Satisfaction with US government sites inches upward

19.12.2005
User satisfaction with federal government Web sites rose for the third straight quarter, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), which measures the online performance of a variety of Web sites and is produced by the University of Michigan.

'Federal e-government is continuing to make improvements to better satisfy users,' Claes Fornell, director of national quality research at the University of Michigan and founder of the ACSI, said in a statement. However, these public Web sites have failed to keep up with their private-sector counterparts, where competition usually forces companies to dedicate resources to improving customer satisfaction, he said.

In the fourth quarter of this year, overall user satisfaction climbed 0.6 percent from the previous quarter and was up 2.5 percent from the same quarter last year. That put overall satisfaction at 73.9 on the 100-point scale used by the ACSI, said Larry Freed, president of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based ForeSee Results, a sponsor of the ACSI.

Freed, the author of the report, said it's important to note that this increase in satisfaction occurred during a quarter when many government Web sites were affected by external circumstances such as hurricanes Wilma, Katrina and Rita.

'The hurricanes that occurred could have negatively affected many federal government Web sites, which saw an influx of new visitors looking for information in a time of crisis,' Freed said. 'The fact that citizen satisfaction rose during this unusual situation is a testament to the continued focus of many government Web sites on meeting the needs of online visitors.'

While the quarter-over-quarter increase is relatively small, it is significant because it corresponds to the continued evolution of federal government Web sites as responsive, user-friendly and convenient channels for citizens to interact with government agencies, Freed said. And making changes based on user feedback is a key to increasing the satisfaction with e-government sites, he said.