Customer satisfaction is a key indicator of business success. Identifying external customers is often much easier than those on the inside. Additionally, all personnel in the business must understand that they have customers, most often of the internal kind, and both kinds of customers need to be satisfied.
The Basics
The Kano Model is insightful because it measures three different elements of customer satisfaction. First, it looks at the Basics - those "must-have" items. If the product does not have them, the customer has little or no options for satisfaction.
For example, suppose you want to buy a car, it "must have" wheels and a motor or engine, right? There are numerous other "must-haves" depending on your level of expectations for a car and the amount of money you plan to spend.
So, whatever your Basics are, notice that the Kano Model chart below shows that those do not even move your satisfaction to Neutral!
And, more importantly, if you aren't meeting your boss's expectations, you aren't close to Neutral on the satisfaction chart either!
Performance
The next level in the Kano Model is Performance. That means the more of an item you can get, the higher your satisfaction. For a car, it could be horsepower, luxury, sound system, quality, or all of these combined.
Note that Performance has a different correlation to satisfaction than Basics. Performance is a straight line from bottom left to top right. If you can get or give more Performance related items, the greater their satisfaction. Or the less you have of them, the greater the dissatisfaction.
If you think about your job, it may be the volume of work product - how much work you complete. More often, in a job, timeliness or meeting deadlines is the key. Of course, making or saving money are also important performance items. And, most companies are interested in innovation, so it could be how many ideas you have provided. More is better when looking at the Performance related items.
Delighters
Finally, the most interesting part of this model is Delighters. Please take a look at where this line starts and then where it ends. It begins above Neutral and does not even have to be completely present in the product. That means it can give a "feeling" of being present. That appears based on the perception customers have about the product. It may not be the "best", but it is perceived that way.
For your boss, a Delighter would be like you taking initiative on something that was suggested as important. That is a perfect time to use the "Magic Phrase," which will be a Delighter for most supervisors. Click here to download the Magic Phrase document.
Here is a good guideline to consider for your customers. Don't work on Delighters, if you aren't fulfilling the Basics or Performance items.