popular budget plan, to help spread seasonal utility costs more evenly throughout the year. Expanding our natural gas service to unserved areas provides access to an abundant, domestic and environmentally responsible source of fuel and can make areas viable for development. We added approximately 28,000 new customers in 2017 and are on track to hit our target of sustained annual net growth of 1 percent by 2020. Growing our customer base supports the sustainability and affordability of our services. CONTINUED ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRESS Our operating companies and employees have been part of the communities we serve for generations. With each action we take, we consider the impact on our customers and communities today and in the future. ENHANCING ELECTRIC OUTAGE COMMUNICATIONS When you lose power, the most important question is when it’s coming back. That’s why we launched a new effort in 2017 to raise the bar in communications for our customers affected by power outages. We added updates throughout the restoration process and provided more accurate estimated times of restoration so customers could better plan around the inconvenience. We did this by making changes to processes, increasing accountability for leaders, increasing enrollment in outage alerts and enhancing measurement and reporting tools. The effort resulted in operational efficiencies, increased customer satisfaction and a plan to keep enhancing this communication process for customers in 2018. 10 Customer Satisfaction BY THE NUMBERS M E A S U R E M I L E S T O N E 2 0 1 7 S T A T U S 2 0 1 6 S T A T U S C U R R E N T P E R F O R M A N C E C U S T O M E R S A T I S F A C T I O N J . D . P O W E R R E S I D E N T I A L S C O R E 9 0 % Y E A R - E N D 2 0 1 8 F I R S T Q U A R T I L E Y E A R - E N D 2 0 1 8 8 8 % S E C O N D Q U A R T I L E 8 7 % T H I R D Q U A R T I L E O N T A R G E T O N T A R G E T O N - T I M E A P P O I N T M E N T R A T E 9 9 % Y E A R - E N D 2 0 1 8 9 7 % 9 8 % O N T A R G E T