Applying the KANO Model in Mobile Services World: A Report from the Frontline

The customer, a leading Global Telecommunication and Service Provider, has made the strategical decision to move away from the old fashioned Telecommunication company to a more internet player oriented service provider. The approach is to combine the short time-to-market requirement, like a state-of-the-art internet player uses to follow with a more mature way of delivering services. This combination made it necessary to implement new ways of probing customers\´ reaction on newly planned mobile services. The question "how satisfied will customers be with the service currently being developed" wasn\´t affordable to be answered 6 months or more after project initiation. A permanent "pulse monitoring" of customers\´ needs and understanding of these was mandatory to be implemented to react within short timeframes on changes on the market. As a consequence the existing Quality Management process framework needed to be adapted as well. As a tool to probe customer satisfaction the KANO model (see [1]) was introduced. A tailored adaptation of the standard KANO approach was implemented with low effort and costs. At different stages in the service delivery lifecycle KANO surveys were conducted encompassing features on use case levels, supported by early prototypes whenever feasible, conducted with real customers, friendly users or project team members. It can be clearly shown with the help of some real life examples that the new approach added value by focusing efforts in service design, development and verification stages while at the same time increasing the ownership and commitment for the end customer product.