Confidence interval-based important-performance analysis for determining critical service attributes

Importance-performance analysis (IPA) is a simple but effective technique applied in study of customer satisfaction. Since its proposition, it was widely used in the field such as retail, tourism, and health care, etc. Note that, in the traditional IPA, only the average ratings of the importance and performance were entered in the analysis, and the precision or the reliability of the estimation is completely neglected. As a result, reliability of the analysis might be reduced and it is possible that some false decisions are made. Therefore, it is necessary to further perfect the IPA technique by integrating the confidence interval analysis. A new method was proposed in this paper. A case study of the public service quality of Ningbo city was conducted as a example. Results of the comparison analysis indicate that the confidence interval-based IPA can effectively improve the analysis quality and eliminate the possibility of false decision-making.