How do interactions of Kano model attributes affect customer satisfaction? An analysis based on psychological foundations

Abstract

This paper analyses how the interactions of services' attributes, classified by the Kano model, affect customer satisfaction. The present research argues that foundations of the attributes interactions' impact on customers' satisfaction are similar to interactions between intrinsic and extrinsic psychological motivators. To carry out this research, data were collected by interviewing a sample of 119 customers of pizzerias and 152 customers of video rental stores. The results show that the impact of a superior level of ‘attractive’ and ‘one-dimensional’ attributes on customer satisfaction, decreases from 30% to 70% if ‘must-be’ or ‘one-dimensional’ attributes are unfulfilled. These findings support the assumption that it is important to achieve adequate performance of ‘must-be’ and ‘one-dimensional’ attributes before offering ‘attractive’ attributes or hoping to achieve superior performance of ‘one-dimensional’ attributes. It is important for a company to be able to identify the Kano model category for each attribute. The managerial implication suggests that companies should identify and keep ‘must-be’ and one-dimensional attributes on an adequate performance level. Only in this way attributes classified as ‘attractive’ or ‘one-dimensional’ can bring differentials in the market and have full effect on customer satisfaction. No previous papers have studied how the interaction of attributes with different Kano model classifications impact on customer satisfaction and relate it with psychological aspects. This study may lead to the development of more refined methods to design, manage and improve services and products, finding not only attributes relevancy, but also their best combination.

Keywords:

• Kano model
• customer satisfaction
• quality management
• attributes interaction
• intrinsic motivators
• extrinsic motivators