American Customer Satisfaction Index for E-Government Shows Steady Increase in User Satisfaction.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Search is a Problem Holding Back Nearly All E-Government Sites Says Analysis by Index Co-Sponsor ForeSee Results

Satisfaction with federal e-government is nudging upward, despite a significant increase in the number of harder-to-please first-time users, according to the latest findings of the quarterly e-government report of the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) produced by the University of Michigan, and co-sponsored by ForeSee Results.

Analysis shows that one of the main drags on overall satisfaction is the inadequacy of search functionality on e-government sites.

The index shows that e-government satisfaction levels are roughly equivalent to citizens' evaluations of government-agency performance in general--and both online and offline means of interacting with government are trending upward.

"If people get the same level of service whether they do business online or off, they will choose the channel that best suits their need and not avoid one or the other because they don't trust the quality," said Larry Freed, CEO of ForeSee Results and an online satisfaction expert. "That's called 'right channeling' in the private sector. It's a good thing for government because it distributes the workload more evenly and cost-effectively. Also, people who try one channel and are disappointed are harder to please if they have to resort to another channel. Whether business or government, you don't want to let that happen."

The aggregate ACSI e-Government satisfaction score increased 1.3% from last quarter to 72.1--identical to the overall government ACSI score, which was also released today. While not directly comparable because of different agency and service composition in the indices, comparisons between the online and offline government scores are instructive. Online government satisfaction is also very close to the ACSI e-Business aggregate score of 72.5 for similar categories of private-sector websites.

As e-government has grown more mainstream, citizen satisfaction scores have been dampened somewhat by the growth in first-time visitors to e-government sites. The proportion of first-time visitors increased by 14 percent in the past year, the report found. The data also show that this category of site visitors tend to register satisfaction ratings that are five to 10 percent lower than repeat visitors.

"The growth in first-time visitors is a good news, bad news scenario for e-government websites," said Dr. Claes Fornell, Director of the National Center for Quality Research at the University of Michigan that produces the ACSI. "The good news is that the American public continues to discover the web is a convenient, cost-effective channel for getting in touch with the government. The bad news is that first-time users tend be more difficult to satisfy than repeat visitors because they don't yet know their way around a site and have a hard time finding what they're looking for. But failing to make a good first impression could be slowing the growth of e-government."

This is where search comes in. The Index found that search is consistently one of the highest impact satisfaction drivers (or "elements") in a user's overall impression of the e-government experience. For over 90 percent of sites measured by the ACSI, search is a high-impact element. Search also tends to earn poor ratings.

"The combination of high-impact and relatively poor performance of search tends to pull down people's overall satisfaction with a site, even if they find other aspects of the site to be very good," said online customer satisfaction expert Larry Freed, who is President and CEO of ForeSee Results, co-sponsor of the index. The ACSI examines a variety of elements of the users' online experience and calculates overall satisfaction scores using a formula that weights these components according to the degree of impact they have on overall satisfaction with a site and on future behaviors, such as returning to the site, using it as a first resource and referring it to others.

Freed's analysis says that the way to fix the problem is generally not to focus directly on fixing search--or at least to do more than just shore up that function.

"E-government can sometimes improve search a bit but they probably can't completely fix it--so far, nobody can," said Freed, who pointed out that even Google and Microsoft struggle to provide targeted results rather than pages and pages of links that searchers have to wade through. "For e-government, the trick is to find ways to compensate for the inherent challenges that search presents. Solutions can come in different forms, depending on the type of site and its audience."

Alternate forms of customer-driven navigation can be quite effective, according to Freed in his analysis. His report noted that the Government Accountability Office (GAO), repository for an enormous volume of documents and statistics, redesigned their homepage and site architecture to make the site organization more clear and reduce the number of steps to find information. Satisfaction scores for the website have increased in 5 points (7.5%) over a one year period.

But improving navigation is not always the most impactful way to compensate. Sometimes, identifying what people are searching for and finding other ways to make the information more accessible is the key. The USDA's Forest Service site provided links to other sites that have commonly sought information and increased its satisfaction score 4 points this quarter and improved search element scores as well.

Freed said the trouble with search can be interpreted as a "back-handed compliment." E-government sites provide volumes of useful content and good services, but sifting through the tremendous amount of material available is a sticking point. The ACSI finds that people generally are very positive about the content they find on government websites.

"I have nothing but praise for the federal agencies that continue to improve their citizen-centered Web sites despite tight dollars," said Anne Kelly, CEO of the Federal Consulting Group. "Even a modest increase on the ACSI eGov score is a step in the right direction--satisfying their customers. Agencies are doing a fantastic job with Web development, but there will always be a few bumps in the road. In the end, agencies will save money as more and more citizens move to federal Web sites to get information and transact business. Everybody wins and hopefully everybody will be satisfied."

About the ACSI

The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is the only uniform, national, cross-industry measure of satisfaction with the quality of goods and services available in the United States. In 1999, the Federal government selected the ACSI to be a standard metric for measuring citizen satisfaction. Over 55 Federal government agencies have used the ACSI to measure citizen satisfaction of more than 110 services and programs. The Index is produced by a partnership of the University of Michigan Business School, American Society for Quality (ASQ) and CFI Group, an international consulting firm. ForeSee Results sponsors the e-commerce, e-business and e-government indices. The Federal Consulting Group, a franchise within the Department of the Treasury, is the executive agent for the ACSI and the federal government.

About ForeSee Results, Inc.

ForeSee Results is the market leader in online customer satisfaction management and specializes in converting satisfaction data into user-driven web development strategies. Using the methodology of the University of Michigan's American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), ForeSee Results has created a model that scientifically quantifies the elements that drive online customer satisfaction and predicts future behaviors, including the likelihood to return to the site or recommend the site to others. ForeSee Results, a privately held company located in Ann Arbor, Michigan, can be found online at www.ForeSeeResults.com.