Users more satisfied with Fed sites
User satisfaction with federal Web sites ranges from midrange to higher than several top commercial sites, according to a new study.
User satisfaction with federal Web sites ranges from midrange to higher than several top commercial sites, according to a new study led by the University of Michigan Business School and ForeSee Results Inc.
The E-Government Satisfaction Index measured citizen satisfaction with 22 sites using the same American Customer Satisfaction Index methodology that is used to rank commercial site satisfaction. The federal sites in the survey ranged from the State Department portal to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Mapfinder service.
The e-government score of 70.9 is higher than satisfaction with offline government service, but several points lower than the national commercial average. Agencies' results should improve as they rely on internal user satisfaction surveys to determine improvements
One site in particular, the National Women's Health Information Center site at the Health and Human Services Department, scored higher than any commercial site except Amazon.com. The center received a score of 83 and Amazon.com received a score of 88.
Several agency sites are still scoring in the 50s, but a compelling indication that satisfaction should rise across the board is that more agencies are turning to user-performance evaluations as their top measures of success, said Larry Freed, president and chief executive officer of ForeSee Results.
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