The Veterans Experience Office (VEO) offers support and tools for Veteran events

What happens when you get the largest group of County Veteran Service Officers (CVSOs) together for training? Host a VA Claims Clinic, of course!

The National Association of County Veteran Service Officers (NACVSO) partnered with VA and the Colorado Division of Veterans Affairs to host its first-ever NACVSO/VA Claims Clinic during the organization’s annual conference in Denver, Colorado. The claims clinic boasted 500 CVSOs, representatives from VBA and VHA, memorial specialists, loan experts and state Veteran-serving partners—all working together to assist the over 800 participants who attended the event.

This claims clinic was especially helpful. It hosted onsite examinations for VA compensation & pension claims, and staff completed over 430 exams during the clinic. Michael Rohrbach, director of the Denver and Cheyenne VA Regional Office, remarked, “These events are a great way to provide a one-stop shop delivering Veteran benefits and services in person within Veteran communities. Success in ensuring Veterans in attendance were provided with the benefits and services they deserve is only accomplished through our partnerships.”

NACVSO: Advocacy and Education

For those unfamiliar, the NACVSO is the national advocacy organization that provides education and training for the nation’s approximately 2,100 CVSOs. These county representatives help connect Veterans and eligible family members with the benefits they earned. While this was the first claims clinic during training, their annual conference dates back to the early 90’s. As experienced professionals, they knew this claims clinic would be a perfect opportunity to introduce the VA claims clinics as an outreach modality to new and experienced CVSOs, all while helping the community hosting them for training. They also wanted a data-driven way to show that this latest addition to the annual conference was worthwhile.

VEO: Amplifying VA Outreach Events

VA’s own Veterans Experience Office (VEO) stepped up and offered their support, showcasing five different ways it can amplify any VA outreach event. NACVSO utilized our Customer Experience Surveys (CSignals), which allowed for a check-in with customers to ensure their needs were met at the event and then helped identify areas of improvement for future events. As customers exited, they were asked to complete a survey that measured event success. The Likert scale questions asked, “Was it easy to get the information or services you needed at the event?” and “Did you feel respected and valued during the event?” along with free-text options to add comments and recommendations. Of the survey responses at this event, 93% noted it was easy to get the services they needed, and almost 99% felt highly respected at the event. One free-text compliment sums the event up nicely: “This is my first face-to-face encounter with VA personnel of this type, and I felt like I was being heard about MY experience for the first time. I was given appointments quickly that were applicable to my situation.” Follow-up surveys are emailed for those missed upon exit, and survey results are provided back to event organizers with quantitative and qualitative data measurements.

Additional VEO Support Tools

While this event utilized survey support, VEO offers four additional ways to amplify Veteran outreach events: marketing, registration, service tracking and data visualization.

Marketing

VEO can help develop a media package that includes a professional flyer, press release, graphics, marketing language and more. They can connect this event to national contacts and tools that help target the desired event audience.

Registration

VEO provides a trusted registration system that improves the customer experience to ensure customers flow through event stations; customers who identify additional needs—like homelessness or are in crisis—are triaged, and event organizers can immediately see if the desired audience attended the event.

Service Tracking

VEO can provide digital or paper tracking options that tally service engagements at the federal, state and community levels. This service tracking not only identifies popular services when planning future events or where to improve throughout an event, it also helps provide a more complete picture of event success.

Data Visualization

VEO then provides the customer experience data back to event organizers in a visually appealing way to help sell the event’s success. For example, seeing that customers believed the event was 98% effective gains trust in current partners and future event attendees.

The Veterans Experience Office is excited to amplify more Veteran outreach events or help plan and execute events from start to finish. For this event, helping gather survey responses let organizers know that customers had great experiences and would like to see similar events in the future. By leveraging VEO’s tools and support, Veteran outreach events can be more effective and impactful, ensuring that Veterans receive the benefits and services they deserve.