Citizen Satisfaction with Federal Government Rebounds to Four-Year High

February 28, 2017

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.

Ransomware and the propulsion of the extortion economy has rapidly eclipsed into a national priority. Recently, we observed the catastrophic impact of a widescale ransomware attack impacting gas pipelines and raising national gas prices overnight.