Not all electric fans are naff, i was worried when i first changed and kept all my old bits incase i had to change back, they have been faultless though, soon as the ecu switches them on the temps drop right back straight away, Ive sat in London/m25 traffic loads of times with never an issue.
Are your fans the ones that have the large cover with just the two holes for the fans? the way i see them is you don't get much cooling when the fans are not on, the cover stops a lot of the air going though the rad unless the fans are running, mine are simply zip tied to the rad, i get a lot of air flow through the rad when driving about and fans not on.
Id say ducting is the way forward as Chris mentions, mine is only partly ducted but the fans don't seem to have to do much work, if I'm cruising about they never come on, they only come on if I'm in traffic or my foot is down, even then they are never on for long.