The Fitness Factory & ImpressionsBoth organisations have good communication between themselves and their customers with the impressions gym doing the essential communication between them and their customers but the fitness factory

o Staff should remain calm and polite when dealing face to face with a customer, when writing a letter it should be absolutely explicit and delivered with common courtesy and when dealing with a customer on the phone staff are recommended to be polite unless aggression is shown whereby under no obligation to carry on with the conversation.

o The fitness factory doesn't believe in the customer always being right but their questions/ queries/ complaints are always taken seriously.

o The manageress deals with the fitness factory complaints, she does this in a formal manner by replying to complaints either in person, by telephone or by letter whichever way suits the faultfinder. The gym replies to complaints every time one is given.

o The gym has a photocopy of complaints, which is then filed on record from this they saw their most common complaint they have is for faulty equipment.

o The gym has no questionnaires but make sure all customers are made to feel comfortable with making suggestions at any time.

Question 2

Impressions

o The impressions gym have customer comment cards and issue questionnaires on a quarterly basis these are to monitor the effectiveness of customer service procedures and practices.

o The customer comment cards seem a good idea because they are getting feedback from their customers and the customers don't have to use their name so its anonymous.

o Although I think it's a good idea I would think the customers would not really spent their time filling in a comment card

o The questionnaires should be there all the time because the customers do not always want to.

o Having questionnaires would mean impressions could interpret the feedback from their customers and use it to make graphs and help in customer service with their employees.

The Fitness Factory

o Its very good that the fitness factory has a suggestion box available all the time

o Its even better that all customers are made to feel comfortable with making suggestions at any time to monitor the effectiveness of customer service procedures and practices.

o The gym has not got enough resources to carry out proper investigations of their facilities especially because they leave it to the customer to make a decision to suggest ideas etc. this is something they will need to look at because the gym needs more resources.

o The gym should have questionnaires so they can use the feedback from their customers and use it to make graphs etc.

Question 3

Impressions

The customer service in impressions is not as good as it should be for the following reasons.

o They don't have any disciplinary measures it depends on the incident they said.

o They have not said about how they reply complaints and how often they reply i'm assuming they don't then.

o Impressions gym don't have any disciplinary measures so either nothing wrong ever happens at the club or they are just not disciplinary effective.

o Most notably they have not said about how they reply complaints and how often they reply I'm assuming they don't then.

o They don't keep any records of complaints again is this because they don't get that many complaints to keep a record or they just don't think its necessary?

o The club should keep a record of complaints, and should have the questionnaires available all the time not on a quarterly basis.

The customer service in impressions is good for the following reasons

o They have said they deal with complaints face-to-face and soon as possible

o They have customer comment cards for customers to comment on the facilities they also issue questionnaires on a quarterly basis.

The Fitness Factory

The customer service in the Fitness Factory is not as good as it should be because:

o The customer service in the fitness factory has no real written policy for customer service they say they use common sense adherence (at discretion) to customer needs I think they are very good they have all the relevant customer needs sort out.

o They maybe good but they need some sort of written policy that the staff can read and understand how to deal with any problems, this will be helpful because then all the staff have the same way of dealing with situations.

o They sometimes have suggestion boxes they should have these always.

o The fitness factory has not got any questionnaires this is probably the only bad thing they have.

o And I was double checking on the questions with the other group doing fitness factory and everything was the same except for the one thing they told me they dot have questionnaires and they had answered the other group they always use questionnaires. This reflects bad on them because they must be giving wrong information to one of us and they might do this to their customers.

The customer service in he Fitness Factory is good for the following reasons

o They deal with customers calmly and politely for example they reply to every complaint by phone (they are said to remain polite unless aggression is shown then they are under no obligation to carry on with the conversation) letter (absolute explicit and delivered with common courtesy) whatever way is best for the faultfinder they keep records of the complaints,

o They have a suggestion box and most importantly they make the customers feel comfortable with making any suggestions at anytime.

Question 4

The Fitness Factory & Impressions

Both organisations have good communication between themselves and their customers with the impressions gym doing the essential communication between them and their customers but the fitness factory do that little bit extra because whereas impressions do not have a customer service policy the fitness factory have adherence (at discretion) to customer needs. Staff appraisal as well if your staff is happy then they will be ice to the customers and impressions have staff appraisal quarterly whereas in the fitness factory the all staff participate in appraisal to each other and do this when appraisal is needed at any time.

The Fitness Factory

Impressions

They expect an enjoyable workplace from their staff

They expect a professional attitude towards customer

They do not provide uniform for their customers

They have uniformed staff

They don't give staff incentive

Their staff incentive is job satisfaction and personal pride.

All employees participate in staff appraisals and whenever it's relevant.

Staff appraisals are done quarterly?

Staff disciplinary is regular protocols apply: which are verbal, written warning prior to last resort is dismissal

Just said depends on the incident.

No written policy, just common sense adherence to customer courtesy.

Did not answer.

When writing a letter to customer: absolute explicit and delivered with common courtesy

Did not answer convincingly 'as above'

When telephoning a customer: polite unless aggression is shown.

Did not answer convincingly 'as above'

Asked whether the customer is always right? No, however their questions/queries/ complaints are taken seriously

Did not answer convincingly 'depends'

The gym replies to complaints by telephone, by letter or in person

Did not answer

They mentioned they always reply to complaints.

Did not answer

They photocopy and keep complaints filed on record.

Don't keep complaints

They don't have common complaints

Faulty equipment

They sometimes have suggestion boxes but customers made comfortable to make suggestions

They have customer comment cards instead of suggestion boxes

The don't have any questionnaires

They issue questionnaires on a quarterly basis

From the information gathered I have drawn up a conclusion stating that the fitness factory's effectiveness of customer service delivery is better than impressions gym. Merely because of the information I've shown in the table above you can tell the fitness factory have good understanding of customer service.

Question 5

Impressions

o The gym hasn't got a written customer service policy, they have not given us any information about this so assuming they don't have any, they really need something that their staff can all follow and deal with any arising issues/problems the same way.

o They have just answered the questions briefly and on a customer service point of view. Is this how they reply to their complaints? If so they need to take some time and just fill in stuff like this they don't take that long and will look good to their potential customers. They haven't bothered to answer how they dealt with complaints and other questions.

o Their questionnaires are offered on a quarterly basis, they should really just have these readily available and maybe only use the information or read them on a quarterly basis.

o Although they have said the have 'comment cards' what exactly are these they are not suggestion boxes are they.

o The impressions gym is the better located out of the two gyms because its at a recreation centre where people would expect a gym therefore they would get a lot of customers

o The staff is well dressed they have nice uniforms they look professional so they would attract a lot of customers.

o The school next to them would give them a lot of customers.

o They have ok customer service

The Fitness Factory

o The gym has not got a written policy on customer services I feel every company should have a policy especially a popular leisure facility s a gym. A policy would be a very good idea this way all the staff would know how to deal with complaints etc. not to have to call the manageress every-time what happens if she is away a complaint is not dealt with?

o The gym should also look at bringing in a dress code or some sort of uniform that will distinguish them as an employee it looks good on the company and just generally looks professional.

o They say their most common complaint is faulty equipment if I was looking to join a gym and read they deal with every complaint and keep records well maybe if the same machine(s) always gets complaints its time to break the bank account and get new machines.

o The gym should also have questionnaires they answered N/A what does this mean they don't feel customers they need to make their facilities better or they don't want to know how the customers feel about the customer service they're getting? Questionnaires would help make their business better.

o Why is it they sometimes have suggestion boxes they should always have these. Why do they feel they have to take these away? They need to put these out and encourage their customers to make suggestions.

o The fitness factory is located in a nice area at a college so a lot of people would know of it being there.

o There isn't a lot of competition around with only about four gyms in a rapidly growing town.

o The gym industry gets a lot of customers nowadays because the population is getting more and more cautious weight. So gym industries do bring in quite a lot.

o The fitness factory has a good understanding of customer services, and seem to treat their customers very well they deal with all types of complaints whether its by phone, letter or face-to-face.

o They're staff are polite, calm and aim to provide a comfortable enjoyable workplace this is also and most importantly shown to their customers.