Service Quality in Health and Fitness Centers. A comparative study among Greek and English Customers

With the proliferation of sport and fitness centers in many countries, sport service providers, intensively place emphasis on quality services and efficient operation However, while a substantial amount of literature has focused on the conceptualization and measurement of service quality in mono-cultural environments, few studies have sought directly to address the issue of cross-cultural perceived and expected service quality. The present study focused on the differences between English and Greek sport centre customers, as far as their service quality expectations and perceptions are concerted. 150 customers participated in the research (English Ν = 75, Greek Ν = 75) out of twelve sport and recreation centers. Participants filled in the three-column SERVQUAL scale (Parasuraman et al, 1988, 1994), by checking their adequate, desired and perceived service quality level. Statistically analyzing the differences between the English and Greek customers regarding service quality factors, it was traced that Greek participants scored significantly higher levels of adequate, desired and perceived quality of service than the English ones. It is suggested that future research should investigate more thoroughly the national and cultural impact on service quality and provide further information to assist management in both process of internationalization and design of the service itself.