Health and fitness operators have "much work to do" if they want to improve consumers' perception of them, according to the first ever national Net Promoter Score (NPS) study conducted on the sector by Leisure-Net Solutions in partnership with The Retention People.

Leisure-Net carried out a member service survey using the NPS method to measure satisfaction and loyalty levels of members. The method included asking health club members just one question - "how likely is it that you would recommend our company to a friend or colleague?".

The results reveal that the industry's overall score was just 21 per cent.

There were also significant differences between sectors, with local authority sites scoring highest at 27 per cent, followed by the Trusts at just 12 per cent.

However, the most worrying statistic is that private multi-site operators recorded a dire -16 per cent.

According to the NPS guidelines, available on the Net Promoter website , companies with the most efficient growth engines operate at NPS efficiency ratings of 50 to 80 per cent.

Any company or industry sector that has a negative NPS means that they are "creating more detractors than promoters day in and day out".

The guidelines also state that "these low scores explain why so many companies can't deliver profitable, sustainable growth, no matter how aggressively they spend to acquire new business".

Thirty UK fitness operators took part in the survey with 159 sites and 19,000 participants represented - making it the largest survey of its kind ever undertaken in the country.

Mike Hill, managing director of Leisure-net Solutions, warned that the survey's results were particularly worrying when taking into the account the ease of sharing bad experiences in the age of social media and internet review sites.

"The old customer service adage - that a good experience is shared among three friends, a bad one is shared with 10 - is now hopelessly out of date", he said.

"Put a bad recommendation on a leading review site and not only will it reach 100 times more people within days, but it will stay live for months. In terms of achieving those positive customer recommendations, our sector clearly has a long way to go and the fitness industry compares unfavourably to other service sectors such as hotels and retail."