Citizens Willing to Share Personal Data with Government in Exchange for Enhanced Customer Services, Accenture Survey Finds
February 24 2020 - 3:59AM
Business Wire
The majority of citizens are willing to share personal
information with government agencies in exchange for better
service, according to a global study issued today by Accenture
(NYSE: ACN).
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The study — based on a survey of more than 6,500 respondents
across 11 countries in Europe, North America and Asia Pacific —
found that just two-fifths (41%) of respondents were satisfied with
the level of interaction received from government departments over
the last year, and more than half (58%) said they are not aware of
a way to share service-related feedback with government
agencies.
Despite those findings, the vast majority (84%) of respondents
said they are open to sharing their personally identifiable
information with a government department in exchange for a more
personalized customer service experience. Additionally, two-fifths
(41%) of respondents said they would be comfortable with their
personal information being shared between government agencies if it
would enhance customer service.
“In recent years governments have taken positive steps to secure
and protect citizen and organizational data. However, corresponding
regulatory measures have at times also prevented government
agencies from using customer data in innovative ways to enhance
customer service. A solution would be to ask for citizen consent,
allowing for citizens to opt-in to new data-sharing programs across
government agencies,” said Eyal Darmon, a managing director in
Accenture’s Health & Public Service practice and sponsor of the
study.
More than three-fourths (78%) of citizens said they see benefits
to using virtual agents — artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled
customer-service assistants or chatbots — to receive services from
government agencies, and almost half (47%) said they would like to
complete some transactions using virtual agents. Additionally, half
(50%) of respondents said they believe their query could be
resolved in the shortest possible time using a virtual agent, and a
similar number (49%) anticipated benefits from the “24/7” access to
government services. Two in five (41%) respondents said the use of
virtual agents would reduce their need to wait for a human customer
service agent to become available to assist them.
However, only one in seven survey respondents (16%) have used
virtual agents in their interactions with government agencies, and
fewer than half of them said the agent was effective in meeting
their needs (44%) and that they were satisfied with their
experience (41%).
“Unfortunately, early investments in chatbots generally haven’t
delivered the transformation that government agencies expected —
often because agencies didn’t fully consider a citizen’s experience
in engaging with a chatbot or what activities a chatbot is capable
of undertaking to support the mission of the organization,” Darmon
said. “That said, our research found that citizens support the use
of advanced AI-enabled virtual agents by government agencies.
Clearly, an opportunity exists for governments to use virtual
agents to broaden their services and enhance customer
experience.”
When asked about their service expectations from government,
respondents most often cited ease of access to their personal
information (74%), a quick response time to their queries (73%),
increased visibility into the progression of their application
through its administrative stages (64%) and to engage with
knowledgeable (66%) and friendly (55%) customer service agents.
Country Comparisons
- Respondents from Singapore were the most likely to be satisfied
with the government agencies they engaged with over the last year,
with 54% of them citing satisfaction with their interactions, and
respondents in Japan were the least likely to be satisfied with the
quality of interaction they received, with only one in five (20%)
citing satisfaction.
- The vast majority (88%) of respondents from Norway and Finland
are willing to share their personally identifiable information with
a government department in exchange for a more personalized
customer service experience. Just over three-fourths (79%) of
respondents from the U.S. felt the same.
- More than half (56%) of respondents in Finland were comfortable
with their personal information being shared between government
agencies if it would enhance customer service. This contrasts with
just one-fifth (20%) of respondents from Japan.
- The respondents most likely to have interacted with virtual
assistants during their government interactions were those in
Finland, at 33%, whereas those in Japan were the least likely to
have interacted with government-deployed virtual assistants, at
just 4%.
- Respondents in Canada were the most likely to be positive about
the use of virtual agents by government agencies, with 60% of them
positive about such use, whereas those in Austria were the least
likely to be positive about virtual agents (26%).
- Three out of five respondents (59%) in Australia who have used
virtual agents in their interaction with the government were
satisfied with the interaction. This contrasts with respondents
from Norway, where just one in four respondents (24%) was satisfied
with the experience.
Methodology
Accenture surveyed 6501 citizens aged 18 or older in 11
countries: Austria, Australia, Canada, Germany, Finland, France,
the United Kingdom, Japan, Norway, Singapore and the United States.
Respondents were asked about their interactions with various
government agencies, their level of satisfaction regarding those
interactions, factors important to them with regards to the
delivery of government services, and the use of virtual agents
offered by public-sector agencies. The survey was undertaken in
collaboration with McGuire in September and October 2019. Results
for the full global sample are statistically significant with a
confidence level of 95% and a margin of error of +/- 1.215
percentage points.
About Accenture
Accenture is a leading global professional services company,
providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy,
consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched
experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries
and all business functions — underpinned by the world’s largest
delivery network — Accenture works at the intersection of business
and technology to help clients improve their performance and create
sustainable value for their stakeholders. With 505,000 people
serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives
innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us
at www.accenture.com.
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Joe Doyle Accenture Health & Public Service +353 87 2507583
joe.x.doyle@accenture.com
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