A new national survey carried out by Leisure-net Solutions has found that fitness operators could be losing out on potential members by failing to handle telephone enquiries properly.

The National call-Focus Survey tests telephone membership enquiries against sector standards and this year's results saw the national average score decline by 8 per cent.

It is the worst score in the survey's five-year history and Leisure-net's Mike Hill said that it was "reasonable to assume" through the results that telephone responses had got worse.

According to the findings, more than a quarter of all potential sales could be lost at the initial answering stage, while half may be lost because staff aren't offering callers a facility tour.

Hill said: "Learning what we're doing right and wrong in the telephone element of our service and how we can do it better is crucial to business success.

"This year's survey results are certainly disappointing, and as sample sizes and mixes were very comparable to previous surveys it's reasonable to assume we've actually got worse as an industry in answering membership enquiries by phone."

Details: www.leisure-net.org