2. Comercial Teaika, sells all types of grains principally sunflower seeds.

3. Anna Neufeld Fher/ Llantas Bandas y Refacciones.

4. Semillas y Forrajes, establish in Mexico and that sell plants for cultivating.

5. Fertifum, that sells pesticides, fertilizers and other products for the care of the planting in Mexico and U.S.

7. Failure to understand Property Rights.

8. Lack of attention to paperwork preparation needs.

9. Failure to consider legal aspects of going global (tariffs, duties, and quotas)

10. Failure to know some new rules of trade implemented actually.C) Technological Environment<br />Secoya utilizes the basic forms of communication that are phone, Internet, computer, fax, and radios. Communication is a fundamental key for success in business. We communicate to our customers through these various forms to provide our quality services. Secoya communicates mainly by sending out emails and making multiple phone calls. Our main media would be the use of radios between us and our associates in Mexico. It is fast and efficient to be able to connect abroad in order to get work done. It is essential to have a strong connection between our customers and suppliers to make our functional business processes easier and it enables us to maintain an understanding of our customers needs. D) Socio-cultural Environment<br />Most of its customers are Mexican companies that do business by selling products to other companies. SECOYA concentrates mainly in exporting American agricultural products, machines, and other materials to different states in Mexico. For this reason, SECOYA customers are mainly Mexicans or with Mexican heritage. Most of the contacts and treaties are made in Spanish and have to do with big industries like supermarkets as well as with small companies and personal businesses like Mennonites. Mennonites are the main foundation of our business. Mennonites hire SECOYA for importing agricultural machines to their communities and also to export their products to United States. Mennonites’ culture and economy are based on working in their own land and making their own products to sell. They are considered as long-term customers that will maintain their agriculture structure and as consequence of this transporting their products and acquiring machinery will keep benefiting Secoya. In the other hand, Secoya also deals big corporations but not as much because they demand high quantity of services at a low price as if it were a wholesale market as they are accustomed to. The profit margin of these services are not as beneficial as with our services with smaller companies. <br />E) Internal Environment<br />Secoya is formed by a small quantity of members that direct this company. Jesus Saucedo and his son manage the company and they are part of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as official associates. Both of them are in charge of giving control over all the operations. Also, there is a person in charge of the documentation and a forklift driver that is in charge of the transportations and warehouse. Estela Saucedo, Selcova owner, is in charge of the accounting process of Secoya and the bills of its services. Secoya as it was mentioned before is a small company trying to grow. For this reason the amount of employees is enough with the services of the company but with the growth of the market, customer loyalty, and new customers that this project is attempted to obtain it must be considered that Secoya will need to hire more workers. This type of business is inconsistent due to the agricultural economic situation and fluctuates dramatically from time to time; therefore there is not always a need to hire more personnel. <br />THE COMPETITORS <br />Competitive Environment<br />Secoya has actually four main competitors in the El Paso-Juarez area. All four of them are in the international trade business mainly dealing with agricultural merchandise. GT Exporting, Cronos, Trankas, and Secoya control 80% of the total agricultural exporting. Secoya’s most important advantage, and difference in comparison with its competitors, is that it mainly exports agricultural products and machines which is the target market of Secoya. The next table shows a chart comparing Secoya’s competitors in the business environment. <br />Table 1. The Competitors<br />Company NameAssociationsUniquenessGT Exporting (Formerly known as PUMAS)WALA international CommerceSince this was the main company where all other competitors were born and it is the oldest one around, it has more recognition among exporters.CronosASAMex-us (Mexico) and Felhaber F C & Co Inc. (US)Have warehouses both in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico and El Paso, Texas. Multiple Associations with several importing and exporting agencies.TrankasASAMex-us (Mexico) and Felhaber F C & Co Inc. (US)F C Felhaber is one of the most powerful companies in the US, so it gives them a competitive edge.SECOYASelcova (Mexican counterpart), Transportes Soto.A “SAGARPA” (Secretaría de Agricultura, Ganadería, Desarrollo Rural, Pesca y Alimentación de México) Office is located right next door, so permit negotiations take less time.<br />Table 2 Comparative Table<br />Company NameServicesUnique FeaturesPrice/ SalesOwnerCommentsGT ExportingOr Pumas Trading Freight Transportation Arrangement, Other Management Consulting SvcsAlso do business with Industrial Buckets Of Mexico and International Trading Inc.JAnnual Revenue of $500,000 to $1 million with 9 staff employeesRogelio Dominguez/Gerardo TrejoIs the oldest one. All of the owners of the others trading companies in El Paso worked for.CronosPaper Work, Converted Paper Product Manufacturing.Annual Revenue of $120,000Cesar Jacobo4 years in business. TrankasFreight Transportation ArrangementWork together with Boyd Logistics Inc. who helps Trankas consulting it shipments. Annual Revenue of $360,000 and has only 4 employees controlling the business.Tranquilino RochaASAImport/Export, Freight Transportation ArrangementOcean Export, Air Export, & Trucking Domestic Heavyweight Air Freight. Ocean export, Air export & Trucking Domestic heavyweight Air FreightLowest prices than all competitors.Annual Revenue of $500,000 and staff of 9 employees. Rafael CertuchaNew business entering to the international trade competition. (20% of agricultural exportation) SECOYAImport/Export*, Freight Transportation ArrangementGlobal & Domestic Freight Forwarding. Fast and Safer service than competitors. Service, Fast, Reliable, SafeService, Fast, Reliable, Safe$360,000 on the third year as compared to less than $45,000 the first year Jesus SaucedoMaintain direct contact with it suppliers and customers, as well as with its important groups as Mennonites.<br />The Market Share <br />Figure A. Market Share<br />102552598425<br />The Market Share for Secoya is shown in Figure A. below. The numbers required to calculate the Total Market Share amongst the competitors was estimated using current information given by insiders in SECOYA International Trading Co.<br />THE MARKET RESEARCH<br />Our purpose is to obtain and analyze clients’ opinion and information to acquire and ideal top of the line service to enhance the satisfaction of customers with our service creating a stronger bond and increasing the retention the contentment and approval of our current customers. Our purpose for this project is to help Secoya figure out how to measure quality by assessing a survey to get customer feedback that would provides us with information that we can analyze and create a solution to solve our customers concerns and improvements for the company.<br />The way we want to implement a design for this project is to collect primary research data directly from our customers. We used a random sampling method to provide us with a list of associates to contact out of the many Secoya interacts with. We then used different media devices such as calling our customers and sending emails. We gathered data through over the phone interviews and then took those answers to create our final product of how quality is perceived by them. The way we chose to go about the random sampling method was to put all the names of our patrons in a hat and we decided to choose eight different companies to collect data. <br />To start out with our research we went to Secoya company and spoke to the owner to get a start on our project. He spoke to his secretary Estela and decided that he wanted us to gather the questions we wanted to ask and submit them to her. After we gave her what we had and she sat down with Jesus as he listened in to the phone conversations with their clients and took good notes of what was said.<br />After interviewing our customers, we saw that they shared a lot of the same concerns and viewpoints and how our company could improve on quality. Our clients shared major concerns about them being located in Mexico which would require their orders to various producers to be fast and reliable. As ABRAHAM PETERS THIESSEN stated “I buy my machinery and I expected to be here with me as soon as possible, I send my driver and then Chuy takes care of the rest and that’s why I pay him.” We figured out that one of the main factors of concern was the time of delivery and service that these businesses needed in order to be efficient. Isack Friessen Dyck from Tracto Contes Friesen said, “ I select Secoya because it is a company that works as fast as I want and just as I like. Everything is in place and arrives at the time that was scheduled.” We determined from these customers that it is essential to have their products shipped on time. This helped us understand better that timely involvement is very crucial to business success. <br />Some of the customers that we have contacted gave us information that was relevant to customer service. The responses we got were straight to the point and told us exactly what they liked and what they wanted. From talking with our customers, we learned that not only paperwork is crucial to their business but also picking up their goods and transporting them could help save time and money by only dealing with one company. Peters Neufeld from Motocicletas del Noroeste said, “ I like Secoya’s service because they take care of not only the paperwork but also save me time and money by picking up my ATV’s and arrive to me all in one cost.” Secoya only does this type of service for this customer. From doing this service, we have an idea of expanding the business by picking up and transporting the product so everything can be cost-efficient. Our customers were able to express to the secretary how they felt service should be done and gave some insight on their recommendations for better quality. By expanding our services, we are able to increase company value by further satisfying their needs, which would create new prospects for Secoya. This could create new opportunities because we would increase our number of clientele.<br />Communication is the first step in establishing business and through our customers we have found that we have been lacking in this area and we are looking to improve. Through them we have found that they are having to be put on hold, to explain themselves in which adds to more time and a decrease in customer service. Jacobo Fehr Friessen from Semillas Productivas said, “ Although I like their business overall, many times I have been placed on hold for a long period of time. During that time I could be doing other work for my own business.” Abraham Ham Peters also said, “ The only complaint that I have is that I have to explain to Secoya several times about the services that I needed.” We took these responses and analyzed that Secoya needs to maximize its’ communication skills in order be in better standings with our associates. From the customer’s viewpoints they believe that we are shorthanded on employees and that our communication is not up to par with our service.<br />Our group recognizes the value that our customers put towards the documentation procedures that are used in the shipment of our products. Secoya deals with the USDA and Jesus is a legal interaction as a representative of the company. It is fundamental for any business to understand how to document figures and processes correctly to get jobs done. Artugo Gomez from Semillias Fertifum said, “ I hire Secoya because they are legally registered with the USDA and that helps me export my products to wherever I need to send them.” Anything that needs to be exported and imported across the borders must have the proper documentation to avoid mishaps and tardiness. The customers choose Secoya because they take the initiative to deal with the import/export tariffs and government regulations on the product quantity and specifications. This information was concluded from another customers’ perspective, Enrique Neufield from Llantas, Bandas y Refacciones. He said that, “ Since I export goods from different countries, different tariffs apply to these products. I do not worry about any of this because I know Secoya does a good job of taking care of it.” This benefits the customer because it is a time saving process that Secoya does for their patrons. They can focus their time in other areas of the production process and other services of their companies. We felt that this information was very beneficial to come to a conclusion that Secoya can figure out ways to expand their legal services to other businesses who deal with exportation. <br />Conclusion<br />To summarize our research processes we started out with an open ended questionnaire to discover how our customers assessed quality in Secoya. We then took the time to interview various consumers and gathered the information we needed for our analysis of what they liked and disliked about the business. Our main discoveries and findings lead us to believe that there are four main factors of concern that Secoya should focus on for improvement. We came to the decision that time, legal representation, customer service, and communications are key to developing stronger quality and value towards our customers. Now with this information we developed a survey with questions regarding these key points that will be used as a tool by the company to help them better understand what is expected of them and to discover room for improvement and development.<br />ServiceCommunicationLegal RepresentationTimeQualityFACTORS OF QUALITY<br />Survey<br />Dear Customer:<br />In order to implement a marketing plan for SECOYA to help it in serve you better, please help us by taking a couple of minutes to tell us about the service that you have received so far. We appreciate your business and want to make sure we meet your expectations. <br />Show your opinion by circling one of the five (5) numbers next to each statement. If you think the company does much worse than expected or doesn’t apply please select 1. If the company does much better than expected or it apply select 5. If your feelings are not strong, circle one of the numbers in the middle. <br />Service <br />1) How likely are you to recommend our service to others?<br />How likely are you to recommend our service to others?<br />1 2 3 4 5<br />2) In evaluating your most recent customer service experience, how was the quality of service you received? <br />In evaluating your most recent customer service experience, was the quality of service you received?<br />1 2 3 4 5<br />3) How likely do you think customer service influence you in your decision of selecting Secoya as your exporting service provided?<br /> 1 2 3 4 5<br />4) How likely will your overall satisfaction increase if Secoya takes care of the transportation of your goods as well?<br /> 1 2 3 4 5<br />5) How courteous and helpful was Secoya’s personnel with your concerns and needs?<br />A) They solved all my questions and service was great<br />B) Personnel were very attentive with my needs <br />C) Had some problems understanding my needs <br />D) They did not understand my request<br />E) They were not helpful at all<br />Communications <br />1) What would best describe your experience, when you called? (Circle all that apply)<br />A) Kept me waiting on hold<br />B) Had to explain several times<br />C) Didn't know how to handle problem<br />D) Had to ask others <br />E) No improvement needed<br />2) How often do you have problems regarding communication between you and Secoya?<br />1 2 3 4 5<br />3) The ability of our employees to answer your questions<br />1 2 3 4 5<br />Legal Representation <br />1) The accuracy of our legal information regarding exporting and importing?<br />1 2 3 4 5<br />2) How safe do you feel with the legal service (tariffs, NAFTA, and other rules) Secoya provided to you?<br />1 2 3 4 5<br />3) Have you experienced any legal problems in transporting your merchandise with Secoya?<br />1 2 3 4 5<br />4) How trustful do you feel about Secoya’s legal knowledge?<br />1 2 3 4 5<br />Time <br />1) How satisfied are you with the time required to complete your service/solution? <br />How satisfied are you with the time required to complete your service/solution?<br />1 2 3 4 5<br />2) Receiving prompt service from our employees.<br />1 2 3 4 5<br />3How often do you do business with Secoya?<br />Less than 2 times a month <br />2-4 times a month <br />4-6 times a month<br />More than 6 times a month <br />4) Considering the time, effort and money you spent with us, how would you rate the overall value provided?<br />1 2 3 4 5<br />Thank you for your feedback. We sincerely appreciate your honest opinion and will take your input into consideration while providing services in the future.<br />