Total Fitness Offering
While a fitness center at a country club is not a new concept, the degree of personalized service offered at the DuPont Country Club’s new fitness center is, and it is the key to the club’s success. As part of the club’s Total Fitness Offering program, the fitness center opened in January 1997 as a means of providing professional, personalized fitness and preventive medicine programs for each member, thereby offering service superior to other country club fitness centers.
The idea for the Total Fitness Offering began with comments provided by member focus groups and grew into a “way for members to combine physical activities, social activities and dining experiences all at one location,” says membership manager Tina McGowan. For one flat fee, each member is provided personalized fitness monitoring by exercise physiologists from Cardio Kinetics Inc., which includes an initial fitness evaluation with the option of being retested every six months, optional daily resting and exercising blood pressure and heart rate measurements, sport-specific workout plans, programs for rehabilitation, and a professional staff that is available on a full-time basis for consultation, encouragement and support. In addition, all members are greeted by name and the staff is personally involved in each of their exercise goals.
Since many country club members are interested in improving their golf and tennis game, explains McGowan, the fitness center is appealing to members. “The staff personalizes an exercise program to meet the goals of each individual, which often consist of increasing golf or tennis strength and stamina,” she says. Although the goal was to involve at least 600 country club members in its first year of operation, the fitness center has obtained more than 700 users, each of whom has been placed on a personalized fitness program.
The facility has benefitted by bringing younger members into the club and encouraging older members to remain active in the club’s activities. “It has helped to attract younger members who would typically not join a country club,” says McGowan. And, “it has encouraged older members to play sports at the club longer since they are staying fit. This also keeps them as country club ‘dues paying’ members for a longer time.” Year to date, the fitness center has generated $160,000 in new dues dollars.