Unfortunately for members who work all day, the Seattle Executive Fitness gym on Olive Way in downtown Seattle has reduced its evening hours. The Olive Way gym now closes at 9:00 PM weeknights. Previously, the gym was open until 11:00 PM, a minimum reasonable hour for a gym that portends to cater to "executives", many of whom work late into the evening and would like to get in a workout on the way home from the office. For the moment, the other location, the tiny gym in the Municipal Tower on Fifth Avenue remains open until 10:00 PM weeknights.
With each passing week there are increasing indications that Seattle Executive Fitness is thrashing about in the throws of what seems like an inevitable death spiral. The signs of doom are everywhere at Seattle Executive Fitness: from the reduced size of the Olive Way gym, loss of the separate Olive Way street level entrance, desperate attempts to diversify into the "Spa" business, defections by trainers and group class instructors, removal of equipment, removal of the Women's Only workout room, the lack of maintenance, and now the reduction in hours of operation.
There are numerous competing gyms with longer hours than Seattle Executive Fitness, including 24 hour Fitness (which obviously is open 24/7), which has a large location just a few blocks east of the Olive Way Seattle Executive Fitness location. Much of what is happening at Seattle Executive Fitness seems like an extreme failure to listen to or to pay attention to customers and customer service. The people who manage Seattle Executive Fitness have failed to understand, internalize, and implement, even the most basic tenants of the Business 101 fundamentals. Anyone who's taken even just a few college business administration courses knows how nearly every such scenario ends.
With each passing week there are increasing indications that Seattle Executive Fitness is thrashing about in the throws of what seems like an inevitable death spiral. The signs of doom are everywhere at Seattle Executive Fitness: from the reduced size of the Olive Way gym, loss of the separate Olive Way street level entrance, desperate attempts to diversify into the "Spa" business, defections by trainers and group class instructors, removal of equipment, removal of the Women's Only workout room, the lack of maintenance, and now the reduction in hours of operation.
There are numerous competing gyms with longer hours than Seattle Executive Fitness, including 24 hour Fitness (which obviously is open 24/7), which has a large location just a few blocks east of the Olive Way Seattle Executive Fitness location. Much of what is happening at Seattle Executive Fitness seems like an extreme failure to listen to or to pay attention to customers and customer service. The people who manage Seattle Executive Fitness have failed to understand, internalize, and implement, even the most basic tenants of the Business 101 fundamentals. Anyone who's taken even just a few college business administration courses knows how nearly every such scenario ends.
If only there were indications that Seattle Executive Fitness management might step back from the edge of the cliff where it currently stands, but there don't seem to be any at all. If the history of Merle Gregg's previous gym business ventures is any predictor of the end result for Seattle Executive Fitness, his business track record indicates that he will won't listen to anyone, not even the paying customers he is driving away, until its too late, and the gym's doors are closed forever, not just at 9:00 PM weeknights.
