OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE
“At the heart of this is thinking more clearly about who the customer is and what they need. For example, the focus of swim lesson provision is often the child in the lesson – and rightly so – but how could we expand our thinking beyond that? “The parent is also the customer, and they want to know how their child is progressing. How could we support that? They’d like to speak with the teacher to get more feedback, so how could we enable that? How could we pick up momentum to get kids quickly towards a clear end point, dependent on what the parent wants? How could we show an appreciation for how much life can get in the way, affording parents more flexibility? “We want to focus on the core customer and really define their needs. While an institutionally recognised benchmark for swimming is the ability to swim 25m unaided, we wonder how important that is for every customer. Perhaps a customer just wants their kids to be able to safely spend time in a pool, so they aren’t worried on holiday. Or perhaps they want their child to learn the life skills associated with structured exercise, regardless of which exercise it is. “For baby swim, a product we offer and have done a lot of thinking about, we know it’s less about set goals and benchmarks: it’s mostly about bonding, feeling like you’re a good parent, creating parental confidence, having something fulfilling to do with your baby.”
The 25m benchmark is recognised institutionally as the point at which a child can swim, but how relevant is it to every customer?
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STATE OF THE UK SWIMMING INDUSTRY REPORT 2023
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