The Kano Model Analysis is a theory describing correlation between product development and customer satisfaction. It was formulated by Professor Noriaki Kano with the main idea of assisting various business-oriented organizations and units to discover, classify and incorporate the three major categories of customer needs and traits into the products and services that they are developing.
The three types of customer needs under this model are classified based on their capability to generate consumer satisfaction or cause of displeasure.
The Kano Model is useful in any competitive business since it helps in tackling a wide range of beneficial project activities such as discovering customer needs, establishing functional requirements, developing concepts and creating and analyzing new products to ensure that they surpass the expectations of the customers.
The three categories which product or service is classified in under Kano Model Analysis include the basic needs; which enables the organization to penetrate into the market, performance needs; which simply assist the business units to continue staying in the market and excitement needs; which make it possible for the company to stand out in the market. An ideal product or service should satisfy the basic needs of the consumer, maximize performance traits and incorporate numerous excitement needs at a competitive price.
Basic needs of a product or service are typically the attributes that a product must have which simply means that they are not rated using evaluation tools. The basic needs of the product can only be satisfactory or not. Basic needs of a product or service simply implies that there is possibility of the customer shifting to other brands offering similar attributes to satisfy their needs. On the other hand, when a product satisfies performance needs, the customer will likely become loyal to the product but chances of switching allegiance cannot be ruled out completely.
These attributes enhance customer’s satisfaction and are closely tied to the price the client is willing to pay for the product. Presence of Excitement needs in a product typically provides utmost customer satisfaction level thus making it difficult for them to opt for other brands unless the consistency and quality of the product or service are compromised at any given time.
Practical application of Kano Model Analysis can be very simple and one ideal way of doing this is by asking consumers simple questions about rating their levels of satisfaction if the product has or did not have the particular trait. You can also provide choices to these questions to guide the client in giving out relevant answer such as satisfied, neutral, disgruntled or none of the aforementioned among many others.
This will enable you to integrate all the relevant responses accordingly by including or eliminating particular attributes that their absence or presence affects customer satisfaction. This allows the product to attain desirable results which is utmost customer satisfaction. It is also important that you pay attention to the specific attributes and not necessarily dismiss them since they could be critical in determining other aspects of the product other than satisfying the customer.
To have unbeatable competitive edge in a particular industry that consequently allows you to have long-term success in the venture, it is important that you use Kano Model Analysis for improved customer satisfaction returns.
