The importance of sustaining a balance between new and loyal customers : the case of all fitting

• Autor(a) principal: Virkutyté, Aisté
• Data de Publicação: 2016
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.14/20554
• topic: Customer acquisition; Customer retention; Customer loyalty; Referral marketing; Word of mouth; Health and fitness club; Gym; Domínio/Área Científica::Ciências Sociais::Economia e Gestão

The purpose of the study is to understand how a women-only gym can keep a balanced focus between acquiring new customers and creating customer loyalty among existing ones. The case study focuses on All Fitting, a women-only gym in Lisbon, Portugal. It provides a selection of group fitness activities for its members. For convenience of the clients they are also aiming to consolidate different services under one roof, hence, in addition to practicing sports the clients can also use aesthetics services, nutritionist, and hairdresser. In order to address the problem statement and answer the research questions, a literature review is provided for theoretic background. Then a thorough background of All Fitting is provided, including its activities, customers, and competitors. A market research is conducted between both current clients, to assess the drivers for satisfaction and loyalty, and prospective clients, to understand what All Fitting could do to attract new customers more effectively. The findings show that customer retention is rather problematic at All Fitting, even if customers express high satisfaction with the gym and have high intentions to stay as a client. As for prospective clients, current strategy could be made more effective, especially by leveraging on referral marketing. A set of recommendations is provided concerning both customer groups.