An Application of the Kano Model for Assessing Customer Satisfaction of Hospital Service Quality

Customer satisfaction is considered as a main concern and prerequisite for competitiveness in today's global market. Traditional approach views customer satisfaction has a linear relationship with quality attributes. That is, when one certain quality attribute is present then the customers are satisfied; and vice versa. However, the relationship is not that simple; there are some quality attributes that customer satisfaction can be significantly improved with only a small improvement in performance, while for some others, customer satisfaction can only be improved a little even when the performance has been greatly improved. The Kano model had a different approach that views the relationship between customer satisfaction and quality attributes as a two-dimensional term (two-way model). This study aims to assess customer satisfaction using the Kano model. A case study was conducted in a hospital by employing four dimensions comprises twenty attributes. By applying the Kano model, it is expected to provide a strategy for every attribute of service quality in order to pursue customer satisfaction.