Government Web Sites Offer More Efficiency At Lower CostGovernment Web Sites Offer More Efficiency At Lower Cost

Taxpayers appear more satisfied dealing with the feds over the Web than they do interacting with government employees directly, a new customer-satisfaction survey suggests. The same study, conducted for the University of Michigan by ForeSee Results, a customer-satisfaction advisory consulting firm, shows that surveyed government Web sites, on average, outscored those from the private sector.

"Like other industries, the government is finding that the Internet can provide considerable value at a lower cost and with more efficiency than traditional methods," says ForeSee Results CEO Larry Freed. "Delivery via Web sites gives organizations the ability to control the consistency and quality of information and services better than traditional customer-service delivery methods driven by people disseminating information. In addition, Web sites offer a higher level of convenience, allowing citizens to access information and services anytime, from anywhere."

The Michigan study surveyed only eight government portals, a minuscule number considering that the government hosts hundreds of sites. Still, an aggregate government Web sites' score of 73.5 (on a scale of 0 to 100) puts E-government ahead of the overall offline government customer-satisfaction aggregate of 70.2. The government Web sites also bettered their online cohorts, outperforming news and information sites (73), search engines (68), and portals (68), as well as the overall E-business sector (68.7).

Freed says the high levels of satisfaction lead to a strong showing in referrals, providing a cost-effective method of expanding the use of the Web site for delivery of services and information. As the Web site gets more use, he says, it lets government agencies provide services in a cost-effective, high-quality, convenient manner.