Growing interest in fitness services calls for efficient service management and operations. This research examines the management approaches that fitness centres in Pune City could implement to boost member involvement and ensure enduring business viability. A cross-sectional qualitative approach was employed: semi-structured interviews were carried out with 20 managers of privately owned fitness establishments (6 budget, 10 mid-range, and 4 high-end). Interview answers were coded through the Constant Comparative Method into 30 codes and five groups, and the 592 coded responses that emerged were examined quantitatively using descriptive statistics, 95% confidence intervals, chi-square goodness-of-fit tests, one-way ANOVA, the Kruskal–Wallis H test, Shapiro–Wilk and Tukey-fence outlier diagnostics, and Pareto analysis. The coded responses were not uniformly spread across categories (χ²(4) = 79.11, p < .001); the category Service Offering to Customers represented 33.3% of all responses and was significantly over-represented compared with the number of codes it includes (standardised residual = +5.01), whereas Marketing and Social Quotient was under-represented (−4.52). Manpower/staff (118 responses, 19.9%) emerged as a statistical outlier and the most frequently discussed single theme.

Mean code frequency did not vary significantly among categories (Kruskal–Wallis H(4) = 3.45, p = .485), suggesting that the five categories are collectively important rather than any one being insignificant. Thriving centres blend sufficient tangible quality, welcoming customer service, loyalty schemes and digital marketing, and are conveniently situated within a 15-minute round trip.