The Kano Model in Customer Experience and Continuous Improvement

There are many customer satisfaction models in the marketplace. One very important model is the Kano Model, which we’ll discuss today. In this article, we’ll discuss the following:

• The origins of the Kano Model
• Key Elements of Kano
• Methodology
• Applications of Kano
• Examples of how to use Kano Analysis

Origins of the Kano Model

The Kano Model concept was derived by Noriaki Kano in his article entitled “Kano, N., Takahshi, F & Tsuji, S. (1984). Attractive quality and must-be quality. The Journal of the Japanese Society for Quality Control, April, pp. 39-48.” Noriaki Kano was a professor at Tokyo Rika University and focused his research on how to satisfy customers. The prevailing idea at the time was that give the customers more would make them happy.

He didn’t believe that.

So, he challenged the prevalent customer satisfaction models of “more is better” and proposed a new line of thinking based on the following ideas:

• Performance on product and service attributes is not equal in the eyes of the customer.
• Performance on certain category attributes produces higher levels of satisfaction than others.

In other words, there are product and service attributes for which “more” doesn’t equal satisfaction.

Key Elements of Kano

The Kano Model is not difficult to understand. It is based on a few key elements:

• Identify the voice of the customer (VoC)
• Translate the voice of the customer into critical to quality characteristics (CTQ)
• Rank the CTQ’s into three categories:
  • Dissatisfier: “Must be” / Cost of Entry
  • Satisfier: “More is better” / Competitive
  • Delighter: “Latent Need” / Differentiator
• Evaluate current performance of the process, product, or service

To obtain the voice of the customer, often Surveys, Interviews, Focus Groups, Observation, and Customer Complaints are the most common ways to obtain customer data.

The Kano Model is a tool that can be used to prioritize Critical to Quality characteristics, as defined by the Voice of the Customer. The 3 categories identified by the Kano Model are:

• Must Be: whatever the quality characteristic is, it must be present. If it’s not, the customer will abandon and go elsewhere.
• Performance: the better we are at meeting these needs, the happier the customer is.
• Delighter: those qualities that the customer was not expecting, but received as a bonus. A happy surprise.

The model is represented in an (x, y) graph. The x-axis represents how good we are at achieving the customer’s outcome (s), or CTQ’s. The y-axis records the customer’s level of satisfaction the customer should have, as a result of our level of achievement.

The Kano Process Model

As a high-level, here are the discrete steps in order to apply the Kano Model:

Research

Research available data sources. Then, Determine data collection strategy. Design data collection instruments. Collect and summarize data. Here are other potential venues for research:

Must Be’s – Focus Groups, Lawsuits and Regulations, Buzz on Internet
Satisfiers – Competitive Analysis, Interviews, Surveys, Search Logs, Usablity Testing, Customer Forums
Delighters – Field Research, Marketing/Branding Vision, Industrial Design, Packaging, Call Center Data, Site Logs

Analyze and Brainstorm

Analyze results from data collection. Brainstorm list of features and functionality, then Develop Functional and Dysfunctional Questionnaire. Distribute Questionnaire.

At the end of this step, there should be two deliverables:

• Output Requirement Features of the final product and service delivered to the customer at the end of the process
• Service Requirements More subjective ways in which customer expects to be treated and served during the process itself – How should we interact with and treat customers?

Here a few items to remember in the Analyze and Research step:

• Analyze data from available sources
• Brainstorm list of features and functionality
• Determine type of requirements:
• Output Requirements
• Service Requirements
• Kano Model Requirements Survey
• User Survey
  • Functional form vs. Dysfunctional Form
  • How would you feel if the product had feature X?
  • How would you feel if the product didn’t have feature X?
• Kano Questionnaire Answers:
  • I like it.
  • I expect it.
  • I’m neutral.
  • I can tolerate it.
  • I dislike it.

Here is an example of a Requirements Survey within the context of the Kano Model:

Here’s an example of a Functional and Dysfunctional Questionnaire for Kano:

Another example:

And then, the summary data:

Plot and Diagram

Develop Customer Requirement Matrix. Record Questionnaire results in Matrix and Summarize. Plot results on Kano Model

Strategize

Determine Project selection, Product Development, Service Development and Identify Marketing Strategy. This also includes organizational design changes that need to occur.

In an upcoming article, I’ll post a how-to video on the practical steps to creating a Kano Model for Customer Satisfaction.

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