Saturday, January 10, 2009

Customer Requirements And The Kano Analysis

By Craig Calvin

For the manufacturing and service industries, the need to understand customer requirements is a top priority. The Kano Analysis is a very simple, but highly useful tool to understand a customer's needs. For any company to grow, understanding customer requirements is of high relevance, as it directly affects sales and profitability. A satisfied customer may be loyal to your product over a longer period and may bring in more customers. Six Sigma teams who are responsible for the development of products and services can use the Kano Analysis to study their effectiveness.

The intent of determining the true needs and wants of the customer, then matching those needs with the product, are the goals of Six Sigma implementation teams. The base formula is simple: the customer provides a wish list, and the manufacturer or service provider creates a widget or service. Upon delivery, the customer will find the product suitable, if all goes well. There are loosely three different outcomes in which the customers' reactions can be categorized. The most sought after situation is when the customer has his needs met and is satisfied. The next is if the customer is disappointed and is dissatisfied or even angry. The third is when the product or service exceeds customer expectations and the customer is delighted.

The Kano Model specifically separates these three levels of satisfaction into separate categories: dissatisfiers, satisfiers, and delighters. The dissatisfiers normally have no spoken requirements or needs. They just expect things to go as they should without any suggestion or input on their part. A good example would be when an airline flight is late. They didn't particularly ask for it to be on time, they just assumed it would. An example of a satisfier may pertain to a passenger who had requested club lounge access with Wi-Fi internet. If this customer received this, he would be satisfied, and if not, he would fall into the dissatisfied category. And if the same passenger received what he asked for and was also upgraded to first class, then he would be highly delighted, receiving services above and beyond what was expected.

With all of this in mind, it is well known that customer needs and desires change over time. And the seller of services or products may not always be aware of that fact. Customers are fickle and will change their minds. And the provider who realizes that will carefully craft his product or service to accommodate that factor, as he attempts to capture satisfaction levels of a larger group instead of dealing with targeted requests.

Nonetheless, it is important for companies to do their best to maintain an open forum of communication with their customer base. Remembering that the basic tenet of business is to satisfy the customer's needs, the company must do all it can to fill that requirement, or there will be an erosion of customer trust, leading to financial losses. Six Sigma, utilizing the Kano Model, is the tool that can train companies to recognize and listen to the customer, which is invaluable to the success of the business. - 14915

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