Enduring Lessons in Citizen Satisfaction: Trends, Findings, and Public-Private Comparisons

Abstract

To this point in the book, we have focused primarily on the theory, concepts, and methods central to citizen satisfaction measurement. Moreover, in the last chapter we built on these topics and reviewed some reasonably simple, straightforward techniques for interpreting satisfaction data with organizational and process improvements as our primary goal, examining how this data can be employed toward identifying government agency improvements aimed at enhancing actual performance and citizens’ satisfaction with that performance. In this chapter we shift directions toward an investigation of some general but nonetheless vital findings gleaned from citizen satisfaction data. Examining a large sample of data collected and analyzed over multiple years, the primary goal of this chapter is to consider some enduring lessons about citizens’ satisfaction with government performance, and to examine these findings both over time and in relation to comparable private sector results.