The Impact of Perceived Value on Sports Customer Loyalty with Emphasis on the Mediating Role of Customer Satisfaction in the Covid-19 Pandemic Period

This research aims to study the impact of perceived value on the loyalty of sports customers, emphasizing the mediating role of customer satisfaction in private fitness clubs in the northwest of Iran during the Covid-19 pandemic. The current research was descriptive correlation based on structural equation modeling. The statistical population was the customers of the private gym in the northwest of Iran. 362 customers voluntarily completed the researcher-made questionnaire of perceived value, Liu's customer satisfaction (2008), and Liu's customer loyalty (2008). To analyze the data, the structural equation model based on the partial least square method was used in Smart PLS software. The results showed that perceived value has a direct and significant effect on customer loyalty (p=0.001, β=0.178, t=3.962) and customer satisfaction (p=0.001, β=0.547, t=11.960). The result related to the mediation of customer satisfaction using the Sobel test also showed that perceived value through customer satisfaction has an indirect and significant effect on customer loyalty (P=0.001, β=0.310, t=8.894). It can be said that private fitness clubs should try to pay attention to the new demands and requirements of customers (resulting from the spread of the Covid-19 virus) so that they can respond appropriately to the emerging perceptual values of customers to services in the presence of the coronavirus. In this way, they sustain their customers' satisfaction and attendance and provide long-term customer loyalty.