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Abstract
The health and fitness market has been described as blandly premium as there is little differentiation between service offerings indicating that there is opportunity for competitive advantage to be achieved by focusing on quality. The constituents of service quality in the fitness industry have received relatively little research attention despite the growth of the sector. This paper presents a case study of a leading UK fitness club and examines the development, delivery and measurement of quality and how this is used to obtain a competitive advantage. The study documents the development of quality policy at a corporate level and illustrates how this policy is successfully delivered and measured by staff at an operational level. The findings show that performance measurement against targets and standards is a crucial aspect of delivering a high quality service in the fitness environment, and that measures of retention rates, adherence to professional standards and adherence to internal targets are used to support the organisation's quality strategy. The paper concludes by considering how the findings of the study can be used to assist academics and managers in developing meaningful standards of quality in this important and expanding sector.