Evaluation of Services at Anytime Fitness Gym in Australia

The article evaluates the services at Anytime Fitness gym in Australia using RATER model and 7P's of service marketing. It emphasizes the importance of a customer-centric approach, listening to comprehend, and feedback system in the service industry. The article also includes a personal experience of the author at the gym and recommendations for service providers.

Running head: Marketing & Management
Gymnasium
Marketing & Management
Service Experience

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Executive Summary
The assignment here focuses on the first-hand experience of evaluating services at
Anytime fitness gym in Australia. Anytime fitness is one of the finest gyms when it
comes to its service offering, and the effectiveness in its service delivery. Services are
perishable and thus it is extremely important to do right, every time. The customers are
always evaluating the services of the company, thus it becomes extremely important to
focus on services to stay competitive in the market. RATER model is used to evaluate
the experience of the customers in service delivery, and is a very useful framework. 7P
of service marketing has three parameters which are highly specific to services, viz;
People, Process and Physical evidence. Due to high intangibility of the services it is
extremely important to focus on the physical evidence part in service delivery.

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Table of Content
Dairy Experience.............................................................................................................................................................. 3
Service Experience-Lesson to Learn from Anytime Fitness...........................................................................4
RATER Model................................................................................................................................................................ 4
7P’s of Service Marketing............................................................................................................................................. 6
Recommendation............................................................................................................................................................. 8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................................................... 8
References........................................................................................................................................................................ 11

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Diary Experience
I am 26 years of Age and have been staying in Australia for quite some time now, over
the time I have started feeling fatigue due to my busy schedule. I have started feeling
inferiority complex looking at people around me with good built, flexing muscles, lean
physique and amazing stamina. This motivated me to move out of my comfort zone and
join a gym to build a great physique which would in turn give an impetus to my dying
confidence.
I started my search for the perfect gym by asking my friends in the campus, they gave
me a couple of options and now it was up to me to take a final call on the gym. I did a lot
of search online, read hundreds of review on Google about various gyms and realized
that “Anytime Fitness” is the best gym in the city. I was quite euphoric about my visit to
the gym because I have never been to a gym in my entire life. I had certain expectation
that plethora of girls and boys would be sweating out the extra weight and doing
rigorous training to build muscles. I thought that my first visit would last for just 10-15
minutes.
I decided to visit the gym on Saturday, as I was free that day and thought I should make
the day productive. I was shocked to see a team of 3 people sitting at the front desk.
They greeted me in a warm manner and extended the hospitality by offering me a glass
of water and requested me to have a cold pressed Watermelon juice. It was a feeling of
customer delight for me. Each member took their turn in knowing why I would like to
join the gym and what exactly I would like to accomplish by joining gym. They were
kind enough to listen to me patiently and offered me suggestions as to how Anytime
fitness can help me in accomplishing my goals. Two trainers were called from inside the
gym and were introduced to me, and asked to show me around. It took me almost 45
minutes to walk through the entire gym as the trainers were in depth telling me about
various machines at the gym, their utility and how to work out on them. They
introduced me to Pilates, Yoga and even cross training, solved every query of mine and
were highly responsive. They understood that I was a little apprehensive about working
out, as I was not so strong. They empathized with my concern and assured me that they
will take care of everything, and I am just required to visit the gym 5 times a week.

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Towards the end, they told me about the fees of the gym and extended me the courtesy
to first try their services and then go ahead and pay the fee.
I would like to give Anytime fitness 10/10 on the Net promoter scale which implies that
I would most definitely recommend the gym to almost every person I know and spread
a positive word of mouth on the hospitality and delighted service excellence of the gym.
Service Experience-Lesson to Learn from Anytime Fitness
The importance of services was realized by various organizations due to less
differentiation in product or services offering of the companies. The company thus
realized the importance of services to add differentiation in their product or service
offering. RATER model is one of the frequently used tools which help in evaluating the
services according to the 5 elements most significant to service industry (Gummesson,
2014).
RATER Model
Figure 1: RATER Model
(Source: Galeeva, 2016)

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The RATER model is a very convenient method to measure the expectation of customer
in respect to the services one received.
Reliability-It is the parameter which implies if the organization is reliable and able to
deliver the services as expected or promised. This is the parameter which takes into
account the quality of the services and the reliability one can have on the service
provider (Oh & Kim, 2017).
Anytime fitness is an absolutely reliable service provider and they never fail to impress
the client. They are determined to deliver what they have quoted on various ad
campaigns or on Social Media. For example they have a policy of trying the Gym before
paying the fee, which they exactly did. It was mentioned on the company website that
they have enriched experience in creating fitness enthusiasts and transforming lives of
people, this was highly evident after having a discussion with the team at Anytime
fitness.
Assurance-This is related to the convincing ability of the employees to convey and
impart their wisdom and knowledge. It also reflects the accuracy of the information and
the convincing skills of the employees (Song & Lim, 2015).
The staffs at Anytime fitness were filled with plethora of information regarding body
training and the effects of specific exercises. They were able to provide detailed
information on the work out at ease, which shows how confident they were of their
knowledge. At the very same time, the employees knew almost every single exercise in
the gym and their knowledge helped me in developing confidence in their words,
providing assurance.
Tangible-It is hard to define Tangibility in services; therefore it is limited to the
physical aspect of the services. The physical aspect of services helps in evaluating the
service expectation of the customers (Noorian, Marsh & Fleming, 2016).
Anytime Fitness ensured tangibility by its well -maintained machines the gym. All the
machines were functioning smoothly and in great working condition. There was no
noise coming out of any machine and no visible sign of wear and tear. At the same time,
the gym was decorated by highly motivating quotes from Body builders or fitness
enthusiast. Another visual element of the service was the pictures of the every person

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who transformed his body shape working out at the gym. This did not help in
envisioning the future, but also the dedication and honesty in the services of anytime
fitness.
Empathy-This is the understanding the plight of the customer or the situation faced by
the customers. It is the ability of the employees to put them in the shoes of customers
and try to experience what they might be feeling (Hossain, 2016).
Anytime fitness has high empathy values in them, on noticing my apprehension, the
trainers were quick to understand my fear and acknowledged my concern. They
promised to take care of my concern by delivering words of assurance. They made it a
point that I feel comfortable and they have comprehended my concern. This is one of
the high point of great services at Anytime Fitness.
Responsiveness-This represents the extent to which the organization is willing to
respond to the query of customers. It also implies how quick the organization is in
offering its service to its customers (Vogus & McClelland, 2016).
Anytime Fitness is highly responsive in answering the query of the customers, I have a
first-hand experience of visualizing the same. When I asked them the how this exercise
would help me, they were quick to respond to the query. They were also highly
responsive when I wanted certain information from them through mail, they responded
in less than an hour. It shows the high responsiveness of Anytime fitness.
The RATER model clearly reflects that Anytime Fitness has mastered the art of
exceeding customer service expectation by delivering a delighted experience of the
customers every single time.
7P’s of Service Marketing
The first 4P of the service marketing are exactly the same as that of product marketing,
it is the last three P’s which are different in case of services. The 7P of service marketing
for Anytime fitness can be mentioned as below:
Product-Services are highly perishable, intangible and heterogeneous in nature. Also,
production and consumption of services is highly inseparable, however, there is a scope

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of customization of the services. It is advised that organization do not highly customize
its service as it’s significantly affect the standard delivery of the service and also impacts
on the quality of service delivery. The service offering of Anytime Fitness include,
Personal training, Zumba classes, Cross fit, Kick boxing, Yoga, Diet chart, Pilates,
Strength training, health shakes and protein supplements and food. All the offering
makes Anytime a complete fitness centres.
Price-The pricing of services is difficult to calculate in comparison to those of product.
In case of product the price can be easily calculated in terms of the cost of raw materials.
In services, it is not so, in services a lot of cost such as ambience, labour head costs have
to be calculated. At the very same time, the company has also to think of the perceived
value the service will deliver to the customers. In case of Anytime fitness they have
different prices as they have plenty of service offering. They have packages such as
monthly, quarterly, annually and membership for the customers. The pricing is highly
competitive for Anytime fitness.
Place-As mentioned earlier that delivery of service is concurrent to the production,
hence cannot be transported or stored, therefore the location of service is very crucial.
Anytime fitness has presence all across Australia and it ensures that it follows the same
standard of quality in every location.
Promotion-It is easier to replicate the services; hence it is important to promote the
services using traditional and contemporary tools of marketing. Anytime fitness uses
social media, Google search Banner and Billboard to promote its services.
People-People are the defining factor in the service industry, as they are the ones who
are delivering the services. Trainers at Anytime Fitness are people friendly and
customer centric, they are highly responsive to the queries of customers and do their
best to help the customers. The entire team at Anytime fitness is extremely helpful and
customer focussed.
Process-The process of service delivery is extremely crucial in Service industry. A lot of
service companies create their service blueprint to ensure due diligence at every point
of customer contact. In my opinion Anytime fitness has a very discrete process which is

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highly detailed and specific. All the trainers follow the process to ensure no service gap
in delivery.
Physical Evidence-Physical evidence in the services is incorporating the tangible
elements in service offering to enhance the experience of the customers. In case of
Anytime Fitness, the well maintained machines and the posters hanging on the walls
with motivating quotes are the biggest example of Physical evidence.
Recommendation
Customer –Centric Approach- The nature of service is entirely different from product,
hence it is very much advisable to set a customer-centric approach in delivering the
services to the client. The client has to be thought of as a king while delivering the
services.
Listening to comprehend- Services is all about listening to the customers, it not only
help in identifying the perception of the customers but also helps in creating a service
plan to meet the expectation of the customers.
Using SERQUAL Framework in designing services- SERVQUAL framework is the
elementary methods which helps in understanding the gap in the customer’s services. In
all there are 5 gaps according to the model; companies should focus on bridging the gap
to provide great services to the customers.
Feedback System- Feedback is very helpful in evaluating the success of the services
and how the customers react to the services of any company. Techniques such as social
listening, feedback forms, surveys’, questionnaire etc. can be used to collect the insight
from the customers on their service experience and also suggestions to improve the
services.
Conclusion
Services are highly perishable in nature and the production and consumption of
services happens at the same time, this implies that organization has to really focus on
the delivery of its services. Rater model in services is one of the elementary frameworks

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which are used to evaluate the service according to the elements of Reliability,
assurance, tangibility, empathy and responsiveness. Anytime Fitness in Australia is
exemplary in its service offering and ensures that it always meets the expectations of
the client. Physical evidence, people and Process are a very important part of service
mix in marketing and require special attention.

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References
Galeeva, R.B., 2016. SERVQUAL application and adaptation for educational service
quality assessments in Russian higher education. Quality Assurance in Education, 24(3),
pp.329-348.
Gummesson, E., 2014. Productivity, quality and relationship marketing in service
operations: A revisit in a new service paradigm. International Journal of Contemporary
Hospitality Management, 26(5), pp.656-662.
Hossain, M.J., 2016. Determining the key dimensions for evaluating service quality and
satisfaction in academic libraries. International Information & Library Review, 48(3),
pp.176-189.
Noorian, Z., Marsh, S. and Fleming, M., 2016. zTrust: Adaptive decentralized trust model
for quality of service selection in electronic marketplaces. Computational
Intelligence, 32(1), pp.127-164.
Oh, H. and Kim, K., 2017. Customer satisfaction, service quality, and customer value:
years 2000-2015. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 29(1),
pp.2-29.
Song, H.G. and Lim, S.U., 2015. Assessing pet industry in Korea using service quality
improvement gap model. International Journal of Technology, Policy and
Management, 15(1), pp.2-20.
Vogus, T.J. and McClelland, L.E., 2016. When the customer is the patient: Lessons from
healthcare research on patient satisfaction and service quality ratings. Human Resource
Management Review, 26(1), pp.37-49.

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