Sport&Health will celebrate its 40th anniversary on May 14th. Founded in 1973, Sport&Health serves over 135,000 members and boasts 24 locations.
Mark Fisher, the CEO and President of Sport&Health, has been with the club since 2003. He started as an area director and then worked his way up to CEO and president four years ago. According to Fisher, since 2003, he has seen Sport&Health make a few key transitions.
“We’ve transformed on a couple of different levels,” said Fisher. “One of the biggest changes is in the brand itself. We’ve put resources towards upgrading and standardizing the club experience.”
According to Fisher, this change was needed, as Sport&Health’s growth in large part was through acquisitions. “When you acquire a club, you obviously retain some of the previous club’s culture,” explained Fisher. “We want a consistent culture and ‘feel’ throughout all our clubs, which is what we’re working towards. If you go to two different Sport&Health locations, we want your experience to be the same.”
Additionally, Fisher has seen a change in the club’s focus on the member experience. “The level of intensity and focus on the member experience has been a big change,” said Fisher. “What we’re really good at now is fostering a good member experience. We excel at making connections between staff and members, and members and other members.”
To ensure a successful member experience, Sport&Health enacted a Front Desk Rewards system. It hired a company called Shared Insight to actively shop the clubs and rate their experience. If the front desk employee being tested does a good job, they receive gift cards, flowers or other prizes. “It helps them feel appreciated,” said Fisher.
In the next decade, Fisher said he expects Sport&Health to continue to remain focused on creating a good member experience for its customers. “Most of the focus is internal, on what our member experience is like,” explained Fisher. “By doing that we think we’ll continue to have a really strong brand.”
By Rachel Zabonick
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Rachel Zabonick-Chonko is the editor-in-chief of Club Solutions Magazine. She can be reached at rachel@peakemedia.com.
