Need Something from the Government? Most Would Prefer Visiting a Website

A new study suggests American citizens are more satisfied with the government’s delivery of digital services than government’s overall service delivery.

Foresee’s E-Government Satisfaction Index – based on feedback from 185,000 users rating federal websites – rates overall customer satisfaction at 75 (out of a 100 scale) for citizens using federal websites for a variety of services.

That’s 11 points higher than how citizens rated government service as a whole in a related study conducted by the American Customer Satisfaction Index.

That may not be a surprising statistic to those who’ve waited in long security checkpoint lines at the airport or struggled to get answers during tax season, but it seems to be part of a broader trend in federal customer experience.

Foresee’s data, collected quarterly, shows an uptick in favorability for the government’s digital service delivery.

Conversely, the public’s perception of regular government service is on a continued decline, according to data from the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Similar data collected by the Government Business Council, Government Executive Media Group’s research arm, suggests federal customer service is at an 8-year low -- behind every major private sector industry.

In other words, much like Congress’ approval ratings, federal customer service sets a low bar. It doesn’t take much to elevate above it.

For this reason, agencies probably shouldn’t put all their eggs into the digital service basket.

In February, Forrester’s latest customer experience report actually showed that people’s interactions with the government websites and mobile apps was actually slightly less satisfying than their interactions with the human component of federal agencies, such as representatives from the Social Security Administration or U.S. Postal Service employees.

In that research, only 39 percent of American citizens felt the government should offer more digital services.