The Kano
Model
According to the Kano Model, your product or service
can have three types of attributes:
-
Treshold/Basic Attributes
These are the 'must haves'
and which your customers and potential customers expect to be present
in your product or service offerings.
-
Performance/Linear Attributes
These are those attributes in your product or service
offerings, which are not absolutely
necessary, but which are known about and can increase your
customer’s and potential customers' enjoyment of the product or service.
-
Exciters and Delighters
These are those attributes that make your customers to be
absolutely ecstatic about your firm. They are the product or
service attributes, which your customers and
potential customers don’t even know
exist, or that they want, but are surprised and delighted
when they find them in your offerings.
Your customers and potential customers will respond to your company or to
your products or services, according to the existence (or
lack thereof) of those attributes.
The Kano Model is illustrated below:
While most businesses and organizations are settling for the Treshold/Basic attributes level (this is unbelievable, but it’s true),
and the best ones are attaining the Performance/Linear attributes
level, the leading companies are always shooting for the
Exciters and Delighters level.
The "Exciters and Delighters" level can
become your standard if you must become or continue to be a leader in the most competitive
areas within your industry or market. Although it’s not easy to attain, the greatest yield
comes from the Exciters and Delighters, directly or indirectly,
perhaps constantly evoking a big smile and a “wow” exclamation
from the majority of your customers, and a frowned face on your
competitors.
Renowned Decision Sciences & Operations Management professor
William J. Stevenson of the Rochester Institute of Technology
explains this in another way. He holds;
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At one time, having high
quality was enough for a product or service to stand out and
enough for a company to stand out; now it is the norm.
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Those
firms that fall below this norm (the basic attributes, or even,
performance/linear attributes in some cases) will stand out
(negatively, and those that exceed the norm will also stand out
(positively).
Those firms that just stick to the norm
will only, at best, manage to survive for some time. They soon
start to fade, and many of them will eventually disappear. Those
businesses and organizations that must boom must constantly rise above
the norm.
