In today’s ever-changing business environment, understanding and prioritizing what your customers need is essential for success. This is where Professor Noriaki Kano’s Kano Model becomes useful.
The Kano Model is a technique designed to help businesses understand what their customers actually want. By using this model, businesses can allocate their resources to the areas that are the most important to improve customer satisfaction.
Understanding the Kano Model
The Kano Model categorizes customer needs into five types:
Basic Needs (Must-Be): These are the essential features that customers expect. If these features are missing, customers will be dissatisfied.
Performance Needs (One-Dimensional): These features directly impact customer satisfaction. The better these features are, the more satisfied customers will be.
Excitement Needs (Delighters): These are unexpected features that surprise customers. They greatly increase satisfaction if present but do not cause dissatisfaction if absent.
Indifferent Needs: Features that do not significantly affect customer satisfaction. Customers are neutral about them.
Reverse Needs: Features that, when present, can actually decrease customer satisfaction.
Using the Kano Model For Business
Gather Customer Feedback: Get feedback from your users through methods like surveys, interviews, or any other mechanism of feedback collection. Enquire about their needs, preferences, and dislikes about your product or service.
Needs Classification: Classify their needs using the Kano Model into the five categories. This will help determine which falls into the bottom line, those that satisfy, and which can delight.
Feature Prioritization: Based on the categories, prioritize features that have the highest impact on customer satisfaction. Ensure that the Basic Needs are met, improve Performance Needs, and add excitement by having Excitement Needs.
Develop and Test: Construct the product or service with the most important features. Then test it with a small group of customers to get feedback for adjustment.
Launch and Monitor: Launch the product or service and continue to seek the views of your customers. Periodically update your analysis based on how customer preference is changing.
Example: Utilizing the Kano Model For a Step-Tracking App
Let’s say you own a mobile app development company and are planning to develop a step-tracking app. Here’s how you might apply the Kano Model to this project:
Collect Feedback:
Through surveys and interviews, figure out what users want from a step-tracking app.
Gather information about what they expect, like basic tracking features, what they would like to see improved, such as integration with other health apps, and what would pleasantly surprise them, like motivational rewards for reaching daily goals.
Categorize Needs:
Basic Needs: Users expect the app to accurately track steps and display daily counts. They also expect basic functionality like easy-to-read graphs and daily summaries.
Performance Needs: Users want features like detailed tracking of their walking routes using GPS, data synchronization with other health apps, and insights into their walking patterns over time. The more detailed and integrated these features are, the more satisfied the users will be.
Excitement Needs: Users would be delighted by unexpected features such as personalized challenges, motivational notifications, and rewards for achieving milestones. For instance, the app could unlock badges or offer discounts on fitness gear when users reach a certain number of steps.
Indifferent Needs: Features like the option to change the app's theme color or background images may not significantly impact user satisfaction. These are nice to have but won't sway user opinions.
Reverse Needs: Overly complex features that require too many inputs or disrupt the simplicity of the app might actually reduce user satisfaction. For example, if users are forced to set too many parameters before starting the app, it might be seen as a hassle.
Prioritize Features:
Focus on ensuring the app accurately tracks steps and provides easy-to-understand summaries (Basic Needs).
Work on adding detailed route tracking and integration with other health apps (Performance Needs).
Think about adding personalized challenges and motivational rewards to delight users (Excitement Needs).
Develop and Test:
Create a prototype of the step-tracking app with these prioritized features.
Test it with a group of users to gather feedback. For example, you might get feedback on how intuitive the interface is for checking daily step counts or how engaging the motivational challenges are.
Launch and Monitor:
Launch the app and continuously monitor user feedback.
Track which features are used the most and which areas receive the most feedback for improvement.
Update the app regularly to include new performance features or add more excitement elements based on user preferences.
Applications of the Kano Model
The Kano Model can be applied in various stages of product or service development:
New Product Development: To ensure new products meet customer expectations.
Product Improvement: To enhance existing products based on customer feedback.
Market Research: To understand customer preferences and needs.
Resource Allocation: To focus on features that have the most impact on customer satisfaction.
Competitive Analysis: To identify areas where competitors may be lacking.
Quality Management: To maintain products that meet quality standards.
Customer Satisfaction Programs: To design programs that increase customer loyalty.
Ready to Use the Kano Model for Your Business?
The Kano Model offers to help in understanding and prioritizing consumer needs in new product development. What matters most to your customers shall make their satisfaction come to life and drive the success of a product in the market.
Book a discovery call to explore how we can help you or your team become more innovative.
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