Lichfield District Council fast-tracks public services with AI

Overview: Lichfield District Council set out to improve how it connects with the more than 100,000 residents who rely on its services. By partnering with 8x8, the council replaced its outdated phone system with a modern CX solution that empowers staff to respond faster, resolve issues more efficiently, and serve the community with greater care. Since implementing 8x8 Contact Center, 8x8 Work, 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams, and 8x8 Intelligent Customer Assistant, average wait times have fallen from a peak of 40 minutes to eight minutes, chat engagement has soared, and nearly a third of all resident interactions now take place through digital channels.

"We’re trying to do more with less, and this is actually allowing us to do that. 8x8 Intelligent Customer Assistant has been the easiest project I’ve worked on. I’m so pleased with it—I really love it."

Claire Penny

Customer Services Manager, Lichfield District Council

Aspiring to deliver better, faster servicelink to this section

When a resident in Lichfield needs help from the council—whether it’s about housing, waste collection, or local services—they expect to be heard quickly and clearly. For Claire Penny, Customer Services Manager at Lichfield District Council, that expectation is what drives her team every day.

But not long ago, that first impression was harder to manage. The council’s outdated phone system was holding them back. Slow, clunky, and difficult to update, it made even simple tasks like adding an out-of-office message for a bank holiday take up to three weeks. As more people tried to get through, wait times ballooned. Agents felt overwhelmed, and callers weren’t always getting the service they needed.

Lichfield District Council serves more than 100,000 people across Staffordshire, including the city of Lichfield, Burntwood, Fazeley, and surrounding rural communities. The team needed a communications platform that could help them move faster, stay flexible, and deliver the level of service their community deserves.

A modern platform that puts service firstlink to this section

After a thorough search, the council chose to adopt 8x8 Work, 8x8 Contact Center, and 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams. The new platform was not only more modern and feature-rich, it was also more cost-effective than renewing their old Cisco system. For staff already using Microsoft Teams day-to-day, 8x8 Voice for Microsoft Teams meant they could make and receive calls directly within the familiar interface, with no need to switch between applications.

Transitioning both in-office and hybrid staff to 8x8 meant a lot of set-up, testing, and training, but the council’s team was ready for the challenge. They used 8x8’s online resources and stayed in close communication with the support team. That level of support, combined with the ease of use of the platform, meant that agents could quickly build confidence. And that confidence translated directly into better service for residents.

“Once we could see what we had with 8x8,” said Claire, “we could see what had been lacking in the previous system.”

Data, security, and performance upgradeslink to this section

One of the biggest changes came from the new speech analytics features. With their old system, reporting required a lot of manual data manipulation. Now, Claire and her team can access the insights they need in a matter of seconds. The real-time data helps them stay agile and quickly adjust to trends or service challenges as they arise.

Secure payment collection was another major improvement. Many of the council’s residents, particularly older callers, struggled to type in card details, which created a compliance headache for hybrid agents. Previously, if an agent was working from home and a customer couldn’t complete a self-service payment, they had no safe option: agents weren’t permitted to take card details verbally from home. This meant repeat contacts, escalations, and frustration on both sides.

8x8 Secure Pay resolved that. With voice recognition now enabled, agents can guide residents through a compliant payment process, whether they’re in the office or working remotely. Residents can choose to type or speak their card details, keeping transactions secure and PCI DSS compliant. The council uses 8x8 Secure Pay across a range of services, including council tax, business rates, garden waste subscriptions, parking fines, and planning applications, just to name a few.

Faster answers, happier residentslink to this section

As more teams across the council have adopted 8x8, Claire has seen just how accessible the platform is, even for staff who don’t have much experience with cloud-based tools. One of the most noticeable changes has been in responsiveness. Before switching to 8x8, wait times could reach 40 minutes during peak periods. The average call waiting times went from above 20 minutes to a low of eight minutes. And residents are more often able to get through on their first call, which reduces repeat calls and overall volume.

In addition to better call performance, the council saw a huge spike in chat engagement. Previously, they received around 30 chat inquiries a week. The previous system used a bot-driven live chat designed to stop residents from reaching an adviser, so people simply didn’t use it. With 8x8, the council redesigned their live chat to connect residents directly with a person. The result: weekly chat inquiries jumped to 300, ten times the volume, with agents able to respond quickly and efficiently. With tools like intelligent call routing, ring groups, and callback management, the team can jump into other queues when needed and help each other handle demand in real time.

"8x8 has significantly impacted how we engage with callers and resolve their issues. Chat inquiries are up, while call volumes have dropped, and average call waiting times are down."

Claire Penny

Customer Services Manager, Lichfield District Council

Enhancing service through smart automationlink to this section

To further improve service efficiency and support their digital transformation goals, Lichfield District Council also implemented 8x8 Intelligent Customer Assistant™ (ICA), an AI-powered virtual agent designed to handle common, repetitive tasks with speed and consistency. Claire and her team were thoughtful in their approach, conducting internal research to identify areas where AI could enhance operations without diminishing the personal touch.

“We did some research and talked to the team about their pain points,” Claire said. “We wanted to know which issues AI could help with, and where it could enhance the experience without taking anything away.”

Their focus was on freeing up agents for more complex or sensitive inquiries. “If all we need to do is give information and take no further action, that’s an ideal query for AI to handle,” Claire explained. This approach allows agents to dedicate their time to cases that truly need a human touch, while ICA manages routine interactions. On lines where ICA is deployed, calls are answered almost instantly. And where a caller’s intent can’t be confidently matched, the call routes straight to an adviser with no friction.

Now, nearly a year into the ICA voice deployment, the results are encouraging. Across the lines where ICA is active, around 45% of calls with a matched intent are handled without an agent: either resolved entirely by the AI or correctly transferred to the right service. The council tracks only “long abandonments” as a failure metric; short hang-ups at the point of the AI message are treated as a positive signal that the resident got what they needed and moved on.

The response from both staff and residents has been overwhelmingly positive. “It’s been live for over a year, and we haven’t had a single negative comment from a customer. That’s a massive win for us,” Claire shared. “We’re trying to do more with less, and this is actually allowing us to do that. Rolling out 8x8 Intelligent Customer Assistant has been the easiest project I’ve worked on. I’m so pleased with it—I really love it.”

A solution that empowers both staff and residentslink to this section

The impact has been felt across the organisation. Agents feel more in control, and residents are getting faster, more consistent support whether they reach out by phone or through digital channels. Over the past year, the council's channel mix has steadily evolved: calls have dropped from 82% of all interactions to 72%, with nearly 30% of resident contacts now taking place digitally.

WhatsApp has been the standout success, growing more than fourfold in that same period. With digital ICA for WhatsApp launching imminently, Claire expects that momentum to accelerate further. "I think ICA will deflect a lot more on WhatsApp than on phone calls. People using WhatsApp are already comfortable getting a digital response," she noted.

For Claire, the biggest win isn’t just better numbers. It’s better outcomes for the people of Lichfield District. Her team now has the tools and confidence to deliver fast, helpful service across every channel. And with a unified, flexible platform in place, the council is better equipped to support residents wherever and however they reach out.