Case Study: Council Cuts Abandoned Calls by 17% With Netcall

The Challenge

Tewkesbury Borough Council is a small local authority based in Gloucestershire, with a big vision to support people and strengthen communities.

Some legacy systems were creating barriers to effective service delivery, including the phone system which didn’t offer any meaningful operational data.

Residents struggled with complicated menu systems when trying to access council services and staff time was consumed by many routine enquiries that could have been automated.

The council wanted to move away from the complexities traditionally associated with local government operations and embrace a more agile, customer-centric approach.

This would enable them to deliver modern, efficient services and to have more capacity to focus on vulnerable residents who need extra support.

Tewkesbury Council was already transforming digital experiences for their residents using Citizen Hub, our low-code application development platform for councils, so it made sense for them to deploy the intelligent routing capabilities of Liberty Converse, our AI-enhanced contact centre solution, for seamless service delivery.

Tewkesbury was the first organization in the UK to deploy the latest version which features natural language processing (NLP) for intelligent query interpretation and a custom natural language model (NLM) specifically trained for local government.

The Solution

The AI within Liberty Converse provides an intelligent triage layer, acting as the first point of contact for all resident interactions.

Using advanced natural language processing, it understands queries expressed in everyday language, removing the need for residents to navigate menus or use specific council terms.

It categorizes requests by service area and urgency, routing them to the right resources or teams, and can deliver instant responses for common enquiries.

Through automated service direction, residents are guided to relevant online or self-service options, reducing call volume while improving speed of service.

Predictive routing capabilities mean the system continuously learns from interaction patterns, enabling it to anticipate needs and optimise routing decisions.

Trending issues are flagged before becoming widespread, allowing the council to respond proactively. The system also helps ensure consistent handling of similar queries and tracks real-time metrics, demand patterns, and satisfaction indicators.

This data-driven insight helps Tewkesbury refine service delivery based on real resident behaviour, not assumptions.

A key ambition was to implement a “golden number,” offering one contact point for all council services. This simplifies access for residents and streamlines internal operations.

Since deploying Liberty Converse, the team has used analytics to track trends, measure performance and continuously refine services.

They’ve halved call wait times through enhanced routing and reduced abandoned calls by 17% thanks to shorter queues. There’s also been a 38% shift to online services, driven by automation and improved call flows.

In the first three months, the team managed over 90,000 interactions, two-thirds via phone, followed by 21% email. Live chat is expected to grow as more services are routed to webchat.

The seamless integration between Liberty Converse and Citizen Hub ensures agents have instant access to resident data, enabling more informed, efficient service.

For example, during the busy Garden Waste Renewal period (serving 20,000 customers), over 80% renewed online through a new Citizen Hub application integrated with Converse. A dashboard showed live renewal figures and helped staff manage inbound contact more effectively.

The Result

• 38% shift to online services encouraging residents to self-serve online, reducing the dependency on traditional channels.
• 67,000+ inbound calls, 7,500+ outbound calls, 21,000+ emails and 2,500+ callback requests successfully processed in the first three months
• 50% shorter wait times & 17% reduction in abandoned calls
• Staff redeployment: To higher-value activities
• Improved data visibility: Enabling evidence-based decision-making
• Increased efficiency: Due to intelligent automation.

“Netcall’s support in rolling out new technology has been absolutely brilliant. Their approach to supporting their customers is, from our perspective, second-to-none.

There are so many suppliers out there that get this bit wrong, and the impact is massive,“ said Clare Evans, Transformation Director at Tewkesbury Borough Council.

This blog post has been re-published by kind permission of Netcall – View the Original Article

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Netcall is trusted by organisations worldwide, with 9 out of 10 customers ready to recommend us. With Liberty Converse CX, you can streamline operations, enhance customer engagement, and achieve real, measurable results.

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Author: Netcall
Reviewed by: Megan Jones