Leisure DB State of the UK Swimming Industry Report 2024

OPERATOR PERSPECTIVE

75 per cent of new joiners cite the pools as a key reason for choosing Total Fitness

Doing things differently Lawler continues: “This presented us with interesting opportunities to do things differently, starting with an acknowledgement that – while the focus of swim lesson provision is rightly on the child – the parent is also the customer, and parents have a series of important emotional needs. “When it comes to learn-to-swim, parents don’t feel they have enough control; they don’t feel they have adequate support or progress visibility; and they find the whole set-up highly stressful. So stressful, in fact, that once their child has met the requirements of learn-to-swim, that’s it – they stop bringing them to the pool. It prevents the child from developing a lifelong enjoyment of the water and of movement through swimming, which is a real shame.

“In developing our new Total Fitness Swim Academy, which launched in October 2023, we were therefore very thoughtful about parents’ requirements. “Our huge changing spaces are certainly a benefit, making it less stressful for parents to get their children ready, but we’ve reduced stress in other ways too. We know life can get in the way and we don’t want kids to miss their lessons, so if one week you can’t make your usual slot, we offer a courtesy swap into another lesson free of charge once every three months. We also allow three registered buddies per swimmer – people who are allowed to accompany the child to lessons – so if one week the usual parent can’t make it, another registered buddy can come instead. “Another big decision that’s been a huge hit among parents: we pay our swim teachers for 40 minutes per

We pay swim teachers for 40 minutes per lesson, even though kids are in the pool for 30, so parents can speak to them

SOPHIE LAWLER

Insourcing swimming has not been without its challenges, but it has enabled Total Fitness to more consistently deliver on its promises to employees and members, says its CEO

“When I stepped into this role six years ago, I came into a business that had outsourced pretty much everything: personal training, revenue collection, cafés, swim lessons and more. We’ve gradually brought everything back in-house, reclaiming and rebuilding our products and services,” says Total Fitness CEO Sophie Lawler. “Insourcing learn-to-swim, which we completed in summer 2023, was the final step of this first new chapter as a business. “There were strong strategic reasons for doing this. As an employer, we promise that ‘more is possible’ for our team. Insourcing development and earning opportunities is

one important part of that. To our customers, we promise ‘the spaces and opportunity to achieve more than they thought possible’. To deliver on that, we needed to control our own products and services too, enabling us to deliver a consistent journey whatever our customers choose to do.” She adds: “There was also an opportunistic reason when it came to swimming. Before we even began to build our product, we did a lot of in-depth listening and research. We found a lot of demand and interest, lots of people trying to book – but a high proportion of people ultimately not booking. For most, it came down to a lack of availability and/or lesson times that didn’t work for them.”

Team Splosh is the friendly, customer- facing brand for the teaching team at the new Total Fitness Swim Academy

106

107

STATE OF THE UK FITNESS INDUSTRY REPORT 2023 STATE OF THE UK SWIMMING INDUSTRY REPORT 2024