The challenge
The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust has a long-standing partnership with Netcall, having already deployed several solutions across the Trust to modernise their service delivery and drive efficiency. Building on this successful relationship, the Trust approached Netcall during a routine engagement check-in to discuss a pressing challenge facing their IT Service Desk.
The IT Service Desk was experiencing steadily increasing call volumes, but there was no ability to expand headcount. The team was becoming overwhelmed, struggling to maintain high standards of service despite their best efforts. Self-service portals and email channels were already in place, but most users still defaulted to picking up the phone – out of habit – and due to the approachable nature of the IT team who always did their best to help, even when stretched thin.
Virtual assistant design
The Trust use Liberty Converse, our AI-powered contact centre solution, and wanted to explore whether a virtual assistant built using the Virtual Agent capabilities in Converse could address these challenges. Analysis revealed that there was an opportunity to reduce inbound calls by automating top call drivers. This would free the team to focus on more complex, high-value issues, which truly required human expertise – ultimately supporting better healthcare delivery across the Trust.
“The structured approach that Netcall guided us in made all the difference to our virtual assistant project. By focusing on our top ten issues first, we could see real results quickly. The feedback from our team and users is extremely positive. The ongoing support is invaluable in continuing to optimise the virtual assistant.”
Christine Hazlehurst
Head of IT Service Management and Support Services, The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust
The solution
Netcall took a methodical approach to implementing a virtual assistant. Rather than attempting to solve everything at once, the team started with Rotherham’s top ten issues. For each one, they mapped out what the conversation would look like through a virtual assistant – identifying the natural flow, determining where to apply AI tools and integrations, spotting opportunities to enhance the customer experience and understanding where automation could genuinely reduce call volumes and improve the working life of the IT team.
This early design work laid the foundation for creating a virtual assistant that was both practical and impactful, using Liberty Converse’s advanced AI capabilities and IT Service Management integrations.
The virtual assistant leverages two sophisticated AI technologies to deliver high-quality experience.
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The automated assistant, using Virtual Agent capabilities, intelligently triages user requests, identifies intent and asks clarifying questions when needed.
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Ask Liberty AI cleans and structures natural language – particularly important for speech-to-text input – ensuring API lookups for tickets and knowledge searches are accurate.
This combination enables the virtual assistant to handle complex or unclear queries with far more precision than traditional automation.
Using API integrations with Rotherham’s ITSM platform, users can now receive live ticket updates directly from the virtual assistant.
This has eliminated a significant number of low-value “checking in” calls, which previously added unnecessary pressure to the team, while giving users the instant updates they need to keep healthcare services running smoothly.
When a real agent is needed, the virtual assistant doesn’t just transfer the call – it provides context. The live agent receives an AI-generated summary of the conversation, key ticket details and structured context extracted by Ask Liberty AI.
This means users never need to repeat themselves and agents can resolve issues faster with full context from the start – critical in a fast-paced healthcare environment.
“Using Liberty Converse’s Virtual Agent reporting, we run live observe–learn–improve cycles on real staff interactions. By analysing conversations as they happen, we surface gaps missed in testing, unmet intents, unexpected pathways, ambiguous language and tune journeys within minutes, not release cycles. This rapid feedback loop ensures our virtual assistant is continuously refined – improving accuracy, coverage and user experience every day.“
James Rawlinson
Director of Health Informatics, The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust
The result
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28% reduction in inbound call volumes allowing the IT team to focus on complex, high-value issues supporting patient care
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41% calls were handled by the bot or self-service reducing the number of calls transferred to an analyst
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Real-time ticket updates available to staff 24/7 through the virtual assistant, eliminating routine status check calls
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Improved first-contact resolution through AI-powered intent recognition and intelligent routing
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Continuous improvement from day one using Liberty Converse’s Virtual Agent reporting to monitor and refine conversations in real-time.
Rotherham has transformed patient engagement at every step of the patient journey, from omnichannel contact centre solution technology, going digital with diagnostics, through to the adoption of our patient engagement portal, Patient Hub. All these solutions are part of our Liberty platform, combining next generation contact centre software with low-code development software, process improvement, robotic process automation and AI tools. A powerful combination to make your best ideas happen – at speed and scale.
Immediate impact, but the journey doesn’t stop there
This success in the IT Service Desk has encouraged other departments to explore how Liberty Converse can be leveraged in their own areas. The ongoing partnership between Netcall and Rotherham demonstrates that successful automation is not just about the initial deployment, but about committed, iterative improvement that delivers lasting value to support healthcare delivery.
Read more: The Rotherham NHS Foundation Trust | Simplifying Patient Communications with the NHS