Understanding the customer's needs and wants is a top priority for the manufacturing and service industries. A very simple, but extremely effective tool to accomplish this is the Kano Analysis. Knowing customer requirements is imperative to the growth of any company, as a satisfied customer will stay with your product and will likely bring in more customers over time. The Kano Analysis is used by Six Sigma implementation teams in charge of development of products and services to accomplish their goals.
The Six Sigma team is always on the lookout to match the customer's requirements to the maximum possible extent of the maximum number of customers. When customers purchase a product, their experiences will be different. They will provide certain specifications for the expected quality and the features of the product. When a company provides a customer with the products, the customer needs find the product suitable to their needs; otherwise, he may react to it differently, depending if they are satisfied or not. If the product is as per his needs, the customer will be satisfied. If the product is unable to provide the requirements stated by the customer, the customer will be dissatisfied - or maybe even angry. Likewise, there can be situations where the customer specifies a few things and gets even more things which gives them delight, as the product is above his expectations.
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.
It is important to also consider that customer needs do indeed change. And the provider of services may not always be informed or aware of the changes. This is something that always will happen, and providers need to be reminded not to gear their products and services specifically to clients, but to take a looser approach so as to capture the satisfaction levels of a larger group over time.
Companies must continue to keep communication lines open with their customer base. If customer needs aren't understood, then they can't be met. And if they aren't being met, then the company will be faced with customer loss, financial loss, and profit loss. Six Sigma, using the Kano Model, will contribute to any company's success by implementing basic tools of management and analysis, leading to success and higher profits. - 16747
The Six Sigma team is always on the lookout to match the customer's requirements to the maximum possible extent of the maximum number of customers. When customers purchase a product, their experiences will be different. They will provide certain specifications for the expected quality and the features of the product. When a company provides a customer with the products, the customer needs find the product suitable to their needs; otherwise, he may react to it differently, depending if they are satisfied or not. If the product is as per his needs, the customer will be satisfied. If the product is unable to provide the requirements stated by the customer, the customer will be dissatisfied - or maybe even angry. Likewise, there can be situations where the customer specifies a few things and gets even more things which gives them delight, as the product is above his expectations.
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.
It is important to also consider that customer needs do indeed change. And the provider of services may not always be informed or aware of the changes. This is something that always will happen, and providers need to be reminded not to gear their products and services specifically to clients, but to take a looser approach so as to capture the satisfaction levels of a larger group over time.
Companies must continue to keep communication lines open with their customer base. If customer needs aren't understood, then they can't be met. And if they aren't being met, then the company will be faced with customer loss, financial loss, and profit loss. Six Sigma, using the Kano Model, will contribute to any company's success by implementing basic tools of management and analysis, leading to success and higher profits. - 16747
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