. The refurbishments were finished at the end of last year and already the centres have seen an uplift in customers. “Feedback has been excellent; we have also seen a massive uplift in customer satisfaction,” concludes Godfrey.
