This quarter’s aggregate score for e-government websites (74.6 on the Index’s 100-point scale) is down slightly from last quarter’s but remains significantly higher than the average citizen satisfaction score with the overall federal government (66.1) reported by the ACSI Federal Government Report 2013 last month.

While it’s clear citizens prefer to interact with the federal government via the Internet, the fact that citizen satisfaction scores have remained fairly steady (hovering around the 75 mark) for the last four years may be reflective of the higher expectations citizens have when it comes to getting information online. This quarter’s dip should be looked at as an eye-opener and an opportunity to focus on measurement and improvement not only on the web channel, but on the mobile channel as well.

The fact that we can now include a Mobile Federal Government Benchmark in our quarterly E-Government Satisfaction Index is a huge accomplishment for e-government, because it means more and more federal government departments, agencies and programs are actually measuring the mobile experience, which shows federal leaders are understanding the value this digital medium has in interacting with the citizen.

The aggregate visitor satisfaction score for the federal government mobile sites and apps included in the benchmark is 82 out of 100  – which is higher than average scores for other industry sectors measured by ForeSee. Another point of reference is that the Mobile Federal Government Benchmark score is higher than the average for the ForeSee Website Index (69), which includes both public and private sites, as well as the general ForeSee Mobile Benchmark. More information is included in the full report.

Today’s customers (or in this case, citizens) interact with multiple touch points using multiple devices and expect their journeys to be seamless. If citizens are unable to complete tasks via a mobile device as easily as they can through a web interaction, their satisfaction with the organization as a whole could suffer – and that’s a risk government agencies cannot afford to take.

Why? Because when compared to dissatisfied citizens, highly satisfied citizens are 90% more likely to use the federal website they evaluated as a primary resource, 96% more likely to recommend the site, 67% more likely to put their trust behind the agency, 52% more likely to return to the site, and 52% more likely to participate with the agency in the future. So there are definite cost savings associated with offering a highly satisfying website and mobile experience. Therefore, government agencies need to maintain the highest online standards by meeting or exceeding citizens’ expectations.

Download the full report to see which federal websites are meeting and exceeding citizen expectations, who needs to improve, and why digital government leaders should be making measuring and managing citizen satisfaction with mobile sites and apps a priority.