Government websites are meeting the needs and expectations of their users, by and large, through improved navigation and the addition of more meaningful content, according to a recent report. The latest findings of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ASCI) E-Government Report show that health information sites and government career sites, in particular, have exceptional customer satisfaction scores.
Health and Human Services’ MedlinePlus site scored an 86 on the ASCI’s 100-point scale. (For reference, Amazon.com is the highest scoring private sector website at 88.) The Spanish language version of MedlinePlus scored an 84, followed by the National Women’s Health Information Center’s 4woman.gov’s score of 81. All are above the ASCI average of 75.
Larry Freed, CEO of Ann Arbor, Mich.-based ForeSee Results, a company that measures online customer satisfaction, says that government health websites benefit from their ease of use, search capability and credibility. “Low barriers to entry lead to poor credibility on the Web,” Freed says. “Users are confident that they’re getting the best information from these sites.”
Meanwhile career sites are also making gains. The career site for the State Department scored a 79, up six points since it was measured for the first time in the third quarter of 2003. The career site for the CIA scored an 80 for the second straight quarter. The government’s main recruitment site, www.usajobs.opm.gov, which had more than 6.2 million visits in January 2004, scored a respectable 73. Although this is a below average score, Freed says that he expects the site’s satisfaction score to rise rapidly because of recent improvements. In fact, last quarter the site scored a 68. He blames the site’s temporary dip in satisfaction on the “relaunch effect,” a period where users accommodate themselves to a site’s changes. As the learning curve for users levels off, satisfaction scores go up, Freed says.
The success of career sites is important as the federal government turns to the Internet for recruiting, Freed says. “The government is trying to attract younger, Internet savvy candidates that don’t read the Sunday classifieds,” he says. Government portals, like FirstGov.gov, which scored a 72, tend to lag behind specialized sites because they have to appeal to a broad audience. One way portals can improve their satisfaction scores is to develop mini-portals that address specific user groups, Freed says. “These sites should be organized the way people would use them rather than the way government is organized,” he says.
Just two of the 44 websites measured in this survey conduct e-commerce transactions (the U.S. Mint and the General Services Administration). Freed says the next step for e-government is to allow more interactivity and transactions. “I expect we’ll see larger strides in this area,” Freed says. “A lot of agencies are on the right path.”
Quelle: CIO, 23.03.2004
