An Evaluation of the Military OneSource Call Center in Select Groups of Callers: Call Quality, Call Outcomes, and Caller Satisfaction

Abstract

The Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Military Community and Family Policy within the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) administers the suite of services provided by Military One Source, including a call-in service that provides free assistance and referrals to service members and their families 24 hours a day, 365 days of the year. Calls to the center are answered by trained triage consultants who provide information and/or connect callers to DoD and civilian programs and services that can help them cope with the challenges of military life. This report provides the findings of the RAND National Defense Research Institute's (NDRIs) analysis of call quality, call outcomes, and caller satisfaction within select groups of callers requested by the sponsor. Specifically, we conducted two studies. First, we reviewed audio recordings of calls and rated them on several dimensions, including the quality of the communication between the caller and the Military OneSource triage consultant, the outcome (e.g., was a referral made?), and caller satisfaction. Second, we conducted qualitative telephone interviews with a separate sample of callers in which we asked them to describe and rate their satisfaction with their experience in speaking to the Military OneSource consultants and with the referrals, services, or resources they received. As requested by the sponsor, Study 1 (the call ratings analysis) included (1) junior enlisted service members and their families, (2) those calling about a relationship problem, and (3) transitioning service members and their families. We intended to include callers from the same three groups in Study 2 (telephone interviews), but we were unable to include transitioning service members and had to expand the relationship problems group to callers who were seeking non-medical counseling for any issue. The sponsor approved of these changes to the eligibility criteria for the interview sample.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2021
Accession Number
AD1137578

Entities

People

  • Allyson D. Gittens
  • Ammarah Mahmud
  • Erika L. Bloom
  • Grace Gahlon
  • Lisa H. Jaycox
  • Steven R. Dickerson
  • Thomas E Trail

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Active Duty
  • Counseling
  • Covid-19
  • Department Of Defense
  • Employment
  • Enlisted Personnel
  • Health Care
  • Health Services
  • Medical Personnel
  • Mental Health
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Reliability
  • Social Media
  • Test And Evaluation
  • Training
  • Unified Combatant Commands

Fields of Study

  • Psychology

Readers

  • Clinical Trial Research.
  • Defense Acquisition Program Management
  • Rehabilitation and Prosthetic Care for Military Service Members and Veterans with Limb Loss or Disability.

Technology Areas

  • Fully Networked C3
  • Fully Networked C3 - Command and Control