Title: Identifying the factor structure of customer satisfaction with public leisure services

Authors: Yi-De Liu, Hui-Hsien Hsu

Addresses: Graduate Institute of European Cultures and Tourism, National Taiwan Normal University, 4F, No.129, Hoping E.Rd., Sec.1, 10610, Taipei, Taiwan. ' Graduate Institute of European Cultures and Tourism, National Taiwan Normal University, 4F, No.129, Hoping E.Rd., Sec.1, 10610, Taipei, Taiwan

Abstract: The aim of this research is to classify public leisure services into factors so that managers can make better decisions about how resources should be allocated to improve customer satisfaction and service quality. Based on customer survey of 90,746 respondents collected from 254 public leisure centres in England during the period of 2006-2008, the research findings demonstrate that the performance of English public leisure facilities in technical quality (cleanliness, wet facility, dry facility and catering) is generally worse than functional quality (activity and staff). Specifically, adequate resources have to be allocated to improve the service in cleanliness and wet facility, not only because they are the major weaknesses, but also because customers regard them as prerequisites. To sum up, managers need to know which factor service dimensions fall so as to set right priorities while managing customer satisfaction.

Keywords: public leisure services; customer satisfaction; importance-performance analysis; IPA; three-factor theory; customer relationship management; CRM; leisure marketing; service quality; leisure centres; England; UK; United Kingdom; cleanliness; hygiene; wet facilities; factor service dimensions; swimming pools; sports centres.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLTM.2010.029591

International Journal of Leisure and Tourism Marketing, 2010 Vol.1 No.3, pp.288 - 303

Published online: 30 Nov 2009 *

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