Elated by an overwhelming experience at a restaurant, the author decides to examine it using the Kano Model. This Model, developed by Dr. Noriaki Kano, is designed to understand the aspects of customer satisfaction better.
The first basic “Musts” curve reveals the most essential customer expectations, achieving which the customer would be neutral, but not achieving which the customer would be disappointed. Next in the Kano Model, comes the “Performance’ factor, which is directly proportional to the amount of customer satisfaction. But what actually achieves the highest amount of customer contentment, is when the ‘Unknown Needs’ are fulfilled.
When relating these to a dining experience, a must-have factor might be a decent ambiance with good food and a friendly staff. The performance attributes, could be the price of the food, and a fine-dining experience which is very linear to the customer satisfaction. And then comes the wow factor which is when a personal note is attached along with a delightful offering from the restaurant.
The Kano Model thereby, is a very simple yet efficient tactic to capture the approval of the customer by understanding and assigning the delighter factors to their obvious expectations. This not only helps retain existing customers, but also helps gain new ones.
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