#### Web Content Managers Forum

**Critical Tasks Survey -- April 2007**

**Results Summary**

We received 118 responses, roughly 10% of Forum members participated.
The majority of respondents (95.8%) were from federal government.

# Has your agency identified its customers' most critical online tasks?

Over two-thirds (**68.2%)** have **NOT** yet identified any critical
tasks

Of those who have, here are some examples:

-   Apply for grants or benefits

-   Apply for jobs

-   Locate an office/find contact information

-   Change an address

-   Download demographic and financial info

-   Read and/or comment on proposed policies or guidelines

-   Find government sales and auctions

-   Find multimedia (video, images, games)

-   File forms

-   Locate conferences and workshops

-   Follow major events (shuttle missions)

-   Find educators\' materials

-   Research material for school papers

-   Download publications

-   File complaints or report problems

-   Watch city council meetings online

**What help do you need to identify critical tasks?**

-   Guidance on defining and quantifying critical tasks, examples of
    what others are doing.

-   We need more time and web resources (staffing, funding, and tools)
    to conduct customer research and then need time to use the results
    to improve our website.

-   Need help finding ways to talk to users. We\'re hindered by
    restrictions on information collection (OMB); need a survey
    mechanism that meets the Paperwork Reduction Act.

-   Upper Management still does not support (or even comprehend) the
    role of the web in addressing customer tasks. They push their agenda
    to the customer rather than the other way around. There is no
    agencywide communication, coordination, information on web-related
    activities, postings, or construction.

-   Need to get a better handle on our audience.

-   We need staff to understand that the web is not just a "post it and
    they will come."

-   We need project plans showing improved workflow thru identifying
    critical tasks.

-   We need convincing that actually determining critical tasks is worth
    the effort.

Briefly describe the methods your agency uses, or plans to use, to
identify your customers' most critical online tasks.

-   Surveys (ACSI, ForeSee), syndicated surveys (e.g., Forrester
    Research, PEW, Manhattan Research)

-   Data---WebTrends traffic/reports, analysis of website statistics;
    review of server and search engine logs; Evaluation of
    abandonments---where are folks leaving the site?; usability testing

-   Informal user feedback:

    -   Meet with users at training classes, conferences, workshops,
        user group meetings

    -   Call center and staff feedback about phone and email
        conversations

    -   Webmaster email

    -   Online citizen question/comment form

-   Soliciting input from stakeholders (advocacy groups, industry reps,
    etc.)

-   Attend business partner/grantee meetings and talk to them about the
    website

-   We find ACSI survey not very helpful in identifying and measuring
    specific top tasks.

-   We know:

    -   What customers are asking about, in emails and on the telephone

    -   We know from web metrics where people are going on our site

    -   We have conducted customer surveys so we know some of the hot
        topics

    -   We read what\'s in the newspaper about our agency

-   Gut instinct

# How well is your agency addressing your customers' most critical tasks online? 

-   We\'re totally focused on critical tasks 30.3%

-   **Just starting to think about them 64.2**%

-   What\'s a critical task? 7.3%

**Has your agency evaluated how well your customers can complete their
critical tasks online?**

-   35.3% yes

-   **64.7% no**

**Methods and tools for evaluating critical tasks:**

Lots of folks are doing usability testing, it was the top method
reported. Some comments about usability studies:

-   Conduct usability testing at every phase of incremental redesign
    including online card sorting, online surveys, and phone interviews

-   We have a lab to conduct usability studies, but not enough staff to
    conduct tests.

-   We\'ve completed two rounds of usability studies. We are still
    working on implementing the changes that will allow us to improve
    the completion rate.

-   We conducted a fairly comprehensive usability study of our site
    before and after a redesign and identified successes and failures.

-   We tend not to implement good usability findings and recommendations
    because we are too busy.

Surveys are also used by many agencies:

-   ACSI: custom questions about best-describes-you, purpose of visit,
    did you find/succeed; deployed two separate ACSI surveys on clinical
    trials search results page and clinical trials search NO results
    page; segmented data from ACSI to look at pre and post launch and
    found statistically significant increase in satisfaction

-   ForeSee surveys on both content and applications---results evaluated
    quarterly

-   Online web survey appearing in different areas of the websites and
    geared to those who we assumed to have those specific interests;
    email blast out to all of our listserv participants inviting them to
    take the survey; \$10 in merchandise credit offered to those
    completing the survey

Other tools include:

-   Focus groups; public feedback through online feedback forms;
    examined paths of behavior through the site; Maxamine; monitoring of
    "ask us" info requests, through twice monthly conference call, and
    through web metrics; We monitor traffic, availability/usability logs
    for tasks as well as use online surveys of customer satisfaction for
    completing their task; We look at what the public, agencies, and
    internal staff need to do, and see if we can help them do the same
    thing online.

**Barriers to evaluating how well your customers can complete their
critical tasks online**

-   Haven't defined critical tasks

-   Lack of resources: time, funding, staff, technology, management
    support

-   Unsure where to start; still not sure what a critical task is.

-   OMB information collection requirements make it cumbersome to ask
    the public for feedback.

-   No intra-agency collaboration---subsites don't consider themselves
    part of larger agency/site.

-   We are still working on one look and feel.

-   We ask on web customer surveys what people were looking for when
    they came to our site, and if they found it, to help us understand
    what information and tasks customers need to find and do.

-   Not applicable---our agency doesn\'t have critical tasks **(Editor's
    note -- then why do you have a website?)**

Does your agency have written content quality standards and/or a content
review process in place?

-   **62.9% yes**

-   37.1% no

# What are your agency\'s content review processes and/or quality standards?

Several agencies:

-   Have published their policies on the web (and we'll link to them
    from Webcontent.gov)

-   Have posted guidelines on their intranet for in-house content review
    policies/guidelines and quality standards

-   Use content management system with built-in review requirements.

-   Have developed web style guides, style manuals.

-   Provided details on their internal review processes, which basically
    follow the same pattern:

    -   Content creation

    -   Review by senior staff

    -   Dissemination to web team (or CMS)

    -   Review for compliance with technical standards

    -   Post

    -   Follow up with some sort of annual or quarterly review

-   Some agencies have editorial boards to help with creation and
    maintenance of technical (e.g., health issues) content.

-   A variety of management structures oversee web content, including
    Web/Content Management, Communications Offices, Public Affairs,
    Legal/Counsel, and CIO/IT.

-   Many agencies now have some regular website review process, from
    once per quarter to once per year. These reviews cover both site
    integrity (links work, adherence to policies, etc.) and quality of
    writing.

-   Several agencies expressed frustration with the fact that, though
    they are supposed to do quality reviews, there is little, if any,
    repercussion for offices that just sign off on content without
    actually completing the reviews.

Some products folks are using:

-   MCMS embedded workflow and templates that enforce design and content
    standards.

-   PROTRAC is a tracking system to ensure originality of content and
    compliance with all standards, guidelines and regulations. It also
    serves to eliminate duplicative information agency wide

-   We are using Maxamine to measure quality/integrity

**Barriers for implementing content review process and/or quality
standards**

-   Lack of time, resources, staff, executive support or leadership.

-   Content creation is decentralized.

-   Agency too large to enforce consistency, no central authority, turf
    battles.

-   Costs/time to perform reviews too burdensome

-   Organizational resistance, history of free-for-all

-   People don't take ownership of their content.

-   Lack of definition of parameters (e.g., what is "current?")

# How does your agency help customers find their critical tasks online?

-   **prominent placement on the homepage 69.5**%

-   good navigation 67.8%

-   search engine optimization 55.9%

-   email alerts 45.8%

-   RSS feeds 35.6%

-   targeted outreach around specific tasks 40.7%

-   Other (please specify) 16.9%

Other responses:

Referral by our call center staff; leverage popular pages to direct
users to target pages; electronic and print-based newsletters and
listservs; organize information by state, makes it easy for folks to
find services near them

Is your agency encouraging direct conversations with customers about how
to improve their critical tasks (for example, using interactive tools
such as blogs)?

-   12.1% a lot

-   **43.9% somewhat**

-   **43.9% none**

**Strategies, actions, challenges, and successes to encourage direct
conversations with, and regular feedback from customers about your
critical tasks**

Many agencies employ these strategies to interact and get feedback from
customers:

-   Email/webmaster mail; "contact us" link; email to Help Desk

-   National Contact Center; nationwide public service offices;
    toll-free help desk

-   Online tools: RSS feeds; listservs; FAQs; RightNow; LiveChat; ACSI;
    "evaluate our site" button; "Comments" email; secure ordering
    capabilities (shopping cart)

-   User interaction: conferences, advisory groups, training classes,
    mail, town-meeting-style conferences; field representatives meet
    with customers daily; focus groups

Many agencies expressed this challenge:

-   Not enough interaction with the teams who operate the different
    customer contact channels. Feedback via phone or email doesn't
    always get back to the teams who can effect change.

Additional comments:

-   We encourage feedback through twice yearly conference call with a
    volunteer group of \'user community representatives\' annual meeting
    with an interested writers group, through response center feedback
    mechanism, through website \'askNCJRS\' email mechanism, and demo
    website at conversations at conferences/workshops.

-   We have posted a \'comments\' box, but are wary of having to deal
    with confidentiality and user data collection issues.

-   We're training staff to conduct focus groups

-   No time or staff to provide \'live chat\' or immediate online
    assistance.

-   Strategy: keep that ear to the ground for clues to what customers
    want/need!

-   Challenges: technological (coding the apps needed to make the
    critical tasks easier to accomplish, for example); space on the page
    (not enough room to cater to everyone\'s wishes). The top topics
    from live chat validate the ones we\'re getting though our more
    traditional channels.

-   We have a policy of responding to all emails received from the
    website within 2 business days. Customers frequently respond that
    they are surprised to have heard back so quickly. We also maintain a
    list of boilerplate email responses, which all 81 HUD offices
    throughout the country use to respond to common
    questions---providing consistency of information throughout the
    country.

**Barriers to encouraging customer interaction**

-   Lack of resources: staff, time, funding, contractor support,
    software/hardware.

-   The biggest barrier is OMB rules/requirements. The paperwork
    reduction act (or interpretation thereof) needs to be updated to
    eliminate the excessive burden ON THE GOVERNMENT to get approval for
    surveys. We need another mechanism besides the ACSI, less expensive,
    and less onerous to implement.

-   Concern over security, privacy and appropriate content.

-   We want to deploy social media tools in a strategic way.

-   Existing feedback methods don't provide much useful feedback.

-   Little interest from management.

Is your agency collaborating with other organizations in addressing
critical tasks online?

-   27.1% yes

-   **72.9% no**

**Briefly describe strategies you've used to facilitate collaboration,
which agencies you're working with, etc.**

-   Agencies are collaborating around portals like Grants.gov

-   Joint funding of audience measurement tools, usability testing, and
    syndicated surveys

-   Participation on various Governmentwide "best practices" task groups

-   Joint press releases, policy statements, regulations, etc.

-   Regional listserv and conferences to facilitate sharing

-   Working group of Web reps from related agencies to address web
    communications

-   Link to numerous outside organizations\' websites, including state
    and local governments

-   Individual programs contact other agencies and work with them

**Specific opportunities for collaboration:**

-   FirstGov \[USA.gov\], look at the stats they can share with us about
    our tasks

-   Bureau of Land Management or National Parks Service in Recreation,
    Incident Management, Environmental issues

-   Department of the Interior and other land/water management agencies
    across the West; GPO, to improve interface for legal citations
    (e.g., US Code, CFR, and Federal Register), published reports to
    Congress and the President

-   State environment agencies

-   Grantees, to make sure we are linking to all their services from our
    website

-   The Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, the Court of Federal
    Claims. Identifying and implementing common goals, creating
    information standards

-   Working with Department of Human Services streamline data sharing in
    the area of eligibility, so that no matter what "door" a person uses
    to enter the social service system, they will know what other
    resources are available across agency lines.

-   Within our own agency

-   Requesting services (there\'s sometimes confusion over which agency
    does what)

-   Housing (federal, state, and local resources) to build a true
    one-stop nationwide low-income housing search incorporating EVERY
    housing resource (instead of the "one-stop" we now have that APPEARS
    to deliver, but doesn't contain data from all agencies)

-   NOAA, NSF, other R&D agencies

-   EPA and Agriculture

-   Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Federal Reserve

-   PMAs and DOE

-   Voice of America and USAID

**Specific topics that could benefit from collaboration:**

Health, Benefits, Travel, Emergency response, Law enforcement and
intelligence, Security, Research & Development