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Australians' Use of and Satisfaction with e-Government Services

6 Why people did not use e-government services

Central to the study was the need to clarify the factors that prevented greater uptake of e-government services. The study captured these views by:

1. examining reasons that motivated people to use channels other than the Internet and telephone.
2. capturing specific reasons why people did not use the Internet or telephone for a particular contact.

6.1 Reasons for choosing channels other than the Internet and telephone to contact government

In the past 12 months, more than half of all people who made contact with government did so through a channel other than the Internet and telephone. Excluding e-government channels, in person was the most popular channel to access government, followed by mail and `other’ channels.

The following section examines specific reasons that motivated the selection of non e-government channels.

6.1.1 Reasons for contacting government in person

The greatest motivating factor for people to contact government in person is that the contact could only be made in person (35%). This is a significant finding for governments planning e-government strategies, as it suggests that people may consider alternative channels as they become available. It is also likely that a proportion of those people nominating this reason may simply be unaware of the fact that some services can be performed over the Internet or by telephone.

As was the case for people who used the Internet and telephone to contact government, the ability to make contact at a time that was convenient ranked highly (22%). Approximately 18% of people contacting in person said their preference for speaking to a ‘real person’ was a reason to contact government in person. Approximately half as many (in percentage terms) indicated the same reason for using the telephone.

Figure 6.1 shows the reasons for contacting government in person.

Another significant finding was that 10% of people contacting in person said they were motivated to do so by the opportunity to clarify or explain an issue to get the result they wanted.[14] Focus group participants also indicated they were more likely to contact government in person in cases where they:

• desire high levels of accountability;
• require written confirmation or formal lodgement of a request; and
• seek clarification of ambiguous issues.

Highly personal contacts, including examples such as seeking information about a gambling or addiction problem, were more suited to in person contact than Internet or telephone.

A high number of focus group participants, particularly those in regional areas, said in person contacts made sense to them in situations where it was possible to tie the visit in with other events (including banking). This was supported by the random survey results, which found that people accessing government in person that cited convenience as a major motivator were more likely to be:

• living in regional areas (48% compared with 44% of the general adult population); and
• aged 50 and over (51% compared with 44% of the overall population).

6.1.2 Reasons for using mail to contact government services

A significant motivator for people to contact government via mail was the ability to do it at a time that suits them (18%). Approximately 11% of people contacting government by mail did so because they had a paper form, or a prepaid envelope had been provided. A further 11% of people said they selected mail because the process was easy and uncomplicated.

6.2 Reasons why people did not use an e-government channel for a particular contact

While the reasons for not using e-government identified so far have related to active preferences for other channels, the study also asked people specifically why they did not choose the Internet or telephone to make contact. Analysis in this section focuses on two groups:

• why Internet users did not use the Internet to make contact. This excludes people who did not use the Internet because they have not used the Internet at all in the past 12 months; and
• why non-Internet users did not use the telephone to make contact (that is, why they chose a method other than telephone).

6.2.1 Why Internet users did not use the Internet to make contact

The study sought to investigate why those who had used the Internet in the past 12 months had not used it to contact government. As shown in Figure 6.1, the most significant deterrent was the fact that people thought (rightly or wrongly) that the contact could not be done online. This reason was cited by almost a quarter (23%) of all people in this category. Other reasons provided by this group include that they:

• preferred to speak to or meet a ‘real person’ (11%);
• had concerns about security of information including credit card information (8%); and
• did not feel sufficiently familiar with using computers or the Internet in general (6%).

Only 3% of people in this group indicated concerns about personal privacy as a deterrent to using the Internet for a particular contact.

Focus group participants, who were all Internet users, provided further insight into this issue. The key issues identified are discussed below.

Lack of awareness

Participants indicated that awareness of what could be performed via the Internet was a significant barrier to e-government uptake. At all focus groups several participants stated “I didn’t know you could do that” when told by others in the group of particular services available online. This was more common among the older participants.

Linked to this awareness issue was the perceived difficulty of finding out what could be done online. “There are so many things in there which are useful, they’re just hard to find”. A number of participants suggested that the sheer volume of contacts that could be made with government online made it hard for people to find those services quickly and easily.

Perceived lack of accountability

Participants suggested that the Internet was not seen as a particularly `accountable’ channel, which made it less attractive for a range of contacts. The type of contacts where this barrier was most significant were those requiring a ruling or acknowledgment of receipt/lodgement. The telephone was generally viewed as more accountable than the Internet, except where a printed receipt was required.

Three factors determined how `accountable’ a channel was perceived to be, which has implications for government service delivery decisions. These factors were:

1. Speaking to the same person every time created a sense that the organisation’s representative had knowledge of the participant’s problem and circumstances, and provided reassurance that they were being looked after. Merely being able to offer a name – generally of a telephone operator or counter staff member that had been previously encountered – contributed significantly to people’s view of that channel as accountable.
2. Being able to produce proof of the transaction. Participants felt it was important to get things in writing. Receipt numbers or similar were accepted as better than nothing, however having a receipt, or something that participants could print out was seen as important to establishing accountability.
3. It was important that participants received a prompt response. Participants noted that once a request was sent via the Internet, there was little comfort provided that the request had reached its destination (except in cases where a receipt of delivery was provided immediately). A number of people said the delay in response times to Internet requests, particularly emails sent from websites, was particularly frustrating, as there was an expectation that the medium was immediate.

Difficulties navigating Internet-based services

A number of participants suggested poorly designed online services had prevented them using the Internet for other government contacts. Most frustrating were occasions where people’s queries were non-standard, and did not correspond to any of the options provided. Similar complaints were made about automated telephone routing machines for people using the telephone to contact government (and private sector organisations and utilities). Sometimes participants felt they “fell into a gap in the system”. When this occurred, they felt they needed to communicate with a human to help them navigate the ambiguity.

Concerns about the risk of financial loss when providing credit card or banking details

The perception of the potential for personal loss ‘raises the stakes’ of Internet use for some people, and causes Internet contact to sometimes be seen as unnecessarily risky. Internet services where credit card or banking details are required immediately raised anxiety levels among participants, as there is the potential for financial loss. This was less of an issue for trusted organisations, such as “big reputable companies” or government departments.

Despite the fact that the provision of banking or credit card details over the Internet raised alarm bells with some participants, the majority performed financial transactions online. This tended to occur with organisations that participants already had a relationship with, such as their bank, or government agencies. Participants were most comfortable with transactions not requiring credit card payments, such as BPay, as they were considered to carry less risk.

6.2.2 Why non-Internet users do not use the telephone to make contact

Barriers to greater uptake of telephone services tended to correlate strongly with the reasons why people did things in person. As indicated in Figure 6.3, the main reason why non-Internet users did not use the telephone to contact government services was because they thought (rightly or wrongly) that the contact could not be made by telephone (14%). Almost as many people in this group (12%) said they did not use the telephone for a contact as the relevant government office was close by and that it was easy to do transactions over the counter.

Interestingly, 7% of people in this group thought it was too time consuming to wait in a telephone queue, and that other methods (that is, in person, mail and other non e-government channels) were faster. Another 7% said they selected a channel other than the telephone out of habit.

Not having a credit card, and security concerns associated with providing credit card details over the telephone, were both barriers to greater telephone use for contacting government. This was confirmed in focus groups, where a number of participants indicated that in person was the only method that they trusted for transactions involving credit cards.

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[14] Only key findings are represented, therefore percentages will not always total 100%.

[15] The responses depicted in the figure depict the most popular reasons given for not contacting government via the Internet and therefore they will not necessarily add up to 100%.

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Contact for information on this page: <a href="mailto:e-government@finance.gov.au">e-government@finance.gov.au</a>

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