Nov 1, 2001 12:00 PM

The locker room is the heart of your club, vital to both member recruitment and retention. Unfortunately, though, clubs often overlook this crucial area.

Members don't.

The naked truth about the most overlooked area in clubs

“Members spend more time in the locker room than perhaps other areas of the club that get more attention,” says Greg White, general manager for the Cherry Creek Athletic Club.

More than just a place to hang clothes, a locker room can either attract members or drive them away. “That's an area where you can lose a prospect,” says Jim DeLaunay, the general manager of the Fitness Company's Headquarters Health Club, Morristown, N.J.

Indeed, locker rooms can be a differentiating factor for people shopping for a club membership. “Everybody's got the same treadmills,” DeLaunay says. “Everybody's got the same free weights…. It's the club location, the club's overall decor and the club's locker rooms that make the overall difference. As far as facilities go, I think locker rooms are the biggest variable in between clubs.”

You can determine whether your locker room is a positive variable by gauging the reaction of current members. Listen to complaints, but also keep an eye out for unspoken feedback. For example, how many people actually use your shower facilities? Do members run in and out of the locker room as quickly as possible, or do they relax, chatting with friends?

On average, only 25 percent of members use a club's showers, according to Bruce Carter, the founder of the Longmeadow, Mass.-based consulting firm Optimal Fitness Systems. It's a telling statistic that most people prefer to wash up at home.

Cleaning up the locker room's image is an important step toward increasing member retention and sales. The locker rooms should be a place where form meets function: Though a practical space for storing belongings or showering, locker rooms should offer a warm, welcoming environment.

“[Owners] don't pay enough attention to the importance of [the locker room] in their prospect's mind,” says Carol Nalevanko, the vice president of DMB Sports Clubs. “[Owners] are looking for functionality, not for feel.”

According to Carter, members want cleanliness, space and privacy in locker rooms — with cleanliness coming first. “Obviously this is a place where they're going to be most intimate with the club,” says Janet Woodfin, general manager of Crunch at 38th Street in New York. And filth makes intimacy unpleasant.

Since cleanliness tops the list of what members want, maintenance of the locker area should be handled on a continuous basis. Many clubs like to do a deep cleaning overnight, with multiple smaller cleanings throughout the day, particularly after rush hours. “Cleanliness — that's a 24-hour-a-day job,” says Nalevanko.

Crunch takes cleanliness — and safety — in the locker room seriously. The chain posts employees at each locker room to clean up as needed, and watch out for thieves. “One of our maintenance staffers is assigned to the locker room and serves as security guard and attendant,” Woodfin says. “They maintain the showers constantly and maintain any other cleaning duties in the locker room.”

In addition to cleaning locker rooms and preventing theft, locker room attendants can take instant feedback from members. “It's important to have individuals back there that can communicate [with] members,” says White, who assigns spot checkers and a rotating cleaning crew to the locker rooms.

Cleanliness is an obvious want for members. However, other subtler issues will also affect how members feel about a club's locker rooms. Gang showers may be an obvious no-no, but a host of other design elements can make your customers feel uncomfortable.

The problem with most locker rooms is that men design them, Carter believes. “I've always tried to think like a woman — and an overweight woman — just being in [this] business,” he explains. “Women don't like to feel like they're changing in a big room where everybody's looking at them. Especially overweight women.

“The woman who thinks she's out of shape, that's so embarrassing for her and that can last for years in [her] psyche,” he adds.

In order to be sensitive to your clients' needs, consider the following guidelines for your locker room's layout, courtesy of Carter. First, while the changing area should be large enough so that people aren't crowding each other, the space should be divided up so that the area isn't intimidating. For example, you could line up a row of lockers so they bisect the space in half, with changing areas on either side.

The shower areas should also be separate, according to Carter, with individual areas for toweling off/dressing (if feasible). Set apart the toilet facilities from the main part of the locker room, so incoming/outgoing traffic does not intrude on the members who are changing/showering. Likewise, the vanity area should occupy its own space, with plenty of counter areas and outlets available (particularly for women), Carter says.

Giving members ample space in the locker provides the privacy that people prefer. WOW! Work Out World in central New Jersey recognizes this.

“We put scales inside the locker rooms in as private a section as possible because we find so many people are vain about their weight and they don't want them in the public areas,” says WOW!'s Stephen P. Roma.