With that in mind, I was reading recently about the Kano Model of customer satisfaction, and believe it provides a framework for understanding strategic investments in physician satisfaction and engagement. While the model is layered, in its basic form (summarized in the image below) it asks:
1. What are the “must-have” features when it comes to physician expectations of your hospital?
These are also considered threshold features. And, no matter how much of a must-have feature is added, satisfaction never rises above neutral.
2. What are the “the-more-the-better” features of your hospital?
These are linear features. And, as the name suggests, physician satisfaction is correlated linearly with the quantity of the feature.
3. What are the “delighter” features of your hospital?
These are the features that provide the greatest satisfaction and differentiate you as a premium place to work, or to do work, for physicians. But, the lack of a delighter will never decrease physician satisfaction below neutral.