ANN ARBOR, Mich., Jan. 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Citizen satisfaction with the federal government reached a four-year high at the end of 2016, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). Three years of eroding citizen satisfaction culminated in an all-time low score in 2015, but over the course of a year, satisfaction rebounded 6.4 percent to 68.0 on a 0 to 100 scale.
Several factors contribute to the rise in citizen satisfaction. Government websites are better than they were a year ago. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) also improves, up
8 percent to an ACSI score of 67. With nearly 10 million users enrolled in the Affordable Care Act (ACA), more people are interacting with HHS than ever before. Substantial gains in HHS survey respondents and improved satisfaction with the department contributes to higher satisfaction with the federal government overall.
"As the impending repeal and replace of the ACA legislation moves forward, the effects on citizen satisfaction will be important to track," says Claes Fornell, ACSI founder and Chairman.
The Department of the Interior (+4% to 78) and the Department of State (+10% to 78) lead the way in citizen satisfaction. At the other end of the spectrum, the Department of the Treasury anchors the bottom at 59.
Among federal agencies, two of the top performers for 2016 are the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation with an ACSI score of 90 and the call center for the Recreation.gov website at 84 – both higher than most best-in-class private sector benchmarks.
The ACSI report is available for free download at http://www.theacsi.org/news-and-resources/customer-satisfaction-reports/reports-2016/acsi-federal-goverment-report-2016.
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No advertising or other promotional use can be made of the data and information in this release without the express prior written consent of ACSI LLC.
About ACSI
The ACSI Federal Government Report 2016 is based on interviews with 2,380 users, chosen at random and contacted via email in November and December of 2016. ACSI scores for individual agencies are derived from independent research conducted by CFI Group, which is the exclusive licensee of the ACSI methodology in the federal government.
The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) is a national economic indicator of customer evaluations of the quality of products and services available to household consumers in the United States. The ACSI uses data from interviews with roughly 70,000 customers annually as inputs to an econometric model for analyzing customer satisfaction with more than 300 companies in 43 industries and 10 economic sectors, including various services of federal and local government agencies.
ACSI results are released throughout the year, with all measures reported on a scale of 0 to 100. ACSI data have proven to be strongly related to a number of essential indicators of micro and macroeconomic performance. For example, firms with higher levels of customer satisfaction tend to have higher earnings and stock returns relative to competitors. Stock portfolios based on companies that show strong performance in ACSI deliver excess returns in up markets as well as down markets. At the macro level, customer satisfaction has been shown to be predictive of both consumer spending and GDP growth.
ACSI and its logo are Registered Marks of the University of Michigan, licensed worldwide exclusively to American Customer Satisfaction Index LLC with the right to sublicense.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
Forrest Morgeson, 734-649-6818
[email protected]
SOURCE American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI)
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