Tom Condon examines what psychology can teach us about optimal changing room design, while Julie Cramer discovers how changing rooms can result in greater member satisfaction, better retention rates and healthier profits

A trip to the health club can be divided into three separate but interconnected events: Firstly, there’s the initial usage of the locker room to change and store belongings; secondly, fitness activity takes place; and thirdly, there’s the final usage of the locker room to change again and perhaps shower.

Typically, health clubs have primarily focused on the second aspect in the list above. But cognitive psychology has taught us that the third phase is at least as important as the second, if not more so.

This is where we can apply aspects of human psychology – in this instance, cognitive bias – to better understand, adapt and create changing room experiences that elevate the gym experience as a whole.

The last 50 years, with its exponential increase in data, has exposed over 200 cognitive biases in human beings. A cognitive bias is a systematic pattern of deviation from rationality in human thinking. It occurs because the brain uses mental shortcuts (heuristics) to process information quickly. They help us make sense of the world efficiently but can also lead to people making irrational choices.

The Peak-End rule
One of these cognitive biases – the ‘peak-end rule’ – was discovered by Daniel Kahneman, an Israeli psychologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize in Economics in 2002.

The peak-end rule is a mental shortcut where people evaluate an experience based on its most intense point (the peak) and its conclusion (the end), rather than considering the entire experience. This cognitive bias affects how memories are formed and influences decision-making and the rule highlights the importance of delivering positive conclusions.

So how might this all play out in a club’s changing room? Adjacent locker usage (ALU) can be a frustrating experience for members, for example, creating unnecessary inconvenience, leading to cramped spaces, lack of personal privacy and difficulty accessing belongings. Adjacent locker usage is always a negative – no one hopes for it when returning from the shower.

Locker Room Solutions has a patent-pending process, Elbow Room, that’s designed to eliminate adjacent locker usage. It involves a predictive locker assignment system that uses machine learning to eliminate it, so everyone can enjoy the space they desire, at the time they need it.

A negative experience at the end of a gym visit will automatically negatively impact the member’s sense of the entire visit, so by eliminating adjacent locker usage experiences, customer satisfaction naturally increases. Better gym experiences lead to more visits, and exercise is one of the most powerful tools for improving both physical and mental health.

Improved member satisfaction is the key to increasing health club retention rates and acquiring new members through word-of-mouth advertising. The Harvard Business Review has reported that a five per cent increase in retention rates leads to an increase of between 25-95 per cent in profits for subscription-based businesses such as health clubs. So better changing room design can boost not only members' health, but club profits too.

• Tom Condon is CEO of Locker Rooms Solutions

More: www.lockerroom.solutions