Calculating the risk of customer dissatisfaction in the telecommunications industry

Risk analysis is the process by which systems are analyzed with respect to the consequences of subsystem and/or component failure. Subsequent improvements are focused on subsystems and components deemed most critical to risk. To date risk analysis has been confined to the domain of the physical system being studied, i.e. what is the risk of this system failing? We extend the notion of risk analysis to include the customer: what is the risk that a customer will be dissatisfied? A hybrid risk analysis methodology is developed using utility functions, risk calculations, and quality function deployment. The methodology is demonstrated in the risk analysis of the Advanced Intelligent Network, a modern telecommunications system being deployed globally by the major telephone companies.