About Dr. Paul Bedford
Dr. Paul Bedford is the fitness industry’s authority customer experience, retention and attrition management. Working as a Customer Experience consultant with The Leisure Database Company, Paul works with clients to improve customer experience, loyalty and thereby improve profitability for public and private sector operators.
Dr. Paul Bedford speaks regularly on the international stage at IHRSA, LIW and FIA Flame Conferences as well as presenting for individual clients such as Life Fitness at their Global Customer Summit, May 2010 and for the European Health and Fitness Association’s European Leader’s Forum in Barcelona in June 2010.
Working with the Central YMCA in 2006/7 and as part of his PhD. research, Dr. Paul Bedford applied his behavioural change strategies at the Central YMCA . With resulting increases in average membership length from 7 months to 13 months, and reduction in cancellations from an average of 77 per 1000 members per month to 23 per 1000 per month. The net increase in value of members is illustrated below.
Paul also has significant expertise in the education sector where he currently lectures at Middlesex University on physical activity and exercise psychology as part of their master’s degree program and at Bath University where he tutors GP’s on brief health behavior change interventions. Prior to this he was a senior lecturer with YMCA fitness industry training for 14 years.
More recently he led on the development and application of a bespoke behavior change model as part of ‘YMCA Activate England’ - a national physical activity project aimed at engaging hard to reach groups. YMCA Activate England successful engaged over 8,000 people throughout England of which; 30% were from areas of deprivation, 46% were new to exercise and over 80% were not participating enough to benefit their health (CMO guidelines).