The John Rhodes Community Centre Pool is a facility popular among the residents of Sault Ste Marie. Nevertheless, the location still experiences a variety of issues and especially with the attendance, which can be significantly improved. Currently, the pool has to implement seven key recommendations outlined in the memo to attract new clients, as well as to ensure that employees act more professionally.
Recommendations
The first measure which needs to be implemented at the John Rhodes Community Centre Pool is the new simplified Red Cross Swim program. Yet, it is essential that every person enrolling in the program is provided with all the details on how it works. Basically, it is important to explain to people all the advantages of the new system and how they can benefit from it. Moreover, the fitness component of the new program will help the pool to attract new clients. For instance, as it was mentioned in the case, baby boomers living in the town are particularly interested in healthy activities, and additional fitness will only make lessons for them more desirable.
The second recommendation concerns the hiring strategy of the pool, namely its high turnover and the composition of the workforce. Currently, the facility employs high school and college/university students, which can be an inexpensive solution, but it entails negative consequences. Namely, the high turnover means that the pool does not have professionals working there full-time and all year long. Thus, the pool has to hire a certain number of people who would be professional deck attendants, lifeguards, and instructors. Such employees must regularly undergo training and then share their knowledge and skills with the rest of the team.
The pool also has to introduce a stricter policy of rule enforcement both for clients and employees. Essentially, the chief lifeguards, deck attendants, and instructors must observe the behavior of clients and colleagues and notify them when these individuals violate the established rules. There can also be a three-strike system implemented, which would involve denying a client any further services if they are seen intentionally breaking the rules three times. The same policy should be applied to workers, especially to those who prefer talking to their friends instead of working. Such measures will allow the pool to significantly minimize the risks for all customers.
At the same time, the pool has to fix its facilities and infrastructure to make them more comfortable for clients. As the case states, many customers complain about the small and dirty change rooms, as well as poorly functioning showers. Such issues should be addressed immediately by the pool’s management because these elements constitute important factors in the customer experience. It is possible that the pool has already lost several customers due to the fact that these people could not get proper water temperature in the shower.
Once all of the above mentioned measures are implemented, the pool can begin its new marketing strategy, which will be three-fold. The first marketing tactic will involve establishing a referral program for clients of the business. In other words, if the existing clients bring their friends, relatives, or colleagues to the pool and these people get a subscription, then those who invited them should receive a discount. Thus, people who already attend the pool will be incentivized to increase the customer inflow.
Another tactic of the marketing strategy of the pool will be based on offering free-of-charge entry for all people on certain days once a month. Kate mentioned that during the busy summer months, there are still not many people attending the pool in the evening. Therefore, it would be reasonable to introduce free-entry evening hours for one day every month. The aim here is to provide people without a subscription with a chance to experience swimming lessons and other pool activities. As a result, a certain number of people will decide to get a subscription and visit the pool on a regular basis.
Finally, Kate should print several thousand leaflets and distribute them across the town. Such leaflets must list all of the advantages of the pool and the recently introduced changes. In order to minimize the costs, Kate can ask the students working in the pool to put leaflets in the letterbox of people in their communities and neighborhoods. The cost of leaflet printing will not be more than $500. While the employees can be given extra rewards for their participation in the campaign.
Control and feedback
The aforementioned recommendations also require to be strictly controlled by Kate and other members of the management team in order to achieve better performance. First of all, it is essential to establish the goals of the recommendations, and they include increasing the number of clients and reducing the incidence of rule violations. As a result, the main performance measures in the current case will be the number of clients and the incidence of rule violations on the part of employees and customers. The next step will involve defining the critical success factors which will be important for achieving the goals. Such factors will involve the level of understanding of the pool rules among clients and employees as well as the awareness of the pool’s services among the town’s residents. Essentially, in order to attain the goals, the pool must ensure that employees and clients clearly comprehend the rules. Additionally, the people who live in the town must know that they have the option of attending a pool in their vicinity.
After implementing the new changes, it is vital to track the results and compare them with the past performance if possible. Thus, the performance measures established earlier must be assessed and feedback from clients and employees collected. Workers can be tested on their understanding of rules, while clients can be asked to provide their opinion on the changes which have recently taken place. The level of residents’ awareness about the pool can be tested with a survey. Employees and clients also have to be asked to share their recommendations, and based on their feedback, certain corrections can be introduced.
Contingency plan
Yet, if the recommendations provided earlier do not yield any significant performance or lead to negative consequences, a contingency plan should be introduced. The new Red Cross program is the primary innovation which will be implemented by the pool. Thus, in the case it is not successful, the management can revert back to the previous program. Another considerable recommendation is the hiring of professional lifeguards, deck attendants, and instructors. Nevertheless, if the pool fails to find proper candidates for these positions, it will have to introduce stricter training for all employees who will work only during certain seasons.
It is also possible that the three-strike rule concerning the violations of the pool rules will not be liked by clients. In this case, the pool will have to ease the enforcement of the rules in order to avoid losing clients and suffering reputation damage. Additionally, if the pool capacity will not be able to accommodate everyone during the free evening hours, the measure can be extended to encompass two or three additional days. Finally, in a situation when a leaflet-distribution marketing campaign will fail to attract clients, alternative measures such as radio commercials can be introduced.