AJ’s Fitness Center
When A. J. Reeser signed papers to take ownership of the fitness
center previously known as the Park Center Club, he realized that
he had just taken the biggest financial step in his life. Every
asset he could pull together had been pledged against the mortgage.
If the new AJ’s Fitness Center didn’t succeed, he would be in
really bad shape financially. But A. J. didn’t plan on failing.
After all, he had never failed at anything. As a high school
football All-American, A. J. had been heavily recruited by major
colleges around the country. Although he loved football, he and his
family had always put academics ahead of sports. Thus, he surprised
almost everyone other than those who knew him best when he chose to
attend an Ivy League university not particularly noted for its
football success. Although he excelled at football and was a member
of two winning teams, he also succeeded in the classroom and
graduated in four years. He spent six years working for McKinsey
& Company, a major consulting firm, at which he gained
significant experience in a broad range of business situations. He
was hired away from McKinsey & Company by the Dryden Group, a
management services company that specializes in running health and
fitness operations and recreational resorts throughout the world.
After eight years of leading the Fitness Center section at Dryden,
A. J. found that earning a high salary and the perks associated
with corporate life were not satisfying him. Besides, the travel
was getting old now that he had married and had two young children.
When the opportunity to purchase the Park Center Club came, he
decided that the time was right to control his own destiny. A key
aspect of the deal was that AJ’s Fitness Club would keep its
existing clientele, consisting of 1,833 memberships. One of the
things A. J. was very concerned about was whether these members
would stay with the club after the sale or move on to other fitness
clubs in the area. He knew that keeping existing customers is a lot
less expensive than attracting new customers. Within days of
assuming ownership, A. J. developed a survey that was mailed to all
1,833 members. The letter that accompanied the survey discussed A.
J.’s philosophy and asked several key questions regarding the
current level of satisfaction. Survey respondents were eligible to
win a free lifetime membership in a drawing—an inducement that was
no doubt responsible for the 1,214 usable responses. To get help
with the analysis of the survey data, A. J. approached the college
of business at a local university with the
idea of having a senior student serve as an intern at AJ’s Fitness
Center. In addition to an hourly wage, the intern would get free
use of the fitness facilities for the rest of the academic year.
The intern’s first task was to key the data from the survey into a
file that could be analyzed using a spreadsheet or a statistical
software package. The survey contained eight questions that were
keyed into eight columns, as follows: Column 1: Satisfaction with
the club’s weight- and exercise-equipment facilities Column 2:
Satisfaction with the club’s staff Column 3: Satisfaction with the
club’s exercise programs (aerobics, etc.) Column 4: Satisfaction
with the club’s overall service Note, columns 1 through 4 were
coded on an ordinal scale as follows:
1 2 3 4 5
Very unsatisfied
Unsatisfied Neutral Satisfied Very satisfied
Column 5: Number of years that the respondent had been a member at
this club Column 6: Gender 11 = Male, 2 = Female2 Column 7: Typical
number of visits to the club per week Column 8: Age
The data, saved in the file AJFitness, were clearly too much for
anyone to comprehend in raw form. At yesterday’s meeting, A. J.
asked the intern to “make some sense of the data.” When the intern
asked for some direction, A. J.’s response was, “That’s what I’m
paying you the big bucks for. I just want you to develop a
descriptive analysis of these data. Use whatever charts, graphs,
and tables that will help us understand our customers. Also, use
any pertinent numerical measures that will help in the analysis.
For right now, give me a 3 pages report that discusses the
data.
Assignment
| Columns | Questions |
| Column 1 | Satisfaction with the club’s weight- and exercise-equipment facilities |
| Column 2 | Satisfaction with the club’s staff |
| Column 3 | Satisfaction with the club’s exercise programs (aerobics, etc.) |
| Column 4 |
Satisfaction with the club’s overall service Note, columns 1
through 4 were coded on an ordinal scale as follows: 2 Unsatisfied 3 Neutral 4 Satisfied 5 Very satisfied |
| Column 5 | Number of years that the respondent had been a member at this club |
| Column 6 |
Gender 11 = Male 22 = Female |
| Column 7 | Typical number of visits to the club per week |
| Column 8 | Age |
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