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A validation Study of House of Quality key performance indicators
service quality may be complex whereas it can be simple and unidimensional in others (Babakus and
Boller 1992).
Tan and Pawitra (2001) discus two other areas of improvement. The SERVQUAL model assumes a
linear relationship between customer satisfaction and service performance attributes. Low customer
satisfaction therefore would be a result of low attribute performance. This is not necessarily true; in
case of satiation or when the attribute is taken for granted, paying more attention to a specific
attribute will not always result in higher customer satisfaction. On the other hand, unexpected or
delightful attributes can have a great impact on customer’s satisfaction.
The third limitation according to Tan and Pawitra (2001) is that although the SERVQUAL model is a
good method to identify service gaps, it is not able to indicate how the gaps can be closed or how to
translate the gaps into innovation. Tan and Pawitra (2001) therefore integrated the SERVQUAL model
(Parasuraman et al 1988) and the Kano model (Kano et al, 1984) into Quality function Deployment
(Akao 1990) in order to further service excellence. The customer satisfaction evaluations of different
service attributes are used as input for improvement and innovation. The Kano model will be
discussed in section 2.5.2. The concept of Quality Function Deployment will be presented in section
2.5.
The above described approach by Tan and Pawitra (2001) will be used as a foundation for this
research. Member satisfaction of different online union related attributes will be measured and
integrated into the House of Quality to guide improvement and innovation of the online union.
2.5 Quality Function Deployment
The original term Quality Function Deployment is derived from six Chinese characters: “hin shitsu ki
no ten kai”, this can be translated into “quality (hin shitsu) function (kino) deployment (ten kai)’.
Together the Japanese characters mean “how do we understand the quality that our customers
expect and make it happen in a dynamic way” (Cohen, 1995).
The concept of Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was originated in the early 1970’s as a means to
motivate engineers to consider quality early in the design process. Akao (1990) described the method
of QFD as “a method for developing a design quality aimed at satisfying the customer and then
translating the customer’s demand into design targets and major quality assurance points to be used
throughout the production phase”. In line with Akao’s definition, the definition of Hauser and
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