In insurance outreach, speed, scale, and compliance are all pulling on the same rope. If you move too slowly, competitors win the policy. If you move too fast without the right guardrails, you invite complaints, lawsuits, and reputational damage.

That tension is exactly what our recent webinar, “Outreach, AI, and the TCPA with CSG’s Jeff Piotrowski,” set out to unpack. Hosted by Andrew Bailey, the session brought together Matt Fraser, General Manager of Insurance at ActiveProspect, and Jeff Piotrowski, Chief Customer Officer at Customer Solutions Group (CSG), to dig into how carriers and agents can move leads quickly and ethically—at scale.

playbutton_white

Key takeaways

  • Consistency is the biggest barrier in insurance outreach—across how leads are acquired, worked, and followed up.
  • Compliance enables speed, not the opposite. Strong consent and documentation unlock faster, multi-channel outreach.
  • Data transparency is essential for smarter routing, segmentation, and decision-making across carriers, agents, and campaigns.
  • Human + AI is the winning formula—AI enhances scale and efficiency, but human empathy still drives conversions.
  • Systematic outreach beats individual agent variability, improving contact, quote, and bind rates.
  • AB testing drives measurable lift, helping insurers optimize scripts, timing, and cross-channel workflows.
  • Real-time routing and middleware tools eliminate bottlenecks and accelerate speed-to-lead.
  • Opt-in and opt-out management matter equally—especially with new FCC “reasonable person” opt-out standards.
  • Compliance is now a competitive differentiator, improving trust, customer experience, and legal defensibility.
  • Visibility into downstream agent behavior remains a major gap—but fixing it unlocks huge efficiency gains.

Let’s dive deeper into the topics presented above.

The biggest outreach challenge: Consistency, not just speed

Asked what the biggest challenge is for insurance organizations trying to move leads quickly without sacrificing compliance, Jeff didn’t hesitate: Consistency.

Insurance carriers often operate across multiple channels:

  • Captive agents
  • Direct-to-consumer sales
  • Independent agents and downline agencies

Each of those groups may:

  • Acquire leads differently
  • Work leads with their own cadence and scripts
  • Use different outreach channels (phone, SMS, email)
  • Track performance with varying levels of rigor

That fragmentation leads to two major issues:

  1. Optimization is nearly impossible – When every team handles leads differently, it’s hard to know which part of the process is working (or failing).
  2. Compliance becomes brittle – Without a systematic, consistent process, proving compliance—or adapting to new regulations—is much harder.

Jeff’s core point: A systematic, consistent process isn’t the enemy of speed—it’s the foundation of both speed and compliance. When your outreach logic is standardized, you can:

  • Audit it
  • Optimize it
  • Adjust it as laws and regulations evolve

Compliance as a growth engine, not a brake

There’s still a strong stigma in the market that compliance is “red tape” that slows sales down. Both Jeff and Matt argued the opposite.

Jeff’s philosophy is simple.

That “golden rule” approach isn’t just ethical—it’s been good business. Over CSG’s 31-year history, despite making millions of calls and sending millions of texts, they’ve never had a TCPA lawsuit or regulatory inquiry.

When compliance is built into your outreach design:

  • You can confidently use higher-performing channels like phone and SMS
  • You reduce complaint risk and brand damage
  • You open the door to more aggressive—but defensible—optimization

Jeff shared that when phone and SMS are used together in a compliant way, connection rates can double. In other words, strong compliance posture is a competitive advantage, not a constraint.

Where to start: Consent, centralization, and proactive auditing

For companies looking to operationalize compliance across multiple agents and campaigns, Matt recommended starting at the very beginning of the lead lifecycle:

1. Capture consent consistently

    Whether leads are generated in-house or purchased from third-party vendors, you need:

    • Clear, standardized disclosures
    • Proof of what the consumer actually saw and agreed to
    • Centralized storage of that proof

    This is where tools like TrustedForm come in—documenting the exact page, timestamp, consent language, and interaction for each lead.

    CTA_TFCertDemonstration

    2. Don’t treat first-party and third-party leads differently

      Many organizations rigorously validate vendor leads but get lax with their own internal forms. Matt stressed that first-party leads also need documented consent, both for compliance and for downstream optimization.

      3. Audit before there’s a problem

        With session replays and consent audits available, teams should proactively review disclosures and experiences—not just when a complaint lands. It’s much better to catch a broken form or weak language yourself than discover it after a plaintiff’s attorney does.

        Once those pieces are in place, you’ve laid a scalable, compliant foundation that supports performance improvements instead of fighting them.

        Why data transparency is non-negotiable

        Data transparency was another major theme.

        Jeff drew a sharp line between:

        • Good data with a deployment strategy, which drives segmentation, routing, and compliance
        • Good data without execution, which is essentially wasted cost

        Good, usable data can:

        • Improve upfront segmentation and routing
        • Help choose the right outreach channel and cadence
        • Inform scripting and messaging
        • Protect against frivolous lawsuits by documenting consent and contact history

        But he also highlighted a pervasive problem in the insurance space: limited visibility beyond three basic KPIs:

        • Contacted (yes/no)
        • Quoted (yes/no)
        • Bound/sold (yes/no)

        In many multi-agent or multi-agency environments, those are the only data points reported back up to the carrier. There’s no standardized insight into:

        • How many contact attempts were made
        • Over what time frame
        • What channel mix was used
        • What scripts or CTAs were tested

        Without that, it’s incredibly difficult to know whether “bad performance” is a lead quality issue, a process issue, or both.

        Both speakers argued that real-time, normalized feedback loops—whether through a connections provider like CSG or a middleware platform like ActiveProspect’s LeadConduit—are essential to:

        • Eliminate variability
        • Spot underperforming strategies
        • Confidently shift budget toward what works

        The power of disciplined A/B testing

        CSG’s performance story isn’t built on a single “magic” channel or tool. It’s built on relentless A/B testing.

        Their process:

        • Start with a strategy informed by past best practices
        • Immediately set up a champion vs. challenger test
        • Change one variable at a time (extra call, different CTA, alternate SMS script, etc.)
        • Let the data crown a winner
        • Repeat

        As Jeff put it, “We often confuse simple with easy.” A/B testing is simple conceptually, but hard to execute consistently when marketers are:

        • Juggling budget constraints
        • Onboarding vendors
        • Dealing with state-by-state regulations
        • Responding to internal requests from product, compliance, and leadership

        That’s exactly where a systematic outreach partner (like CSG) and a centralized data layer (like LeadConduit) can help: They bake experimentation into the process rather than relying on individual agents or teams to figure it out on their own.

        Middleware and lead routing: Fixing the “messy middle”

        Matt spent time talking about the value of a middleware layer in the lead flow—especially in insurance, where procurement and integrations can move at glacial speed.

        A platform like LeadConduit sits between lead sources and endpoints and can:

        • Speed up integrations so you can test new vendors in weeks instead of months
        • Enforce decisioning before leads hit your LMS or CRM, such as:
          • Checking for duplicates
          • Suppressing existing customers
          • Applying business rules or pricing logic
        • Route leads to multiple endpoints in real time, such as:
          • A contact center like CSG for immediate outreach
          • A CRM or policy admin system
          • A marketing automation platform

        This helps eliminate bottlenecks, avoid wasted spend, and ensure every qualified lead gets a fast, appropriate follow-up.

        CTA_LC

        Opt-out is the new battleground

        While many teams are familiar with opt-in technology, Jeff highlighted why opt-out management has become just as critical.

        Recent FCC changes expanded the standard from strict keyword-based opt-outs (“STOP,” “UNSUBSCRIBE,” etc.) to a “reasonable person” standard. In other words, if an ordinary person would read a reply and interpret it as “stop contacting me,” it must be treated as an opt-out—even if the traditional keywords aren’t used.

        That creates big challenges for:

        • Legacy systems that only look for exact keywords
        • Brands sending large SMS volumes
        • Teams trying to stay ahead of TCPA class action risk

        CSG built an AI-based tool that detects intent-based opt-outs (including phrases and even emojis) and can sit on top of:

        • In-house CRMs
        • Existing SMS platforms
        • Other outreach tools

        The big idea: Opt-out intelligence should be layered into your stack, not bolted on as an afterthought.

        AI in outreach: sidecar, not steering wheel

        Both Jeff and Matt stressed that AI should be treated as a sidecar, not the main driver—at least for now.

        Where AI is working well today:

        • SMS nurture and education after a quote is delivered
        • Benefit awareness campaigns for existing customers (e.g., ePay, online portal signup)
        • AI voice for routing and after-hours support, especially as a smarter replacement for IVRs

        Where humans still win:

        • First impressions and high-stakes moments (initial outreach, claims, final coverage decisions)
        • Complex conversations that require empathy and nuance
        • Situations where trust and reassurance are central to the sale

        Jeff summed it up: Don’t train your producers to be encyclopedias—AI already does that better. Train them to be empathetic humans who can guide consumers through choice overload.

        Conclusion

        In an industry where speed, accuracy, and trust can make or break a customer relationship, this conversation made one thing clear: The future of insurance outreach belongs to organizations that embrace transparency, automate intelligently, and treat compliance as a strategic advantage—not a hurdle.

        By pairing clean, verifiable data with consistent outreach processes, layering AI where it truly adds value, and empowering human agents to deliver meaningful, empathetic conversations, insurers can finally break through the bottlenecks that have held the industry back for years.

        As regulations evolve and consumer expectations rise, the carriers who invest now in compliant, data-driven, and scalable outreach will be the ones who win more policies, build stronger customer trust, and stay ahead of the competition.

        CTA_demo1

        DISCLAIMER: This page and all related links are provided for general informational and educational purposes only and are not legal advice. ActiveProspect does not warrant or guarantee this information will provide you with legal protection or compliance. Please consult with your legal counsel for legal and compliance advice. You are responsible for using any ActiveProspect Services in a legally compliant manner pursuant to ActiveProspect’s Terms of Service. Any quotes contained herein belong to the person(s) quoted and do not necessarily represent the views and/or opinions of ActiveProspect.

        Stay in the loop! Subscribe to the recAP email list to get our latest updates and insights.