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Borne the Battle recognizes each battle, challenge, and sacrifice our Veterans endure during and after their service, as well as spotlighting important resources, offices, and benefits VA offers our Veterans.
The Department of Veterans Affairs does not endorse or officially sanction any entities that may be discussed in this podcast, nor any media, products or services they may provide.
Borne the Battle
Episode # 283
Rebecca Keough - MyVA411
Pablo Meza: Alright. Welcome, everybody, to another episode of Borne the Battle. I'm very excited to have Rebecca Keough, who is the director for the Veteran Experience Office Contact Center, and she's going to be talking about MyVA411. But before I dive too much into what that is, I would love to just hear about your background, just how you started at the VA, Rebecca?
Rebecca Keough: After serving in the army and getting my degrees, I walked across the street and applied for a job at the VA. And I've been there ever since. I moved around to a variety of different positions, both at the Medical Center and now, more recently, in the Veterans Experience office where I'm the director of the VEO Contact Center that answers a significant number of the calls coming in through MyVA411.
PM: Awesome. And thank you for your service. I'm always happy to hear Veterans that are working at the VA. I myself am a Veteran, so that brings some joy to my heart. Let's start off right away with MyVA411. That is a very unique name. Can you share the story of how that name came about?
RK: The VA is a really large organization, and it offers services that range from prosthetic limbs to job retraining to even disability compensation, and it has physical locations in every state. It's a big organization, and there are a lot of phone numbers. So, when Veterans told us it was hard to know what number to call, we created our phone front door with one easy to remember phone number, 1 8 0 0 6 9 8 2 4 1 1 [Phone number: 1-800-698-2411], which translates to 1-800-MyVA411. 411 is recognized in the industry as a place to go to get phone numbers, so there was that kind of link to the civilian world. And I also would say that with some of the other programs that VA has kind of put out there, such as My HealtheVet, it kind of stayed in line with that so that it would be easy for Veterans to really remember. That originally was a three one one phone number, and Veterans told us that it wasn't easy to remember, so they wanted a one eight hundred number, and they wanted it to end with four one one. So that's how we've gotten to where we are now with MyVA411.
PM: That name is - it just sticks in the back of your mind. So MyVA411, when I first heard about it, it didn't go away, and that's a great name. So hopefully we're going to be saying myVA411 throughout this episode, so Veterans can definitely take advantage of this resource that's available to them. Can we talk about what inspired MyVA411 and then how has it evolved since its inception?
RK: Sure. Besides the challenge of so many different phone numbers, Veterans also told us that the VA isn't always available when they need them to be. So, my team is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week to really help Veterans with basic information about any VA benefit or service directory. Assistance within the VA, referrals to the right VA specialist, and intake of more complex issues, which we track through resolution. We answer options one, eight, nine, and zero on MyVA411. So, it kind of came about because Veterans really were kind of struggling on figuring out where to go, so we help them navigate to the right place. It's evolved since we first started out. We've added some self-service options. Our goal from the very beginning was really to deliver an empathetic encounter where we really try to connect on a personal level before we try and figure out how we can best help that caller. We have learned along the way that Veterans want to call us back and thank us. So, we've added a way to start tracking compliments that come back to us, and we'll talk about those maybe a little bit later. Veterans told us that when they do try a phone number, they can't get through to a person. And so my team is staffed to be able to answer those calls at a world class customer service level, which is less than 28 seconds on average, based upon Veterans telling us that when they do get through to a person, they get interrupted and they aren't always able to tell their story and get across what it is that they're looking for assistance with. We intentionally have established our team so that they aren't held accountable to a certain amount of time on the call. We actually train them to let the Veteran tell their story. What a gift when you're on that call because Veterans� stories are amazing. There are just amazing things that Veterans have done. That's probably one of the great rewards of being able to do this. It's very unusual for a call center not to have people be told to get on and off the call so they can get to the next call, to allow that flexibility to actually let the Veteran tell their story and to make that effort to connect with them personally.
PM: When you said 28 seconds a while ago - that that's about the average time of response, I just thought about the private sector and that's - When I call my bank or when I call a customer related business, they always say your wait is going to be three to four minutes. And just to know that it's under 30 seconds, it really shows the kind of effort your team is putting in. So, this is really cool. So, let's continue. Here's another question if you can kind of give me a rough number. Approximately how many calls did you get last year? I think a lot of our listeners are kind of curious about that number.
RK: So last year we took and we were able to answer 1.2 million phone calls. And at this point in the year, we're about halfway through the year. It looks like we're on track to probably do 1.5 this year. So, there's a need and we're filling that need.
PM: From your experience, are there any specific groups that you feel are benefiting from this more or call the center more?
RK: I would say if there was one group that this would be a number for them to just keep in mind, it's those Veterans that haven't accessed the VA at all or their family members, their beneficiaries, their caregivers, their advocates. Because our role is, particularly if you select zero when you dial MyVA411, is to get you to the right place and understanding what your interests are. We can provide some general information, but we kind of give you referrals to the right place, getting to the right VA specialist for whatever it is that you're interested in, or if you don't know a phone number, you don't know who to call, we definitely can do that as well. So, it's those that don't know what number and those that have never accessed any VA services or benefits, and we can provide kind of that navigational assistance. I would also say one of the features that we support is if you are a big user of VA.gov [Link: www.va.gov] and you're having troubleshooting issues, you can't get something to work - that's part of our role as well. So, we provide that - some basic troubleshooting support, password reset, that kind of thing. So, a pretty wide gamut of different things to kind of get you in that front door and then to the right place.
PM: That's awesome. So for our listeners, if you're having any troubleshooting issues with your va.gov [Link: www.va.gov], please give Rebecca and her team at MyVA Four One One a call and they can help you navigate through that. One thing that you were talking about, that it's available to all Veterans � so, they don't have to be enrolled in the VA healthcare system to call this?
RK: No, because the VA has benefits, they have services, they have health care, they have burial services. Any of those things they may be eligible for. It's not contingent on enrollment in healthcare. There are other benefits and services that Veterans can be eligible for or have interest in. And we can get you to the right place so that if you want to find out an eligibility determination for compensation and pension, we can get you to the right specialist to be able to walk through that process. So, it's really that kind of navigational assistance, getting to the right place in the organization.
PM: Awesome. Talking about va.gov [Link: www.va.gov], can you tell me how MyVA411 works in tandem with other VA resources such as the Veteran Crisis Line or the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans?
RK: Sure. Because all three of us are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we actually work together quite often. I have a simple story to share that kind of illustrates how that might happen. A Veteran called us in the middle of the night. He'd just been laid off from where he worked and his landlord was also his boss. He was very upset and worried about what's next for him. And so our agent listened to his concerns, provided some information about VA - both the VCL and the Hotline for Homeless Veterans, and she actually transferred him. He had an interest in going and talking with someone at the VCL (Veterans Crisis Line.) One of the crisis responders. We actually made that call for him, stayed on the phone until the responder came on the phone, provided his contact information so he didn't have to say it all again, and then introduced what the issue was and actually introduced him to the responder who's going to be helping him, as we see often. We got a call back from him about four days later thanking, wanting to alert us to the fact that our agent probably saved his life, made a difference. She listened to him; she calmed him down. She offered him options and gave him hope. Sometimes that's all it takes is just making that personal connection and then getting them to the right place. And in this case, it made a difference for somebody who was really in not a good place right then.
PM: You mentioned immediately that that's one of the big things that your team does and it listens to the Veteran, right. You guys are not in the mode of getting as many callers in and just kind of going to the next caller right away. You guys are there to listen to each Veteran's story and try to assist them with their issues, which is really it makes me proud to be a member of the VA. I think another thing that I want to talk about was you mentioned that it works in tandem with the Veteran Crisis Line and the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans. Do you guys have anything with the VA app or is there an app that I can use that's MyVA411?
RK: Not yet, okay. But if you use the app for VA.gov [Link: www.va.gov], that's a great digital way to start to access. And we are looking in the future, probably within the next year, to be that live agent behind some of the chat functions that are starting to get activated on VA.gov [Link: www.va.gov]. So that if we've kind of gotten to the point with the chat where you aren't able to get the information, then the live agent will step in. So, we're working on that piece of kind of progressing with the use of technology in our operational world.
PM: That's awesome to hear. When I open up my VA app. It gives you the option from the app to call the VCL Veteran Crisis Line, but sometimes you might need to talk to someone over the phone, or you might need to chat with someone, which right now it's currently not available - chatting with the app. But it might not have to be a life and death situation. Maybe you need some information about benefits. So, I think this is where MyVA411 would definitely come and help or come into assist with that app. So just an idea. I don't want any credit, but I think you're talking about that this is something that you guys are talking about. So, this is always good news to hear.
RK: Well, it's interesting too, because it wasn't really sure if there was going to be a lot of interest in using MyVA411, and what we've seen clearly over the last couple of years is that there is a need. And so, we're filling that need and looking at how we can expand into other arenas such as text. We're looking at that coming. Another technology improvement that we're looking at is when you call MyVA411, we're kind of a traditional phone tree where you listen to all these options to find the right one. We're looking at, this year, implementing some natural language processing where you get asked what you're looking for and we have pathways to get there faster so you don't have to listen to all that. So that's another feature that we're kind of trying to expand into as far as looking at our population of users and making it easier with more communication channels for them to get this kind of navigational assistance and basic information.
PM: Wow. Yeah, that's great to hear. I don't know if you can share some of this stuff, but in your experience, what is the most common or some of the most common questions or concerns that Veterans and their families have when reaching out to MyVA411?
RK: Sure. I would say right now the most common question is relating to connecting to a local medical center. You can do that through MyVA411 by just entering your zip code. So, we're not even involved in that. That's just self-help. I would also say connecting to the benefits call center sometimes because they're able to get through to the benefits call center, the national call center. That's one thing. We get a lot of calls in and you can go there directly through MyVA411. Community care is another area that we seem to get a lot of questions, so we get them to the right person in either the community care call center or at their local medical center.
PM: Wow.
RK: Health care eligibility and enrollment, of course, is an area that we get a lot of general questions and they want to move to the next step. So, we do that warm transfer to someone in the health eligibility center, and then I say the next one in kind of that hierarchy would be educational benefits. So, it's really a mix of a lot of the different benefits and services that are available through the VA. I would say the most common concerns we get are related to healthcare access in both VA facilities and in the community, coordination of that clinical care and then pending compensation claims. So, again, across kind of our largest areas where people are accessing things through the VA.
PM: Great. And you mentioned that your team is a good starting point when someone isn't enrolled in the healthcare system or doesn't know about the benefits that are available to them. You know, you guys are a really good starting point to kind of get that conversation and get that information to them. But while we're talking about this, this is a really good time to just go ahead and tell all of our listeners, if they're not enrolled - if they�re Veterans and they're not enrolled in the VA healthcare system, please enroll in the VA healthcare system. If you have family members that are Veterans that are not enrolled in the VA healthcare system, please help them enroll. Definitely MyVA411. Remember MyVA411; that is a good starting point right there. If you have any questions about your eligibility or you have questions about eligibility for one of your loved ones that is a Veteran, but definitely my plea is to get as many people aware of the VA healthcare system, the VA benefits. So please try to try to connect with someone to enroll and to see what you're eligible for. I think talking about enrollment or a lot of the information that Veterans provide to you during the conversation, I feel like it's very important to them. Sometimes it's very private; so my question would be, how does MyVA ensure that privacy or private questions or security of sensitive information for Veterans or their families, if their families are calling? How do you guys provide that sense of ease when you're talking about this very important information? Privacy, security of sensitive information during calls?
RK: Sure, we take privacy very seriously. We require to gather the Veteran's name, Social Security number, and date of birth, or if it's an authorized beneficiary that has having an issue, their contact information. We don't release information unless we have verification that that is the Veteran that we're talking to. If the Veteran wants additional people to be in this conversation, they have to actually, after we've verified their identity, they have to give us verbal confirmation right during the call and stay in close proximity so we don't have access to a lot of the databases where there's information. We are kind of that front door. And so we may do intake of things and maybe provide updates on what's happening with something, but we don't have access to verify any authorized person that the Veteran may have authorized in other places in the organization. So, generally speaking, most of what we do is provide just general information, basic information or connect them to the right person. But if we did have a request to release something, we are pretty stringent and I can tell you a lot of our Vets don't like that, that we require them to verify their identity. But that's the only way that we can ensure that we're protecting their privacy as well as their fellow Veterans privacy. So that's how we do it.
PM: Yeah, absolutely. A lot of this information, it's very important information. And you want to feel, as a Veteran, that's reaching out to the VA - you want to know that your information is secure, that your privacy is intact, and that the VA is doing everything they can to accomplish those two things. You briefly touched on online chat and texting options, but is there any other push towards digital services that you see my VA inching its way towards?
RK: We are looking at - so the VA overall is starting to modernize some of their technology, and so one thing that I could reference is kind of behind the scenes, but I think it's important to understand how technology may be used in operational to support the customer. So, we have a tool we use that actually allows us to have significant insights into how often we have callers or how many callers we have. And so we use that tool to forecast our supply and demand so we can match that volume of callers. That's how we get to that point where we are staffed appropriately to answer a call in less than 28 seconds, it�s that we have a tool that allows us to do that in the background. That same tool also records what the conversation is and what the customer service representative is looking for when they're trying to answer the questions or provide information so that we can really immediately know where we need to coach someone to get them more advanced in their skills, to be able to make that first encounter actually be productive and provide the information if we have it available to us. Part of that tool also is how we document any of our cases. We have what's called a knowledge management program. It's like a big dictionary on things in the VA. And that's how we stay up to date on information, how we know what's going on in this huge ecosystem that is the VA. When there are lots of new programs, benefits, and services coming about, we use that tool to kind of digest that information and put it into bite sized pieces so that our customer service representatives can provide accurate and timely information when somebody's calling and asking about something. Those are both technology tools that we're kind of using behind the scenes to make that experience be a rewarding and productive one for our Veterans and their family members.
PM: Right on. You mentioned that the VA is a big department, a big agency, because we do try to help many Veterans throughout the United States. I think even outside of the United States if our Veterans are living abroad. But here goes a question, how does your team stay up to date with the latest VA policies, maybe the newest benefits and services to ensure the callers are receiving accurate and timely information? And the reason I'm saying this is because sometimes even myself, I'm just like wow. This is new stuff that the VA is pushing out, and I work here, but how does your team specifically -because when a Veteran calls in, he's going to probably ask, what benefits can I get? How does your team stay up to date with all these policies and benefits and services?
RK: Our knowledge management team spends time monitoring what's happening in Congress so that we kind of know what things might be coming. They are monitoring press releases. They work with program offices across our organization to kind of keep up to date on implementation of different programs, benefits, and services. They get feedback from our frontline staff when they start getting questions. That's how we often start to know that something new is brewing because they're getting questions and they don't have an answer. And the knowledge management tool provides pop-ups of different things related to what's happening in the call. It's a continual circle of trying to find what's happening around them and in our ecosystem and then putting it into digestible bits of information so that our customer service reps can relay that to the customer and be confident in knowing that it's accurate and up to date.
PM: Oh, wow. Around how many customer service reps do you have on your team?
RK: So, it does fluctuate. I think right now we have about 350.
PM: Oh, wow.
RK: Plus, the support team that is providing them the information they need and their supervisors, because we're 24/7, 365 operation, people always on shift. So that's how we manage to stay able to answer the phone when the caller calls.
PM: Right. We're talking about just all the stuff that you guys do. Is there a specific instance where you were just like, left in awe by the story of the Veteran or by the rapid response and professionalism from your team? From the customer service representative?
RK: Recently, had a Veteran who called. She said she was homeless, and she was having issues dealing with her local medical center. They had said she didn't qualify for HUD-VASH. HUD-VASH is a joint housing program that the Department of Veterans Affairs has with the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
PM: Oh, wow.
RK: And it's a voucher program to really assist those that are homeless. The Veteran had a conversation with a social worker that was involved in that program, and then that person, she said, wasn't returning her calls, and she was very cold when she did speak to her, and she told her she didn't have any vouchers available and that she wasn't eligible. And she shared some personal information with us about her life situations that were personally harmful to her. And, you know, our customer service rep listened and was empathetic, recognized that this was the type of case that really is a little more complex. We just hand them off, particularly if it comes in late, early in the wee hours of the morning, when maybe some of the VA specialists aren't working. So, she created a case for this particular circumstance and as part of that process, explained what would happen next. Setting those expectations, I really do think is important. As a Veteran, I'm willing to wait if I know how long I might be waiting. Right? So, we set expectations. We provide a case number, tell her what would happen, provide an estimate of the amount of time that it would take until the issue is resolved or someone from maybe that medical center reaches out to her. And then when we create that case and we finish that case, it routes automatically to the patient advocate at that local medical center. So that same day, because this case had come in and our staff had recognized that the situation was relatively urgent, that same day in the medical center, the homeless program coordinator reached out to that Veteran, couldn't get a hold of her, got a hold of her, left a message, and then she called back the next day. They actually started to talk about her circumstances, and they scheduled her for a screening for the homeless program and for potentially the HUD-VASH vouchers. The call originally came in on a Friday. The following Thursday, the Veteran calls us back, thanks us for helping her. She had her screening for the HUD-VASH program. She found out that she is eligible for the program, and she did a voucher. And that's the kind of difference that we can make, getting it to the right place in the organization. It's so hard sometimes to get to the right person, to get to the right level of urgency. So, I think that that's the benefit that we bring to it. We don't solve most problems unless it's general information. We get the person to the right person that has the authority to resolve the issue. So, I think that was a win-win. And it's so common that they'll call us back and thank us because they had a case and they felt that we would be able to help them. And in this case, we did.
PM: Wow. When you mentioned that the Veteran, a couple of days later, a few days later was eligible and that everything was kind of working out, looking out for her, the hairs on my forearm just stood up, just like I felt so proud. Wow, that's really awesome. You mentioned a while back, and you've actually said it a couple of times about the Veterans calling in and being thankful, but you mentioned about compliments? What do you do? Do you just call back if you're trying to say hey, you guys did an amazing job? Or is there a specific thing that you should ask for? Is there an area for compliments?
RK: Sure. If you call MyVA411 and you press option nine, you'll be able to connect with one of my customer service representatives who will be very happy to take in your compliment. We share those with the organizations that are referenced or whoever the employee, if it's a particular employee, it's not just our staff compliments to our team, it's compliments about anything in the VA. We added that as an option because we got so many calls back. Veterans are appreciative of what's going on, and they do appreciate the VA. And they wanted a mechanism to be able to share that. They appreciate what we do. So, we added that as a feature that we are happy to do that in-taking, and we actually create a case so that we capture those details of what went right. A lot of things. It's a big organization, and we should celebrate what goes right too.
PM: Absolutely.
RK: A lot of times you hear negative, and this is definitely, I think, a positive thing for our employees. We work hard. A lot of us are Veterans, and a lot of us want to help take care of our fellow Veterans. It's good to hear a compliment now and then that you did something well and you made somebody's life better than it was.
PM: Absolutely. Especially when a Veteran is reaching out to MyVA411, a lot of times they might be in a hurry and a lot of the information is out there and they just can't, you know, find specific area they're looking for. They might not know how to get to that area. I'm just going to put an example - if a Veteran is walking up to, or driving past a clinic, a VA clinic, or a hospital, and he wants to know if he's eligible for me for some benefits, MyVA411 or calling 1 8 0 0 6 9 8 2 4 1 1 [Phone number: 1-800-698-2411]. If you do that, you might not even have to go inside the clinic and do that. You might just get all the information right there wherever you're at. So, I think that's what makes MyVA411 different from going inside the clinic, is just that you're getting the information and you're getting routed to the right people immediately. So, Rebecca, maybe the last question that I have is for Veterans or loved ones that have never used MyVA411 before, what advice could you give them to make the most of this valuable resource?
RK: I would definitely recommend that they remember MyVA411, 1 8 0 0 6 9 8 2 4 1 1 [Phone number: 1-800-698-2411] and give us a call, because if there's something you're interested in or you just want to know a little bit more about the VA, we can help you. We can provide that general information about different programs and services and benefits that are available. We can connect you with the VA specialist who will be able to drill right down into your eligibility for a particular benefit or service. And we can provide intake of more complex issues and give you a way to kind of track what's happening with that particular issue, give you an idea of how long it would take to resolve it if you are a current user and you're having an issue. So, it's just a really good place to start. That's why we kind of couch it the front door to the VA, VA.gov [Link: www.va.gov] is the digital front door and we're the voice front door. And soon we'll be merged more closely together, the digital and voice. But right now, we're here to help you figure out if there is something that's of interest to you and give you general information. We don't solve every problem. I just want everybody to understand that we'll get it to the right person who can solve the issue or at least educate you on what can and cannot be done. But we want you to have a pleasant experience with us and welcome you into the VA. If you've never been in the VA before, we're actually starting to share this phone number across military installations so that people, prior to getting out of the military, are aware that this is a way and a place to go to get more information as they start that process to exit the military. A lot of Veterans do not use the VA benefits or services that they've earned, and we want to make it easier for them to learn about them and access them if they so desire.
PM: Absolutely. And I would say to my listeners, or anybody who's reading the blog, there's going to be a blog accompanying this episode, but go ahead and put 1 8 0 0 6 9 8 2 4 1 1 [Phone number: 1-800-698-2411] on your phone, save it as MyVA411. And if you have any questions, just click on that number. Save it as MyVA411. And then you know right away, hey, I'm not close to a PC computer, Mac, whatever, or I just don't have the - I don't have the real estate on my phone. I have a smaller phone myself. So MyVA411 would be just amazing to work with instead of, when I don't have access to, VA.gov [Link: www.va.gov]. So, make sure to save it on your phone. I'm going to save it after this episode. I'm going to go ahead and put it on my phone so if I have any questions in the future, boom, just click on it and I'll have access. It's been a total pleasure learning about this. I really encourage our users to use this resource that's available to them. This is a benefit from the VA. But Rebecca, is there something that you would want to say before we finish the episode? And by the way, it's been a total pleasure talking to you and learning about this resource.
RK: My pleasure. As a Veteran, I would just say I think it's important that if you earn the benefit, you at least learn about it and determine if it's something that works for you at this point in your life and maybe in the future if it's not now. So, we're a really good starting point to at least explore what's available to you and give us a call. We're here 24/7, 365.
PM: Thank you so much. Rebecca. All right. Thanks, everybody, for joining for this episode of Borne the Battle. We'll see you in a couple of weeks. Thank you.