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Measuring Customer Satisfaction

You want people to be satisfied with your website – right? Measuring customer satisfaction is subjective – it tells you what they say they like and don’t like about your site, not necessarily what they do on your site. But it will tell you whether they happy or not, when they used your site, how likely they are to return, whether they’ll recommend your site to others, and much more.

Ways to Measure Customer Satisfaction

Many agencies use online customer satisfaction surveys, focus groups, and email feedback forms to gauge customer satisfaction and expectations. Some agencies have developed their own surveys, sometimes using a contractor to compile and analyze the data. Others purchase commercial satisfaction surveys that use a standard methodology across multiple websites.

If you’re looking to purchase your own online survey tool, you can start by doing a web search for “online surveys” or “customer satisfaction online surveys.”

Requirements for Customer Surveys

If you put a survey on your site, you need to comply with the Paperwork Reduction Act, which requires federal agencies to have OMB approval before collecting information from the public. This includes forms, general questionnaires, surveys, instructions, and other types of collections. If you have a survey, you must display the current OMB control number.

Examples

  • Department of Education’s customer survey -- in-house survey, which allows visitors to view analysis of the over 6,000 responses received to-date
  • EPA’s customer survey -- in-house survey used to learn about site visitors, what they’re looking for, and how satisfied they are
  • Forest Service online survey -- uses the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) survey. They provide a notice on their site telling visitors about the survey and how the data will be collected and used.

Resources: Customer Satisfaction

  • Customerservice.gov -- managed by the Federal Consulting Group at the Department of Treasury. Explains how federal agencies can use the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) online survey.
  • American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) -- customer satisfaction survey tool used by many federal agencies and organizations in the private sector. One advantage of using the ACSI is that you can compare your results to other government agencies and top commercial websites.

Many federal public websites follow this best practice. This practice is part of the guidelines and best practices published by the Interagency Committee on Government Information to aid agencies' implementation of OMB Policies for Public Websites.

 

Page Updated or Reviewed: May 17, 2006

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