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2010 STEP Membership Survey Results

Project Overview

The 2010 STEP Membership Survey was designed to seek out member satisfaction and reaction to service levels within the organization.  As in past years, the survey and the results received are integral to developing products and service levels that meet members’ needs in the most efficient and effective manner.

Distributed to all STEP Regular Members, the 2010 Membership Survey was circulated initially by regular mail followed by e-mail reminders as well as telephone contact to encourage member response.  As of March 15, 2010 a total of 79 surveys were submitted accounting for a 31% response rate from Regular Members.  Survey respondents were also provided with the opportunity to be contacted to further discuss their responses to the survey to which 15 members indicated they would be interested in further discussions. 

Executive Summary

Survey results contained in the report indicate that STEP’s direction and services continue to be a strong fit to the unique needs of exporters in the province.  The focus of this survey was to gain member response in a variety of areas while asking members to qualify and rate their experiences as well as their working relationships with the organization. Trends throughout the survey indicate organizational growth, both service delivery and program uptake with respondents continuing to express value in their membership.  Following is a summary of the results and recommendations that arose from the survey results:

  • 100% of respondents indicated a willingness to recommend a STEP membership to other exporters.
  • 83% of respondents indicated that they strongly agree/somewhat agree that they receive value for their membership investment.
  • 82% of respondents indicated that they strongly agree/somewhat agree that STEP has worked effectively with their company to expand their export market initiatives.
  • 80% of repondendents indicated that they strongly agree/somewhat agree that the organization and the staff who serve the membership have a solid understanding of their company’s export requirements.
  • 76% of respondents indicated that they strongly agree/somewhat agree that STEP has a solid understanding of their industry.

In 2010, new questions were posed to the membership with a summary of the responses to these new queries as follows:

  • 64% of respondents expect their overall business sales to increase in the upcoming year.
  • 59% of respondents expect their export activities to increase in the upcoming year.
  • 42% of respondents found the fluctuating customer demand in product line to be a business factor that highly affected their business growth strategies in 2009.
  • 39% of respondents found the global economic downturn to be a business factor that highly affected their business growth strategies in 2009.
  • 39% of respondents indicated they anticipate that their hiring practices will increase in the upcoming year.
  • 33% of respondents indicated that identifying new market opportunities is the top issue involved in shaping their marketing strategies and decision making for the upcoming year.

STEP members were also asked to indicate which STEP services they have utilized over the past year with the results showing little variance from past years including the 2009 service uptake.  Customized market intelligence and research was ranked as the top service of choice from STEP members.  Trade leads, outgoing trade mission services, guidance and advice on exporting, and educational seminars accounted for the following four services of choice in the top five service utilization.

Each year, respondents are asked to identify their top markets in order of importance to their enterprise.  The United States remains as the leading target market for Saskatchewan exporters as it has in the past several years.  This year however, the top market is shared between the United States and Canada.  Moving from second place in 2009 to a tied placement, Canada and the United States both received 18% of the responses.  Australia was ranked in second place followed by Russia and Kazakhstan respectively.

Another key measurement sought by STEP was export volume with 42% of the respondents noting an increase in their export volume for the past year.  In response to a request to identify the top two issues facing their company, respondents noted that financial constraints, business operations and challenges, the world economy and currency fluctuations, and marketing and expanding sales are the top business issues that they faced in 2009.



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#320-1801 Hamilton St.
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Telephone:   1 306 787-9210
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