Determining the factors affecting customer satisfaction in gyms with multi-criteria decision-making methods in the Covid-19 pandemic: The case of Isparta province

Sport is one of the indispensable activities of human life. The development of technology and transportation facilities have led people to be more inactive in their daily lives. For this reason, people have turned to new searches that can perform their physical activities. Gyms have become one of the centers of people's healthy life and physical activity. In recent years, interest in gyms, whose numbers have increased rapidly, has also increased. Today, many people sign up for gyms for quite different purposes. Participants prefer gyms because of options such as losing weight, gaining weight, developing body, participating in various sports activities (yoga, crossfit, spinning bike, etc.), sauna, swimming pool. It is very difficult to decide on the choice of gym. Decision makers have to make decisions by evaluating criteria that conflict with each other. Scientific methods can be used to decide under these conditions. As a result, Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods are used to evaluate and identify multiple conflicting standards. In this study, MCDM methods and the criteria that customers consider when choosing a gym were evaluated. For this purpose, the opinions of customers who attended gyms during the pandemic period were consulted. Participants' gender, age, marital status, education level, monthly income, duration of participation in sports centers, and purposes of joining sports halls were determined as criteria. In the study, firstly, the weights of the criteria were calculated using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHS) method; Then, Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Vise Kriterijumska Optimizacija I Kompromisno Resenje (VIKOR) methods were applied to the development subscale, sports center quality subscale, working environment quality subscale, sports trainers' quality subscale. and satisfaction subscales were used as alternatives and ranked according to their priorities. In the study, sub-criteria were weighted using AHP. In the study conducted with AHP, the highest weighted sub-criterion was determined as "membership history" (0.29), and the lowest weighted sub-criterion was "gender" (0.05). After determining the weights of the sub-criteria with AHP, TOPSIS and VIKOR methods were used to rank the alternatives. According to the order obtained by both TOPSIS and VIKOR methods, the development subscale (1), the work environment quality subscale (2), the quality of sports trainers' subscale (3), the sports center quality subscale (4) and the satisfaction subscale (5) has been identified. If it is interpreted in general, the most important sub-criteria in determining the customer satisfaction of the gyms are "membership history" and the most important alternative is the "development subscale".