Leisure-net Solutions has found that operators in the sports and fitness industry are not making the most of the opportunities presented by the web and email.

The company carried out the industry's first mystery e-shop to test the ease of making enquiries via websites and email; testing nine operators across the private and public sectors through a series of 26 emails, making three different types of enquiries about memberships and the use of facilities. Mike Hill, managing director of Leisure-net Solutions said: "With more enquiries being made via the web and email, it's important for operators to make e-enquiries as easy as possible."

The first problem encountered was how to make the enquiry and who to address it to. The mystery shoppers visited each operator's website and tried to find out how to email about a specific leisure centre or health club. "It was not always easy," continued Hill. "Some sites only had a general company-wide enquiry or comment form, while the email contact address was very difficult to find on others."

A massive 50 per cent did not respond within three days of the emails being sent, and six have never responded. Only five of the 26 responded within one working day and another eight responded within three days. The email responses were then scored on the professionalism of the response, the quality of the information given and whether they included a 'call to action', encouraging the enquirer to visit or call.

Around a quarter of the responses were poorly written in terms of grammar, punctuation and use of greetings, with the most common problem being the incorrect use of capitals and lower case letters. Most of the emails scored well for information given, but the 'call to action' scores varied widely, from a free one-day trial voucher, to no suggestions at all. Most asked the enquirer to contact them by phone to arrange a visit.

"Although we used a relatively small sample, this survey, which is the first of its kind for our sector, indicates that we need to improve the way we make ourselves approachable by email and the web," said Hill. "Websites need to make routes to enquiries incredibly easy and obvious, and we need to have systems in place to ensure that good quality responses, containing a real 'call to action', are made within 24 hours."