Electronic government is attested to have the potential to shape public administrations more customeroriented. In order to be customer oriented, municipalities need knowledge about customer needs. Who explores customer needs and what it changes is investigated by using data of a nation-wide survey about e-government in Switzerland. Results show big differences in exploring customer needs between municipalities. General characteristics of municipalities and support of administrative leaders and politics can partly explain these differences. Customer orientation shows effects on the availability of usability features on websites and on the selection of topics, to which municipalities provide forms or transactions online.
