Testing the effectiveness of a gym orientation program

Abstract

The study was set at a commercial Fitness Center facility based in Dubai, UAE, and aimed to test the effectiveness of a Gym Orientation Program designed to help new members with little-to-no training experience acclimatize to the facility and to fitness training.
 The practical end of all orientation programs is to ameliorate Member Retention; the purpose of the present study was to investigate whether the Gym Orientation Program supported member retention via its impact on intermediary perceptual constructs.
 A longitudinal design was used to collect data at three distinct points in the customer journey, on-boarding, completion of the Gym Orientation Program, and at Membership Renewal, one year after joining. Questionnaire instruments were adapted from studies on Student Retention in Higher Education.
 Multivariate analysis of covariance and multiple regression were used to determine whether Gym Members who participated in the Gym Orientation Program differed significantly from those who did not on the basis of institutional and social integration constructs. Multiple Regression was used to assess the impact of the integration metrics on self-reported intent to persist.
 Results suggest that the Gym Orientation Program promoted significantly increased levels of integration and intent to persist, ultimately leading to increased Member Retention. In terms of practical implications, the findings support the conclusion that it is possible to design and implement effective interventions that explicitly aim to increase the sense of institutional and social belonging in order to increase Member Retention.
 The study adopts an original, interdisciplinary approach by deploying the methodological paradigm deployed and refined over five decades in the field of student retention scholarship within Higher Education, underlining the conviction that there is much to be gained by adopting an interdisciplinary perspective.