Government websites have come a long way over the past 18 months, at least in terms of providing a better user experience, but there’s still plenty of room for improvement, according to a recent study on customer satisfaction. A recent survey, using the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) methodology, of 53 government websites found that these websites trail their commercial counterparts in terms of customer satisfaction. According to the ACSI E-Government Index, government websites averaged a score of 70.3 on a 0-100-point scale. On average, commercial websites score an average of 75. However, e-government websites scored just .6 points below offline government channels, an indication that the Web channel is an effective tool for government.
Larry Freed, President and CEO of Foresee Results, a Web customer satisfaction measurement company and sponsor of the study, says government websites will have to keep up with the commercial sector in order to keep users satisfied. “Government websites are still an evolving environment both from the governments’ perspective and the citizens’ perspective,” Freed says. “Citizens are becoming more and more aware that there’s a lot of great information on government websites, but we’re still in the early throes of that.”
The study segmented websites into four categories: e-commerce, news and information, portals and main department sites, and recruiting. Government e-commerce sites earned an aggregate score of 68.8, well behind the private sector e-commerce total of 80.8. The United States Mint scored highest in this category with a 79. Government sites scored slightly better in news and information with a rating of 70. Although this score is four points below the aggregate for consumer news and information sites, seven sites outperformed the consumer average. The MedlinePlus website of the Department of Health and Human Services topped the government list with an 85. Portals and main department sites averaged a score of 69.8, on par with their private sector counterparts. Recruiting sites performed the best, averaging a score of 75.8, 8 percent higher than the overall e-government index average.
Freed explains that a key component of customer satisfaction is usability, and this is an area where some sites struggle because of the amount of content they produce. “The amount of information is just immense,” he says. “Making it easy to find the information they’re looking for is a constant challenge for government sites.”
At the same time, government Web administrators are looking to add complexity, such as secure online transactions. Freed says that this strategy will help move citizens from more expensive offline channels (such as the phone) to the Web, helping the government save money.
Autor: Jon Surmacz
Quelle: CIO, 23.06.2004
