ACSI Adds 'Efficiency Gap' Citizen Satisfaction Measure

US company ACSI has introduced a new metric tracking citizens' experience of and satisfaction with federal government performance. The move comes as the outgoing administration points to record improvements in satisfaction, while the incoming President's DOGE team promises sweeping reforms.

The ACSI (American Customer Satisfaction Index) provides a cross-industry measure of customer satisfaction for the USA, measuring consumers' satisfaction with the quality of products and services offered by both foreign and domestic firms with significant share in US markets - the firm (also called ACSI) says it serves both as a national indicator of the health of the economy, for government use, and as a tool for businesses looking to gauge the competitiveness of individual firms and predict future profitability. The survey has been operational for more than 25 years and measures satisfaction with approximately 400 companies in about 40 industries and 10 economic sectors, including various services of federal and local government agencies. Scores range from 0 to 100 and are based on data from roughly 200,000 responses annually.

The Trump administration's unofficial Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), led by Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, will look to make dramatic cuts to spending by federal government departments. ACSI's new, public sector-focused Efficiency Gap is calculated by comparing the average scores of four core drivers - process efficiency, information accessibility, customer service and web site functionality - for each department against the federal government average during the Biden presidency (2021-2024). Initial metrics show significant variations, from 13% above the federal average for the Department of the Interior, which includes national parks, to 9% below for the IRS. Border Protection (-8%) and the Census Bureau (-7%) both also have low scores while the Department of Energy and the Office of Personnel both rate 7% above the average.

ACSI's Federal Government Study 2024 recently reported that citizen satisfaction was at a seven-year high with a score of 69.7 out of 100 - evidently not sufficient to stop the same citizens (?) from voting the opposition back into power by a substantial majority but still a source of some pride for Biden's officials who have been promoting the results. The scores will now provide information for use by the incoming government, in the form of 'a citizen-centric view of government efficiency that complements traditional cost-cutting approaches', according to Forrest Morgeson, Associate Professor of Marketing at Michigan State University and Director of Research Emeritus at the ACSI. Morgeson - 'though no doubt aware that Messrs Musk and Ramaswamy will bring their own preconceived ideas about areas ripe for cutting to the table - says nevertheless that the data 'could prove vital as the incoming administration focuses on government efficiency'. Musk has talked of aiming for $2 trillion in cuts and 'having a good shot at getting one [trillion]'.

The company is online at www.theacsi.org .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.