West Lindsey District Council Adapts and Innovates Service Delivery with Masterful Contact Centre Redesign

West Lindsey District Council has broken free of an ageing telephony system and laid the foundations for large-scale customer experience (CX) and employee experience (EX) innovation.

Since transitioning to Genesys Cloud, the Council has transformed its contact centre with live chat, a website bot, smart call deflection, analytics, real-time reporting and more.

Now, with one single user interface and workspace, officers feel in control and less stressed. They start on the front foot when handling phone, email and messaging conversations. In addition, all call records and recordings are directly linked to CRM customer profiles, further improving insight and reducing effort.

Results achieved include increased productivity and customer satisfaction, underpinned by significant improvements in call waiting and handling time, first contact resolution and self-service adoption.

Extending across 447 square miles immediately north of Lincoln, West Lindsey is one of the most rural districts in England. One in five residents is of retirement age. Many live in remote settings and are vulnerable, while certain wards in Gainsborough are among the most deprived in the country.

By 2030, that population is forecast to grow by 30%, twice as fast as the national average, further compounding the future social, geographical and economic challenges that West Lindsey District Council (WLDC) is likely to face.

Managing 30+ council services, Lyn Marlow and her team act as the vital link between residents and departments. By streamlining issue reporting and navigation, they ensure residents access the right services with speed and precision.

Those conversations can be extremely wide-ranging. To manage enquiries ranging from garden waste and council tax to sensitive issues like homelessness and anti-social behaviour, new staff undergo a minimum of two weeks’ intensive training per service area.

Prior to engaging with Kerv, the WLDC contact centre comprised three teams focused on customer services, council tax and housing benefits. However, quality assurance was inconsistent and residents were largely limited to communicating through phone calls (via a push-button IVR system) or in-person visits.

Our phone system was hard to scale and no longer fit for purpose. Customers used to endure long, repetitive IVR menus, while we lacked the necessary insights to action service improvements or support the digital expectations of our residents, employees and elected members. Something had to change.

Lyn Marlow, Customer Strategy and Services Manager,
West Lindsey District Council

Over the next three years, WLDC finessed plans, evaluated solutions and restructured internally in preparation for the first phase of its contact centre transformation.

“The positive support of our elected members was crucial. We wanted to be bold and radical, but never forgot that we had to bring our customers and people with us,” notes Lyn. “So, we created specific campaigns to build support and prepare everyone for the improvements that were coming.”

Kerv specialists helped integrate Genesys Cloud with the Council’s CRM system, bringing everything together within a single desktop interface and AI-powered agent workspace.

“Our go-live day was a welcome non-event,” says Lyn. “We’d planned for all the things that could go wrong, but it went like a dream. Our old system was switched off at 5pm and we were up and running with Genesys by 9am the next morning, thanks to Kerv.

It’s a similar story with website journeys where ‘Lindsey’, an FAQ bot, reduces effort and helps customers navigate and find information faster.

Importantly, officers feel better empowered. Unlike before, they provide real-time assistance via live chat support for bespoke resident needs. Integrated scripts ensure phone, email and messaging conversations always start on the front foot. In addition, all call records and recordings are directly linked to CRM customer profiles, again saving officers valuable time.

In the background, Genesys AI assists with smart call deflection. For example, by monitoring customer utterances and intents for non-WLDC queries, which are swiftly redirected instead of being routed to officers previously.

“We treated AI just as we would when onboarding and training up a new member of staff,” adds Lyn. “We monitor its performance, analyse interactions, and provide continuous coaching. By learning from every resident engagement, the AI evolves alongside our officers to deliver better service. Similar to our people, AI is only as good as the effort you continually put into development and growth.

Our go-live day was a welcome non-event. We’d planned for all the things that might go wrong, but it went like a dream. Our old system was switched off at 5pm and we were up and running with Genesys by 9am the next morning, thanks to Kerv.

Lyn Marlow,
Customer strategy and services Manager

Within the first six days of migrating to the new Kerv-managed Genesys solution, West Lindsey District Council realised 10 hours of efficiency gains. To date, introducing new digital and AI tools has contributed towards a total productivity saving of 52 days.

The new systems have enabled the council to provide supportive coaching of the teams, real-time monitoring and improved data and trend analysis for optimised resource planning, both before and during peak periods. With an ageing demographic the efficiencies have been particularly positive for their more vulnerable residents, freeing up agents for greater support and ensuring that their improved channel choices are accessible to a wider range of customers.

Other results included improvements in call waiting time (57% reduction) and customer satisfaction (hovering consistently between 88% and 90%). Equally importantly, officers feel less stressed and in control. Strong team collaboration is also making a big difference, supported by shared systems and increased visibility of customer interactions.

“We’ve achieved significant improvements in average handling time, first contact resolution and self-service adoption,” adds Lyn. “Our employees also enjoy a better experience, especially now they spend less time jumping between systems and searching for information.”

Additionally, the Council benefits from smarter workload distribution (using data insights to identify demand patterns and resource needs) and more accurate reporting and decision-making (guided by Genesys real-time dashboards and analytics).

Building on this success, WLDC plans to expand its use of IVR and bots, making it easier for customers to resolve issues such as missed bin collections and garden and food waste queries.

Developing a secure bot-assisted payment service and helpful knowledge articles are on the roadmap too, as the Council looks to improve support for officers dealing with sensitive safeguarding issues.

We treated AI just as we would when onboarding and training up a new member of staff. We monitor its performance, analyse interactions, and provide continuous coaching. By learning from every resident engagement, the AI evolves alongside our officers to deliver better service.

Similar to our people, AI is only as good as the effort you continually put into development and growth.

Lyn marlow,
Customer strategy and services Manager,
West lindsey district council