Perception of service quality in the fitness centers of municipalities (Ankara sample)

The aim of this research is to identify the service quality perception level of the fitness centers of different facilities (women clubhouse and youth centers) in 6 municipalities (Altındağ, Çankaya, Etimesgut, Gölbaşı, Keçiören, Yenimahalle) dependent to Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and to determine the differences between the demographic features of the members and their service quality perception.The universe of the research consists of the members of different facilities (women clubhouse and youth centers) in 6 municipalities (Altındağ, Çankaya, Etimesgut, Gölbaşı, Keçiören, Yenimahalle) dependent to Ankara Metropolitan Municipality. 430 participant are involved to the research and 306 of them are women where as 124 are men. In the research, ?perception of service quality in fitness centers survey? was used. This survey was developed and the validity and reliability evaluations were done by Yılmaz Uçan (2007). In order to identify the meaningful differences between the demographic features of the members and their service quality perception level, ANOVA and T-tests were applied. Besides, Tukey Test was applied to determine the relations among the sub groups of the demographic variables.According to the datas of the research, there are meaningful significances of the participants? perceptions as follows; in interaction quality dimension: gender, education level, marital status and economic income level; in outcome quality dimension: gender; in physical environment quality dimension: education level, economic income level; in exercise instruments and equipment quality dimension: education level, marital status, economic income level, frequency of usage; in programme quality dimension: education level, marital status, economic income level, membership style and arrival time; in environment quality dimension: arrival time. Besides, there are no significant differences in age and membership period of the participants. As a consequence, members of fitness centers of municipalities has a positive service quality perceptions due to their SFM-HKO points, in other words, the members are pleased of the fitness centers. However, members? low level perceptions are in the interaction quality, exercise instruments and equipment quality and programme quality dimensions. Key words: Service Quality, Fitness, Municipality