A New Perspective in Integrated Facility Management: Using Kano Model to Evaluate Design and Construction, Operation, and Human Capital Attributes

Researchers, as well as service providers, usually focus on intangible operational aspects of facility management to improve user satisfaction. While the intangible characteristics are very important, there is a need to study the impact of tangible design and construction characteristics on users' satisfaction. This phenomenon creates a necessity to conduct a comprehensive study on integration of tangible and intangible attributes belonging to three major aspects of facility management (design and construction, operation, and human capital) leading to users' satisfaction. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate and prioritize attributes not only related to intangible aspects of operation and human capital but also tangible aspects of design and construction based on a retail store facility. To successfully achieve the objectives of this study, a survey containing two sections was developed and distributed among 400 respondents. First section of the survey was utilized to assign rankings to the attributes based on their impact on user satisfaction. The second section of the survey was utilized to assign weighs on the attributes using Kano evaluation criteria. Analysis of the first section of the survey indicated that users experience high level of satisfaction when the store is designed and constructed with visually appealing physical facilities. Users also experience high satisfaction when the service providers' operation offers flexibility to the users. In addition, interaction with courteous employees was also found important for user satisfaction. Analysis of second section of the survey indicated that few attributes like availability of convenient parking lots has a positive correlation with user satisfaction. In addition, few attributes such as designing an organized layout for the service providers are must-be features to the users that often their presence are unnoticed, while their absence cause severe dissatisfaction. It was also concluded that to gain maximum customer satisfaction, not only intangible service attributes but also tangible construction attributes are needed to be considered during the design phase with great attention. The findings of this study guides facility managers to invest more financial and human resources in attributes which yield maximum end-user satisfaction.