Customer Solutions Group launches Connections Index

Customer Solutions Group has launched The Connections Index, a benchmarking tool built on more than 100 million lead records to help brands measure how likely consumers are to connect over time. The inaugural report focuses on property and casualty insurance and shows falling connection rates, while phone-plus-text outreach performs best.

Why it matters: - Brands are losing ground on consumer reach, and CSG is pitching The Connections Index as a way to measure that shift against a broader market benchmark. - The tool is designed to help marketers understand not just lead volume or sales results, but the “connection health” between outreach and consumer response. - CSG says better visibility into connection trends can help companies adjust how and when they communicate with consumers.

What happened: - Customer Solutions Group announced the launch of The Connections Index on Aug. 4, 2026. - The benchmark uses more than 100 million relevant lead records from CSG’s database collected over more than three decades. - The first report covers property and casualty insurance, with additional industry reports planned. - The company is offering more information and quarterly report sign-up at CSGconnections.com/Connections-Index.

The details: - The Connections Index analyzes the most recent three years of comparable lead outreach campaign data. - The report segments performance by use case, media type and connection type within the same industry. - CSG says the index measures changes in effectiveness across phone-only, SMS text and hybrid outreach approaches. - The inaugural edition spans 13 quarters, from Q1 2023 through Q1 2024. - The report found connection rates are declining steadily. - The report found consumers are about one-third less inclined to be connected to a sales opportunity than they were three years ago. - The report found campaigns that combine phone and text outreach are 2.7 times more effective than phone or text alone. - CSG said consumer-initiated callbacks are rising, including tap-to-call and tap-to-site responses via SMS text. - Consumer-initiated callbacks increased to 60% from 33% between 2023 and 2026.

Between the lines: - The launch signals a push to create a market-wide standard for evaluating outreach performance, not just company-by-company results. - The findings suggest consumers are becoming harder to reach across major life-purchase industries, including insurance, higher education and financial services. - The data also points to a shift away from company-initiated handoffs and toward consumer-controlled response paths. - That gives more weight to channel mix and timing, not just lead quality or sales execution.

What's next: - CSG plans to expand The Connections Index into additional industries beyond property and casualty insurance. - The company will continue publishing quarterly index reports. - Marketers using the report will likely compare their own connection rates against industry trends and adjust outreach strategies accordingly.

The bottom line: - CSG is trying to turn consumer connectivity into a measurable benchmark, and its first report says the easiest way to reach buyers is increasingly through coordinated phone-plus-text outreach.