GovernmentExecutive.com

Overall citizen satisfaction with government Web sites reached new levels during the last four months, as the aggregate government score nudged ahead of the private sector mark for goods and services in the third quarter of 2005.

A 1.2 percent growth in the satisfaction index - from 72.6 to 73.5 - represents a 3.2 percent increase from September 2004 and is at an all-time high. The cumulative nongovernment scores for goods and services measured by the index averaged out at 73.1.

Thirteen agency Web sites attained scores of 80 or above on the 100-point scale - four of them new to the index - while 17 remained below 70.

The measure of the public's satisfaction, compiled every four months by the American Customer Satisfaction Index, surveyed 81 agency Web sites, up from 70 sites in June. The National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan Business School publishes the index.

Once again, the highly rated National Institutes of Health sites lead led the index, joined by newcomers from the Social Security Administration's Help with Medicare Prescription Drug Costs site and Internet-based Social Security Benefits application.

Of the five agencies with more than five sites measured by the index, the Social Security Administration had the highest average score with a 79.7 followed by the Health and Human Services Department 23 sites - which includes 21 National Institutes of Health sites - with 77.4. The Web sites of the departments of Agriculture and Treasury each averaged a score of 67.8 and the State Department scored a 73.

Larry Freed, president and CEO of the Ann Arbor, Mich.-based online strategy firm ForeSee Results, wrote in an analysis of the report that improving the ability to navigate and search a site remains a high priority for government Web sites.

"It's great that you can get 7,000 responses back, but I only want that one response," Freed said. "I don't think we're scratching the surface of search technology. I think at some point there will be some big great breakthroughs."

Freed said agencies are embracing the concept of citizen satisfaction, which is the first step towards improvement.

"The fact that the number of participants is growing so quickly says the best thing about the future of e-government," Freed said. "These sites care, and if they can get the budget, they're making improvements in the right places."

The General Services Administration's main Web site continued to score poorly on the index with a 64, but its other Web sites scored above average including its Federal Citizen Information Center, which received an 82, and its Spanish language version of the FirstGov.gov site, which received a 77. GSA's e-Library site also scored poorly with a 58.

The U.S. Mint's Online Catalog site continued its decline, dropping to 72. At the beginning of the year, it was one of the top performers with an 81.

The score for NASA's main Web site improved markedly, rising from 72 in the second quarter to 77 in the third quarter.

Agencies pay from $22,500 to $30,000 to participate in the index, depending on how many Web sites are included in the review. Participating agencies receive performance reports about every six weeks as well as comparisons of visitor types.