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The Connections Index

The Connections Index Benchmark Customer Solutions Group CSG
INTRODUCING

The Connections Index

The first benchmark measuring how likely consumers are to connect with a brand over time.

A RESEARCH INITIATIVE BY 

Customer Solutions Group Logo

Built from analyzing three decades of outreach data and 100M relevant lead records from our database.

 

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We’ll share the data, methodology, and what it means for your campaigns along with insights on what the highest-converting brands are doing differently. 

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WHAT IS THE CONNECTIONS INDEX?

A new measure of connection health.

The Connections Index is the first benchmark of its kind. It measures how likely consumers are to connect with a brand over time and is culled from three decades of outreach data and more than 100 million relevant lead records. It draws on the most recent three years of comparable campaign data to isolate the signals that matter now.

 

For years, marketers have optimized cost-per-lead and sales performance without a benchmark for what happens in between: the connection layer. When conversion softens, the question becomes ‘is it us, or is it the market?’ The Index is the answer.

WHAT IT MEASURES

Changes in Connection Rate: Not what you paid for the lead but what you actually got from the lead.

HOW IT’S SEGMENTED

Multiple data cuts segmented by use case, media type, connection type and more.

WHO IT’S FOR

Marketing, sales and retention leaders who must convert leads into customers.

WHY IT MATTERS NOW

Consumers are changing the way they connect.

Warm transfers are giving way to callbacks and SMS tap-to-connect. The connection is moving to the consumer’s timing, not yours. The Index shows how the connection mix is changing across every motion — acquisition, cross-sell, and retention — and what that means for how brands need to reach them.

50M+
Live connections tracked
Phone + SMS together drives ~30% more connections than the additive sum of each channel alone.
CSG platform data · All segments
Phone + SMS 62%
40%↑
Non-Pay is Rising
It's moving the needle: Getting consumers to update their payment info is up from its recent low in the beginning of 2024.
5Q↓
Acquisition leads declining
Five consecutive quarters of decline in acquisition lead quality. This is an industry-wide signal, not a one-carrier problem. 
Q1-25 Q1-26
The Connections Index — Volume 1 report cover

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WHO IT'S FOR

Built for the people who answer for conversion.
The Connections Index is built for the leaders who own what happens between a lead and a lasting customer.  

Marketing leaders
Where is conversion opportunity hidden in the leads you already work?
Your CPL looks fine. But does your connection rate? The Index shows you exactly where revenue is slipping through traceable gaps — and what the brands winning right now are doing differently.
Sales leaders
What connection types drive the most conversions to customers?
When conversion softens, sales leaders often ask 'is it us, or is it the market?' The Index gives you the answer — by use case, by media type, by connection type — and shows you where to move next to win the connection.
customer experience leaders
How do combined outreach channels outperform single channels?
Phone alone and SMS alone each leave connections on the table. The Index shows the incremental lift when they work together — and where the mix is shifting as consumers take control of how they engage.
customer retention leaders
What signals should retention teams be watching?
Motivating a customer to action is different than selling a prospect — and it's moving on its own curve. The Index shows what's driving connectivity to existing customers, and what separates brands with high renewal and retention rates from others.

13 quarters of data.
One clear pattern.

A PREVIEW OF WHAT’S INSIDE

Winning brands have always focused on cost per lead and sales team conversion rates. The Connections Index offers visibility, insight, and techniques into the Connection Layer between the two.

  • → Connectivity is down, and it’s the market, not execution.
  • → Initial sale holds up best; cross-sell and QNS take the bigger hit.
  • → Consumers are increasingly setting the terms of engagement.
  • → Combined SMS + Phone drive meaningful lift.
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REVEAL THE YIELD

From Connections to Conversion: Unlocking the Yield in Your Leads 

Marketing, sales, and retention leaders invest heavily in the two ends of the sales funnel: acquiring the right leads, and building and staffing the sales forces to work them. For some brands, the Connection Layer — the step between acquisition and conversion — doesn’t get that same attention. 

 

This report suggests the Connection Layer is an important element too often left under-managed: connectivity has fallen to 67.9, coordinated Phone + SMS outreach delivers 2.7 times the connection rate of SMS alone, and consumers are increasingly connecting on their own terms rather than the brand’s.

 

This isn’t solved by better lead sourcing or a larger sales force alone, even in tough market conditions. It’s solved by treating the connection as its own discipline: planned, staffed, and measured with the same rigor already applied to lead acquisition and agent strategy. That discipline is what unlocks the yield already sitting in the leads brands have paid for.

60%
Consumer-Initiated Callbacks
Consumers are increasingly setting the terms of engagement.
2.7x
Initial Sale Resilience
Initial sale holds up best. Cross-sell and QNS calls take the bigger hit.

ABOUT CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS GROUP  I  CSG

The Connections Company

Customer Solutions Group (CSG) creates the human moment at scale. For over 32 years, CSG has converted lead data into qualified connections for major brands in insurance, education, and financial services.

 

Most vendors specialize in a single channel. CSG unifies human agents, AI-powered phone calls, automated dialing, and AI-powered SMS onto one platform, fed by one data stream, optimized together — because no single tool converts every lead. The right connection depends on the right mode, at the right moment.

Upstream

Lead Generation

They create and sell the demand signal.

The Gap CSG Owns

The Connection Layer

CSG turns demand potential into qualified sales, upsell, and feature conversations.

Downstream

CRM & Sales Teams

They manage pipeline and close.

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Connections Index -- Early Access