2.3.1. Kano-Modell as analysis tool for customer satisfaction

The Kano model is a simple tool to analyze customer requirements. This model – named after its inventor Noriaki Kano, Professor at the Tokyo University - compares customer needs and expectations with the performance characteristics of an offer. 24 In other words this model helps companies to assess the desired product attributes or attributes perceived to be more important along with customer expectations from the product on offer.

• The model distinguishes 3 factors:
• Must-haves or Basic Needs
• Should-haves or Performance Needs
• Could-haves or Delighters²⁵

Figure 5: The Kano model of customer satisfaction²⁶

A Must-have or basic need is an attribute that is simply expected by the customer. Basic needs are prerequisites which will lead to extreme dissatisfaction, if absent. Customers take the Must-haves for granted and if these basic needs are fulfilled it will only result in a “not dissatisfied” state. Without these Must-haves, the customer will not even consider to buy this product.

Performance needs or Should-haves are directly proportional to customer satisfaction. The more the performance needs are met the more the customer is satisfied. This is also true the other way around: the more the unfulfilled performance needs, the lower the customer satisfaction.

Could-haves are features which create satisfaction, but which will not necessarily cause dissatisfaction, when absent. These attributes are not expected by the customer and thus, they exceed the customers’ expectation. Therefore it is easy to understand, why they are also called “Delighters”. They increase the perceived benefit of a product or service and hence these features have the biggest potential to differentiate from competitors.²⁷ These attributes generate enthusiasm if they are there. Their absence will create neither satisfaction, nor dissatisfaction. Innovations belong to this category.²⁸

The Kano model is the perfect tool to create a product which the customer really wants, as priorities for product features can easily be identified. Finding and determining the “Delighters” will surely help the product to stand out from the competition, as products with only Must-have and Should-haves are easy to find and considered as interchangeable. To be successful it is necessary to follow the guiding principle to create a product, that for sure fulfills the basic and performance needs of the customers and in addition to meet or exceed customers’ expectations with features, which create a “Wow-factor”. Only these features will make the product irreplaceable.

“The interesting thing is when we design and architect a server, we don’t design it for Windows or Linux, we design it for both. We don’t really care, as long as we’re selling the one the customer wants.”
Michael Dell (*1965), founder and CEO of Dell Inc.

²⁴ http://www.geemco.de/artikel/kunden-begeistern [27 May 2013]
²⁵ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kano_model [28 May 2013]
²⁶ http://www.geemco.de/cms/upload/bilder/kano.png [28 May 2013]
²⁷ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kano_model [28 May 2013]
²⁸ http://www.geemco.de/artikel/kunden-begeistern [28 May 2013]