A Decade of Improvement at the Dept. of Veterans Affairs

Ten years ago, when the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) became one of the first agencies to elevate customer experience (CX) to top priority, leaders created a path toward better serving veterans and their families through improved communications, easier access to information and a focus on restoring veterans’ trust in the agency. In doing so, it also created a path for other agencies to improve the experiences of their own customers.

The VA in 2014 faced a new mandate following revelations that raised serious questions around access to veteran care. When then-VA Secretary Bob McDonald arrived at the agency, he instituted the first dedicated resources for customer experience and launched a multipronged digital modernization effort. McDonald’s solution to the VA crisis included creating the Veterans Experience Office (VEO), aimed at streamlining veteran access to services and information and bringing the agency fully into the digital age.

“He really had this bold vision for VA, which turned into something for the government as a whole, and it was to put the veteran at the center,” said Barbara C. Morton, deputy chief veterans experience officer in the VEO. “He stood up the office, and the first, No. 1 thing VEO was charged with was defining what ‘experience’ meant across VA. So, there was this foundational common lexicon in communicating. I think that was a milestone itself.”

The efforts tracked with similar initiatives at other agencies, where new White House policies and an emphasis on digital-first services kicked off a focus on customer experience. A decade later, 10 key lessons drive the continued evolution of integration, measurement, and improvement of CX measures at the VA and across the government. Please read the full guide, How VA Improved the Veteran Experience in the Last 10 Years, to explore these 10 lessons in further detail.