The problems that arose on the launch of the new operating system were reflected in several ways. Image: Sideways Design/Shutterstock.com
Like elephants (allegedly), it seems that TSP investors have long memories, at least when it comes to the problems that arose when the program changed to a new operating system.
That changeover in June 2022 resulted in investors being required to change their personal accounts but the website not allowing them to do so; in wait times of hours to get through to the customer service line to try to get a fix, only to often not receive the needed help; in realizing that the new system, by design, did not include all the historic account information they wanted; in nasty letters from members of Congress and a GAO investigation.
The TSP did take actions in the months following that changeover, to be fair, including by beefing up customer service center staffing and making some changes to the website. For more than a year, the TSP has put out a stream of data showing reduced wait times, increased usage of new features and so on.
And that was the end of that. Or was it?
Close to a year after the changeover, in March to May of this year, the TSP conducted its annual customer satisfaction survey, with the results released at the November meeting of the governing board. And it shows that investors did not forget.
The percentage of all account holders, including active and retired military personnel with accounts, who said they were extremely satisfied with the program fell to 82 percent—down from the 87 percent in last year’s survey, which had been conducted just before the launch of the new system.
The problems that arose on the launch of the new operating system were reflected in several ways:
* a drop from 81 to 74 percent in those satisfied or extremely satisfied with plan information on the website, and from 78 to 73 regarding online access to an account.
* the percentage of those who rated live service on the phone ThriftLine as not at all useful or not very useful rose from 13 to 21 percent. That was the largest drop in views of usefulness of all TSP communications channels (including for example information on the website), where ratings fell for five of the seven.
* improving the website and making it more user-friendly was named by 9 percent as the one thing the TSP could do better to meet their retirement savings and planning needs, nearly double the 5 percent in the prior survey.
A presentation at the meeting said that the overall satisfaction figures parallel a general decline of consumer confidence and still compare well with measures of similar private sector retirement savings programs. Maybe so.
But to trust the TSP with their money, employees and retirees need to have confidence in it. That confidence starts with people’s experiences at touch points such as the website and the phone line. When people have bad experiences there, rightly or wrongly they wonder about other aspects of the program, and whether they should be making, and keeping, their savings somewhere else.
And as the survey shows, they don’t forget those bad experiences.
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