Question Period Note: CALL CENTRES – AUDITOR GENERAL REPORT

• Veterans Affairs Canada is committed to ensuring Veterans and their families have the care and support they need, when they need it.

• We appreciate the Auditor General’s spring report on Government Call Centres and have reviewed the recommendations. The report provided important information that highlights what works well and what needs more attention—we are working to address those few key areas as quickly as possible.

• For example, through the use of teletypewriter (TTY), access to our call centre was implemented on September 9, 2019 for Veterans with hearing or speech impairment. An official launch of this service via social media is occurring in October 2019. A review of current call centre service standards based on client feedback is underway.

• Veterans and their families can connect with the Department in many ways, including online with My VAC Account, and in person at any of the Veterans Affairs Canada offices and Transition Centres across the country.

• Making it easier for Veterans to find and access the services they need is a priority for the Government of Canada. Veterans Affairs Canada is determined to help Veterans rebuild their lives and enjoy a healthy state of well-being.

BACKGROUND – CALL CENTRES – AUDITOR GENERAL REPORT

The Spring Report by the Office of the Auditor General, released on 7 May, 2019, includes a chapter on Government Call Centres. Veterans Affairs Canada’s National Contact Centre Network was audited along with call centres from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, and Employment and Social Development Canada.
The report identifies that:
• Veterans Affairs Canada should review how it provides access to the National Contact Centre Network for the deaf and hard of hearing;
• all three departments implicated in the report should set service standards relevant to clients and based on client feedback; and
• call centre service standards should be published and performance results should be supported by data in a transparent and consistent manner.
Questions and Answers
Q1. What were the objectives of the audit?
A1. The objectives of the audit were to determine if selected departments, including Veterans Affairs Canada, provide clients with accessible and timely call centre service, and whether those departments report on call centre performance in a way that is relevant to clients, consistent and transparent.
Q2. What were the findings of the Office of the Auditor General report?
A2. The report found that departments do not regularly or directly ask clients for feedback regarding how satisfied they are with call centre services. The report also indicated that service standards did not consider callers’ needs, and it indicated that departmental reporting on call centre performance was incomplete.
Recommendations within the Office of the Auditor General report for Veterans Affairs Canada include:
• Veterans Affairs Canada should review how it provides access to its call centre for the deaf and hard of hearing;
• Veterans Affairs Canada should set call centre service standards relevant to clients and based on client feedback; and,
• Veterans Affairs Canada should publish call centre service standards and performance results that are supported by data in a transparent and consistent manner.
Q3. Why was Veterans Affairs Canada unable to meet its standard of responding to 80% of the calls within 2 minutes?

A3. Based on the data for the period of March 6 to June 5, 2018 and June 13 to September 10, 2018, Veterans Affairs Canada responded to 32% of the calls within 2 minutes. This is due to a number of factors such as higher call volumes, difficulties in recruitment and the rapidly increasing number of MyVAC Account secure messages which analysts are also responsible to respond to. A number of call centre agents also joined new units created as a result of the implementation of Pension For Life.

Since January 2019, the Veterans Affairs Canada has recruited and brought onboard 55 agents, increasing the staffing level of its call centre from 70 agents to 125 agents and as a result we’ve steadily improved our performance. In June 2019, the NCCN responded to 84.5% of the calls within 2 minutes, and 95.6% of all callers were able to speak to an agent.

Q4. What is the Department currently doing to provide service for Veterans who are deaf or hard of hearing?
A4. Veterans Affairs Canada h teletype services via the toll-free Veterans Affairs Canada Assistance Service for deaf and hearing impaired individuals in crisis. On September 2019, we extended teletype services to include calls handled by our call centre, the National Contact Centre Network, and provide TTY relay services for Veterans and their families who require them in area offices.
Q5. Why did Veterans Affairs Canada eliminate the teletypewriter service for the call centre without consulting or notifying Veterans?
A5. Teletype services to the call centre were eliminated due to the equipment becoming obsolete.
We acknowledge that the decision to eliminate teletype services was made without enough consultation, and moving forward decisions regarding access to Veterans Affairs Canada’s call centre will consider caller feedback, including Veterans Affairs Canada’s Client Satisfaction Survey data.
Q6. Will Veterans Affairs Canada re-institute a teletypewriter service?
A6. Yes, the teletypewriter service was implemented on September 9 2019 with an official launch via social media in October 2019.
Q7. Does Veterans Affairs Canada plan on setting and publishing call-centre service standards as recommended in the report?
A7. We currently post service standards on our website.
Veterans Affairs Canada will, on an annual basis, take into consideration its performance in conjunction with the results of its client surveys to inform future potential changes to the published service standards.
We will publish service standards, associated results and data set(s) in conjunction with the release of the Departmental Results Report in November 2019.
Q8. How will Veterans Affairs Canada set call centre service standards relevant to Veterans?
A8. Veterans Affairs Canada implemented a post call client satisfaction telephone survey in fall 2018 which consists of a brief automated telephone survey to assess clients’ degree of satisfaction with services provided through its call centre.
Call centre staff will continue to use this automated telephone survey to obtain feedback to help determine how we may be able to adjust service standards to better assist and inform Veterans and their families.
Veterans Affairs Canada will, on an annual basis, take into consideration its performance in conjunction with the results of its client surveys to inform future potential changes to the published service standards.
Q9. How and when will I have the opportunity to provide feedback for this service?
A9. Formal feedback will be obtained through the call centre’s post-call client satisfaction survey and public opinion research. Comments can also be provided at any time by calling our toll-free line at 1-866-522-2122 or online with My VAC Account.
Excerpt from Office of the Auditor General’s news release: The audit of the call centres found that half of 16 million callers could not speak to an agent at Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada or for Employment Insurance, the Canada Pension Plan or Old Age Security. Seven million callers were redirected to an automated system or to a website, or were disconnected. Another million callers hung up. The situation is unlikely to improve in the near future, given that a 5-year modernization project has resulted in upgrades to only eight of the government’s 221 call centres. (While it is not stated, these #s do not apply to Veterans Affairs Canada as all callers to the National Contact Centre Network reach an agent if they remain on the line).

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