DFAS to host first Facebook town hall meeting: Military Retired Pay
CLEVELAND (March 28, 2012) – Military retirees are invited to chat about their pay with military retirement experts live on Facebook in May. The Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS), the agency that pays the nation’s more than 2 million military retirees, will host its first Facebook town hall May 8 from 3 to 5 p.m. Eastern.During this online town hall meeting, military retirees will have direct access to DFAS Retired and Annuitant Pay experts, who’ll answer their retirement questions live on Facebook.
“We’ve been focused on finding ways to enhance customer service and improve communication with military retirees over the past two years,” said Colonel Ralph Lunt, deputy director of DFAS Retired and Annuitant Pay. “The town hall is a new way for us to listen to the issues facing our customers and provide answers to a large number of retirees quickly and easily.”
DFAS is asking customers to help it choose a broad topic for the town hall meeting. Retirees and military members who’ll be retiring soon should submit their topic ideas on the DFAS Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/DefenseFinanceandAccountingService by Sunday, Apr. 1.
Anyone can view the DFAS Facebook page, but users must have a Facebook account to submit topic ideas or participate in the town hall meeting. DFAS will not answer individual customers’ account-specific questions during the town hall, because such questions require the collection of personal information and additional time for processing.
For more information about the event, visit www.dfas.mil/facebooktownhall. This page will serve as a home base for town hall information and will be updated with details such as discussion topics, guidelines for participants, and bios and photos of the retired pay experts, as they become available.
While DFAS will only have retired pay experts on hand for its first town hall meeting, the agency plans to host future social media events where they will answer questions on subjects like military pay and travel.
DFAS launched its Facebook presence in May 2010 and now has more than 63,000 “likes.” The agency regularly responds to inquiries and customer service requests via Facebook with an average turn-around time of two to three business days.
DFAS experts plan to answer as many questions as they can during the two-hour town hall meeting. Any retirement questions they can’t answer during the event will be answered within the normal two to three business days. Non-retirement related questions submitted during the live town hall session will be held until it is over and answered within the normal time frame.
Updated March 28, 2012