Feds keep pace with private sector in customer satisfaction

After a minor dip last year, the public's overall satisfaction with federal agencies is edging closer to an all-time high reached two years ago, according to statistics released Monday by the University of Michigan.

The government received a score of 70.9 out of 100 possible points on the 2003 American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), published by the University of Michigan Business School's National Quality Research Center. This beats federal agencies' 2002 score of 70.2, and puts the government just 0.4 points away from its record score of 71.3, reached in 2001.

But federal agencies have not yet managed to overtake the private sector, which received a score of 73.8. Government scores kept pace with private scores, with both increasing by 1 percent over the past year.

Americans have low expectations for public services, said Claes Fornell, a professor at the University of Michigan Business School who oversees the survey. Often citizens are pleasantly surprised when they actually try out government services, he said. Survey respondents gave the government overall high marks for professionalism and courtesy. Professionalism scores rose by 1.3 percent in 2003, to 81 out of 100, while courtesy scores increased by 2.4 percent over last year, to 84.

Trust in the government has dropped for the second consecutive year, Fornell noted, holding back the overall satisfaction score. The drop may simply reflect the fact that federal agencies enjoyed unusually high trust levels immediately following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks-a level not sustainable in the long run, Fornell said.

The U.S. Mint received the highest rating of any federal agency for the third year in a row, with coin collectors giving it an 89, a 6 percent increase over last year. In 2000, the Mint tied with the Social Security Administration for the top spot, with each receiving scores of 84. SSA has since seen a decline in satisfaction, receiving an 81 in 2003, a 2.4 percent decrease over its 2002 score of 83.

The Office of Personnel Management and the Internal Revenue Service also lost ground during the past year, with retirement beneficiaries giving OPM a rating of 76, a 2 percent decrease over 2002, and individual electronic tax filers giving the IRS a 77, a 1.3 decline. Paper tax filers gave the IRS a 53 rating, the same as last year.

The survey also rates Web sites, and in that arena, health-related federal sites tended to rate highly. Medline Plus, a site maintained by the National Institutes of Health, received an 86, tying with the Federal Student Aid Web site for the top ranking among government sites. The National Women's Health Information Center site came in second place, with a score of 83.

Public health information sites tend to receive high scores because citizens see government Web sites as a reliable source of medical advice, said Larry Freed, president and chief executive officer of ForeSee Results, one of several companies providing financial support for the survey. "The sheer volume of health information-and health scams-on the Internet makes having an effective government resource very important to consumers," Freed said. "They know that the information comes from an authoritative source, not a source whose credentials are murky."

Web sites directed at narrow audiences also tended to perform well on the survey, Freed noted. "Most users do not think in terms of departments," he explained. "They think in terms of specific needs."

This is partly why the CIA and State Department job search sites received better scores than USAJOBS, OPM's general government recruiting site, Freed said. The CIA job site earned an 80 rating and the State Department site received a 77, while OPM scored only a 68.

Created in 1994, the ACSI index measures annual trends in satisfaction with public and private services. Scores range from 0 to 100 and are based on consumer expectations, perceived quality of service and perceived value of service. The 2003 survey contains responses from users of more than 60 types of federal services.

Federal participation in the survey is voluntary, while the university selects private-sector participants. Survey critics complain that agencies choose to question narrow groups of consumers most likely to be pleased with the services they receive, thereby skewing the public segment of the index upward.