Kano Analysis
Kano, a Japanese researcher, has outlined that the needs or reactions of customers to product characteristics are classified into four types:
1. The ‘Surprise and Delight’ factors - These are the factors that highlight your products distinctly from other competitive products. For example, a passenger jet that could fly vertically.
2. The ‘More is Better’ - These are factors fetching more value for your product than others. For example, a passenger jet which uses lesser fuel than its competitive product.
3. The ‘Must Be’ things - The factors which are essential to the very existence of your product. For example, it is mandatory that a passenger jet should meet airport noise regulations.
4. The ‘Dissatisfiers’ - The factors which cause your customers to dislike your product. For example, a passenger jet which is very uncomfortable to travel.
Kano Analysis is a quality measurement tool that is utilized for prioritizing the customer requirements according to the impact they have upon customer satisfaction. This quality measurement tool is ideal for determining the importance of each requirement. The identified requirements will have varying importance to different customers. So using Kano analysis, you would be able to rank the requirements for different customers and determine the order of highest priority. You can prioritize your efforts towards satisfying different customers, as customer needs are not of the same type and have varying degrees of importance.
You can also use Kano analysis for identifying the different customer segments according to the priority of each segment’s requirements. After identifying the segments, you can use the needs analysis and the traditional criteria like size of company, and you can re-apply the Kano model to each segment for further defining the priorities of that segment.
Thus, by designing and focusing improvement efforts on those factors which create customer delight, there are greater chances of not only retaining your existing customers, but also gaining new customers.
