ukactive executive director Steven Ward gives a sneak preview of the Flame survey findings

For the physical activity sector, understanding data and the insight that can be derived from it has never been a higher priority. Although we don’t always notice it, we live in a world dominated by trend analysis, graphs and spreadsheets, all pored over in the name of creating better products, services and user experiences. Knowledge is power, and as many of the world’s leading blue-chip companies have found in recent years, it can make or break the success of a business.

Introducing Insight
Recently, ukactive has put a huge amount of effort and resource into building up a robust benchmarking system for operators in the physical activity sector, as well as producing a systematic analysis of physical activity interventions themselves. In line with this, the organisation has set up its ukactive Insight division, created specifically to explore how a data-driven approach to mining the rich – and often under-utilised – information the sector holds could push the physical activity agenda forward.

To identify good practice and get more people, more active, more often, ukactive Insight takes a data-driven approach to:

• Establish how the rich data held within the industry can be used for the common good

• Explore the use of big data to create a more effective and efficient sector

• Provide advice and support regarding what high quality data should look like to any organisation with an interest in physical activity

• Stimulate innovation and investment

• Drive engagement and expand our key supporter base, raising the value of the activity sector

• Understand emerging issues in the UK physical activity sector

Flame feedback
This year, for the first time, ukactive Insight took a leading role in the development and data analysis of the Flame awards. As a result, every Flame entrant was provided with individual benchmarks, enabling them to see how their sites compared with the rest of the sector.

We looked at over 100 sites across the UK – health clubs and leisure centres that entered the Flame awards – encompassing just over 11,700 consumer survey responses. This provided us with a large sample of up-to-date consumer satisfaction information which is now being used to share trends to help create a more effective, more efficient sector and drive engagement.

The consumer survey consisted of 60 questions split into sections relating to customer belonging, staff attitude, customer warmth towards the membership experience, facilities and equipment, customer commitment, most recent activity experience, and loyalty.

One of the key questions we asked consumers focused on the likelihood of them cancelling their membership. Given this information, we were able to isolate those consumers actively looking to leave and explore the main factors influencing this.

We found that a consumer’s likelihood of leaving was primarily influenced by a lack of belonging, with over one-third of members who were considering leaving saying they felt gym staff weren’t interested in them.

Similarly, over one-third of those who were considering leaving said they didn’t feel socially engaged with their club; ensuring customers feel part of the club and involved socially is of paramount importance.

Education is also key: 41 per cent of members were considering leaving because they didn’t receive feedback on their workouts.