Capital Sports is an independent fitness center in the city of Zwijndrecht, ZH, The Netherlands. They offer several facilities and personal attention to their members, in order to maximize customer satisfaction. In this blog, a new technology will be introduced to serve Capital Sports’ and its members’ needs.
First, we take a look at their current strategy. Capital Sports’ current mission is to guide people to a healthier and better lifestyle through its activities in their fitness center. Capital Sports enables members and aspiring members a way to maintain a sporty and healthy lifestyle by offering multiple ways to participate in sports activities. Capital Sports tries to differentiate itself from competitors through the personal touch it offers its members. Emphasis is put on the attention and guidance employees give the members of Capital Sports, in order to maximize customer satisfaction. But do they also make use of IT? Capital Sports makes use of a website, CapitalSports.nl, which showcases the basic information about the facilities, activities and the option to become a member through the online portal. The company also has a presence on social media through Facebook and there is a Capital Sports app.
The new technology proposed to transform the current business of Capital Sports is video on-demand. This entails that Capital Sports’ live lessons will be recorded and posted online. Members can log in through the portal on either the website (capitalsports.nl) or the Capital Sports application. The lessons can be joined in either real-time or at a time convenient to the member. All lessons for which limited or no equipment is necessary will be made available in the on-demand service. In addition to providing online videos of lessons, it will create an online community. Members will have the opportunity to rate lessons, mark their favorites and ask questions pertaining to the lessons. Creating this online community is the first step for Capital Sports to create an omni channel experience for their members.
The on-demand nature of the video streaming has a twofold effect. On one side it offers members to join a lesson they cannot attend, either live or at another time of choice. This is because offering lessons online increases reach for Capital Sports and accessibility for members, both in a physical manner and because the video streaming is available outside Capital Sports’ regular opening hours. This ensures Capital Sports’ 24/7 customer focus. On the other side, consumer experience is enhanced by offering the possibility to repeat a lesson they have participated in before. An important aspect for Capital Sports is that by offering lessons through a video channel, it is possible to employ the use of analytics. Several trends can be analysed, for example the most popular lessons/instructors/hours.
We recommend for Capital Sports to do a survey amongst its members, in order to get a grasp on how many members are willing to participate with the online streaming service, and how much they are willing to pay for this extra service. Second, we recommend Capital Sports, to discuss willingness to participate with their instructors, as they might object to being exposed online. These recommendations will help them make a more educated guess with regards to the financial risks of undertaking the project.
We would like to thank Capital Sports and all the ones involved in making this analysis possible. More information can be found in the accompanying video: https://youtu.be/6VE1naqE8jk
