Citizen Satisfaction with e-Gov Stays Strong

Strong Satisfaction Scores Continue

Across over 100 Federal Government websites and over 330,000 visitor surveys, satisfaction with Federal Government websites registered a score of 75.1 on a scale of 0-100. While this is slightly off last quarters score of 75.2 (an all-time high), this is not a significant difference.  The fact that citizen satisfaction stayed strong is very good news.

Why does it matter if citizens are satisfied with Federal Government websites?  Is there competition?  If you have a bad experience with the IRS.gov are you going to pay your taxes in Canada?  No.  The traditional way we look at competition doesn't apply to Federal Government websites.  Yet, citizen satisfaction is very important for many reasons.

Channel Competition

One of the main reasons satisfaction with Federal Government websites is important is that the web is one of many channels that citizens can use to get information from the government, perform transactions with the government and communicate with the government.  It is also one of the most efficient ways to accomplish those tasks.  To service the next 10,000 citizens who need information on the Swine Flu from CDC, want to apply for Social Security benefits, get information on Medicare Prescription Drug plans, check out the latest happenings at NASA, investigate our National Parks or do research on a medical condition at Medlineplus, the web provides the most cost effective and efficient way to do so.  Think about trying to accomplish those tasks in a call center or a branch office -- expensive and inefficient.  Citizens will use the channel that provides them the best experience.  So the web is competing with the other channels, we call that Channel Competition.  And the reward for winning the competition?  Lower cost to provide information and services.  A true win-win.  Citizens get more information and services that is more accessible.  And Government is able to provide that information and services at a lower cost.  Which is not only a win for Government but also for us taxpayers.  I guess that makes it a win-win-win.

Highlights

Some highlights from the results include strong scores from many agency websites.  Social Security had two sites that score a 90 on a scale of 0 to 100, the Retirement Estimator (www.ssa.gov/estimator) and Social Security iClaim (www.socialsecruity.gov/applyonline) sites.  These scores are incredible.  To put it in perspective, Amazon and Google scored 86 the last time their ACSI scores were published.  Is Social Security site better than Amazon and Google?  And by better we mean, more functions, better look and feel, more usable, better site performance, etc.  Most experts and everyday citizens would not claim that the Social Security sites are "better" than Amazon and Google, but compared to their expectations they are.  The simple definition of satisfaction is a combination of what you get and what you expect.

In total, 27% of the sites measured scored 80 or higher.  80 is considered the threshold for a top performing site.  Now these sites can not rest on their past success.  As a result of their strong performance and the strong performance of many private sector sites, the standard that visitors will hold these sites to will continue to increase.  And for those sites that were not in the top echelon, they are taking the all important first step to improvement, which is measuring where you are today.  You cannot manage what you do not measure.  

The Satisfied Citizen

We define the satisfied citizen as those citizens who had a satisfaction score of 80 or higher for the e-Gov site they were visiting.  The dissatisfied citizen had a satisfaction of 69 or below.  The impact of satisfying citizens is huge.  The satisfied citizen is 80% more likely to use the the site as a primary resource, 79% more likely to recommend the site to others and 52% more likely to return to the site when compared to a dissatisfied citizen.  The satisfied citizen is also 50% more likely to participate in government and 54% more likely to trust government.

The Full Report

You can find all the details of the report by downloading our commentary on the results or email me and I will send you a copy. 

Comments

[hear]

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[handheld marine gps]

It is indeed good news to see relatively high ratings for the gov't site. I'm surprised, yet impressed, at the same time!

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