The federal government's websites are improving, and its very best
sites outperform the private sector, according to ForeSee Results, an
online customer satisfaction firm claiming to be "the market leader in
online customer satisfaction measurement" for both the private and
public sectors. However,
the Ann Arbor firm also showed that the average “e-government”
website is lagging behind, and that most have plenty of room for
improvement.
The quarterly report measures government sites with
the methodology of the University of Michigan’s American Customer
Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The ACSI has been used for more than
15 years to rate both online and offline federal government departments
and agencies as well as private sector companies. Each is rated
on a 100-point scale, allowing for comparisons among websites,
departments, agencies, and industries.
The ASCI E-Gov Index found
that government sites are satisfying civilian users at unprecedented
levels. When the E-Gov Index started in 2003, 22 participating
websites averaged a score of 71 on a 100-point scale, with the majority
scoring 60 points or lower. In 2008, 98 websites participated, and
customer satisfaction averaged 73.9 points with only three percent at
60 points or lower. This quarter, 26 of the 98 measured sites are in
the “top performers” category with scores of 80 or higher. By
comparison, only seven of the top 100 online retailers have scores that
place them in this category.
The Social Security Administration’s Retirement Planner tops the list with a score of 90. Taking the silver and bronze are two other SSA websites: Help with Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Costs (88) and the Internet Social Security Benefits Application (87). The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Medline Plus scored 86, and rounding out the top five is the Department of Defense's (DoD) America Supports You with 85.
Nine
of the sites in the top-performer category are part of HHS, three are
SSA sites, while the GSA, Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation,
Department of Treasury, and Department of Justice each have two top
performers. See the attached document for the full list.
Despite
these impressive examples, online government tools still lag behind the
private sector on average. E-commerce websites - including
auctions, brokerage, retail, and travel companies like Amazon and
E-Trade - average an impressive 81.6, with e-business websites, such as
news and information, portals, and search engines such as NYTimes.com
and Google coming in at a close second at 79.3.
As is typically
the case, government can learn a great deal by looking to the
profit-driven private sector and taking its cues from the successful ones as
well as from the top performers in government.
The ASCI
methodology identifies search, functionality and navigation as the top
three areas in which improvements are likely to have a heavy impact on
satisfaction with the sites. Search has been and continues to be
the biggest priority for improvement on most government websites, which
is unsurprising given that most users seeking information gravitate
towards the instant gratification they are accustomed to in commercial
web search engines.
The report strongly encourages a new
president to make e-government a priority at the start of his
administration - not that there will be any other competing
initiatives vying for top priority in the first 100 days (said with heavy sarcasm). Among
the recommendations, author Larry Freed suggests a cabinet-level
position to oversee e-gov initiatives.
He also encourages the new
president to support legislative efforts to expand the E-Gov Act of 2002, which is currently stalled in Congress, and HR 404,
the Customer Service Act. Both candidates claim remarkable
success in utilizing the Internet to raise funds, recruit volunteers,
and increase visibility, and their experiences should be clear evidence
of the possible value and capabilities of e-government.
Robust,
effective e-government may require an upfront investment, but it is a
time and money saver. When citizens do more with the federal
government online instead of using other channels, fewer resources need
to be allocated to staff and office overhead. Consider the
citizen who wants to apply for Social Security benefits. Prior to
e-government, she had two options. She could either go to her
local Social Security office where the government pays for a facility
and staff to help her in person, or she could call the SSA and request
a paper application be mailed to her. Today she has a third
option; she can go to the SSA’s website and submit an application from
the convenience and comfort of her own home and at very little expense
to the government.
E-government also holds the possibility of
greater accountability and transparency as well as more active
participation in government by its citizens. Information that
would previously have been much more difficult to obtain is easy to
access with a well designed website. Citizens can be allowed to
provide feedback quickly and easily, and the free flow of information
online can discourage corruption by encouraging accountability and
transparency.
Perhaps the biggest benefit of e-government is that
it quite simply provides better service for citizens and
business. E-gov makes it faster, easier, cheaper, and more
convenient for citizens to interact with the government. A
General Services Administration (GSA) report
showed that online tax filing, license renewal, recreation, and job
search are among the most popular e-gov programs. While this
should not mean the end of traditional customer service, many citizens
do seem to prefer to interface with government online-- not that DMV
employees and the like aren't delightful in person. The ASCI
average for offline government interaction is only 67.8, compared to
the e-gov aggregate of 73.9.
However it's not all winners in
ASCI's E-Gov Index. A paradigm of inefficiency in the real world, the
Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency
(FEMA) has the two worst sites in the virtual world: the FEMA Map Service Center (53) and the National Flood Insurance Program (56). Also getting raspberries are the GSA E-Library (60) and National Archives and Record Administration Access to Archival Database
(62). Finally, DoD has the distinction of being the only
department to have a site in both the top and the bottom five. Its TRICARE information page scored 62, but was the most improved in its category.
Most Read: