Results of the Customer Satisfaction Survey

Earlier this fall, we asked a representative sample of our natural gas transmission customers to provide feedback on our performance. Ipsos Reid, a well known and respected market research company in Canada, conducted a telephone survey on behalf of TransCanada during September and October.

The information obtained from the survey has now been reviewed and has served as a valuable resource in our planning process for 2002. Many areas of strength were highlighted in the survey, as well as some areas where we will strive to improve.

"Overall, the survey outcomes are a positive reflection of the work TransCanada has conducted over the last year," says Steve Clark, TransCanada's Vice President, Gas Development and Director, Sales & Marketing.

Tim Moro, Vice President at Ipsos Reid, explains "Perceptions of TransCanada's senior management have improved substantially over last year's survey results, and the quality of TransCanada's staff continues to emerge as a major strength of the organization."

Tim adds, "We're seeing the emergence of qualities that step beyond TransCanada being mere hard infrastructure. Qualities having to do with being customer focused and providing good customer service. At the same time the data reaffirms the strengths and qualities of TransCanada as a reliable pipeline transportation company."

Communications are generally viewed favourably. Most respondents - about 85 per cent - feel the information they need from TransCanada is easily accessible and of an acceptable quality. Furthermore, approximately 60 per cent of those surveyed feel the service level has improved over the previous year and attribute this improvement to better communication and follow-up.

When asked to compare TransCanada to other pipelines, 84 per cent said TransCanada was better or the same with respect to market access, 59 per cent with respect to the speed of connecting new supply, 82 per cent with respect to customer relationships, and 80 per cent with respect to transactional systems.

In day-to-day commercial relationships, there was some decline from last year's high satisfaction levels. Steve Clark says, "Our Customers are clearly telling us that we need to become more effective and efficient at addressing and resolving issues that sometimes arise in our day-to-day relationships. We will be implementing a new issue tracking and resolution business process to help us improve our performance in this area."

"At the senior level within our customer organizations," adds Steve, "despite the marked improvement in assessment of our management, our customers are still telling us that we need to become more timely and efficient in decision making. We will be taking a closer look at how we handle senior customer issues and we will be looking for ways to improve our efficiency in handling these issues."

Thank you to all our Customers who took the time to participate in the survey. Your time and your perspectives are greatly appreciated and very helpful to us. Watch for specific action items for 2002 in future issues of Update.

For more information on this Customer Satisfaction Survey, please contact Omar Zeidan at (403) 920-5832.