Answering the Call

Long waits, clueless staff, interminable bureaucracy. These are some of the things that come to mind when many Americans think about government customer service. But Daryl Covey remembers the stormy day a decade ago when a tornado was bearing down on a southern state and his office received a frantic call from a weather service that was having trouble reading data from the Doppler Weather Radar. Covey, a hot line manager at the NEXRAD Radar Operations Center in Norman, Okla., and 30-year veteran of federal service, was there to help them through it. The tornado warning reached residents in time. "What we do is pivotal," he says. "We help people save lives." Covey's team, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, takes calls 24-7 and helps about 7,500 government employees at the Commerce, Defense and Transportation departments navigate and operate the Doppler system.

Three years ago, Covey, 53, started taking working coffee breaks to organize the first Government Customer Support Conference, to encourage best practices at government call centers, internal help desks and Web portals, and to acknowledge those centers that provide excellent service. Three years later, the conference is an annual event; in May, it was in Washington.

Each year at the conference, the Government Customer Support Excellence Awards are given to federal as well as local and state call centers for teamwork, customer focus, and overall and technical excellence. The winners stand out, Covey says, not only for setting high standards, but also for backing them up with intensive training and encouraging their agencies' leaders to make customer service a top priority.

This year's big winner for overall excellence-the Veterans Affairs Insurance Call Center-processed almost all its customers' requests faster than industry standards. For example, the life insurance industry processes death claims in 11.3 days on average, while the VA processes them in 4.1, according to LOMA, an Atlanta-based financial services and insurance trade association. LOMA also reports that the industry processes requests for disbursements in 7.2 days on average, while VA does it in 3.9. And the American Customer Satisfaction Index-an ongoing study of industry and government conducted by the University of Michigan-found the VA center's approval ratings were higher than those of any other comparable government service.

The Education Department's call center, winner of the award for teamwork, has set up a "beat system" through which employees continuously expand their knowledge of education issues. Experts from across the agency take time from their regular duties to brief employees on call center topics such as the No Child Left Behind Act, special education, and resources for teaching and improving children's learning.

These efforts indicate how far government has come in a short time, says Covey. "When I first got involved" in call center work in 1989, he says, there was "little or no government awareness" of best practices. But now, in some cases, government is leading the way. "There are a lot of innovative things going on in government," he says.

The VA center is just one example. Based in Philadelphia, the center has 90 employees who handle more than 60,000 calls a month from veterans who bought government life insurance policies during World War II and the Korean War. Prudential began offering policies to military personnel during the Vietnam War, but veterans with service-connected disabilities can still buy government-sponsored insurance. The policyholders, who average 76 years old, call with questions about premiums, dividends and benefits. And their beneficiaries call to report deaths.

The system works because of its emphasis on these most special constituents, says Stephen Wurtz, deputy assistant director for insurance at the Veterans Benefits Administration. "We're proud of them, and we're constantly reminding ourselves that this is a deserving bunch of folks." Employees receive special training on how to work with the elderly and the bereaved.

Whenever a call comes in, the person who picks up the phone becomes the single point of contact for the caller. Employees who can't answer the query right away are responsible for researching the question and following up.

Wurtz is particularly pleased with the center's user surveys. Each month, 80 callers are surveyed on their experience. More than 60 percent return the surveys, and the results have been overwhelmingly positive. At the same time, top Veterans Affairs insurance managers hold periodic "listening post" sessions with call-takers to get a sense of their work and their needs.

The call-takers are regularly evaluated and rated on a scale of one to five. Top performers are eligible for annual awards that range as high as $500. If the entire center meets its goals, the employees receive more. Evaluations focus on timeliness, accuracy and courtesy. Periodic smaller awards, including days off and restaurant coupons, are handed out to those who go beyond the call of duty.

At Education's call center in Washington, Sharon Stevens has a much smaller staff, just eight people. They face a daunting task: responding to about 20,000 calls and e-mails a month on anything and everything about education. "We have to be on top of our game, and keep each other informed to answer a whole range of questions," she says.

To handle that workload, employees are constantly learning. A job with the call center starts with three to four weeks of training on the issues, as well as phone techniques, such as how to deal with angry callers. Employees are then given a topic or beat to master, which they do by interviewing Education Department experts. They then share their knowledge with the other call center employees. Any call-taker who gets stumped on a question can refer to a database of answers compiled by Stevens, or can consult the resident beat expert.

Education and VA are a step ahead, Covey says, but each year brings higher quality nominees. What stands out in his mind, he says, is the culture that top call centers have created in which customer service, teamwork, a sense of ownership and professional growth are core values. The American Customer Satisfaction Index, he adds, has shown government agencies overall closing the gap with industry. Managing the customer support conference, he says, "has given me a whole new perspective on people doing it right in government."