24 Hour Fitness Slowly Rises Back to the Top.
Over the last few weeks we have been visiting several health club facilities and rating them in three key areas:
Customer Service
Facility Appearance and Cleanliness
Price and Availability
We rate these facilities by giving each facility an individual score in each category based on a scale ranging from 0-10. The totals are then calculated to give us the final score.
The health clubs we visited were Equinox, 24 Hour Fitness, Lafitness, Lifetime Health & Fitness Center, Jersey Barbell and Planet Fitness. The purpose of our visits to these facilities were not to highlight any of the negatives, however, we visited these facilities to help provide feedback that would help these companies not only improve their business operations, by increasing memberships, but by helping them find opportunities for revenue and expansion growth.
To kick things off here we start with 24 Hour Fitness. The clubs we visited were located in New Jersey. Here is what we found at 24 Hour Fitness and our recommendations based on our experience.
24 HOUR FITNESS - NORTH NEW JERSEY
During the month of June, 2023 we visited three 24 Hour Fitness clubs. The clubs we visited were located in Englewood Cliffs, Paramus and Ramsey. These clubs were all located in Bergen County, New Jersey. Overall 24 Hour Fitness scored relatively well. Here is a look at how they did in each category.
CUSTOMER SERVICE - 4
In this category at each club that we visited, the staff was relatively friendly and welcoming. Although, we were greeted after we entered, we found that the front desk associates were not as attentive as we expected. There were employees at each location engaged in activities on their cell-phones, employees not present at the front desk and employees engaged in side conversations. Although we found these points to be a factor in the overall score its impact on the overall service score was minimal. Where we found customer service to be an impactful factor was with the responses we received from some of the staff regarding some of the facility issues we discovered. The employees responses were the most concerning as they didn't seem to care much. Overall, our service experience was average.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Better club staff training in the areas of service and team leadership.
Better club staff hiring selection process.
Have a supervisor available every shift.
Prescribe pre-written closing scripts for public announcement. Require that employees read the closing scripts exactly the way it is written. Sets a standard.
Require front desk and all available staff to conduct and participate Team Cleans throughout their shifts to increase floor presence.
FACILITY APPEARANCE AND CLEANLINESS - 4
Now let's take a look at the facility appearance and its overall cleanliness. This might be the one area in which there seems to be the most struggle. Walking into the clubs we visited, most of the appearance of the clubs looks good, however as we make our way onto the main floor and enter into the locker rooms, we find that there is room for serious improvement. Overall, we see this as being a great area of opportunity for 24 Hour Fitness.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Increase the flow of light into the facility. Lighting can improve mood and can increase club friendliness which can improve membership acquisitions and retention.
Floor maintenance is key to retention. Maintaining the floor equipment in an orderly fashion is important to retain members. Using your training staff to maintain the floor is one way to ensure that the club meets the set standard.
Cross train staff to perform minor equipment maintenance or hire someone for that purpose. This will ensure that minor equipment issues are addressed and also ensure that machines are always to standards.
Place more emphasis on operations and have occasional external audits and inspections to help.
PRICE AND AVAILABILITY - 7
In this category, the company excels the most in comparison to all competitors. 24 Hour Fitness offers three membership offerings:
Platinum Access - The top tier membership which grants access to all 24 Hour Fitness Clubs in all territories. Membership includes enhanced benefits and features like, 2 free buddy passes, and national club access.
National Access - The second tier membership which grants access to all clubs nationally. This membership does not include the buddy pass.
Gold Access - The lowest tier membership which grants access to regional clubs. Regional clubs are based on home club. Buddy passes are not included in this membership.
In the New York City Metro area, there are twelve 24 Hour Fitness clubs all located within a 15 mile radius of each other. Based on current pricing 24 Hour Fitness offers memberships ranging from $41.99 to $56.99 monthly access and from $287.88 to $323.88 yearly access paid in full.
RECOMMENDATIONS
Although these prices are competitive and meets the current industry trends, having more locations within the North Jersey areas can help justify these prices and increase membership and revenue.
Open smaller studios to service members who maybe seeking a higher quality experience and limit access to an additional fee.
With these prices, consider eliminating annual fees as these fees are unjustifiable under the current conditions of clubs and with access. One would argue that these fees would help with new club operations however, a consideration may be to eliminate the fee in exchange for a higher quality experience.
Opening 24 hours daily is a costly business. We suggest rebranding the name and focusing on ways to extend operations hours. Closing facilities one to two hours later than local competitors would invite opportunity for membership acquisition and growth.
Although there are guest who may be comfortable with poorly maintained locker rooms, the majority of members prefer a clean and well maintain private area. We suggest improving the quality of locker rooms and restrooms. Upgrades in these areas can and will provide greater opportunity to increase sales.
OVERALL SCORE - 15 | AFMG RATING - C
Although 24 Hour Fitness ranks "C", we recommend them as one of our picks for those people seeking out a great workout facility. The company has gone through several years of struggles, as did most fitness chains, however, they are slowly on their way back to the top. With steady hands and open ears, they will excel themselves back to the top. If 24 Hour Fitness listens to the general consensus of its members, guest and other professionals in the business, gather information on how they can further improve, we believe the company could be in a new version of the brand it was several years ago.
We support 24 Hour Fitness mission and hope that the feedback that we have provided helps improve both quantity and quality.