Federal agency websites are beginning to catch up with the private sector in terms of citizen satisfaction, reaching their highest levels ever, according to a study released this morning.

Websites by the Social Security Administration and the National Institutes of Health ranked highest on the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) E-Government Satisfaction Index, which overall attained its highest level ever, reaching 75.2 on a scale of 100. The study, a quarterly look at citizen reactions to over 100 government websites, allows federal sites to be benchmarked to private sector web offerings.

"This is the largest quarter-over-quarter jump in satisfaction since the Index was started six years ago, and it comes early during the administration of the nation's most tech-savvy president," said Larry Freed, President and CEO of ForeSee Results, sponsor of the ACSI E-Government Index. 

President Obama can take partial credit for these improvements, thanks to his very visible embrace of Gov 2.0, which has accelerated the pace of improvements to web services. But other findings in the study indicate that the champagne bottle ought to be passed around. The study found a strong correlation between the length of time that federal websites have measured satisfaction and their ability to make notable improvements. Agencies that have paid attention to their web visitors' experiences since early on, in other words, are reaping the benefits now. And credit for that visitor-centric focus must be shared with agency managers and web developers.

While the e-government aggregate of 75.2 still trails some private sector industries like portals and search engines (83) and e-retail (82), government websites on the whole are now outperforming online news and information industry sites (74), online brokerage and investment sites (74), and the online travel industry (75).

At the individual site level, a larger proportion of e-gov websites are top performers than e-retail websites, a piece of surprising good gov news indeed. Of the E-Gov Index's 104 sites, 29 scored 80 or higher, long considered the threshold for excellence in the ACSI. In a similar study of the top 100 e-retail websites, only six scored over 80. 

Netflix.com and Amazon.com are the gold standard when it comes to e-retail sites, ranking at 85 and 84, respectively, on the ACSI index. But the feds can claim five websites that outperformed these titans: 

• SSA's Retirement Estimator,

• SSA's iClaim

• SSA's Help with Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Costs

• NIH's Medline Plus, from the Department of Health and Human Services

• NIH's National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive & Kidney Diseases  

Five more websites scored 85 or 84 on the index, putting them even with the top private-sector sites.

"It's remarkable to see so many e-government websites in the high 80's and even in the 90's," said University of Michigan Professor Claes Fornell, who heads up the ACSI. "The stereotype is that government is always inferior to the private sector, but we may start to see those perceptions change when it comes to e-gov initiatives."

The study, which relied on 291,000 citizen responses, also quantified how increased satisfaction with federal websites can drive government efficiency and savings. Highly satisfied citizens are 52% more likely to return to the website than are dissatisfied citizens, and they are 86% more likely to use the website before using other more costly channels like contact centers. 

Notably, E-Gov efforts score considerably higher than offline government services, which include government telephone call centers and bricks-and-mortar offices.

It shouldn't go without saying that several of the top government websites are for seniors to obtain money, benefits or assistance from the government, so you'd expect a higher level of satisfaction with those sites than, say, paying taxes at IRS.gov. We're just saying...

Full results of the study are available from ForeSeeResults.com.