Customer Relations
Overview
Listening and responding to our customers’ needs is a fundamental priority for us.
We have a wide range of customers—from energy producers who ship their products on our oil and gas transportation networks; to refiners and processors; to the residential, commercial and industrial customers who consume the natural gas we distribute.
Safe, reliable operations combined with responsive customer service help us retain existing customers and attract new business. Both are critical elements of our business success and essential for creating long-term value for our shareholders.
2 performance objectives:
- Providing consistent and reliable service to all of our customers
- Safeguarding customer privacy and data
Management Approach
We fulfill our commitments to customers by: ensuring the safety of our systems and delivering the highest levels of reliability; making sure we are efficient so that they pay the lowest practical costs for our services; and delivering our growth projects on time and on budget, while attaining high standards of safety, quality, and environmental and regulatory compliance.
Our customer-facing teams across the company aim to provide consistent and reliable service at all times. Our teams are constantly looking for opportunities to improve by: listening to our customers to ensure we understand their needs; proactively bringing important information to their attention; and being responsive to them and addressing issues effectively and in a timely fashion to their satisfaction.
Our Customers
Each of our business segments has a unique set of customers and uses a tailored approach to communicate and respond to them.
| Our Customers Are… | Our Customers Need… | We Communicate with and Respond to Our Customers through… | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Liquids Pipelines | Producers, marketers and refiners. | Competitive rates; access to the best markets; pipeline capacity and reliability; maximized pipeline network performance. | Regular meetings (>500 in 2017). Online systems for convenient scheduling. Reporting and monitoring of their service. |
| Gas Transmission & Midstream | Onshore and offshore (Gulf of Mexico) shippers, including local distribution companies, producers, marketers, power plants and end users. | Competitive rates; access to the best supply and markets; operational reliability and timely access to critical information. | Online systems for convenient contracting, scheduling, reporting and monitoring of their service. Regular meetings. Customer training sessions. 24/7 hotline for system issues. |
| Utilities | |||
| Enbridge Gas Distribution (EGD) | Approximately 2.2 million residential, commercial, institutional and industrial users in Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and New York State. | Safe and reliable delivery; and fair and reasonable delivery rates. | Monthly billing which creates the opportunity to communicate 12 times per year resulting in 25 million customer contacts each year. 24/7 customer-service web access. Interactive voice response via call centre and email. Paperless billing Social media; online surveys; newsletters; safety information. Energy conservation programs. Customer surveys conducted by third parties. Ombudsman Office. |
| Union Gas | 1.5 million residential, commercial, institutional and industrial customers in more than 400 communities across northern, southwestern and eastern Ontario. | Safe and reliable delivery; and affordable delivery rates. | Monthly billing which creates the opportunity to communicate 12 times per year resulting in more than 16.8 million customer contacts each year Unionline web-based transaction and information tool. Social media; online surveys; newsletters; rates information. Energy conservation programs. Third-party Mastio customer value and loyalty surveys. |
2017 Performance
Providing Consistent and Reliable Service to All of Our Customers
Customer Satisfaction Measurement
We monitor customer satisfaction through regular formal meetings and informal contacts with them, and we measure their satisfaction through reputation studies and customer-satisfaction surveys conducted by third-party providers.
| Customer Satisfaction Measurement | ||
| Engagement Tactics Used | Customer Satisfaction | |
|---|---|---|
| Liquids Pipelines | > 500 meetings with its top ranked customers. Holds annual customer conference and quarterly shipper meetings |
Received positive feedback on LP’s approach and ability to resolve issues collaboratively. Based on that feedback, LP believes that its customer satisfaction has improved and, going forward, it intends to continue its efforts to meet and exceed its customers’ expectations. |
| Gas Transmission & Midstream | Holds regular, informal conversations with its customers, annual Marketing / Business Development customer meetings, as well as an annual Customer Service Users Group meeting with interested LINK® Customer Interface System (“LINK® system”) users. | Customers indicate an appreciation for GT’s responsiveness to their changing needs and its customer-focused approach. Specifically, Offshore customers indicated an appreciation for its fairness in dealing with issues that occur. GT has a track record of continuous innovative improvement of its LINK® system, having implemented more than 100 customer-requested enhancements over the last 10 years. In several instances, new functionality implemented in GT’s LINK® system has been the first of its kind in the industry. |
| Gas Midstream | Has regular, informal conversations with many of its customers. | Received positive feedback. |
| Utilities | ||
| Enbridge Gas Distribution | Responded to ~2.4 million customer inquiries, and ~6,600 issues through EGD’s Office of the Ombudsman. EGD conducts an annual reputation study with its residential customers. | EGD's Reputation Index score with its residential customers in 2017 was 76, which was an increase from our score of 74 in 2016.The 2017 study determined that EGD led in the areas of familiarity, service quality, trust and advocacy. |
| Union Gas | Measures customer satisfaction across a number of touchpoints and transactions through ongoing quantitative research studies. Union also engages contract customers (large commercial and industrial, storage and transportation and energy marketers) through the online Unionline survey. As well, Union participates in the third-party Mastio customer value and loyalty survey of natural gas shippers – Annual Mastio Natural Gas Pipeline Transportation Customer Value & Loyal Study. |
In 2017, overall customer satisfaction in the residential market was strong and stable relative to the previous year across all touchpoints and transactions tracked, including service visits, the uniongas.com website, Union Gas’s online account management tool, and customer calls. Scores are up significantly relative to 2015 in several categories. The Unionline survey resulted in a 93% overall satisfaction score in 2017. In the 2016 Mastio survey, Union Gas ranked as the #1 Canadian natural gas pipeline and the 7th out of 57 pipelines overall. |
Utilities Initiatives
In 2017, EGD embarked on a Customer Experience Transformation program to overhaul the way it serves customers and simplify how it interacts with them. The main goal of the program is to deliver service in the communication channel of each customer’s choice. This will result in web-based self-service being available in addition to traditional call-center-based inquiries.
Other recent EGD initiatives to enhance its customers’ experience include: an overhaul of EGD’s enbridgegas.com website, which is going live in 2018, and will be a fully responsive website with more self-service options; and provision of energy efficiency information that allows customers to compare their energy use to similar homes and lower their energy use.
For its part in 2017, Union Gas continued to promote customer self-serve features for specific customer segments, including landlords and agencies that assist with low-income programs. Union Gas customers logged on to its online portal more than three million times and completed more than 2.4 million transactions, compared to one million calls into its contact centre.
Both EGD and Union Gas also engage with their customers through their wide range of demand-side management (DSM) offers. From homeowners to large industrial facilities, EGD and Union Gas provide incentives to customers to encourage them to adopt energy-saving equipment and operating practices that reduce natural gas consumption. DSM also provides EGD and Union Gas with a regular, positive touchpoint with customers.
For more information on our DSM programs, please see the Climate Change section of this report, the Energy Efficiency Tips section of EGD’s website or the Conservation First section of Union Gas’s website.
Safeguarding Customer Privacy and Data
At all levels of our company, we have robust systems and thorough processes in place to help ensure that our customers’ privacy and data are protected. In 2017, neither LP, GTM, EGD nor Union Gas received any significant substantiated complaints regarding breaches of customer privacy or losses of customer data.
Cyber security has been identified as a top risk for the company. Therefore, Enbridge has developed and implemented a risk-based cyber security control framework to manage its cyber security risks and measure the effectiveness of controls. It addresses cyber security threats unique to Enbridge and in keeping with best practice. Specific areas of focus in 2017 included:
- Increased monitoring and response capabilities for security relevant events
- Increased security awareness and training for employees and contractors
- Enhanced controls for anti-phishing and anti-malware
Customer Relations Performance Data Summary
| 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | |
| Customer Satisfaction Measures | |||
| Liquids Pipelines | > 500 customer meetings. | > 500 customer meetings. | > 500 customer meetings. |
| Gas Transmission | Regular, informal conversations with customers, high contract renewal rates, strong revenue replacement rates. | Regular, informal conversations with customers, high contract renewal rates, strong revenue replacement rates. | Regular, informal conversations with customers, high contract renewal rates, strong revenue replacement rates. |
| Gas Midstream | Data not available | Data not available | Data not available |
| Enbridge Gas Distribution | Achieved 79% on its Customer Satisfaction Index.1 | Achieved 79% on its Customer Satisfaction Index.1 | Achieved 79% on its Customer Satisfaction Index.1 |
| Union Gas | Achieved 84% overall customer satisfaction with the Call Centre experience. Unionline satisfaction score of 89%. |
Achieved 86% overall customer satisfaction with the Call Centre experience. | Achieved 87% overall customer satisfaction with the Call Centre experience. Unionline satisfaction score of 93%. |
| Number of Incidents Regarding Customer Privacy and Data Protection | |||
| Liquids Pipelines | 12
| 0 |
0 |
|
| Gas Transmission | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gas Midstream | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Union Gas | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Enbridge Gas Distribution | 13 | 0 | 0 |
1 EGD measures customer satisfaction through its Customer Satisfaction Index, which assesses customers’ perceptions of EGD’s service performance on a wide range of customer touch points.
2 In August 2015, Enbridge Pipelines (FSP) L.L.C. (Enbridge FSP) filed a depreciation study for the Flanagan South Pipeline (FSP) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The depreciation study was available publicly on FERC’s website and inadvertently contained confidential shipper information. The situation was immediately corrected and Enbridge received no formal complaints.
3 In 2015, a sorting error lead to the inadvertent disclosure of 10 customers’ billing information to another customer. EGD quickly notified the affected customers and implemented new privacy controls. None of its customers made any further complaints.
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