Federal E-Commerce Sites Lead Increase in E-Government Citizen Satisfaction, According to ACSI E-Gov Index
E-Government Satisfaction Still Lags Private Sector Sites, says co-sponsor ForeSee Results’ report
Ann Arbor, Mich. (June 19, 2007) – Citizen satisfaction with federal websites registered a slight improvement, according to the second quarter report from the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Government Satisfaction Index. The e-commerce and transactions category showed the greatest increase of any other category, inching the E-Government Satisfaction Index forward 0.4% to 73.7 on a 100-point scale and reversing last quarter’s drop.
Although aggregate satisfaction with federal websites improved incrementally, it still lags the private sector, which continues to set the bar for online satisfaction. E-government scored 8.5% and 3.8% behind private sector e-commerce (80) and e-business industries (76.5), respectively.
Private sector e-commerce is one of the strongest performing sectors measured by the ACSI and still holds the edge over e-government transactional and e-commerce sites. But as more federal websites allow citizens to do business online with government, satisfaction is improving. On aggregate, the customer satisfaction score for sites that offer transactional or e-commerce capabilities rose 3.5% from last quarter to 76.8.
“People use the Internet as a tool to get things done, and getting things done online can be a very satisfying experience, especially when the alternative is standing in a line or waiting for the call center to pick up,” said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results.
Many federal agencies are enabling citizens to accomplish more on their websites. USA.gov, the portal to the U.S. government, lists over 150 transactions that can be completed online.
“The government recognizes that time- crunched Americans want to conduct business with the government when and where it’s convenient for them,” said Bev Godwin, Director, USA.gov and Web Best Practices, Federal Citizen Information Center, Office of Citizen Services, U.S. General Services Administration. “Self-service is a growing trend across industries, and we are making great strides towards addressing this need by focusing on the top tasks of our web visitors.”
Three of the strongest performing e-commerce and transactional sites belong to the Social Security Administration (SSA). Internet Social Security Benefits Application site (88), Help with Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Costs site (87), and Social Security Business Services Online (83), provide superior satisfaction by even private sector standards.
Whereas transactional sites improved this quarter, portal/department main sites slipped. As a category, e-government portals scored 72.6, down 2% from last quarter. Eleven sites from this category have lower scores than last quarter, while only two are higher. Private sector portals, by comparison, scored 76 in aggregate when last measured by the ACSI. The ACSI e-gov report attributes the decline in e-government satisfaction to a drop in the scores of most elements of the web experience that make up satisfaction. Of these elements, none has more impact than search. For almost 90% of federal websites, search remains a top priority for improvement.
“People need to be able to find what their looking for if a website is going to be useful,” said Freed. “This is an especially tough challenge for portals and department sites because they provide access to such extensive amounts of information, often across multiple websites.”
Along with the Social Security Administration, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) continues to have several websites among the top performers. Seven of the fifteen e-government sites scoring 80 or above belong to the NIH, with Medline Plus topping the group at 87.
“Customer satisfaction is a driver of consumer spending, and in the case of government customer satisfaction, will drive the adoption of the web channel by citizens,” said Dr. Claes Fornell, Director of the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan and founder of ACSI. “The private sector will never stop trying to improve its online experience because it’s a matter of business survival. It’s not only smart business; it’s smart government.”
ABOUT THE ACSI
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is the only uniform, national, cross-industry measure of satisfaction with the quality of goods and services available in the United States. In 1999, the Federal government selected ACSI to be a standard metric for measuring citizen satisfaction. Over 100 Federal government agencies have used ACSI to measure citizen satisfaction of more than 200 services and programs. The Index is produced by the University of Michigan, in partnership with the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and CFI Group, an international consulting firm. ForeSee Results sponsors the e-commerce, e-business, and e-government indexes.
ABOUT FORESEE RESULTS, INC.
ForeSee Results is the market leader in online customer satisfaction measurement and management and specializes in converting satisfaction data into user-driven web development strategies. Using the methodology of the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), ForeSee Results has created a model that scientifically quantifies the elements that drive online customer satisfaction and predicts future behaviors, including the likelihood to return to the site or recommend the site to others. A sponsor of the ACSI e-government, e-business, and e-retail reports, ForeSee Results, a privately held company located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, can be found online at www.ForeSeeResults.com.