Report: Resident satisfaction with digital government has made strides, but progress remains
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A new report suggests that governments can do a better job at leveraging customer experience feedback and data to better meet residents’ needs.
A self-service culture for residents interacting with digital government services is a growing priority for the public sector and constituents, according to new survey findings.
Resources like online payment portals or digital forms can result in easier and faster processes for government staff and residents, in turn potentially increasing revenue for governments who make interacting with online services simple, according to a report based on responses from more than 1,400 federal, state and local government employees from government software company Granicus.
Between 2023 and 2024, for instance, the company reported that government customers increased the number of digital forms they created using Granicus solutions from 4,000 to 5,600, while the number of responses to those forms from users grew from 485,000 to 855,00 in the same period.
Those findings suggest “a trend toward residents opting for self-service options rather than calling offices or taking time to visit in person,” the report stated. “But it also shows government staff are understanding how their agency can best meet their residents’ needs.”
Online payment options, program enrollment and permitting processes, for instance, were respondents’ top priorities for digital government, according to the report. And more than 40% of survey respondents said efforts to digitize government services have contributed to more positive customer satisfaction scores.
But challenges remain for government agencies looking to improve constituents’ experiences with digital services. Staff and budget constraints often limit agencies’ abilities to effectively improve or transform digital services, said Luke Norris, vice president of platform strategy and digital transformation for Granicus.
Eighty-one percent of respondents cited budget or funding constraints as a barrier to improving tech-related services, and 45% cited a lack of staff expertise in implementing changes to digital tools as a challenge.
The survey also found that 72% of respondents said their agency lacked a policy for website testing, and 79% of participants said their organization had no set schedule for website usability reviews, leaving accessibility improvements to be conducted when staff discover issues. Plus, only 18% of website designers in the survey said their organization had staff dedicated to customer experience concerns.
The report suggested that increasing efforts to engage with residents and collect customer experience-related data can help government staff better tailor digital services to meet residents’ needs and wants, according to the report.
“Governments have tended just to provide service without a lot of awareness of who the actual people that are interacting with those services [are],” said Luke Norris, vice president of platform strategy and digital transformation for Granicus.
“There's a vision match — what government staff want is the same things that residents want — and so now it's just about making sure that they have the right technology, processes and behaviors and skills to be able to do that,” he said.
Outreach efforts like targeted email and text campaigns are one way for agencies to foster communication and feedback from residents so agencies can offer better service to constituents, Norris explained.
Texting, for instance, “tends to be kind of ubiquitous or generally available technology, and provides an opportunity to keep people informed, close feedback loops … and those things can help lead to creating better experiences,” he said.
Such efforts could also help governments engage with more segmented populations, like underserved communities who may have unique needs like multilingual content, the report stated.
While agencies are increasingly leveraging online tools to engage with residents, public meetings remain “an important opportunity for interaction” between governments and constituents, according to the report.
State and local governments are facing increasing pressure to be more efficient and modernized, but it’s important for officials to not digitize or adopt new technology “for the sake of technology,” Norris said. “It’s about implementing technologies in data-driven ways that can help increase efficiency.”