POR 037-12

2013

Trade Commissioner Service Comprehensive Client Survey

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

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Submitted to:

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD)

POR registration #08170-120254/001/CY

Contract Award Date: 2013-01-22

Kevin Chappell

Manager, Public Opinion Research and Evaluation

E-Communications, Communications Products and Services (BCI)

Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD)

125 Sussex Drive, Ottawa ON K0A 0G2

Tel: 613.944.0697, e-mail: kevin.chappell@international.gc.ca

EKOS RESEARCH ASSOCIATES INC.

November 2013

EKOS RESEARCH ASSOCIATES

Contact: Susan Galley

Ottawa Office

359 Kent Street, Suite 300
Ottawa, Ontario
K2P 0R6
Tel: (613) 235 7215
Fax: (613) 235 8498
E-mail: pobox@ekos.com

www.ekos.com

Executive Summary

The Canadian Trade Commissioner Service (TCS) is a component of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development Canada (DFATD)¹ and has a 14-year history of consulting with clients regarding their experiences. In 2013, results of the Comprehensive Client Survey of the TCS provide necessary information about service achievements, client satisfaction and needs. This will support annual departmental performance reporting on the results of its programs, as well as Treasury Board requirements to obtain client feedback regarding program/service results. Managers will use performance information gathered through this survey to identify areas where further research will be required to understand specific client needs and inform priorities and goals for service improvement. Finally, the 2013 survey presents the opportunity for the department to compare TCS performance to other federal and provincial international business promotion organizations and determine if changes in approaches and practices including the Global Commerce Strategy, sector practices and the Integrative Trade Model, have had a positive impact on clients.

This survey supplements information that is gathered through the TCS Continuous Online Client Survey, which is administered to all clients 60 days after a specific service is closed in order to measure the quality elements of that particular service in light of its short-term commercial impact. The TCS Comprehensive Client Survey differs in that it focuses on the impressions of clients from TCS services delivered during a longer 18-month period and captures other aspects of service and longer-term results obtained such as those related to the conclusion of commercial agreements, and the contribution made by the TCS. In addition, the Comprehensive Client Survey is forward-focused as it inquires about the kinds of markets for which clients are likely to require TCS services in the future.

The Comprehensive survey of 1,222 clients was conducted in April and May 2013, based on invitations successfully sent by email to the universe of 17,255 organizations receiving TCS assistance during the period of July 1, 2011 to December 31, 2012. The response rate to the survey was 7 per cent. Characteristics of the final sample of 1,222 mirror the population with regard to location, sector and services received. However, as in previous surveys, the population surveyed is not a representative sample of the entire target group of TCS clients; therefore, the findings from this survey cannot be extrapolated to the entire client population. The report provides comparisons to the 2009 client survey results, where applicable.

This report will be used to identify specific areas of service delivery where further research can be conducted to assess the effectiveness of the TCS and its impact on clients. The total cost of this research was $34,973.95.

TCS client profile

TCS clients generally have their headquarters, manufacturing, and/or R&D facilities in Ontario, Quebec, or British Columbia (seven in ten). The vast majority of clients are headquartered in Canada (almost nine in ten). More than six in ten clients (61 per cent) are small businesses (fewer than 100 employees), 17 per cent are medium-sized organizations (100 to 499 employees), and 18 per cent are large organizations (500 or more employees). Size of worldwide revenues vary a great deal between clients, from 12 per cent who record less than $250,000 to 23 per cent who record more than $25 million in revenues.

Most clients (more than eight in ten) were already doing business internationally when they accessed the TCS, including 36 per cent who at the time were interested in expanding to new countries. The primary reasons for interest in conducting international business are exporting goods (57 per cent) and exporting services (31 per cent).

Clients were asked to choose their top three most important markets. About half of TCS clients expect that their organization’s top region in terms of growth, obstacles or opportunities over the next three years will be the U.S.A. (51 per cent), followed closely by South Asia/Southeast Asia (45 per cent) and the European Union’s EU27 countries (43 per cent).

Service profile

Most respondents are private sector businesses based in Canada that accessed TCS services from abroad or within Canada (75 per cent). One in six (16 per cent) are public or not for profit sector partners such as provincial governments, schools, or associations, and one in ten (nine per cent) are Canadian business subsidiaries based in another country known as Canadian Offices Abroad (COAs).

The majority of clients (77 per cent) accessed TCS services under the trade promotion business line. Services in other TCS business lines were accessed by fewer than six per cent each.² Almost all TCS clients have previously received services through an embassy, high commission, consulate or trade office located outside of Canada (91 per cent). The services that clients most often say they have received from TCS are assistance with finding contacts (69 per cent) and preparation for international markets (61 per cent). When asked what service they most recently received in the last 18 months, obtaining qualified contacts (44 per cent) and services to prepare them for international markets (25 per cent) are most often cited.

Satisfaction with last service received

Strong majorities of clients were satisfied with various aspects of the last service that they received, agreeing that staff understood enough about the dynamics of the specific business or sector involved to add value to their business development effort (81 per cent, up from 74 per cent in 2009), and the amount of time they waited to obtain the service they needed was reasonable (77 per cent, on par with 78 per cent in 2009). Satisfaction is high regardless of the type of service received.

Satisfaction among clients who received specific services is also generally higher than in 2009:

• More than eight in ten respondents who received services to assess their potential in target markets felt that the market intelligence/information they received was useful (85 per cent, up 14 points from 2009). Nearly eight in ten of these same respondents say that the intelligence provided to them identified both opportunities and potential difficulties (78 per cent, up 15 points from 2009).

• Eight in ten respondents who received services to assist them with finding qualified contacts in their target market felt that they were provided with the right ones with whom to do business (79 per cent, up seven points from 2009).

• More than eight in ten respondents who received services to help resolve problems related to business challenges found this advice to be useful (83 per cent agreeing, consistent with results from 2009, 81 per cent). Three in four agreed that in cases where staff could not help them correctly, they received a referral to the right contacts (75 per cent, up six points from 2009).

• Additionally, more than eight in ten who received services to prepare them for international markets felt that the information they received was helpful for them to understand overall market conditions (85 per cent, not asked in 2009).

Foreign Direct Investment client satisfaction

Among Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) clients (n=34), satisfaction is particularly strong on two measures: with the information and documentation they received (80 per cent) and the referrals provided (75 per cent). Two in three were satisfied with the level of site visit support (65 per cent), and just over half felt that staff were knowledgeable and competent about investment opportunities in Canada (55 per cent).

Client needs

The top areas where clients say they require assistance are obtaining qualified contacts (82 per cent), getting information on local organizations/companies (74 per cent), and market intelligence (69 per cent). These top needs are consistent with those identified in 2009. There is an increased need for referral of technology partnership opportunities or foreign research/development partnership (38 per cent, up nine points from 2009). Two other important areas of needs identified by just under half of clients are: support for protecting their intellectual property rights, procurement, and regulatory matters (46 per cent); and understanding responsible business practices (45 per cent).

Obstacles

The two greatest obstacles facing clients are the uncertainty of regulatory requirements in other countries (55 per cent), and not having contacts in their desired markets (53 per cent). Relatively more minor challenges are labour/skills availability (although reported to be a large obstacle to 27 per cent), Canadian export taxes or permits (21 per cent), and discriminatory or arbitrary treatment toward Canadian investors or their investments (15 per cent).

Impact of TCS assistance

Majorities of TCS clients report positive impacts from receiving TCS assistance including gaining access to intelligence that would otherwise have been difficult to obtain (63 per cent), gaining access to customers/partners that would have otherwise been difficult to obtain (60 per cent), improving their profile and credibility in foreign markets (59 per cent), improving their knowledge of the competitive environment in target markets (55 per cent), obtaining and assessing market information to decide on whether to pursue an opportunity (54 per cent), and gaining confidence to explore or expand in a foreign market (54 per cent). These frequencies are roughly the same as reported in 2009. Other impacts are reported by fewer than half of clients and in frequencies similar to 2009. Fewer clients now report the avoidance of mistakes and delays (36 per cent, down eight points from 2009).

Results of TCS assistance

Since July 1, 2011, half of clients have pursued a commercial agreement (51 per cent, in line with the 55 per cent recorded in 2009). About half of these clients (49 per cent or 25 per cent overall) concluded this commercial agreement, consistent with the proportion who did so in 2009 (47 per cent). Just over half of clients who concluded a commercial agreement also recorded financial results (55 per cent or 16 per cent overall), which is in line with the 60 per cent recorded in 2009.

Among clients indicating financial results, the main type of results are in areas of exporting goods (65 per cent) and exporting services (44 per cent), consistent with what clients say are their top reasons for having interest in international markets. The magnitude of these financial results ranges from under $25,000 (11 per cent) to more than $50 million (six per cent).

Nearly two in three TCS clients who achieved financial results in the form of export of either goods or services (n=166) say the TCS had a high (31 per cent) or moderate (33 per cent) contribution to this result. These results are largely in line with 2009 results. Only one-quarter of these clients indicate they would have achieved this result regardless of the assistance of the TCS (23 per cent); two in three, however, attribute this outcome at least partially to the contribution of the TCS, similar to the results from 2009.

Six out of ten clients that recorded a financial result say this result had no impact on the size of the workforce in Canada (62 per cent). More than one in three observed a positive change in the workforce (36 per cent), reporting an average increase of 15 per cent (the average driven up by larger increases among the smallest organizations).

Transfer of new technology

For TCS clients who reported that TCS assistance led to the conclusion of new sales and partnership agreement with overseas partners, one-quarter say that these new partnerships led to transfer of new technology (24 per cent). In the majority of cases the technology flowed from Canada to the foreign partner (80 per cent). In one in five cases the technology flowed from the foreign partner to Canada (20 per cent). Three in ten say that joint research and development was pursued (29 per cent).

Roughly one in three to just under four in ten TCS clients said that they introduced or improved goods, services, or manufacturing/production processes on either a domestic or international scale, or both.

For the most part, the impact of the TCS on the transfer of technology was low (57 per cent) to moderate (23 per cent). Just over one in ten TCS clients reported that TCS services had a strong impact on something they improved or introduced (13 per cent).

Overall satisfaction

In line with results from the TCS Continuous Online Client Survey, 83 per cent of respondentss rated themselves as satisfied or very satisfied with the service they received. This is a sizable increase from the 66 per cent recorded in 2009. Satisfaction is highest among the largest organizations, but notably less among small organizations and those receiving service in Canada.

Two in three clients say that they would definitely use the TCS again and/or recommend it to others. Adding in those who said that they would likely or probably return or recommend TCS services, the proportion rises to 86 per cent in each case. Very few clients would not use TCS services again or recommend TCS services to others. A Net Promoter Score³ is calculated on the basis of removing the proportion of Detractors (providing a rating of 1 to 6 on 10 with regard to likelihood to recommend the TCS) from the proportion of Promoters (rating TCS services with a 9 or 10). The overall Net Promoter Score is 50 for TCS services. It is highest among the largest organizations and those receiving services related to investment and problem solving.

Just under half of TCS clients also received trade promotion services from other trade promotion organizations in Canada. Among these, roughly three in ten rated TCS services as better than other services they have received in terms of overall quality, timeliness and impact on their organization. Between 18 and 22 per cent rate TCS services as inferior to those provided by other organizations. Again, satisfaction is highest among the largest organizations.

Overall conclusions and considerations

• Overall satisfaction with TCS services received over the 18 months under study is very high at 83 per cent, which is consistent with results obtained 60 days after service delivery in the Continuous Client Survey.

• Current survey results indicate that the TCS has a strong positive impact on its clients’ access to and understanding of the foreign markets, their confidence to act, their financial bottom line, and their transfer of new technologies to other countries and workforce expansion.

• Going forward, the TCS can play an important role in supporting clients in areas where they have identified their greatest needs for assistance and their challenges in the next few years, particularly regarding obtaining qualified contacts in desired markets, and gathering information about local organizations/companies and the regulatory requirements in other countries.

• Given the general lower satisfaction among small organizations, it is recommended that additional in-depth and qualitative research be undertaken to better understand the nature of this low rate. A more in-depth analysis should lead to implications for additional communications about the services offered by the TCS, additional steps in preparing TCS staff to deal with these requests and, ultimately, increased satisfaction.

• Given the pronounced difference between those services which clients reported having received and the actual services recorded in the administrative data noted in this survey, there is also a pressing need to explore the underlying reason in order to increase the accuracy and reliability of feedback related to service needs and experiences.

• The current survey suggests a number of considerations for future client questionnaires including a significantly more focused survey of less than 15 minutes, more frequent collection (e.g., annually), more refined segmenting of clients who have received a service versus those who accessed but did not received services, and the possible addition of specific questions designed to measure financial impact of services received.