Citizen satisfaction with U.S. Federal government services continues to improve, advancing 2.9 percent to a score of 68.2, and led by a sharp increase in satisfaction with Federal websites, according to the American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI) Federal Government Report 2023 released today.
This positive momentum builds upon an even larger gain last year – when citizen satisfaction jumped a whopping 4.6 percent – and rings in the highest satisfaction score in five years, when the measure reached 68.9 in 2018.
“Collectively, these two large gains have returned citizen satisfaction to levels not seen since long before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Forrest Morgeson, director of research emeritus at the ACSI. “The data suggests that citizens are happier with their federal government interactions than at any time since 2018.”
The ACSI Federal Government Report 2023 is based on interviews with 847 users, chosen at random and contacted via email throughout the year.
The improvement is driven by substantial gains across all four performance areas measured by the ACSI Federal Government Report — process, information, customer service, and website. For these drivers of satisfaction, all four registered substantial gains between 2022 and 2023.
Specifically, the perceptions of government website quality skyrocketed in 2023 – soaring 13 percent from 69 in 2022 to 78 in 2023. The courtesy and professionalism of customer service also rose by 8.3 percent this year to a score of 78.
Both customer service and website quality took small one-point dips in their scores from 2021 to 2022, so this significant rise in customer satisfaction is underpinning and driving the large gain in overall satisfaction within the Federal government.
Finally, in 2023, citizens reported big improvements in the efficiency and ease of government processes – up 6.1 percent to 70 – and ease of accessing and clarity of information – up 4.3 percent to 72.
The overall citizen satisfaction score of 68.2 for 2023 is the highest since it reached 68.9 in 2018. ACSI has administered the survey every year since 1999, with 2021 proving to be an all-time low with a score of 63.4 and 2006 ringing in the all-time high at a score of 72.3.
The continuous growth in this year’s customer satisfaction survey indicate that the Biden-Harris administration’s customer experience efforts may finally be paying off.
President Biden issued his customer experience executive order in December 2021. Additionally, one of the main priorities in the Biden-Harris administration’s President’s Management Agenda (PMA) is to deliver excellent, equitable, and secure Federal services and customer experience. In August, the White House’s Office of Management and Budget issued its quarterly PMA update, emphasizing that agencies “made significant progress” towards improving customer experience through two vehicles: High Impact Service Providers and Life Experience Projects.
