SERVICE QUALITY RELEVANT ATTRIBUTES TOWARDS A FUTURE EXCELLENCE-BASED FITNESS CENTRE CLASSIFICATION IN RIO DE JANEIRO

A survey focused on 34 specific attributes of service quality in fitness centres was applied to 657 fitness centre clients in the city of Rio de Janeiro, following a stratified sampling process. The article aims to identify the most relevant attributes of service quality, from clients' perspective, necessary for potential future excellence-based classification schemes of fitness centres in Rio de Janeiro. A quartile analysis determined that the most critical attributes, i.e., with greatest average relevance, are related to the following aspects: (i) fitness centre environment, (ii) location and access, (iii) instructors' qualifications and (iv) results of training plans, while the items considered less relevant on average concern the following aspects: (i) additional services provided by the fitness centre, (ii) social interaction promoted by the centre and (iii) administrative employees. There is no similar research on the evaluation of service quality, from users' perspective, in fitness centers in Rio de Janeiro, and there is still no consensus in literature concerning instruments for such purpose and concerning what are the most relevant attributes to customers, when assessing service quality. In accordance, this research is relevant through providing data which are necessary to construct a hierarchical classification of fitness centres in relation to the quality of services provided.