The Voice of MOAA
When members have questions, MOAA’s Member Service Center provides the answers.
By Kris Ann Hegle

It’s 8 a.m. on Monday, and MOAA’s Member Service Center (MSC) has just opened. Within minutes, calls begin streaming in. 

Member Service Representative (MSR) Yumi Rodriguez takes the first call. It’s from a retired Air Force colonel in New York who has several questions about TRICARE For Life (TFL). Rodriguez listens carefully and then answers his questions one by one. The colonel is overjoyed. He’s finally found someone who can answer all of his questions and explain the program in layman’s terms.

Another MSR, Darcie Galbreath, is talking to a soon-to-be-retired Army major in North Carolina. He’d like to join MOAA because he’s heard good things about The Officer Placement Service (TOPS), which helps servicemembers transition to a second career. Galbreath takes his information, creates a new membership record, and asks him to write down his membership number. Then she directs him to MOAA’s Web Base (www.moaa.org). He’s surprised to learn he can go online as soon as he gets off the phone and use his membership number to access TOPS’ Career Center.

MSC Manager Matt LoFiego is busy helping an auxiliary member in Florida. She wants to send her legislators a message asking them to end the benefit reduction that military survivors face when they turn 62 and begin drawing Social Security. But she doesn’t know who her congressional representatives are because she’s just moved to Florida. 

With a few clicks of the mouse, LoFiego accesses her legislators’ names and explains how she can send them a special action alert via the MOAA Web Base. He also asks her to jot down MOAA’s toll-free Capitol Hill hot line—(877) 762-8762—in case she wants to call her representatives. 

“Thank you for all your help,” she tells LoFiego. “You have no idea how important this issue is to me.”

Before: too many steps 

Providing members who call the association with timely, accurate, personalized, world-class service is what then-President Lt. Gen. Mike Nelson, USAF-Ret., envisioned when he proposed setting up a call center in 1998. At the time, members who called headquarters had to navigate through a phone tree system that had seven choices and four different options. Members who successfully navigated their way to the correct department or staff member still had no guarantee they would speak with someone, and they often had to leave a message.

Communication within headquarters also needed to be improved. Many staff members were unsure who performed certain tasks or who should answer subject-specific questions. 

Nelson appointed a staff team to study the feasibility of setting up a call center that would provide members with instant access to highly trained, friendly personnel who could answer their questions on a wide variety of subjects of interest to military members and their families. The group performed research, visited several call centers and noted their best practices, and developed a plan for applying them at MOAA. Nelson then presented his proposal to the board of directors, which approved setting up an MSC.

Nan O’Leary, who has worked at the association since 1988, was chosen to head the MSC. She hired six MSRs and developed a training program. In October 1998, the MSC debuted. 

“It was difficult at first,” says Rodriguez, who has worked at the MSC since day one. “People didn’t know who we were, and when you would tell them you’re the Member Service Center, they’d think you were a receptionist or an answering service. A lot of them wanted to speak to a ranking officer, and we had to let them know we were trained to answer their questions.”

During its first month, the MSC handled 40 percent of members’ calls. As time went on, the MSRs’ credibility grew—and so did the MSC’s call volume. Today, the MSC handles 85 percent of the calls that come into MOAA. 

“Now people are calling in, and they’re ready to get the answer directly from us,” adds Rodriguez. “They don’t want to go anywhere else.”

Now: a one-stop shop

Members can reach the MSC, which is open 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time, by calling the association’s toll-free number, (800) 234-MOAA (6622). An MSR will answer and offer to help a member any way he or she can. This might involve taking an address change, renewing a membership, directing members to the association’s new online store so they can buy a T-shirt or hat that bears MOAA’s emblem, or helping a grieving spouse file a death benefit claim.

The MSC is known for being a one-stop information shop. Each of the eight MSRs is trained to answer questions quickly and accurately on a wide variety of subjects, including veterans’ benefits, retired pay, Social Security, the Survivor Benefit Plan, TRICARE, TFL, TRICARE Senior Pharmacy, MOAA’s legislative efforts, TOPS, and the association’s educational aid and scholarship programs, to name a few. 

Members who get bogged down in red tape also receive assistance from MSRs, who have established points of contact at key government agencies. When MSRs contact TRICARE regional offices, for example, their points of contact know they’re dealing with skilled representatives who work for a 380,000-plus-member association, and their request becomes a priority.

“I’ve had flag officers, very experienced retired flag officers, say, ‘Norb, when I really want the answer to something and I don’t want to run around, the best place I know to go is the Member Service Center,’ ” says retired Navy Vice Adm. Norbert R. Ryan Jr., MOAA president. 

Ryan credits his predecessor for having the foresight to set up the MSC, which he thinks is “absolutely essential for where we want to go with MOAA.” He also gives O’Leary high marks for setting up a top-notch recruiting and training program.

Recruiting talent

The job of MSR is not an entry-level position. O’Leary and LoFiego carefully screen candidates, most of whom have college degrees. Candidates are interviewed by phone to check their speaking voice and any use of slang or jargon. During face-to-face follow-up interviews, candidates are judged on their ability to grasp and communicate new concepts quickly, as well as other character traits. “We’re looking for someone who has a heart to serve others,” says O’Leary. 

Once hired, an MSR goes through an intense four-week training program that includes sessions on customer service skills and phone etiquette as well as schooling in the association’s mission. MSRs meet with each MOAA department head as well as subject-matter experts in each department. This gives MSRs an overview of each department’s responsibilities and helps them develop a working knowledge of the complete range of issues of interest to members. 

New hires also sit alongside experienced MSRs to listen as they take calls and watch what tools and information they use to meet a member’s request. In role-playing sessions, new MSRs field phone calls from other MSRs who judge them on their performance. 

“By the time they’re done with training, people can’t tell if they’ve been [taking calls] three days or three years,” says LoFiego. 

MSRs also receive extensive training on how to use the MSC Call Guide, which O’Leary calls “the jewel of our center.” Before the MSC began taking calls, directors compiled a list of frequently asked questions for their departments. Additional information was gathered from subject-matter experts within each department. This information was compiled and stored electronically, becoming the MSC Call Guide. 

Today, MSRs can access the information contained in the MSC Call Guide with just a few clicks of the computer mouse. MSRs also possess the skills needed to update or add information to the guide, which can be done in a matter of minutes. 

“When MSRs [are] asked a question that they haven’t been asked before, and they think they will be asked again, they’ll add it to the call guide,” says O’Leary. “Then they’ll send an e-mail to everybody saying, ‘Here’s an additional question I’ve added,’ or ‘Here’s a really good Web site I found when searching for an answer for someone.’ ”

Making a difference

MSRs keep abreast of changes within the association by attending weekly department meetings and meeting with in-house experts. This information is shared with other MSRs at the MSC’s weekly meeting. Maintaining close contact with each department and subject-matter expert also allows MSRs to anticipate events that might drive up call volume, such as the launch of a major legislative campaign.

During the TFL campaign, for example, the MSC fielded thousands of phone calls from members who wanted information about the program. The MSRs helped further MOAA’s goals during this period by educating members about the program.

“I think TRICARE For Life is a great illustration of how we’ve made the difference in what members thought about the program,” says LoFiego. “We eased a lot of concerns and explained that it was a positive program, and it would be very helpful to them in the future. There was a lot of distrust for what the government was saying to them. We were able to give them specifics about the program— implementation dates, who was going to be handling contracts, where they could go for more information—that they really weren’t getting from the government. They were coming to us first.”

In January 2002, the MSC took on a new challenge—answering members’ e-mail requests. Initially, the MSC responded to messages that were sent to the association’s primary e-mail address. Then in June 2002, the center was tasked to answer e-mail messages that were sent to every MOAA department, and two more MSRs were hired. 

If an MSR doesn’t feel comfortable answering a complex request, the e-mail is forwarded to the appropriate department or expert. Currently, the MSC handles 60 percent of the e-mails sent to the Benefits Information Department, 75 percent for the Contract Services/Marketing Department, and 85 percent for the Government Relations Department. 

MSRs such as Maria Tutino, who handles much of the e-mail sent to MOAA’s Government Relations Department, use information from the MSC Call Guide when responding to members’ e-mailed requests. As with each call received at the MSC, e-mail messages receive a personalized reply, which Tutino crafts with information she gleans from the guide.

O’Leary says she thinks having the MSC respond to members’ calls and e-mail has allowed staffers to spend more time focusing on their department’s core mission. Col. Steve Strobridge, USAF-Ret., director of Government Relations, agrees.

“Establishing the MSC was a win-win move for MOAA members and for the MOAA staff,” he says. “Our lobbyists who are subject-matter experts used to have a real balancing act between doing their jobs on the Hill and answering a backlog of member inquiries, many of which were very similar. With the MSC taking over the routine inquiries, individual members get their questions answered more promptly, and our lobbyists can devote more energy to issues that benefit the whole membership.”

Troubleshooting

Centralizing member communication has other benefits. In fact, when an issue arises that concerns the members, the MSRs often are the first people on the association staff to know about it. 

For example, when the MSC started receiving calls from people complaining it was too difficult to join MOAA via the Internet, MSRs began troubleshooting. They discovered potential members had to wade through seven Web pages in order to join. 

In October 2002, the MSC began streamlining the process. Since then, the number of members joining via the Web has increased by 174 percent. The MSC also is responsible for membership renewals coming in via the Web.

MSRs don’t just react to problems, though. They also spot trends. Following the passage of TFL, MSRs noticed a significant reduction in the number of death reports. They examined the issue and discovered members were no longer filing death reports because many of them no longer needed to carry the supplemental health care insurance they obtained through MOAA. Previously, members would call MOAA and request their spouse be taken off their supplemental insurance policy, which would prompt the filing of a death report.

“We’ve been transferred the responsibilities for finding better ways to reach out to members who have recently lost their spouses,” says O’Leary. “We’re in the process of putting a plan in place [whereby] if we get notified of a death and it’s not confirmed or we don’t have surviving spouse information, we make an attempt to reach out and call the survivor and see if there’s anything we can do. We want to personalize our service to members, and that’s one way we’re going to try to do it.”

Gauging success

O’Leary keeps detailed statistics on the number of calls and e-mails the MSC responds to each month, along with other information such as the average number of seconds it takes MSRs to respond to a call. The MSC also mails out 125 member survey cards each week. Approximately 50 percent of those surveys get returned, and 98 percent of respondents rate the MSC “good” or “excellent” in all categories.

The MSC gauges success in other ways as well. All the MSRs have stories about the members they’ve helped and how they continually work to meet members’ needs on each and every call.

“Someone might call here, and that’s the only time they ever call,” says LoFiego. “We view every contact as an opportunity to show what type of organization we are. We’re really the voice of MOAA on a day-to-day basis.”

Ryan agrees. Shortly after becoming association president, he began spending one hour a week talking to members who called the MSC, something he still does regularly. He says having direct contact with members helps him develop a better understanding of issues important to them and how they might best be served.

“They’re where the road meets the rubber,” Ryan says of the MSRs. “They help us personalize people’s membership...and they have a sense of urgency when you call. You sense they’re going to do their best to deliver for you right then and there and not give up until they have an answer for you.”