Report: TSP needs to assess customer service

The managers of the federal Thrift Savings Plan have stepped up their customer service efforts in recent years, but lack a system to measure whether the new approaches are meeting the needs of participants, according to a new report.

The TSP, which consists of tax-deferred savings accounts for federal employees-similar to the private sector's 401(k) plans-provides customer service through telephone call centers, Web sites, and on-site representatives at federal agencies.

In the report (GAO-05-38), the Government Accountability Office found that TSP managers have taken several steps in recent years to improve customer service, including setting up a new call center in Cumberland, Md., (in addition to one already operating in New Orleans, La.) and providing toll-free service.

The report found that TSP managers assess call center operations on the basis of efficiency, through such quantifiable standards as the time it takes to respond to incoming calls, the percentage of callers who hang up before receiving service, and the average call length.

But managers of large private sector 401(k) plans interviewed by GAO "downplayed the importance of quantitative measures and instead focused on ensuring that service representatives fully satisfied each customer's needs efficiently and politely in one call," the report stated. TSP managers get only indirect feedback about the quality of service provided, and should develop a more systematic evaluation effort, GAO recommended.

The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board, which oversees the TSP, told GAO auditors that the board intends to survey plan participants on various issues, including customer satisfaction. But in February 2004, board members said such a survey would not be conducted for at least two years.

TSP Board members also told GAO that the high participation rate in the plan among employees, recent increases in the number of transactions processed, and a low account withdrawal rate among former federal employees and retirees indicate rising customer satisfaction.

The report also noted that the TSP relies more heavily on retirement counselors at federal agencies to deliver information and provide customer service than private plan operators. Web sites are the primary vehicle for delivering information to participants in private plans. Those sites "provided participants more flexibility and options for managing and learning about their retirement accounts than did the TSP Web site," GAO found.

Both the TSP and private-sector plans have shifted to Web-based systems to process the vast majority of transactions. During the first eight months of 2004, the TSP Web site received an average of 15.7 million hits per month and processed about 217,000 transactions monthly.