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Date posted 18 Feb 2019
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Summary of feedback

Over 3 hours, 42 adult and junior customers provided 336 individual items of feedback. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with the vast majority of customers delighted with the facilities, cleanliness and the level of customer service provided, with many highlighting individual staff who had made a real difference to them.

Recent upgrades including the Gym Free Weights Extension, new Group Fitness equipment and installation of Floral Displays around the centre were generally very well received by customers.

See below for a breakdown of your feedback, and what we will be doing in response.

 

Area

You Said…

We did…

No. of comments

General

Generally excellent facilities

It was fantastic to hear some many customers tell us how happy they were with the centre. 76% of them told us they thought the centre was excellent and that there was nothing they’d like to change.

32

Excellent staff / customer service

 

Notable staff who have made a real difference to you include Shaz, Marlon and Deena on reception, Dean from the gym and Penney and Arvin from group exercise classes.

Customer service stood out as a key strength for the sports centre in all 3 MTM sessions. Both individual staff members and teams were highlighted as going above and beyond by making all customers feel welcome. The sports centre was often praised for its inclusiveness.

 

36

Generally excellent cleanliness

Again it’s great to hear that you’re generally really pleased with the cleanliness of the centre. Some specific cleaning concerns were raised which highlighted peak days and times in the week where we can potentially do more to support the increased customer flow. We are therefore planning to focus the attention of cleaning activities within the toilet and changing areas on most week days between 4pm-6pm.

 

31

 

Tell us your views about the improvements we’ve made to our service so far in 2018/19

 

Improvements made so far in 2018/19

Gym Free Weights Area Extension

All customers asked were happy with the latest gym project which involved extending the free weights provision and making more space on the gym floor by removing some less used pieces of equipment (including treadmills and bikes)

26

SkillMill Treadmill

Our new curved Treadmill is well liked by those who have used it but there were many that have not yet given it a go. We are planning to run gym challenges and classes around the machine to encourage customers to use it. The SkillMill is beneficial for both young and old members and allows customers to perform a variety of exercises.

6

Group Fitness Equipment

New Stretching Mats, Core Bags, Swiss Balls and Skipping Ropes were essential additions for some of you and well received. It has been noted that lower weight dumbbells are now needed as a majority appear to have been taken from the gym floor. We are currently exploring options to replace these.

11

Customer WiFi

Only 50% of customers asked used the centre WiFi. Most were happy to use their own telephone data to access the internet but others have been successfully logging in to use the service. This has helped with connectivity and data access in the gym and ground floor areas.

20

Floral Displays

The most recent addition of flowers around the building has been really well received. Customers thought their addition was visually appealing and in context with the ‘look and feel’ of the Sports Centre. A couple of customers made note that the flowers have taken away a few seating areas. We note that in these few cases the window ledges were only temporary forms of seating and not designed for that purpose. We are however looking at options to expand the seating provision within the centre.

33

I’m an over 55 swimmer – why can’t I check in with the kiosk instead of at Reception?

60+ swimmers who are Camden residents can swim for free until 12pm. This is a great arrangement for many of our customers, but it isn’t offered outside of Camden. The kiosks are standardised across Better’s 250 facilities and therefore don’t realise that 60+ swimmers don’t need to pay for their morning swim. We are working to see if this can be changed to make access even easier.

1

 

Tell us what else we can do to improve your experience in the centre

 

Changing / Shower Facilities

Make the female pool change shower cubicles smaller to discourage overly long showers

Feedback indicated a preference to make half of the showers communal whilst leaving 2 showers in their current cubicle form. This option allows customers to have access to both cubicle and communal showers.

 

We are aware that the female ground floor shower design and layout is a contentious issue and one that we’d like to get right. We therefore plan to consult with our customers further on the option highlighted above as the most popular current model. We will discuss this in the upcoming Customer Forum before entering a consultation period with all members thereafter. More information to follow.

4

Make the female pool change shower cubicles communal to discourage overly long showers

1

Make half of the showers communal whilst leaving 2 showers in their current cubicle form

9

Leave the female pool change shower cubicles as they are

1

Shower Temperatures too cold

It was highlighted that showers seem cold between 8am-9am. We have checked all temperature records and these appear stable in all areas. We will continue to investigate and manually check within these times.

3

At weekends sometimes the cleaning of the floor prevents customers from being able to walk through the corridor

Wherever possible we will aim to avoid this situation by asking cleaning staff to ensure there is always a clear walkway for customers to pass through, however we must balance this against the importance of providing clean facilities for customers to enjoy

1

Some of the showers only run for a few seconds

The shower push button timers will be reviewed and increased as required

1

Male showers are great

Thanks for the feedback

2

Female gym showers aren’t powerful enough

The gym showers are operating to the correct pressure level, however to further increase the pressure would require a complete overhaul of the system which unfortunately isn’t currently budgeted for

1

It was asked if the male changing room floors are cleaned

The male changing room floor is cleaned daily, a deep clean of these areas via use of a rota wash floor machine also occurs twice per week.

1

Can you offer padlockable lockers downstairs?

We recently converted a section of lockers of the ground floor to padlock operation. These are situation outside the entrance to the male changing room and are accessible to all.

1

 

Pools

Please offer a towel service even if we have to pay to hire one

We plan to introduce a paid-for towel hire service later this year

4

Pool tank walls in the Willes Pool should be cleaner

We have increased the frequency with which we clean the pool tank walls

2

Relocate costumer dryer in the female pool change as it’s too close to the door

The costume dryer needs to be close to a drain to avoid wetting the floors and the existing location is the most appropriate for it

1

You should have better choices and quality of swimwear products available to buy from reception

Better is currently tendering for a new swimwear supplier company and we hope to have a new and exciting range of swimwear products available very soon

2

Instead of having 2 medium lanes, can you try having a Slow/Medium and a Medium/Fast lane instead?

We will be trialling this suggestion during the summer

1

 

Catering

Vending machines – poor choice of healthy products

We are looking to change the existing vending machines to a healthier option

2

 

Junior

The Rookie Lifeguard courses are brilliant . Tom and Alex do a fantastic job!

Thanks for the feedback which we’ve passed on to Tom and Alex, it’s great to see how popular this course is and has been running for over 18 months now!

2

 

Please add more junior classes like junior boxfit

We are planning to launch a Junior Boxfit very soon – we have trialled this and other classes in the past and had mixed results so are just looking for the right instructor to take this forward!

5

 

Junior classes on the gym floor for 20-30 minutes would be good

We are revamping our junior classes to include this and our fitness instructors will also be focusing on carrying out mini classes on an ad-hoc basis with junior members within the studio. Keep your eyes peeled!

4

 

Fitness Centre

Digital Clocks needed in stretch/functional areas

We have ordered the clocks and are waiting installation. We expect this to take place within the next 2 weeks

3

The gym is very accessible for people with mobility issues, lots of accessible equipment

Thanks for the feedback – we recently moved equipment around to help cater for wheelchair use

1

Fantastic ambience and customer interaction especially in the gym

Thanks for the feedback

4

The new squat rack and lifting platform is great, much better than before. Much more room than before.

Thanks for the feedback

5

Really enjoying the gym challenges

Great to hear, we look to have a new challenge up every month

1

Need more low weight hand weights in the gym

Unfortunately we tend to notice over time that smaller items tend to go missing. We are currently looking in to providing more dumbbells from 2-10kg

4

Please buy a skipping rope for the gym

These have been purchased and are ready to hire within the gym

2

 

Gym cleanliness is good and much improved

Our team have been working hard to improve the cleanliness in the gym. We have revamped our cleaning schedules and also introduced deep cleaning of all machines on a daily basis

8

 

Screens on some machines could do with a wipe down. I sometimes see sweat on them

1

 

Dean’s core stability classed have been great

It was great to hear so many people speak highly of Dean – we have passed your feedback on to him. We know how hard these

6

 

50kg Dumbbells

We are exploring options for increased weight provision but at this time do not have the space to store more dumbbells. We doubled weights from the 20-30kg range later last year and will continuously look at ways to improve our fitness offering.

2

 

Group Fitness Classes

Some of the instructors have been finishing classes 5 minutes early in recent weeks

We have addressed this with all instructors and reminded them of best practise and guideline for lesson structures. We expect this issue to be resolved in the near future.

1

More Power Pump classes please

We will continue making improvements to the programme based on your feedback. We have a certain quota of classes we are able to offer based on the number of members we have, and we also have to balance the needs of all of our customers. We will however be looking to implement some of these suggestions over the coming months.

3

More FI Led Core Stability and High Intensity classes please

2

Not enough early morning classes

1

Great to see feedback listened to about class timetable – keep making the improvements!

Thanks for your feedback – see also above

3

The studio is cleaner than other centres but could still be better

We have introduced frequent machine deep cleaning of the studio floors

1

Replace matts and fix the broken matt rack

New matts have already been replaced and so too has a new matt rack. We hope this will free up space on the studio floor and provide newer and cleaner matts to work from

2

Concerns raised over a specific instructor

This instructor is no longer teaching the class in question

2

 

Swiss balls in the studio are getting a bit old

25 new Swiss balls have been purchased and are ready to use!

1

 

Other

Your online booking system occasionally glitches out and prevents me from booking

This feedback has been passed on to our IT team, we have heard this can happen at peak times for bookings across all Leisure Centres

1

There is a large gap in the fire exit door next to the pool corridor. This creates a draft when we wait for our Water Workout classes

We have purchased a draft excluder to be placed on the door to prevent the cold air from coming through. This will be installed in the next week.

2

Consider offering Tai Chi classes for the elderly

We currently work in partnership with the Peckwater Health Centre that offers this service. If we hear there is a sufficient demand for this class at Kentish Town we will explore further.

2

TV slides in the gym are too fast for me to read

Slides will be slowed down to help customers digest all information

1

Could you run a food bank service from Kentish Town Sports Centre?

We really like this idea and are currently exploring the possibility to do something along these lines in the near future.

1

Thank you to all customers who took the time to speak with me on the day. Your feedback is always valued and appreciated.

Tom Popsys

General Manager