Customer satisfaction modeling (CSM) in product planning according to quality function deployment (QFD) and Kano model

Abstract

Service quality improvement and considering customers’ wants and requirements in designing and producing the products is one of the important business strategies in today’s competitive world. It is very important for maintaining the market, higher-quality activities and satisfying customers’ needs, since it can lead to increase in companies’ loyalty and success. Rapid changes in services and productions marketing requires companies to go beyond customers’ satisfaction making the conditions of their please and loyalty by forming innovation and presenting services beyond customers’ expectations. This paper tries to measure customers’ real needs, their satisfaction level and loyalty. Kano cooperative model and quality function deployment (QFD) were used in order to prevent any shortage in evaluating customers’ satisfaction which may exist in any usual method of evaluating customers’ satisfaction. First customers’ needs are analyzed by using Kano model and then the relationship between the values made for the customer and customers’ loyalty is investigated by combining Kano and QFD models. The results shows the importance of considering customers’ wants in designing the products before their manufacture and their considerable role in customers’ satisfaction and loyalty. Key words: Customers’ requirements, customers’ satisfaction, customers’ loyalty, product design.