SATISFYING CUSTOMERS WITH THE KANO MODEL

When a company is looking to satisfy their customers a common model to emulate is known as the Kano Model. As discussed in this courses text we have learned about the Kano model and the technicalities of how it can be used to ensure customer satisfaction as well as exceeding those satisfactions. To dive deeper into the subject I decided to further write a summary on a scholarly article regarding this model so that I could further my knowledge and paraphrase the importance of this lesson for others. The article I chose was titled, “Kano model: how to satisfy customers?” (2016)

KEY POINTS

BACKGROUND

Customer satisfaction has become and can arguably always has been the most important aspect of a business (assuming there is competition) so when a company needs to ensure that they are not simply taking guesses at what the customers are looking for and want a logical approach to ensuring success should be implemented. The Kano model does just that, it takes this idea of approaching customer satisfaction with measurable success and breaks it up into three product requirements/features that can then be incorporated into a product and help esure that the customers will be satisfied or overly enthusiastic about their purchase and the product. The three features are as follows:

1) MUST HAVE FEATURES: These features are the products nuts and bolts that the consumer simply expects the product to have. For example, if a buyer was looking at a car they would not be dazzled by the salesman telling them that there is oil in the engine and it comes with a free steering wheels and tires. Those items are simply expected to be there.

2) PERFORMANCE OR ONE DIMENSIONAL FEATURES: These features are the measurable features that can be articulated and technically identified to the customer so that they know the performance or quality of what they are paying for. For example if a consumer was going to buy a new set of tires they would not want to pay the same price for 30k mile tires as they would for 80k mile tires and they want to ensure they get what they are paying for. The measurable features might also be the thickness of the tread or the special way the rubber is designed that will allow it to last longer.

3) ATTRACTIVE FEATURES: These features are the “bells and whistles” of the product. The customer is not assuming they will receive this but when they do they are delighted and the “experience” is created and hopefully desirable. For example if a user buys a vehicle and receive free oil changes for life as well as a key chain, seat covers and all weather mats they are going to leave happy with all the additional items even though they initially may not have expected to receive those items.

CONSTRUCTING & IMPLEMENTING A QUESTIONNAIRE

An example of how the article goes into discussing how a Keno model customer satisfaction survey might be designed is based of the products attributes. For each attribute 2 questions can be created one with a positive form of a question and one with a negative form of the question then asking how the buyer would feel.

Figure 2. Functional and dysfunctional question in the Kano questionnaire (Sauerwein et al., 1996)

ANALYSIS & INTERPRETATION

The feeling scale is a one through five ranging from like it to dislike and being neutral. All the data is arranged by the attributes collected and organized as seen below. Finally the data can be utilized to determine the extent of satisfaction for the product or lack of the products satisfaction. The decisions makers can understand how the product will be viewed by the consumer and can make decisions like projecting sales, determining sales points, marketing and more. Figure 5. Table of the results (Sauerwein et al., 1996)

REFLECTION

Ultimately, thought reading this article it simply brought a fuller understanding of the Kano model to life for me and how a simple use of the model can be utilized to gather the desired information about a product to ensure that the best chance of the product being a success is measureable and achievable before wasting resources by simply guessing what the consumers thinks and feels about a product.
References
Scholarly Articles » Kano model: how to satisfy customers?. (2016).Scholararticles.net. Retrieved 21 March 2016, from http://scholararticles.net/kano-model-how-to-satisfy-customers/

The Kano Model: Critical to Quality Characteristics and VOC by E. George Woodley. (2016).Processexcellencenetwork.com. Retrieved 21 March 2016, from http://www.processexcellencenetwork.com/lean-six-sigma-business-transformation/articles/the-kano-model-critical-to-quality-characteristics/

Sauerwein E., Bailom F., Matzler K., Hinterburger H. (1996). The Kano Model: How to delight your customers. Available at: http://faculty.kfupm.edu.sa/CEM/bushait/CEM_515-082/kano/kano-model2.pdf.