Find out how e-government agencies, departments and offices fared in customer satisfaction, and how satisfaction was earned, in this Q4 Report by Foresee Results.
AMERICAN CUSTOMER SATISFACTION INDEX
E-GOVERNMENT
SATISFACTION INDEX
December 15, 2006
Commentary and Analysis by Larry FreedPresident and CEO, ForeSee ResultsCITIZEN SATISFACTION RISES THIS QUARTER, BUT REMAINS AT A STANDSTILL YEAR-OVER-YEARCitizens are slightly more satisfied this quarter than last with federal government websites, according to the 4th quarter 2006 release of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Government Satisfaction Index. This quarterly report shows aggregate citizen satisfaction with the 87 measured websites at 73.9 on the ACSI's 100-point scale, up .3% from third quarter 2006.
This quarter's slight increase in aggregate citizen satisfaction continues a flattening trend over the past year. Typically, the ACSI E-Government Satisfaction Index has shown a steady, more pronounced year-over-year improvement in aggregate scores, proof that federal government websites have been able to stay ahead of citizens' evolving standards. This quarter, for the first time, the aggregate year-over-year satisfaction score is stagnant, with citizen satisfaction at the same level as it was in fourth quarter 2005.
This may be because citizens' standards for government websites continue to rise, shaped by the sum total of other websites they visit - from Amazon.com to their online banking site. While e-government sites have narrowed the gap between private sector sites in the Portals and News/Information categories, the public sector continues to lag significantly behind in E-Commerce/Transactions. This is important as many government sites are striving to migrate more business functions to the web, including distribution of forms, registration for services and email inquiries, among others.
Budgetary and resource constraints continue to be a daunting challenge faced by many govern-ment sites, while the election season has directed more scrutiny on the success of e-Government initiatives. The fact that the President's Management Agenda scorecard does not measure citi-zen satisfaction as part of its e-government criteria may mean that this critical success measure is not given as much attention as it should receive. It's important to focus on citizen satisfaction as it's one of the driving forces in e-government adoption and penetration.
Despite these challenges, 44% of sites in the index saw their satisfaction scores increase from last quarter, a number far greater than the 24% of sites whose scores declined. This is an impressive reversal from the previous quarter-over-quarter results, when only 25% of the sites experienced score increases, while 40% suffered declines.
The fourth quarter 2006 e-government aggregate score (73.9) is 2% higher than the offline ACSI government measure (72.3) this year, in spite of a 2% increase in the offline measure.
For More Information1.800.621.2850 www.ForeSeeResults.com
2The report looks at the 87 sites comprising the ACSI E-Government Satisfaction Index in two ways: functionally and by area of the government. Functionally, we've divided the sites into four categories based on the primary function of the site to parallel online private sector sites measured by the ACSI: portals/department main sites, information/news sites, e-commerce/transactional sites and career/recruitment sites.
We've also categorized sites into three groupings according to how they fall in the structure of govern-ment: department-level, agency-level and program sites. The more focused program sites significantly outperform the other two categories in terms of delivering a satisfying online experience.
THE ACSI METHODOLOGYThe ACSI E-Government Satisfaction Index is a special quarterly report of the ACSI, which is produced by the University of Michigan in partnership with the American Society for Quality (ASQ), ForeSee Results and the CFI Group. The ACSI is a cross-industry measure of offline customer satisfaction that measures the performance of approximately 200 private sector com-panies, as well as many government agencies. ForeSee Results collects and analyzes the data for the e-government websites included in the report.
ACSI e-government scores were calculated based on data gathered from voluntary online surveys of randomly selected site visitors. Each government website was rated by its visitors on various components of overall satisfaction. The ratings were converted to a score on a 100-poin... [download for more]
