CX as Your Sacred Duty with John Boerstler, CXO at the U.S. Department of Veterans’ Affairs

This episode features an interview with John Boerstler, Chief
Experience Officer at the U.S. Department of Veterans’
Affairs.  In this episode, John talks about improving trust
ratings, journey mapping, and reaching underserved communities.


Quotes


“If we're going to create this world-class customer experience
for our veterans and their families, caregivers, and survivors,
then we also have to make sure that we provide a world-class
employee experience for 400,000 men and women that serve here in
the VA everyday.” 


“If we think just not only along the lines of age, race and
ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, and gender in
general, we have to design for all of these different customer
types to ensure that some of the most underserved veterans and
their families are out or are engaged and retained as customers
and that they choose VA for their care and benefits so that we
can fulfill our sacred oath and our commitment to them.”


“The United States military creates the largest number of
displaced workers every year. 250,000 young men and women leave
active service. And they move from Virginia to Texas or
California to Missouri or Missouri to Florida and the
professional and personal networks that they have at their duty
station that do not translate to the communities that they return
to. And so they have a difficult time finding work and finding a
new social or that unit mentality, that social net social
network, so to speak that we have in the military, that comradery
that we so miss. And that can lead to negative health and
economic outcomes. So how can we be on the front end of that
transition, improve it, negative health and economic outcomes by
wrapping our arms around these individuals and their families at
that point of transition and then at the same time deliver a
delightful customer experience?”


Time Stamps


*[4:09] Shifting to human-centered design


*[6:05] The sacred duty to serve Veterans


*[7:15] How the VA has improved trust ratings by 23%


*[10:26] Leveraging tech to give more Veterans access to services


*[12:50] The birth of the Veterans Experience Officer and the
first journey map


*[16:54] The core values of the VA in CX


*[18:46] Using data to increase access and improve outcomes for
Veterans


*[20:47] Meeting the unique challenges of Veterans after active
service


*[24:14] Learning to meet the needs of LGBTQ and BIPOC Veterans


*[27:31] Measuring the effectiveness of CX initiatives


*[31:58] Meeting Veterans at their point of transition to
civilian life


*[32:33] Addressing mental health needs among Veterans


*[39:00] Owning the moment


Bio


John is a native Texan who served honorably in the U.S. Marine
Corps from 1999-2007 as a non-commissioned officer and infantry
unit leader, including one combat tour in support of Operation
Iraqi Freedom from 2004-2005 and Operation Natural Fire in the
Republic of Kenya in 2006. John has also served as the CEO of
Combined Arms, Executive Director of NextOp, a program manager
with Wounded Warrior Project, the Mayor of Houston’s Office of
Veterans Affairs, and as a policy and district staffer for a U.S.
Representative.


Thank you to our friends


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