Online Portal Now Available For Arizona Veterans To Set Appointments with ADVS Veteran Benefits Counselors

PHOENIX – The Arizona Department of Veterans’ Services (ADVS) Veterans’ Services Division (VSD) has launched an online appointment system for the agency’s highly sought-after Veteran Benefits Counselors (VBC). VBC’s advocate for Arizona’s service members, Veterans and their families in pursuit of their federal (VA) and state Veteran benefits.

VSD launched Calendly in January 2024 but has been working on the project since April 2023. The current phone appointment system utilized by Veterans and their families to make appointments was created out of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Three years later, the call center began to produce challenges for VBC’s including double booking and heavy phone traffic. On average, the VBC appointment hotline receives over 200 phone calls a day.

“Calendly offers the Veteran or client to schedule the appointment on their own,” explained Chrissy Weiers-Hawn, Training and Information Manager for the Veterans’ Services Division. “It’s been a very well received option by the Veteran community since we launched.”

When a Veteran or client sets an appointment on Calendly, it’s automatically added to the VBC’s calendar eliminating the issue of double booking. The booking system will only show clients available VBC time slots. Calendly will also send reminders of their VBC appointments including two emails and two text messages, including one an hour before the set appointment.

“Our VBC’s bring in more than $84 million per month in VA benefits for Veterans across the state,” said Gary Ochoa, Veterans’ Services Division’s Assistant Deputy Director. “This improvement to our appointment system will allow us to support more Arizona Veterans to ensure they obtain the benefits they’ve rightly earned through their military service.”

To make an online Calendly appointment to meet with a VBC click here.

For Veterans or clients who are not tech savvy, they can still call the VBC appointment line and staff is available to walk them through the process of setting up an appointment. Please call 602-535-1215. In-person appointments are also available at 25 itinerant sites across Arizona.