User ratings of government websites compared to the private sector continued to drop for the third straight quarter to a three-year low aggregate score of 72.4 – down from a high of 74 in June 2006, according to the University of Michigan’s American Customer Satisfaction Index for e-gov. The private sector scores about four percentage points higher on average.
The ACSI cited possible contributing factors to the government’s decline, one being uncertainty surrounding the upcoming change in political leadership and reverberations through agency operations and funding which may have led some agencies to put off changes and upgrades to web operations.
Agencies often cannot control all of the features and content on their web portals or main websites that affect citizen satisfaction, something the ACSI said underscored the need for agencies to bolster areas they can control to meet user needs.
The survey however pointed to growing satisfaction with government e-commerce, up 1.5 points since last quarter. According to the survey, citizens appear receptive to conducting more business with the government online, moving away from an almost exclusively informational relationship.
Respondents ranked the Medicare prescription drug plan cost comparison website the highest. Other high-ranking sites — those scoring above 80 — included GSA’s federal citizen information center, the Centers for Disease Control’s main site, and the CIA’s recruitment website.
