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CONTACT: Sarah Allen, Kearns & West |
Government Web Sites Continue Trend of Gradual Improvement in E-Government American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)
Social Security Administration Enters the Top Ten With Three New Sites, According to ACSI Partner ForeSee Results
ANN ARBOR, MI (September 20, 2005) – The federal government continues to show a gradual upward trend in online citizen satisfaction, as the aggregate satisfaction score improved quarter over quarter and year over year for the third year in a row. According to the latest findings of the ACSI special report on federal government’s online performance, the e-government sector is gaining on several fronts but still faces considerable challenges
The Index aggregate satisfaction score increased 1.2% for the quarter to 73.5 – which represents a 3.2% improvement from September 2004 and shows that online government maintains an upward trend even as citizens’ standards continue to rise. This increase parallels the year-over-year increase of 4.7% in the ACSI’s annual e-business measure released last month. The ACSI e-business index measures portals, search engines and news and information sites, categories that are comparable to most government sites in the Index. A total of 13 federal websites achieved satisfaction scores of 80 or above this quarter – a superior score for either private or public sector -- while four sites were rated below a 60.
“It’s encouraging to see these high-scoring government websites taking the lead in sectors that are still relatively immature from an Internet development perspective,” said Dr. Claes Fornell, Director of the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan and founder of the ACSI. “Health care and benefits administration are two key sectors where delivering higher levels of customer satisfaction online can help temper upward pressure on costs by attracting consumers to the cost-effective web channel for information and customer support.”
ACSI satisfaction scores are based on a 100-point scale and are calculated through a sophisticated formula based on surveys of site users that measure the impact of increasing customer satisfaction on future consumer behavior, such as likelihood to return to the website and recommend it to others.
“E-Government has been making incremental improvements on a consistent basis, and over time these incremental improvements continue to add up,” said Larry Freed, president and CEO of ForeSee Results and author of the report. “Online government is nearly keeping pace with the private sector, but government is doing it with much more limited resources. Measuring customer satisfaction is the first step in identifying where improvements are needed, but some government sites may not have sufficient budget to make changes that will result in customer satisfaction increases.”
The Social Security Administration (SSA) broke into the e-Government top ten with the addition of three new sites to the Index. The sites – SSA’s Help With Medicare Prescription Drug Costs, Internet Social Security Benefits Application, and Social Security Business Services Online– each do a good job of meeting the specific needs of its user base. This is very good news for the senior population, who are an important audience for the SSA. According to The Media Audit, seniors make up the fastest growing demographic on the Internet.
The SSA's overall strategy of measuring specific sites targeted at distinct audience groups has proven successful. The agency runs multiple ACSI surveys, both at the high level portal site and on targeted sub-sites and on-line applications including the sites that have scored so highly in the latest Index.
Also this quarter, the ACSI E-Government Index introduced a new metric, likelihood to use the website as a primary resource. This metric of future behavior shows how likely users are to consider the e-government site as their primary resource for information compared to other ways they would obtain the information. Depending on the type of site, the competition could be another channel offered by the same agency (e.g. contacting the IRS via telephone) or an alternate resource (e.g. receiving medical information from your doctor or WebMD, even though the same information may be available on MedlinePlus).
The Primary Resource metric offers government agencies another measure to gauge success of their web sites in terms that impact the agencies’ bottom line. As citizens turn to government web sites as their first choice to find what they need, it decreases the demand for call center and in-person interaction with the agencies.
Participation in the ACSI E-Government Index grew 16 percent this quarter for a total of 81 sites.
"Participation in the ACSI e-Government Index keeps growing, and that's good news for citizens and for government," said Anne Kelly, CEO of the Federal Consulting Group. "Citizens benefit from improved service reflected in rising satisfaction scores, and federal agencies offer citizens a convenient and cost-effective channel to provide feedback to agencies, which can improve efficiency and their cost structure."
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 the ACSI to be a standard metric for measuring citizen satisfaction. Over 55 Federal government agencies have used the ACSI to measure citizen satisfaction of more than 110 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 indices. The Federal Consulting Group, a franchise within the Department of the Treasury, is the executive agent for the ACSI and the federal government.
About ForeSee Results, Inc.
ForeSee Results is the market leader in online customer satisfaction 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. ForeSee Results, a privately held company located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, can be found online at www.ForeSeeResults.com.
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