Canada’s federal government ranked number one for the fifth consecutive year in a 22–country survey that measures delivery of government surveys using emerging communication and information technologies. The United States federal government ranked second, followed, in order, by the federal governments in Denmark, Singapore, and Australia.
The study was done by consultancy Accenture which surveyed 9,000 adults in 22 countries.
Accenture said that, in general terms, governments around the world are still struggling to meet demands by their citizens for better customer service.
Here’s this from the Accenture press release:
To measure overall service maturity, an indicator of how well governments are delivering customer service, Accenture focused on four key aspects of service delivery: a citizen-centered perspective, cohesive multi-channel services, fluid cross-government services, and proactive communications and education. The study found that while eGovernment offerings across the board are well advanced; with an average service maturity breadth of 91 percent, all countries have room for improvement to realize the broader goal of leadership in customer service. In fact the overall average customer service maturity score – which measures four key aspects of service delivery, including how well governments are delivering service across multiple channels – was just
39 percent. Only Canada has an overall customer service maturity score of more than 50 percent.“Canada continues to set the bar in government service delivery for the rest of the world,” said Alden Cuddihey, partner, Accenture's Canadian Government operating group. “Despite being a leader, there are still lessons to be learned from the rest of the world, areas for advancement, and opportunities to reach even more Canadians through eGovernment services. Canada still has work to do to meet the growing service expectations of it citizens.”
The 22 governments included: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom and the United States. The research was conducted Jan. 3-17, 2005.
Accenture noted that despite the widespread availability and use of Internet-based communication tools, citizens were most likely to use the telephone to obtain services from their government.
The citizen survey found that while most citizens prefer a number of different methods of communicating with governments, they continue to rely on more traditional, offline channels. Despite the relative Internet savvy and familiarity with online government in some countries, the telephone continues to be the predominant means citizens use to communicate with government. Over the past 12 months, 57 percent of respondents had used the telephone to interact with government, as opposed to only 22 percent who had used the Internet. Yet despite its popularity, the telephone is consistently ranked as the least easy form of communication across all countries surveyed.