Over the summer I completed a six week internship at BP and also had the opportunity to look at a smaller business Xercise4Less. I identified many differences between the companies and have many recommendations for xercise4less to improve and expand the company.Xercise4less is a private limited company and in contrast to other large companies such as BP they are a small company.
Their aim is to offer the best value for money in the industry. They are a value brand that has designed its business around passing cost savings on to their customers. They started off with one gym and are now branching out to various areas around the UK and becoming a well know brand in the gym industry. In comparison to BP they are a small company which means they have a flatter structure of hierarchy.
Therefore, their support roles have to take on roles of more than one job and because of this, they are less specialised in their job and can improve of many different things. I will be suggesting ways in which a receptionist can improve to increase company success.An important factor in improvement is feedback. 1) Feedback is the process in which the effect or output of an action is returned to modify the next action.
Feedback is essential to the working and survival of businesses to help improve their current work processes. Feedback occurs when an environment reacts to an action or behaviour. For example, customer feedback is the buyers reaction to a firm’s products and policies, and operational feedback is the internally generated information on a firm’s performance.The review process begins with an evaluation of your current practices, which is done through a thorough analysis of your people, process, and technology.
The review then helps the business to define 2) critical success factors (CSF) which are the areas where the business needs to perform well in order to be successful. It also highlights existing or potential problems within a particular area and the potential solutions for the problems that arise which will effect improve the businesses success.The area in Xercise4less that I will be looking is the receptionist. 3) The receptionist is the first point of contact in an office.
Receptionists are usually seated at the entrance of an office and do a variety of administrative tasks including, but not limited to, answering phones calls, making photocopies, distributing mail, signing for packages, and general office upkeep. Due to the small size of the company the receptionist will have to do tasks of other departments such as selling memberships to customers or being the customer service for the company.The receptionist at Xercise4less makes use of a paper diary system. A paper diary system is good because it can be carried with the receptionist and doesn’t crash like electronic systems.
However, I recommend that they start using an electronic system as it provides many more benefits than a paper diary system. Electronic diary systems are quick and easy and can give reminders when a meeting or deadline is coming up in which a paper based diary cannot do. The use of electronic diaries also means that invitations to meetings can be sent by email and can track who can and cannot attend that specific meeting. It will also make it easier for the receptionist when on the phone as they do not need to keep flicking pages of paper and overcrowded writing, it’s easy to track what you want to instantly.
However, If the system crashes or there is a power failure then you will not be able to access the diary. Therefore, I suggest having a backups on the computer and in a paper diary.Furthermore, a basic telephone system is used on reception. For instance, if a customer calls reception wanting to speak to the manager, they will have to physically pass the phone to the manager or they will have to give the customer a different number to call which is very time consuming and the customer may feel frustrated.
I suggest that they update their telephone system and have a system which allows the customer to have different options for different parts of the company and they then only have to talk to the one person they need, not may different people. This will make communication faster and more efficient which will improve customer service. Another issue was that customers cannot book classes through the phone. Customers have to go online and book classes at the gym.
Therefore, I recommend that they change this and allow customers to call and book classes. With the electronic diary systems I suggested, it will be easy for the receptionist to book a member into a class.Moreover, electronic communication systems are very important in reception. Reception at Xercise4less make use of email which is easy and convenient.
This way they can email members or email other departments in the gym. The biggest benefit of e-mail, with the ability to contact a specified group of people at the same time if required. This improves internal and external communications. For example, the receptionist could email a group who are attending a specific gym session if there are problems or to remind them of the session.
Although using email is a great benefit, I suggest they make use of other electronic communication systems like Lync. It allows you to send instant messages to people in the same company as you and also set up teleconferencing and meetings which are all effective ways to communicate. This makes contact for other members instant, and would be useful when a visitor wants to see them as the receptionist could instant message them on Lync and they will be aware that there is someone to see them instantly. Also another good feature of Lync is seeing if someone is available.
This would help when visitors come asking for a team member. Instead of physically seeing if they are free they can use Lync to see if they are free, away or in a meeting due to the changeable status option.The receptionist will also be in charge of all the members entering and existing the gym. Xercise4less currently have a pin system in place in order for people to get in and out of the gym.
This can arise some issues. Having pin systems means that non-members can use other people’s pins to enter the gym without paying for a membership. To stop this fraud from happening I suggest that Xercise4less have ID cards with pictures on which can be easily checked to ensure that the person the card is in possession with the owner and not anybody else. This will then result in less fraud and more customers having to pay for memberships increasing sales.
Lastly, the receptionist will have to archive and store lots of different information. They will have to archive and store all personal information about their members such as their name, age and address. Currently they send emails to all of their members and do not allow them to opt out of them. Those customers who do not want to have lots of emails will get frustrated as they cannot stop them and may result to them leaving the gym.
Therefore, I think it would be beneficial if they allow their members to opt out of getting promotional emails as they can be annoying for them making them unhappy.In conclusion, as Xercise4less grow they will need to update their systems and procedures in order to keep up with the demand. Although currently they are working efficiently, and growing to be very popular, taking my recommendations into consideration, Xercise4less can become a well-known brand within the health and fitness sector.
