A hybrid Kano-fuzzy AHP method for measuring customer satisfaction: A case study of transportation system


Mohammad Hemati and Fozieh Ghorbanian


An increase competition on today's economy has created motivation for many organizations to look for different alternatives on better serving the customers. There are always some budget limitations on any customer relationship method, which leads us to prioritize different alternatives. In this paper, we present an empirical method based on an integrated Kano and fuzzy analytical hierarchy procedure to rank suitable alternatives. The proposed model of this paper uses a questionnaire survey to gather customer's opinions and implements the method for a real-world case study of transportation planning. The questionnaire includes 37 questions distributed among 976 passengers for two trips in Iran. The results indicate that driver's physical and mental health, buss equipments with GPS functionality and familiarity of drivers with road and road's conditions play important role on choosing a transportation company.


DOI: j.msl.2011.04.003

Keywords: Services quality ,Customers satisfactory ,Kano Model ,Fuzzy analytical hierarchy process

How to cite this paper:

Hemati, M & Ghorbanian, F. (2011). A hybrid Kano-fuzzy AHP method for measuring customer satisfaction: A case study of transportation system.Management Science Letters, 1(3), 263-270.


References

Berry, L. L., & Parasuraman, A. (1991). Marketing services: Competing through quality. New York, NY: The Free Press.

Chen, C. F. (2008). Investigating structural relationships between service quality, perceived value, satisfaction, and behavioral intentions for air passengers: evidence from Taiwan. Transportation Research Part A, 42, 709–717.

Caruana, A. (2002). Service loyalty: The effects of service quality and the mediating role of customer satisfaction. European Journal of Marketing, 36(7/8), 811–830.

Chen, C. C., & Chuang, M. C. (2008). Integrating the Kano model into a robust design approach to enhance customer satisfaction with product design. International Journal of Production Economics, 114(2), 667-681.

Dabholkar, P. A. Shepherd, C. D., & Thorpe, D.I (2000). A comprehensive framework for service quality: an investigation of critical conceptual and measurement issues through a longitudinal study. Journal of Retailing, 76(2), 139–173.

Ghobadian, A., Speller, S., & Jones, M. (1994). Service quality: Concepts and models. International Journal of Quality and Reliability Management, 11, 43–66.

Grönroos, C. (1984). A service quality model and its marketing implications. European Journal of Marketing, 18(4), 36-45.

Grönroos, C. (1990). Service Management and Marketing. Lexington Books, Toronto.Ha, J. & Jang, S. (2010). Effects of service quality and food quality: The moderating role of atmospherics in an ethnic restaurant segment. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 29(3), 520–529.

Jamal, A. & Naser, K. )2002(. Customer Satisfaction and retail banking: an assessment of some of the key antecedent of customer satisfaction in retail banking. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 20,146-160.Kassim, N. (2010). The effect of perceived service quality dimensions on customer satisfaction, trust, and loyalty in e-commerce settings. A Cross Cultural Analysis, 22(3), 351-371.

Kӓrnӓ, S., Junnonen, J. M., & Sorvala, V. M. (2009). Modelling structure of customer satisfaction with construction. Journal of Facilities Management, 7(2), 111-127.

Lee, J. H., Kim, H. D., Ko, Y. J., & Sagas, M. (2011). The influence of service quality on satisfaction and intention: A gender segmentation strategy. Sport Management Review, 14(1), 54-63.

Lewin, K., (1938). The conceptual representation and measurement of psychological forces. University Press, Durham, NC.Lee, S. K., Mogi, G., Kim, J. W. ) 2009(. Decision support for prioritizing energy technologies against high oil prices: a fuzzy analytic hierarchy process approach. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 22. 915–920.Lee, S. K., Yoon, Y. J., Kim, J. W. (2007). A study on making a long-term improvement in the national energy efficiency and GHG control plans by the AHP approach. Energy Policy, 35, 2862–2868.

Lee, S. K., Mogi, G., Lee, S. K., Hui, K. S. & Kim, J. W. (2010). Econometric analysis of the R&D performance in the national hydrogen energy technology development for measuring relative efficiency: The fuzzy AHP/DEA integrated model approach. International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, 35(6), 2236–2246.Li, Y., Tang, J., Luo, X., & Xu, J.(2009). An integrated method of rough set, Kano’s model and AHP for rating customer requirements’ final importance. Expert Systems with Applications, 36(3),7045-7053.

McKay, A., de Pennington, A. & Baxter, J. (2001). A representation scheme for product. Computer Aided Design, 33, 511–520.

McDougall, G. H. G., & Levesque, T. (2000). Customer satisfaction with services: Putting perceived value into the equation. Journal of Services Marketing, 14(5), 392–410.

Parassuraman. A, Valarie A. Z., Leonard L. B. )1988(. SERVQUAL:A multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, 64(1), 12-40.

Rivière, P., Monrozier, R., Rogeaux, M., Pagès, J. & Saporta, G. (2006). Adaptive preference target: contribution of Kano's model of satisfaction for an optimized preference analysis using a sequential consumer test. Food Quality and Preference, 17, 572–581.

Saaty, T. L. (1992). How to make a decision: the analytic hierarchy process. European Journal of Operational Research, 48, 9–26.

Teas, R. K. (1994). Expectations as a comparison standard in measuring service quality: An assessment of a reassessment. Journal of Marketing, 58, 132–139.

Wang, T. & Ji, P. (2010). Understanding customer needs through quantitative analysis of Kano’s model. International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, 27(2), 173-184.

Wassenaar, H. J., Chen, W., Cheng, J., & Sudjianto, A. (2005). Enhancing discrete choice demand modeling for decision-based design. ASME Journal of Mechanical Design, 127, 514–523.

Xu, Q., Jiao, R. J.,Yang, X., Helandera, M., Khalid, H. M., & Opperud, A.(2009). An analytical Kano model for customer need analysis. Design Studies, 30(1), 87-110.

Zeithaml, V. A. (1988). Consumer perceptions of price, quality and value: a means-end model and synthesis of evidence. Journal of Marketing, 52, 2–22.