Customer Solutions Group Launches The Connections Index

First-of-its-kind benchmarking tool leverages over 100 million lead records to measure likelihood to connect with a brand

LOS ANGELES, CA, UNITED STATES, August 4, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Consumer Solutions Group (CSG) today announced the launch of The Connections Index – a first-of-its-kind comprehensive benchmarking tool to help companies measure the likelihood of consumers to connect with their brand over time.

Built on over 100 million relevant lead records from CSG’s database over a span of more than three decades, The Connections Index allows companies to measure “connection health” to better understand consumer preferences for how and when to communicate with them.

“For years, marketers have optimized cost-per-lead and sales performance without a benchmark for what happens in between,” said Jeff Feuer, CSG co-founder and CEO. “The Connections Index allows companies to better understand what’s working and what isn’t in today’s rapidly evolving consumer landscape. It’s about connection health. Through the power of data, companies can develop strategies for creating healthier and more effective consumer connections.”

The Connections Index is an industry-specific report that analyzes the most recent three years of comparable lead outreach campaign data to spot trends and identify key shifts in consumer behavior. The first report focuses on Property and Casualty Insurance, with future reports expanding to other industries.
The index segments data by use case, media type and connection type – all within the same industry. From phone-only interactions to SMS text communication, to a hybrid approach between the two, The Connections Index analyzes those interactions to measure the changes in effectiveness over time.

Spanning 13 quarters – from Q1 2023 through Q1 2024 – the inaugural edition of The Connections Index found that connection rates are declining steadily, with consumers about one-third less inclined to be connected to a sales opportunity as they were three years ago. In short, it is harder for companies to connect a consumer to their brand than it was in 2023.

However, the report also found a silver lining: Connections that use a combination of both phone and text outreach are 2.7-times more effective than using either phone or text alone.

“We’re using granular data to be able to zoom out and see the big picture, and the big picture is that consumers are simply getting harder to reach across all major life-purchase industries – from insurance to higher education to financial services,” said Jeff Piotrowski, Chief Customer Officer at CSG. “Our analysis shows that it’s not just about acquiring the right leads and building a strong sales force; it’s about the layer in between – the Connection Layer – and working to ensure we’re connecting with consumers in the way they most prefer.”

An example of the changing consumer preferences is in how consumers respond to proactive connections, either via SMS text messages or via phone outreach.

The Connections Index data shows that, increasingly, consumers prefer to initiate callbacks – either through tap-to-call or tap-to-site via SMS text – rather than responding to a company-initiated handoff to a sales agent. Consumer-initiated callbacks jumped by nearly double, to 60% from 33%, between 2023 and 2026.

“Our goal with The Connections Index is to help companies better understand how consumer behaviors and preferences are shifting, so they can build more informed and more effective campaigns,” Feuer said. “Every marketer running outreach campaigns has a view of their own connection rates yet lacks visibility into market-wide connectivity. The Connections Index exists to change that.”

For more information on The Connections Index, or to sign up to receive the quarterly index report, visit CSGconnections.com/Connections-Index.

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ABOUT CUSTOMER SOLUTIONS GROUP (CSG)

Customer Solutions Group (CSG) helps brands turn more leads and customers into lasting connections. CSG owns the connection layer, operating between lead generation and successful conversion, enabling safe, effective and efficient consumer connections at scale. For more than three decades, CSG has converted lead data into qualified connections for major brands in insurance, education and financial services. CSG's proprietary outreach methodology and managed services approach unifies human, automated and AI-driven outreach across voice and SMS onto a single integrated platform. Backed by its exclusive technology and data science, CSG employs a multi-channel approach to optimize consumer engagement and maximize connection rates, driving more than $10 billion in combined revenue generation for its clients.

Visit CSGconnections.com.

BRETT MARCY
Apollo Communications
+1 717-237-5316
bmarcy@apollo-pr.com

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