https://www.americancityandcounty.com/wp-content/themes/acc_child/assets/images/logo/footer-logo.png
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcast
  • Resources & Events
    • Back
    • Resources
    • Webinars
    • White Papers
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • Municipal Cost Index – Archive
    • Equipment Watch Page
    • American City & County Awards
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Privacy Statement
    • Terms of Service
American City and County
  • NEWSLETTER
  • Home
  • Co-op Solutions
  • Hybrid Work
  • Commentaries
  • News
  • In-Depth
  • Multimedia
    • Back
    • Podcasts
  • Resources/Events
    • Back
    • Webinars
    • White Papers/eBooks
    • IWCE 2022
    • How to Contribute
    • American City & County Awards
    • Municipal Cost Index
    • Equipment Watch Page
  • About Us
    • Back
    • About Us
    • Contact Us
    • Advertise
    • Cookie Policy
    • Privacy Stament
    • Terms of Service
  • newsletter
  • Administration
  • Economy & Finance
  • Procurement
  • Public Safety
  • Public Works & Utilities
  • Smart Cities & Technology
  • Magazine
acc.com

News


Pixabay

News

Quality of digital services is intrinsically tied to public confidence

Quality of digital services is intrinsically tied to public confidence

  • Written by Andrew Castillo
  • 24th September 2021

Between rancorous national debates and the ongoing pandemic, trust in the federal government has eroded in recent years. These days, it’s hovering around an all-time low. 

Locally, constituents hold higher levels of trust in their elected leaders—perhaps because they share the same community. But even so, a recent survey of more than 6,000 American adults by Deloitte, a global consulting firm, identified “a number of areas where trust appears to be lacking” in local government, as well. The research is relevant to local governments because of the implications of losing public confidence.

“I think we’re approaching a crisis of trust,” said R.J. Krawiec, a principal for Deloitte’s government and public services practice. “And if there is no trust, it can be difficult to (get people) to do what you’re asking them to do”—like paying taxes, taking children to school or wearing seatbelts.

Among the communities that fared the best, those governments known by the communities they served and those with user-friendly digital services ranked high. 

“In general, respondents rate state and local agencies high on trust if they think that state governments’ digital services are easy to use, that governments’ web-based services help them accomplish what they need, and that the state government safeguards their data well,” according to an analysis of the survey released Wednesday. 

Conversely, agencies and governments with clunky, hard-to-use websites and user-unfriendly digital services “tended to generate lower trust scores.” 

Extrapolating from the findings, Krawiec said there seems to be a connection between how close someone feels to their government and how much they trust their leaders. Someone who has been to the town hall and interacted with a clerk, for example, might be more apt to respond to a survey than someone who doesn’t know who sits on their city council. In this, there’s an opportunity for communities of all sizes.

The data shows that those who have great experiences interacting with their governments online hold “high trust,” Krawiec said. But those who’ve had “a bad experience, that erodes trust. That’s why digital is such a great opportunity. You can be very personable, very human, at scale.”

But while curating a user’s experience in the online realm is within the direct control of local leaders, other findings documented in the survey aren’t so mailable, as they’re intrinsically tied to national or global circumstances. 

From the survey, two other key themes emerged: “The more local, the more trusted” and “the mission of various government agencies can greatly influence” the perception of trust. 

“There are some differences in how respondents of different ages view government: for example, individuals over 75 showed the highest trust levels of both state government in general and state agencies with which they had interacted,” the survey found. “But the biggest variance, showing up at all ages and all incomes, is that respondents trust state agencies more than state government in the abstract.” 

When asked about trust in different agencies, respondents ranked three organizations especially low: unemployment services, motor vehicle departments and law enforcement agencies were scored the least trusted state agencies. 

In this, the pandemic has greatly impacted public perception and trust in government—for both good and bad, according to a Gallup poll issued last fall following months of stay-at-home orders and a summer of protests. While confidence in sectors like healthcare, banking and education soared, “one—the police—stands alone as seeing a significant decline in the past year. Confidence in the police fell five points to 48 percent, marking the first time in the 27-year trend that this reading is below the majority level,” a statement about the poll’s findings notes. 

Deloitte’s report highlighted a few reasons that have contributed to declining confidence in the other two low-ranked sectors, both related to the pandemic: unemployment rates are higher than ever, causing extensive delays in unemployment offices; likewise, state DMVs are currently straining against extensive backlogs while working with aging technology. 

Also tangentially related to the pandemic and the government’s response to it, the top three trusted agencies ranked in the survey provide aid to low-income families. 

“Respondents have the highest trust in childcare services, housing assistance and food assistance programs,” the survey notes. 

Along with national or global events, trust in local government can also be skewed by perceptions of the federal government. At the national level, government confidence has been declining since the late 1950s, when Pew Research Center first began tracking the data through its National Election Study.  

At the time, “about three-quarters of Americans trusted the federal government to do the right thing almost always or most of the time. Trust in government began eroding during the 1960s, amid the escalation of the Vietnam War, and the decline continued in the 1970s with the Watergate scandal and worsening economic struggles,” the latest survey notes. 

As of April, an estimated 24 percent of the general public said they trusted the federal government, up from 21 percent last year.  

This decline in confidence “has reached a point where it merits the attention of public leaders,” Deloitte’s survey concludes. And to that end, “the journey to restoring trust should include not only measuring it, but also enhancing services and managing trust perception in a way that ensures the areas of weakness are addressed.” 

In this endeavor, the survey plots a few concrete actions that can be taken by local leaders to help identify and address public distrust in their communities.  

Through surveys and polls, try to “identify where trust is lacking” and “which agencies are trusted, which are not, as well as what groups of people lack trust in public institutions and why,” the survey says, noting, “Government could benefit from greater insight into the trust perception of its people.” 

Proactive transparency—allowing the public to access good and bad information equally—can also go a long way in restoring the public’s trust. 

And given a clear link between trust and the quality of an agency’s online services, “keeping the end-to-end user experience in mind can help agencies design services that are easy to use and deliver positive results,” the survey says. More than a means to an end, local governments “should consider enhancing the digital experience as a way to foster greater trust in government.”

Tags: homepage-featured-1 homepage-featured-2 homepage-featured-4 Administration News Administration News News

Most Recent


  • 10 best large cities for fishing
    Across the United States, Americans of all backgrounds—from both urban and rural settings alike—enjoy a mutual pastime: fishing. But while there are plenty of cities that feature lakes and rivers, some large metro areas are better fishing communities than others.  A list created by Apartment Guide considers all U.S. cities with a population of more […]
  • public sector
    Generational differences present an opportunity to reinvent public sector service delivery
    As major technology companies have transformed the ideal customer experience into instantaneous “one-click” services, the public sector has been challenged to keep pace. As a result, government organizations must meet the changing expectations of Americans with faster, simpler, 24/7 services. Government is ingrained in the fabric of our lives, including the water we drink, the […]
  • Report: Local and state governments are facing a retention crisis; the worst could be yet to come
    When the pandemic struck in 2020, public retention was hit hard: jobs in local government plummeted by 8.5 percent; state employment dropped by 4.4 percent. Two years later, local and state government jobs have rebounded by about half—to 4.1 and 1.9 percent below pre-pandemic levels respectively, according to a new report from Mission Square Research […]
  • Amid an unprecedented increase in federal spending, cities and counties stand to benefit from partnerships
    The so-called “American dream” of upward mobility has more or less stagnated: Today, a little more than 40 percent of children raised at the bottom of the income ladder remain there as adults, according to Pew Charitable Trusts, and only half grow up to earn more than their parents. This data points to a concerning […]

Leave a comment Cancel reply

-or-

Log in with your American City and County account

Alternatively, post a comment by completing the form below:

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Related Content

  • What Clerks Need to Know to Achieve a Balance Between Transparency and Security
  • Modernizing the budgetary process with cloud-based systems lets municipalities better adapt
  • Local government’s role in citizen engagement: It’s now digital
  • Application modernization is key to improving customer experience

White papers


How to Assemble a Rockstar Website Redesign Steering Committee

7th June 2022

Hand Hygiene: Compliance Matters

23rd May 2022

What it Takes to Build a Winning Esports Program

23rd May 2022
view all

Events


PODCAST


Young Leaders Episode 4 – Cyril Jefferson – City Councilman, High Point, North Carolina

13th October 2020

Young Leaders Episode 3 – Shannon Hardin – City Council President, Columbus, Ohio

27th July 2020

Young Leaders Episode 2 – Christian Williams – Development Services Planner, Goodyear, Ariz.

1st July 2020
view all

Twitter


AmerCityCounty

Seamless Cooperative Experience Saves Indiana City Exponentially in Time and Money dlvr.it/SSxp95

27th June 2022
AmerCityCounty

10 best large cities for fishing dlvr.it/SSxbSZ

27th June 2022
AmerCityCounty

Generational differences present an opportunity to reinvent public sector service delivery dlvr.it/SSxbN7

27th June 2022
AmerCityCounty

Report: Local and state governments are facing a retention crisis; the worst could be yet to come dlvr.it/SSnmS7

24th June 2022
AmerCityCounty

Amid an unprecedented increase in federal spending, cities and counties stand to benefit from partnerships dlvr.it/SSkGBn

23rd June 2022
AmerCityCounty

Governments using technology to harness data and improve decision-making dlvr.it/SSk3H0

23rd June 2022
AmerCityCounty

Infrastructure highlighted by city leaders as top priority in analysis of 60 mayoral addresses dlvr.it/SSgBck

22nd June 2022
AmerCityCounty

Oklahoma City puts the focus on employees when implementing changes in office technology dlvr.it/SSfyns

22nd June 2022

Newsletters

Sign up for American City & County’s newsletters to receive regular news and information updates about local governments.

Resale Insights Dashboard

The Resale Insights Dashboard provides model-level data for the entire used equipment market to help you save time and money.

Municipal Cost Index

Updated monthly since 1978, our exclusive Municipal Cost Index shows the effects of inflation on the cost of providing municipal services

Media Kit and Advertising

Want to reach our digital audience? Learn more here.

DISCOVER MORE FROM INFORMA TECH

  • IWCE’s Urgent Communications
  • IWCE Expo

WORKING WITH US

  • About Us
  • Contact Us

FOLLOW American City and County ON SOCIAL

  • Privacy
  • CCPA: “Do Not Sell My Data”
  • Cookies Policy
  • Terms
Copyright © 2022 Informa PLC. Informa PLC is registered in England and Wales with company number 8860726 whose registered and Head office is 5 Howick Place, London, SW1P 1WG.
This website uses cookies, including third party ones, to allow for analysis of how people use our website in order to improve your experience and our services. By continuing to use our website, you agree to the use of such cookies. Click here for more information on our Cookie Policy and Privacy Policy.
X