Delight your customers with the Kano model

Last Updated on 9 September 2023

When you get the Voice Of the Customer, you will end up with a lot of feedback and priorities. How will you know which to prioritize, which to ignore and how to categorize them? The Kano model can help you with this.

The Kano model is a method of categorizing and prioritizing this information so that you can better interpret it. It is a rating of customer satisfaction and fulfillment that will rate all aspects of your product.
It splits features of a product or service into one of three categories:

• Must have – a basic requirement that will disappoint your customers if missing; the factors your customer needs
• More is better – a performance level feature that are key competitive factors, the basic wants of your customer
• Delighter – added extras; the ‘wow factor’ that will make your customers happy

These are illustrated by the Kano model diagram.

Must have

A must have is a basic feature of the product or service that are so common as to be expected by the customers. Having the ‘must have’ features won’t make your customers feel any better about you, but not having them will make them upset. This makes them occasionally called ‘dissatisfiers‘ as their only impact is neutral or dissatisfaction.

As indicated by the name, if there are any of these items that your product or service doesn’t currently have, you’ll need to add them urgently. They are considered the basic entry requirements for selling in your market. They are the things the customer needs, and they won’t even consider you if you don’t meet them.

As they can’t delight a customer, these are easily missed, but they are vital as any missing ‘must haves’ can outweigh the effect of any positive ‘more is better’ or ‘delighter’ factors. Fulfilling these therefore becomes your first priority.

More is better

These are features that you can provide at varying levels, and so literally, ‘more is better’. There will be an expected level of this, at which the customer will be satisfied. At higher levels, it will make the customer happier (‘delighted’), and at low levels the customer will be less satisfied.

They are the main features by which you compete with your customers. You will struggle to ever have the same satisfaction level with these that you can obtain with a ‘delighter’, but you can make your customer happier and win customers with them. They are usually the factors that customers look for when choosing (must haves aren’t looked for as much as they are expected).

As they aren’t ‘deal breakers’ like must haves, you can sometimes offset being low on one ‘more is better’ with a higher level elsewhere, such as offsetting a low power on a machine with a better price level.

Delighter

A delighter is a feature that will literally ‘delight’ your customer. They are usually ones that your competitors don’t have, so they will be pleasantly surprised when you do. It’s anything that will provide the ‘wow factor‘ to your customer. These can be hard to identify, as the customer often doesn’t even know that they’re a possibility!

There’s no downside if you don’t have these, as the customer isn’t expecting them. If you do manage to fulfill these though, they can have an exponential effect on customer satisfaction (see the diagram), and make them forget that some of the ‘more is better’ factors weren’t as high as they would like . There are the features that can really turn you from a competitive force to being a market leader.

Often as time goes by, delighters become must haves, as they become the new standard. This is easily seen in the car industry where previous delighters (such as electric windows) are now must haves. Current delighters (e.g. in-built satellite navigation) will become must haves in a few years.

This means that you need to keep adapting to the market to find new delighters. Competitors will copy your current delighters, making them eventually become expected, and so ‘must haves’.

Kano analysis

The Kano model can be used to evaluate and prioritize the customer needs that you have found out through getting the Voice of the Customer (VOC). If you are in regular contact with the customers, you could even ask them to put their wants into the different categories. This may reduce the ‘wow factor’ of the delighters though as they would know they were happening.

When is it helpful?

Kano analysis is useful towards the end of gathering your voice of the customer (VOC). It’s most valuable to do this towards the start of your project during the ‘Define’ phase.

Kano model example

As an example, we’ll model for buying a new coffeemaker:

If you don’t have the ‘must haves’, some customers won’t even consider you. More is better can help win customers over, but aren’t essential, e.g. you can have a worse price if you use higher quality materials, as there will be customers who choose on both. Delighters will be things that really make you stand out, such as being able to program in your favorite drink so that it makes you perfect cappuccinos every time.

Expectation growth

This table shows how the Delighters can be eroded over time. One year warranty was initially something to stand out as special, but eventually went to ‘more is better’ and now is usually available (and often expected) on all coffee makers. It can also show that categorization changes from customer to customer – being small enough to fit in a specific part of the kitchen won’t be an issue for all customers.

A Kano diagram changes over time. Features will often gradually move from left through the categories as they become increasingly expected.

It’s also important to know that some customers don’t want any of these features, as they will be most interested in a small list of ‘must haves’ and a low price. You therefore need to understand the wants of the different sections of your customers.