Only Half Of Citizens Are Happy With Digital Public Services

Uploaded on 2023-08-08 in NEWS-Cybersecurity News, FREE TO VIEW, BUSINESS-Services-IT & Telecoms

As people become accustomed to the speed and convenience of e-commerce interactions, they increasingly expect similar service levels across all life areas, including their interactions with governments. Now, the digital security experts at Entrust have carried out a multinational survey on Government to Citizen (G2C) Interactions.

The survey of more than 3,500 citizens across six countries (U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Germany and U.K.) offers insights into the state of interactions between governments and their citizens and highlights some of the issues that need to be addressed.

The G2C Interactions Survey outlines the biggest areas government leaders can address in order to provide consumers with an improved experience and overcome these challenges. In particular, the majority of survey respondents (57%) expressed a preference for more digital interaction with the public sector, utilising government web portals (39%) and mobile applications (18%).

However, government agencies burdened by outdated systems, budget restrictions, and multiple solution providers, often fall short of the experience offered by the private sector. Despite 41% reporting they interact with government agencies in person, only 15% identified this method as their preferred mode of interaction.

Similarly, while 35% of people use mail to conduct governmental business, a mere 8% prefer this method. These disparities suggest a clear disconnect between the ways citizens interact with the government and how they would prefer to do.

Respondents highlighted several issues with government services. Lengthy wait times were a significant problem for 67% of respondents, followed by unclear instructions (32%), and inconsistent service levels (30%).

These data points underscore the need for governments to offer more flexible, user-friendly ways for citizens to interact, leading to improved service delivery.

"During the pandemic, we saw an accelerated shift to digitisation. While that's a step in the right direction, there's a lot of work to be done to ensure those digital interactions are easy to use and secure," said Jenn Markey, Vice President of Product Marketing, Payments & Identity at Entrust.

Creating A Leading Digital Function

The survey found that respondents prioritise three key elements in their government interactions. By addressing these factors first, governments can keep pace with technological advances and sector trends to deliver an optimal digital user experience:

Convenience (55%): Citizens want services when and where they need them without extended wait times.

Secure, easy methods of identity verification (53%): Interactions should cater to individual preferences, whether they prefer digital biometrics or in-person verification.

Data privacy (49%): Given the rise in cyberattacks in both the public and private sectors, citizens need assurance that their data is secure.

Survey participants identified several other aspects they valued when dealing with government agencies.
These include: the ability to track progress (44%), self-service capabilities (44%), online forms (43%), and a consistent user experience across government organisations (36%). Interestingly, only a small percentage (8%) considered the ability to engage on behalf of others as a priority.

Image: Mark Koenig

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