Fusion Lifestyle says negative press about Bedford leisure facilities is ‘unfair’ Bedford News

Representatives of Fusion Lifestyle Ltd provided an update on its service delivery and performance to the Environmental and Sustainable Communities Review and Review Panel yesterday (Thursday 21 April).

Councilor Graeme Coombes (Conservative, Wilshamstead Ward) told the meeting that as a councilor he wanted to support facilities in the Borough of Bedford.

But after witnessing a lot of discussions about the management of leisure facilities, he has a very negative perception of Fusion Lifestyle.

“If we look at your Net Promoter Score, which was +12, we have to admit that’s not a great Net Promoter Score,” he said.

Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a measure of customer loyalty and satisfaction taken by asking customers how likely they would be to recommend a product or service to others.

“It scores quite poorly in terms of cleanliness, changing rooms and showers,” he said.

“This reflects much of the public debate that has taken place around Fusion.

“Fusion has a pretty negative perception in the public eye, certainly in the media that I’ve seen.

“How do you actually overcome this negative perception of Fusion in order to get people back to using the facilities?” He asked.

Steve Rose, Senior Director of Business Development at Fusion Lifestyle, said: “I think some of the press is a bit unfair.

“I’m not saying for a second that we have it all good, don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that.

“But in terms of NPS scores, I think +12 is actually not a bad score, anything positive is a good score.

“Based on the fact that if you score six or less it hurts that, and if you score seven or eight a lot of people would see that as a generous score.

Mr. Rose explained that the overall score is based on scores of six and under and nine or ten, with scores of seven and eight being discarded.

“In terms of cleanliness, it’s one of the highest negative scores, but it’s also the highest score compared to the positive scores,” he said.

“More people score nine or ten than those who score six or less.

Rose explained that the Fusions measurement system allows the company to dig deeper into NPS data.

So, for example, analysts can see if a trend has an impact on the cleanliness rating.

“One of the things we found when we first reopened from Covid was that a lot of the cleanliness issues were related to other gym users not following Covid rules, not cleaning equipment properly [after use]things like that,” Mr. Rose said.

“We also saw a pattern that during peak times, which was usually around 4-6 p.m., 4-7 p.m. one night when its swim school.

“It was back when centers were getting a lot of negativity about cleanliness levels.

“We have reviewed the cleaning rotations, we have also set up a new dedicated cleaning station.

“And you’re right, it’s the perception, if people see someone cleaning a locker room, even if it’s not clean, people will think it’s clean, that something is being done, that it’s being treated,” he said.