Market announcement

Title

AS Tallinna Vesi's operational performance in 2014

Message

Our first priority is to provide our customers with high-quality drinking
water, reliable water supply and wastewater discharge service. We also think
that it is equally important how we communicate with our customers and
consumers and whether what we do is in alignment with the community. The
indicators demonstrating our performance have been on a very good level already
for years. We have seen stable improvement resulting in development and
progress. Similar to previous years, 2014 can be characterised by consistently
high quality levels across all the services we provide. In 2014, our
relationships with customers continued to be very strong. Satisfaction with our
performance is considerably higher than the European average, reaching the top
10% of European utility sector for several years. 

We will continue to focus on maintaining and improving all our key performance
indicators, so our consumers can rely on the service they receive. All twelve
months of the year have shown that the quality of drinking water in Tallinn is
excellent. We continuously commit to the improvement of customer service and
our actions contribute to raising environmental awareness in the community. 

Operational indicators in 2014:

Indicator                                                          2013     2014
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Drinking water                                                                  
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 
Compliance of water quality at the customers’ tap                99.70%   99.80%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Water loss in the water distribution network                     16.98%   16.14%
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Average duration of water interruptions per property            3.46     3,15   
                                                                 hrs      hrs   
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wastewater                                                                      
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 
Number of sewer blockages                                           762      757
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of customer contacts regarding floodings, blockages and     1405     1060
 storm water                                                                    
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Customer Service                                                                
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
- 
Number of written complaints                                        118       76
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of customer contacts regarding water quality                 252      152
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of customer contacts regarding water pressure                576      380
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Responding to written customer contacts within at least 2 work    99,1%    99,1%
 days                                                                           
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Number of failed promises                                           117       54
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Notification of unplanned water interruptions at least 1hr       96.90%      95%
 before the interruption                                                        
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tap water is drinking water

The quality of drinking water has a vital impact on public health and
wellbeing. The drinking water quality in our capital city has been comparable
to the tap water quality in any Western European countries already for years,
thus, we continuously encourage people to drink tap water. 2014 customer
satisfaction survey, carried out by an independent partner EMOR, confirms that
both our customers and consumers trust the quality of tap water more and more
each year. In 2014, 81% of consumers drank tap water compared to only 48% in
2011. This clearly demonstrates the importance of focusing on increasing
people’s awareness of tap water quality. 

The quality of drinking water is subject to very strict legal requirements and
is in line with the Programmes of Monitoring Drinking Water Quality approved by
the Health Board. Water quality is assessed by its compliance with the legal
requirements. In 2014, we took 2 496 water samples from the customers’ taps in
Tallinn and Saue. A record shattering of 99.80% of all those samples were fully
compliant with the applicable quality requirements in 2014. Only six samples
were non-compliant due to higher iron concentration. We immediately carried out
maintenance works on the water network on the streets, after which the new
samples taken were fully compliant. In Maardu, all the samples taken from the
customers’ taps were 100% compliant with the requirements. 

A reliable service

The availability of a reliable and high quality service 24/7 is vital to the
population. Thus, we continue to focus on improving the reliability of our
service further and strive to ensure a good quality service 24/7. As a result
of the proactive planning and optimisation of works, we have managed to
considerably reduce the duration of water interruptions year-on-year. As a
result, less inconvenience has been caused to customers by water interruptions,
resulting in fewer customer contacts. Compared to the same period of 2013, the
number of customer contacts related to water interruptions has reduced by 1 227
or 45% in 2014. 

Cleaner environment

Striving for a better tomorrow, our focus today continues to be on reducing the
risks related to potential floodings, pollution and decreasing potential
inconveniences to our customers. Preventive jet washing has resulted in an over
24% reduction in customer contacts related to sewer blockages and problems with
storm water discharge. 

The leakage level is consistently decreasing year-on-year. Figuratively
speaking, constant reduction in leakage levels means that we are saving
approximately 13 000 m3 of treated drinking water a day, compared to the time
10 years ago. Compared to 2013, the saving in 2014 was 200 000 m3, which is the
average amount of water being consumed in Tallinn within three days. In 2014,
the level of leakages was 16.14% compared to 16.98% in 2013. 

Customer is our partner

Our aim is to cause as little inconvenience to our customers with what we do as
possible. Each year, our customers have less reason to contact us and show
their dissatisfaction with our action. This can be seen from the number of
customer contacts and complaints, which has significantly decreased also in
2014 compared to 2013. This reduction is mainly related to the improved
reliability of service resulting from proactive maintenance work. Consequently,
the number of customer contacts in relation to water quality, water
interruptions and water pressure have decreased by one third. While the number
of complaints in 2013 was 118, in 2014 it had reduced to only 57. We believe it
is very important that our customers know when their issues would get resolved.
We thoroughly monitor our compliance with the promised deadlines and keep our
customers informed, if we are not able to keep our promise. We also use Our
Promises system, which means that we automatically pay compensation to
customers if we break any promises. In 2014, we broke promises in 54 cases,
showing a reduction by 54% compared to 2013. 

We take the feedback to our service very seriously and each year an independent
partner EMOR carries out a satisfaction survey among our customers and end
users. Satisfaction is evaluated using the TRI*M index to measure the strength
of customer retention. In 2014, customer retention was very good in all
segments at 77-89 TRI*M index points. We have been able to further improve our
customer relationship from already a very good level. Satisfaction with our
service continues to stand out with the ratings significantly higher than the
European average, reaching the top 10% of utility companies with the highest
satisfaction rate. 

Customer awareness

Our aspiration is to raise awareness and promote environmental lifestyle among
the population. Thus we consistently educate the very little ones, as well as
all the other consumers, to raise customer awareness. We encourage people to
drink tap water by involving restaurants, partners and general public. The fact
that people have become more aware of the quality of drinking water and value
dialogue with the water company, is demonstrated by an increase in the number
of people trusting to drink tap water. While in 2011 only 48% of our consumers
were drinking tap water, in 2014 we have reached the record-shattering of 81%.
This is a clear evidence of significant increase in people’s awareness, as the
quality of tap water has been very good for several years. 

To improve the population’s awareness of how to avoid blockages and any
consequent problems, we created a unit “SAPO”. The aim of SAPO, i.e. sanitary
police, is to remind people that toilet is not a bin and throwing rubbish there
causes problems. In the end of August, we had a record-shattering of 850 people
visiting the doors open days at Ülemiste Water Treatment Plant. This
demonstrates that people are interested in how tap water is produced and how it
gets to their taps. 


         Mariliis Mia Topp
         AS Tallinna Vesi
         Head of Communications
         Tel:(+372)62 62 275
         [email protected]