[May 05, 2015]

Federal Mobile Initiatives Soar While Private Sector Plays Catch Up

Answers Corporation, a premier provider of cloud-based voice of customer solutions and owner of the leading Internet brand Answers.com (News - Alert), today released the results of the ForeSee E-Government Satisfaction Index for Q1 2015. An offering within Answers' integrated suite of enterprise cloud solutions, ForeSee is a pioneer and global leader in technology-driven experience analytics. Mobile citizen satisfaction increased two points to 79 compared to the previous quarter, registering higher ratings than several key private sector verticals. Despite these gains, federal agencies as a whole failed to meet digital expectations as the overall satisfaction score declined to 74.7 from 75.1 in Q4 2014.

The Q1 2015 index is a comprehensive examination of citizens' experiences with more than 100 federal government websites, mobile sites and applications. ForeSee collected over 250,000 survey responses across federal websites during the quarter. Satisfaction is rated on a 100-point scale, where a score of 80 or higher is considered the threshold for excellence. Key findings include:

• Mobile e-government bucks larger trend, outpaces private sector in satisfaction - The satisfaction for federal mobile websites and applications rose two points to 79, a notable achievement given the limited resources available to agencies relative to private market. Government organizations outperformed companies in the retail, financial services and utilities vertical markets, all of which achieved a score of 75 according to the ForeSee Mobile Benchmark. To continue to improve experiences in this widely used channel, agencies need to focus on two key areas: site information-accuracy, quality, freshness of news and content- as well as navigation.
• Overall digital governmnt satisfaction suffers setback-The average score for e- government dipped from 75.1 in Q4 2014 to 74.7 in Q1 2015. In spite of the overall decline, two Social Security Administration websites-Extra Help with Medicare Prescription Drug Plan Costs (socialsecurity.gov/i1020) and the Retirement Estimator (ssa.gov/estimator)-led the way with a 90. The Department of Health and Human Services had 12 sites surpass the threshold of excellence and the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs (ojp.gov) website showed the largest improvement in the quarter, increasing nearly 11 percent to 73.
• Satisfaction is the gateway to future behaviors-Highly satisfied website visitors (scores of 80 or higher) were 84 percent more likely to use the channel as a primary resource, and on mobile 93 percent were more likely to recommend the site or app. For all agencies these behaviors are powerful indicators and direct proof that if organizations meet the expectations of citizens it will enable them to deliver information and services more cost-effectively.

First issued in Q3 2003 and currently released on a quarterly cadence, the E-Government Satisfaction Index scores are calculated based on citizens' responses to three questions related to their experience on a website, mobile site or application as compared to their expectations. The proprietary ForeSee methodology from Answers, which identifies key drivers of online satisfaction and quantifies their relationship to overall satisfaction, has been proven to predict how citizens will behave in the future. A complete list of citizen satisfaction scores for individual federal government websites across categories including E-Commerce and Transactional, News and Information, Portals and Department Main sites, and Careers and Recruitment, can be viewed in the latest report, the ForeSee E-Government Satisfaction Index (Q1 2015).

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 Voice of Customer (VOC) Platform leverages the sizable reach of the top-10 Internet brand Answers.com (source: Quantcast (News - Alert)), along with 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.

ForeSee and Answers.com are registered trademarks of Answers Corporation in the United States and in jurisdictions throughout the world. All other trademarks, trade names or service marks used or mentioned herein belong to their respective owners.

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