In the current highly competitive marketplace, companies need to adopt product strategies and to create service values with the aim of satisfying customers. As different technical attributes have different effects on the satisfaction, the needed product attribute must be correctly identified, and based on this the correct decision can be made.
- Which attributes are an absolute must for the customer?
- Which products and services attributes can be used to obtain a high level of customer satisfaction?
- Which product features have a more than proportional influence on satisfaction?
The maximum customer satisfaction should be achieved within acceptable and reasonable financial limits.
CoDe Ltd. can help in this using the Kano model.
The model provides a simple ranking scheme which distinguishes between essential and differentiating attributes.
Defined categoties:
- Threshold / Basic attributes
Attributes which must be present in order for the product to be successful, can be viewed as a 'price of entry'. However, the customer will remain neutral towards the product even with improved execution of these aspects.
- One dimensional attributes (Performance / Linear)
These characteristics are directly correlated to customer satisfaction. Increased functionality or quality of execution will result in increased customer satisfaction. Conversely, decreased functionality results in greater dissatisfaction. Product price is often related to these attributes.
- Attractive attributes (Exciters / Delighters)
Customers get great satisfaction from a feature - and are willing to pay a price premium. However, satisfaction will not decrease (below neutral) if the product lacks the feature. These features are often unexpected by customers and they can be difficult to establish as needs up front. Sometimes called unknown or latent needs.
The advantages of classifying customer requirements by means of the Kano method are:
- Feature classification: Focuses the attention on differentiating features.
- Product requirements are better understood: The product criteria which have the greatest influence on the customer’s satisfaction can be identified. Classifying product requirements into must-be, one-dimensional and attractive dimensions can be used to focus on the most important feature.
- Priorities for product development: It is, for example, not very useful to invest in improving must be requirements which are already at a satisfactory level but better to improve one-dimensional or attractive requirements as they have a greater influence on perceived product quality and consequently on the customer’s level of satisfaction. If two product requirements cannot be met simultaneously due to technical or financial reasons, the criterion can be identified which has the greatest influence on customer satisfaction.
- Discovering and fulfilling attractive requirements: This creates a wide range of possibilities for differentiation. A product which merely satisfies the must-be and one-dimensional requirements is perceived as average and therefore interchangeable.
