Kano Model of Customer Satisfaction

1. What is the Kano model and where does it come from?
2. What is the purpose of the Kano model?
3. What is the Kano diagram?
4. Which characteristics does the Kano model consist of?
5. Kano Model Examples for Better Understanding
6. The Kano model questionnaire for the assignment of features

Have you ever wondered how you can determine the satisfaction of your customer groups? Because as soon as you sell products or services, they evoke a feeling in your customers: either satisfaction or dissatisfaction. With the Kano model, you can find out how your customers are feeling and which unfulfilled customer expectations can help you improve your offer and quality, thus increasing satisfaction.

What is the Kano model and where does it come from?

The Kano model illustrates the relationship between customer satisfaction and the fulfillment of customer requirements. Therefore, it is also called the Kano model of customer satisfaction. But where does this model come from? In 1978, Japanese Professor Noriaki Kano found out during an analysis of customer wishes that the customer satisfaction value is influenced by various characteristics.

Customer requirements can have five different characteristics: basic features, performance features, excitement features, indifferent features, and reverse features. We will explain the differences between these features later in the article.

What is the purpose of the Kano model?

The Kano method shows that service or product features always have an impact on the satisfaction of your customers. You should be aware of this. The realization that not every additional feature or extra service provides value for your customers can also be eye-opening. Because there are features that are nice to have, but do not actually contribute added value to the customers.

Knowing which features and properties of your product or service lead to the highest customer satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) can help you greatly during your product development. You can only find out if you seriously engage with your target group and place them at the center, as with Customer Centricity and pay attention to their wishes, needs, and requirements.

If you do this, you will not only have satisfied customers, but also attract new potential and ready-to-buy customers, so you can optimize your Conversion with the help of tools. And that is the goal of any business.

After all, we know it from ourselves: If we as customers have experienced poor customer service or bought a product that broke within a short time, then we are not really satisfied with the service or the product and think twice about shopping there again. And you don't want to have this experience with your customers, which is why it's important to know and consider their wishes.

What is the Kano diagram?

The Kano model also has a Kano diagram. The horizontal axis represents the fulfillment of customer expectations or customer requirements, and the vertical axis reflects customer satisfaction. In addition, three of the five features are drawn in as a line or curve, and the center of the cross diagram is the zone of indifference.

This indicates the area in which customer expectations are more or less fulfilled and customer satisfaction has reached a medium, neutral level. Outside the indifference zone, small changes in basic factors or excitement features can have disproportionate effects on the satisfaction or dissatisfaction of your customers.

Which characteristics does the Kano model consist of?

As we just mentioned, customer requirements can be divided into five different characteristics. However, you should bear in mind that although the subdivision of the characteristics can be made objectively, the perception of the characteristics is subjective from customer to customer. Because not every customer has the same expectations or wishes for a service or product. And not every customer will be excited by the same features.

What are basic features?

The basic features of the Kano method are those that are taken for granted by your customers and are therefore also expected. In some cases, this is due to habituation effects, which customers have when using a product regularly. These are therefore must-criteria that your product or service should fulfill. If the basic requirements or characteristics are not present, your customers are dissatisfied.

However, they are also not automatically satisfied if the basic factors are present. This is also shown by the Kano diagram: The curve of the basic features always remains below the x-axis, so the curve will never come into the upper right quadrant.

What are performance features or quality features?

In the Kano model, performance characteristics (also called quality characteristics) are service or product characteristics that are explicitly expected by your customers and often used as a comparison criterion for different products. Thus, the performance characteristics create satisfaction with your customers and prevent dissatisfaction.

The more performance or quality characteristics your product or service can demonstrate, the more satisfied your customers will be with it. You can also see this in the proportionally rising straight line - with each additional customer fulfillment, customer satisfaction also increases.

What are excitement features?

Excitement features in the Kano model are features that are not expected by your customers and are not taken for granted. Therefore, the presence of such features and features in the product or service leads to excitement among your customers. Conversely, it means that your customers are not automatically dissatisfied if factors of excitement are lacking. You can see this in the curve of the excitement features in the Kano diagram, which never reaches the area of negative customer satisfaction, but always stays above the x-axis.

You can therefore remember that a small performance increase of your product or your service already leads to a disproportionate customer satisfaction. Accordingly, excitement features are extremely suitable for distinguishing you from your competition and offering something they (so far) do not have.

What are indifferent features or irrelevant features?

In the Kano method, indifferent features (also called irrelevant features) have no influence on the satisfaction of your customers - whether they are present or not. If your product or service has such a characteristic or feature, it neither leads to satisfaction nor to dissatisfaction of your customers. Thus, it has an irrelevant role and does not provide any added value.

What are reverse features or rejection features?

The situation is different with the reverse features or rejection features of the Kano model: The presence of such a feature leads to dissatisfaction among your customers and can lead to them not buying the product or service for this reason. But the absence of the feature does not automatically lead to customer satisfaction.

Now, knowing all five features for customer requirements for a product or service gives you a better understanding of the Kano model. So you can visually imagine the differences, we have a few examples for you. But first, let's mention that the price of your product or service plays a significant role in customer requirements and satisfaction.

Because the higher the price for something is, the higher the customer expectations. Thus, a feature of excitement can become a basic feature for your product in a high-price segment.

Also, the features and factors are subject to certain dynamics: What used to be an excitement factor is now a basic element thanks to technological development (e.g. the CD player in the car). Over time, changes occur, so excitement features develop into performance features and eventually into basic features when these features become standard.

Kano Model Examples for Better Understanding

The Kano model can be applied to any industry and business category to define customer expectations and satisfaction. To make the model even more tangible for you, we have selected five areas for which we present examples of the individual features of the Kano method:

Kano Model Example Service (Hairdresser visit):

• Basic features: The hair is washed with shampoo.
• Performance features: When washing the hair, there is a pleasant head massage or a free hair rinse.
• Excitement features: The hairdresser offers a cup of coffee or a glass of fresh orange juice.
• Indifferent features: The hairdresser only uses hair cutting tools from company XY.
• Rejection features: The hairdresser does not have a play area for children.

Kano Model Hotel:

• Basic features: The hotel room is equipped with beds, shower and toilet.
• Performance features: The hotel has free Wi-Fi, a gym and a wellness area.
• Excitement features: As a welcome gift, there is a small gift (e.g. chocolate) in the hotel room.
• Indifferent features: The color of the towels is dark blue instead of white.
• Rejection features: The hotel room with a double bed only has two single beds put together instead of a large double bed.

Kano Model Smartphone:

• Basic features: The smartphone can be used to make calls and send messages, and it has a touchscreen display.
• Performance features: The smartphone has a high display resolution and a high battery capacity, so it doesn't need to be charged daily.
• Excitement features:  The smartphone can be used for contactless payment.
• Indifferent features: The smartphone comes with a stylus for the display.
• Rejection features: The smartphone has only a small storage space or runs on an older operating system.

Kano Model Gastronomy (Restaurant visit):

• Basic features: The food is served on plates with cutlery.
• Performance features: The waiter/waitress is well versed in the wine list and types of wines and can recommend suitable wines for the chosen dish.
• Excitement features: Drinks can be refilled for free or there is live music played in the restaurant.
• Indifferent features: The plates are square, not round.
• Rejection features: No dogs are allowed in the restaurant.

Kano Model Example Car:

• Basic features: The car has wheels, a steering wheel, belts, and airbags.
• Performance features: The car has a high horsepower, low fuel consumption, and a rear view camera.
• Excitement features: The car roof can be opened and stowed away for a convertible or the car can be preheated automatically.
• Indifferent features: The car has an integrated cup holder.
• Rejection features: The car is pink or only has two seats in the car.

The Kano model questionnaire for the assignment of features

Now that you have learned what the Kano model or the Kano method is, what features it consists of, and how they differ, you may be wondering how you know how to assign your service or product features. After all, you need this knowledge to improve your products or services and increase their value and customer satisfaction.

To do this, you can carry out a bipolar customer survey. By bipolar, we mean that you ask your customers the same question twice: once formulated positively (functional) and once formulated negatively (dysfunctional). You ask these two questions in the survey for each individual product or service feature. As a response option, your customers have five predefined answers.

The whole thing looks like this:

Questions in the Kano model questionnaire:

• What would you say if the product or service had the feature XY? (Functional question)
• What would you say if the product or service did NOT have the feature XY? (Dysfunctional question)

Answer options in the Kano model questionnaire:

• I would be very pleased.
• I expect this.
• I don't care.
• I still accept this.
• This would bother me very much.

When the answers to both questions - i.e. the functional and the dysfunctional question - are combined, the assignment of the features into the five different feature categories results:

Using this table, you can read off the assignment of the features for your various product functions and features and either determine how high the satisfaction of your customer groups is or find unfulfilled potential for improvement using the above graphic. As a result, you improve your customer service and also your customer loyalty.