Report: Digital services are becoming more prevalent, but many don’t regularly access them

When working from town halls, city offices, and via digital services, it can be difficult for administrators to fully comprehend the impact of government on constituents, and their perception of it. Especially in this digital era, there’s a divide that must be spanned through focused outreach, thoughtful web design, and intentional digital engagement. A new report from Deloitte unpacks constituent satisfaction with online services, which have exploded in popularity over the last few years.

“The pandemic has accelerated government’s digital transformation efforts and changed the way many people access government services,” the report says. Going forward, the prevalence of digital services is expected to increase. But even though digital services have become more prevalent, most of the nearly 2,000 people who participated in a survey said they don’t frequently access them. 

“Only 23% of U.S. respondents regularly (often and always) interact with government through digital channels, leaving governments with a long journey ahead to increase availability and boost adoption,” the report says. Thirty-four percent said they sometimes use digital channels, and 43% said they rarely do.

Researchers focused on five areas for the report: how frequently constituents interface with digital services; their satisfaction with them; preferred avenues of interaction; user demographics; and reasons administrators should be optimistic.

Compared to digital services offered in the private sector like online bill paying and banking, respondents ranked their satisfaction with digital services in the public sector nearly 20 points lower—62% satisfaction compared to 81%. Among all public sector digital services, respondents said they were most satisfied with the ease of registering to vote (78%) and paying taxes (73%) online. Navigating public housing resources (50%) and unemployment benefits (54%) were ranked the lowest.

Across demographics, the majority of people who access government services digitally are younger than 34 (34%), high income earners (31%), employed (32%), and live in large cities (37%), among other things.

And there’s a clear preference in how people prefer to interact with their government digitally. Half or more of all respondents said they prefer to use a website for digital services offered by federal, state, or local governments. Preference for face-to-face interaction correspondingly increases as services are provided more locally, the report notes. When accessing digital services, users ranked their greatest difficulty to be navigating confusing websites.

As communities more fully embrace a digital-first approach to interacting with the public, the report highlights opportunities to improve user experience and, by doing so, to build trust in government. To that end, the report promotes an integrated life-events approach for digital services. Rather than separating services based on department, agencies should collaborate and provide their services under a single tab. For example, someone who is looking to start a new business would need to access incorporation services, be able to pay their taxes, access permits, apply for loans and grants, and read up on labor laws. 

Along with adopting a life-event approach, the report recommends tailoring services to constituents, focusing on user experience as a way to improve trust in government, prioritize privacy and data security, and promote transparency.

To read the full report, visit Deloitte’s website.