Case Study: Lichfield District Council Achieves 97% Response Rate With Netcall

The Challenge

Lichfield District Council is a local authority in the heart of England supporting a vibrant economy and community of more than 106,000 people across Staffordshire.

To improve resident experiences and reduce pressure on stretched teams, they set out to address some key challenges:

• A fragmented digital estate: Individual teams had built 230+ forms independently, using different styles, outcomes and often hard to find on the website, prompting residents to reach for the phone instead.
• A search function that couldn’t keep up: As new services moved online, the council’s existing search function struggled to index content reliably and returned poor results. Residents were sent back to the phone, even when the answer was there.
• A growing processing burden: Council Tax Support notifications, each requiring manual review, had reached volumes that were stretching team resources and making it increasingly difficult to keep up with demand.

The Solution

Creating a Consistent Digital Front Door

As part of its wider digital transformation programme, Lichfield District Council redesigned its website and standardised its approach to online forms using our accessible Content Management System (Jadu Central) to support the new digital experience.

This replaced an estate of around 230 independently developed forms with a more consistent approach across services, helping to improve accessibility, usability and the overall resident journey.

The work was not simply about introducing new technology. It formed part of a broader programme to redesign digital services around how residents access and use them.

In addition, AI-powered search (Agent:Ex Search) has been introduced to give residents direct, contextual answers to their questions rather than simply presenting a list of links to navigate.

It provides another self-service route for residents and can respond to changes in digital demand without creating queues or hold times.

Importantly, the insight generated through search helps the council understand what residents are trying to find and where existing website content may not be meeting their needs. This gives the digital team evidence to identify and prioritise improvements based on real resident behaviour.

Automated Revenues & Benefits Processing

Alongside improvements to the resident-facing digital experience, Lichfield redesigned elements of its Revenues and Benefits processes to make greater use of automation with our Revenues and Benefits solution (Govtech).

The Council redesigned its Council Tax Support scheme as a banded discount model, helping to unlock levels of automation that were not previously possible.

Using Department for Work and Pensions data received daily, the system can calculate relevant discount bands, update claimant accounts and create an audit trail. Most routine changes can therefore be processed without manual intervention.

Lichfield has also redesigned its teams and processes around this increased use of automation. This means the same-sized team can manage significantly higher volumes while officers concentrate their expertise on cases requiring human judgement or additional support.

The Result

• 40,000+ Questions answered in nine months – answered with no phone call, no email and no queue
• 97% Answer rate responses average 137 words, providing specific, actionable guidance rather than a list of links
• Demand spikes absorbed on high-pressure days without queues, hold times or additional staffing but residents get instant answers
• 17 Languages served (out of 70+ available languages) including Arabic, Chinese, Korean and Polish, reaching residents who would otherwise have no self-service option
• 86% Processed automatically Council Tax Support changes processed automatically with same-day turnaround (previously multi-day manual reviews) – the latest release is targeting automation rates above 90%
• 28-30,000 UC notifications handled without manual reassessment each year – which would have required additional headcount otherwise
• Time for residents self-service allows the team to focus on residents who need more support
• 1 FTE equivalent workload absorbed into the redesigned service without any reduction in service quality
• Reduced overpayment risk and a full audit trail for every automated decision without any reduction in service quality
• Content gaps identified and evidenced with a prioritised, data-driven view of where residents are struggling
• Live intelligence feed the system flags where answers are weak, giving an evidence-based list of where content needs improving, prioritised by real resident need

“We’ve moved from lots of different digital journeys towards a much more consistent approach, making it easier for residents to find what they need and access services online.

Just as importantly, we now have much better insight into what people are searching for and where we need to improve.

We’ve made significant progress, but we’re continuing to learn and develop our digital services.” Said Joan Tharm, Digital Lead, Lichfield District Council.

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This post has been re-published by kind permission of Netcall - view the original article.

Author: Hannah Swankie