ABSTRACT

People will not use a sports facility if they can’t find it, can’t park their car at it, have to queue unduly to get in, turn up for events that don’t happen, have less-than-positive encounters with staff, feel that environmental conditions are uncomfortable, try to use equipment which doesn’t work or to use facilities which aren’t operational or experience low standards of cleanliness and hygiene. These issues are generally addressed in job descriptions for sports centre staff. The key tasks for a duty manager position may, for example, be summarised as being to: maintain daily operations to required standards; maintain customer care standards; monitor and plan the use of daily staffing resources; monitor and maintain cleanliness, environment and safety; maintain a visible presence to staff and customers; keep the line manager advised of any important issues; act as a responsible supervisor of staff and facilities; constantly check standards during periods of duty; maintain check sheets; identify failures and initiate corrective actions; prepare works defects reports and pass these to technicians; act as a focal point for the building owner’s monitoring staff. In the following sections we take a customer’s perspective of a few key criteria that fall within the remit of the sports manager or the sports facilities manager: comfort, communication and cleanliness.