[August 21, 2014]

ForeSee E-Government Satisfaction Index: Satisfaction Scores in Q2 Improve As Federal Websites Begin to Meet the Multichannel Demands of Today's Multi-Device Citizens

ForeSee (http://www.ForeSee.com), Answers Corporation's customer experience analytics solution, today released the 2014 second-quarter E-Government Satisfaction Index, a critical examination of the success of the U.S. government's online initiatives. The new report includes citizen satisfaction scores for more than 100 federal websites, comparisons to private-sector satisfaction scores and details on federal mobile expectations.

The E-Government Satisfaction Index is a comprehensive reflection of citizens' experiences with federal government websites and serves as a checkpoint for evaluating the performance of these websites. ForeSee's proprietary methodology, which identifies key drivers of online satisfaction and quantifies their relationship to overall citizen satisfaction, has been proven to predict how citizens will behave in the future.

ForeSee collected more than 234,600 survey responses across 103 federal government websites for the 2014 second-quarter E-Government Satisfaction Index and rated agencies on a 100-point citizen satisfaction scale. A score of 80 or higher is considered the threshold for excellence at which a site meets and exceeds citizen expectations.

Key findings included:

? E-government outperformed private sector; several Social Security Administration (SSA) sites ranked higher in citizen satisfaction than Apple (News - Alert) or Amazon websites-Average citizen satisfaction for e-government was 74.8 on the study's 100-point scale, up fro 74.5 in Q1 2014. The score continued to be higher than comparable private-sector e-business websites, such as portals, search engines, news, information and social media sites, which rose slightly to 73.4 in Q2 from 71.3 in Q1, according to the ACSI annual report from January. Two websites from the Social Security Administration continue to lead the pack-Extra Help with Medicare Prescription Drugs (90) and SSA Retirement Estimator (90). These sites outperformed some of the top ACSI-measured private sector sites such as Mercedes-Benz (88), Amazon (88), Apple (87) and FedEx (85) in satisfaction.

? Mobile e-government satisfaction up-According to the ForeSee Mobile Federal Government Benchmark, the aggregate satisfaction score for visitors using federal mobile and app sites increased to 79 in Q2, up from 77 in Q1 2014. The rise in mobile citizen satisfaction is promising for government agencies as more consumers utilize mobile devices to access information. According to comScore (News - Alert), six percent of the U.S. Internet population is mobile only, demonstrating the need for e-government mobile channels to deliver a satisfying experience.

? E-government mobile access up-60 percent of government website visitors reported using a mobile phone or tablet to access the Internet in Q2, an increase from 57 percent during Q1. Additionally, 39 percent of visitors reported having accessed a federal government website using a mobile device, up from 37 percent in Q1.

? Government e-commerce sites achieved highest satisfaction scores-E-commerce and transactional websites remained the top-scoring category in this Index, recording a score of 79, up from 78 last quarter. The SSA continued to lead with six out of its seven websites leading this category, with scores ranging from 82 to 90.

"Citizen satisfaction scores for government websites increased this quarter, reflecting not only a more pleasant web experience, but also more confidence and trust in our government departments, agencies and programs," said Dave Lewan, Vice President of Public Sector at Answers. "It was also promising that mobile e-government satisfaction increased this quarter, as more and more citizens are accessing these sites from phones and tablets for critical information. The consistent measurement of the customer experience, across all platforms, is the most accurate way to target areas that need improvement and create solutions that will have the greatest impact on citizens' satisfaction."

A complete list and analysis of citizen satisfaction scores for individual federal government websites across E-Commerce and Transaction, News and Information, Portals and Department Main, and Careers and Recruitment categories can be viewed in the 2014 second-quarter E-Government Satisfaction Index.

About Answers Corporation

Answers' mission is to empower consumers, brands and organizations by connecting them with the information they need to make better-informed decisions. The Answers Platform leverages the sizeable reach of top-ranked Q&A site Answers.com (News - Alert), along with its leading cloud-based solutions from ForeSee, Webcollage and ResellerRatings, to enable businesses and organizations to engage with customers at every interaction point, drive investment decisions from customer insights and deliver content that powers the customer experience. Answers is headquartered in St. Louis with offices in Ann Arbor, New York City, Silicon Valley, Cleveland, London, Vancouver and Tel Aviv. For Answers, visit http://www.answers.com.

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