Kano Method - I

Introduction to the Kano Method

As part of a Dissertation work, I used the Kano Method to evaluate Customer Satisfaction. Below are excerpts from the dissertation. (Marketability of Solar Home Systems in the Rural Areas of Thumkur and Doddaballapur - Ranjit Arvindakshan & Deepak Sriram)
When one talks about Product features and Customer satisfaction, it is generally assumed that customer satisfaction is somehow directly proportional to how functional the product is – that is, the less functional the product, the less satisfied the customer is likely to be, and the more functional the product, the more satisfied the customer. This was a very one-dimensional way of looking at Customer Satisfaction.
The Kano model for understanding product features and their influence of Customer Satisfaction was created by Noriaki Kano, Professor at Tokyo Rika University in 1984. In his model, Kano, suggests a 3-dimensional model to relate product features with Customer Satisfaction. Since then the Kano method has been used by many a Marketing Strategist while considering product features and specifications. The power of the Kano model in Marketing lies in its requirement to collect the Voice of the Customer for product specifications. It classifies product features into Delighters, Linear Satisfiers, and Must Haves.

Fig: Kano diagram

The curved blue line running across the top two quadrants show Attractive requirements. Notice that as the number of Attractive requirements increase, the more satisfied the customer is likely to get. The curved red line running across the bottom two quadrants indicate the Must-have requirements. These features are a given and the absence of the features is likely to get the customer increasingly dissatisfied. The diagonal green line is the One-dimensional requirement, indicating satisfaction versus functionality.

It is to be noted that as the customers get used to the Delighters (Attractive Requirements, or differentiators), over time they become Must-have requirements as the customer begins to expect those features in all the models.

The Kano model requires that we ask specific questions that assess Customer Requirements against functional and dysfunctional features. The questionnaire is designed such that the questions have two parts: 1) How do you feel if a feature is present in the product? 2) How do you feel if that feature is not present in the product? The questions are rated on a 5-point scale:

1. I like it that way

2. It must be that way

3. I am neutral

4. I can live with it that way

5. I dislike it that way

The responses are then classified into one of six categories:

A: Attractive

M: Must-be

I: Indifferent

O: One-dimensional

Q: Questionable

R: Reverse

Category Q stands for questionable result. Normally, the answers do not fall into this category. Questionable scores signify that the question was phrased in-correctly, or that the person interviewed misunderstood the question or crossed out a wrong answer by mistake.

Category R, indicates that this product feature is not only not wanted by the customer but he even expects the reverse. For instance, when offering holiday tours it might well be that a specific customer segment wants pre-planned events every day, while another would dislike it.

Fig: Kano Evaluation Table