Insurance dialer and texting: a follow-up playbook for agents

The best insurance dialer setup for most agents is a text sent within a minute of the lead arriving, followed by a call placed by hand. Pair that with scrubbed lists, registered numbers and renewal reminders by text, and you cover the jobs that close and keep policies without inviting a TCPA complaint.

This post covers lead follow-up, quoting, renewals, the consent question on aged leads, and DNC scrubbing. Every Ready price below is the published one, and we say plainly where Ready doesn't do something an agency might want.

What an insurance dialer actually needs to do

Insurance follow-up is a speed and trust problem. A shopper who fills out a quote form usually filled out two or three others. The agent who reaches them first, without looking like a robocaller, tends to get the conversation.

That gives you four jobs:

1. Reach new leads fast. A text lands in seconds. A call from a local-looking number gets picked up more often than one from an unknown area code, and Ready's local presence, on for every account, sends and calls from your number closest to the lead's area code.
2. Move quotes forward. Short texts like "Your auto quote is ready, want me to walk you through it?" get answered between meetings. Calls don't.
3. Retain at renewal. A reminder 30 days out and another 7 days out cost almost nothing. A lapsed policy costs the commission.
4. Stay out of court. Purchased and aged leads are where TCPA and Do Not Call exposure lives.

What the Ready Dialer does and doesn't do

The Ready Dialer is click-to-call from the dial pad in the Ready dashboard or inside GoHighLevel. It includes consented call recording and transcripts, inbound calls that ring the open pad, and a Missed call card in the Inbox thread for each call you miss. It's billed at $0.025/min. Each started minute is billed as a full minute, with no seat plans, and every minute bills at that one rate.

It does not do queue or auto dialing, speed-to-lead auto-dial, voicemail drop, call transfer, or manager barge, whisper or monitoring. If your agency runs a call floor where a dialer churns through 500 numbers an hour with live supervisors, Ready isn't built for that. Dedicated call-center dialers are. Ready fits the agent or small team that texts first and calls by hand.

Lead follow-up: text in minute one, call in minute five

Speed matters most in the first few minutes after a quote request comes in. Here's the pattern that holds up for a small agency:

• Minute 0 to 1: an automated text goes out. "Hi Dana, this is Marcus at Ridgeline Insurance. Got your home quote request. Is now a good time for a 3-minute call? Reply STOP to opt out."
• Minute 2 to 5: the agent sees the lead in the inbox and calls from the dial pad.
• No answer: a second text later that day. If they reply, the conversation continues in the same thread.

The person filled out your form and asked for a quote, so you have the consent basis for that first text. Keep a record of the form wording and the timestamp in your CRM or lead system. Ready records your attestation each time you send a campaign (and each API send that attests consent): who sent, to how many, and when. It does not store each recipient's opt-in time, wording or page URL. Your form and CRM have to keep that. (A contact who signs up on a Ready-hosted opt-in page is the exception: Ready stores that sign-up, with the time, IP address and exact wording, and support@tryready.com can send you a copy.)

Worked example: a month of new-lead follow-up

Assumptions, labelled as such: 200 new leads a month, two texts each, every text under 160 plain characters (1 segment), and about 40% of leads replying once.

• Outbound texts: 400 segments × $0.0075 = $3.00 in Ready's rate, plus 400 × $0.0045 in carrier fees.
• Replies: inbound replies are billed like a sent text. 80 replies × $0.0075 = $0.60, plus 80 × $0.0045.
• Calls: assume 120 connected calls averaging 4 billed minutes. Calls nobody answers bill nothing, so the 80 unanswered attempts add $0. That's 120 × 4 × $0.025 = $12.00.

Ready's all-in prices per segment include the carrier fee but not screening: Scrub lists and Number validation, the two switches in Settings under Compliance, each add $0.003 per segment when switched on, shown as screening on your bill, and both are off by default. Unless you turn the opt-out footer off, the first text to each contact, and one again from time to time, also gets "Reply STOP to opt out" and your business name if the message does not already have them, so a text close to the segment limit can bill one more segment.

That comes to roughly $16 a month plus carrier fees to work 200 leads by text and phone. One emoji in that first text would change the math. An emoji drops the segment limit to 70 characters (67 per part on multipart messages), so a 150-character text with a 🏠 becomes 3 segments instead of 1. Your text costs would roughly triple. Leave emoji out of lead follow-up.

Quoting by text without oversharing

Texts are good for nudging a quote along, but they're not a secure document channel. Practical rules:

• Send the headline, not the declarations page: "Your quote came in at $142/mo for the coverage we discussed. Want to go over it today?"
• Don't text full policy numbers, dates of birth or driver's license numbers. Send a link to your quoting portal for the detail.
• Use your own domain for links. Shared public shorteners are a common reason texts get filtered. Our post on content-level filtering covers why.
• Keep replies human. Ready's AI message writer and spam-filter check help you draft and check templates, but Ready no longer lets accounts create AI reply agents that answer inbound texts on their own. A licensed person answers coverage questions, which is where you want it anyway.

Renewal reminders: the cheapest retention you'll buy

Renewals are the clearest return on texting in insurance. The customer already has a relationship with you, and the message is expected.

A simple cadence:

Worked example: renewal campaign cost

Assume a book with 400 policies renewing a month, three 1-segment texts each:

1,200 segments × $0.0075 = $9.00 in Ready's rate, plus 1,200 × $0.0045 in carrier fees.

Saving one policy that would have lapsed usually covers that many times over. Treat that as a reasonable expectation, not a measured statistic.

If these reminders are most of what you send, register a campaign use case that matches them. Picking the wrong use case is a common cause of throttling.

Consent for aged leads: where agents get sued

Aged leads are cheap because they're old, resold, and often missing usable consent for you specifically. The lead vendor's form may have named a long list of "partners," or used wording that doesn't clearly cover texting from your agency. Get your own counsel's read on any vendor's opt-in language before you rely on it.

Our stance is simple. Cold and aged contacts get reached by phone and mail. Texting starts once someone has opted in to hear from you or replied to you. We won't cost out a texting campaign to an aged list, because that isn't normal practice and it's where exposure piles up.

What this looks like in practice:

1. Scrub the aged list (next section).
2. Call the survivors by hand from the dial pad. Calls carry their own rules, including Do Not Call, so scrubbing matters here too.
3. When someone says "sure, text me the quote," that's your opening. Note it in your CRM with the date.
4. Then text.

DNC scrubbing before you dial or text

TCPA exposure runs roughly $500 to $1,500 per text or call that violates it. Litigators know insurance lead lists are a reliable source of claims. Scrubbing is cheap by comparison.

Ready offers two ways to scrub:

• Standalone TCPA & DNC Litigator Scrub: $0.005 per contact. One scrub checks each number against known TCPA-litigator lists and DNC-complainer lists, and flags matches. A 3,000-contact aged list costs 3,000 × $0.005 = $15 to scrub before you pick up the phone.
• Scrubbing on sends: switch it on for an account and every send is checked. It costs $0.003 extra per segment. Landline validation is another $0.003 per segment if you turn it on. Both are off by default, and both sit on top of the per-segment rate plus carrier fee.

Lists go stale. A list scrubbed in the spring picks up new complainers by summer. Our post on scrub cadence by list source covers how often to re-run it, and the lawsuit-versus-scrub math puts real numbers on the tradeoff.

Scrubbing reduces risk. It doesn't make you lawsuit-proof, and compliance stays your responsibility as the sender. Ready also handles the parts that are easy to forget:

• STOP replies are honored automatically, and the opt-out carries across every campaign.
• Sends are held outside permitted local hours for the recipient's area. Campaigns, drip campaigns and automations wait up to 24 hours for the window; a one-to-one or API text is held only if the window opens within 6 hours, otherwise it is refused and must be resent; a one-to-one reply to someone who texted you in the last 24 hours goes out at any hour.

Getting set up: registration, numbers and cost

Texting from a business number to US phones requires A2P 10DLC registration. Unregistered traffic gets filtered by carriers.

On Ready, registration happens in the app:

• Cost: $25/mo for registration + $2 per number. There's no setup fee. You pay $25 when you submit, which covers the first month.
• Timing: most approvals take 2 to 7 days.
• Before approval: an account can send up to 500 texts a month before it registers, at its normal per-text rate. If you bought a number before registering, you send on Ready's shared registration while your own is in review.
• Free texts: the first 20 texts are free one-to-one sends. They end the moment you pay for registration, so use them before you register. To send, you add a card and get a number, which is $2 a month with the first month charged when you get it.
• Brand vetting ($79 Standard / $179 Enhanced, one-time) is only worth it at higher volume. Standard registration is all most agencies need.

If your agency runs on GoHighLevel, Ready installs natively. It syncs inbound and outbound messages both ways, and the dial pad works inside GHL. If you don't use GHL, the Ready app gives you the inbox, contacts, campaigns and dialer directly. Local presence (sending from your number closest to the contact's area code) has a listed price of $0.0015 for each segment of a delivered text. It's useful for agents licensed in several states.

On price, plainly: if raw per-segment cost is your only criterion, Twilio and LeadConnector charge less per message. What you get here is registration handled in-app, scrubbing, quiet hours, opt-out handling, an inbox, campaigns and a dialer in one place.

The practical takeaway

Text new quote requests within a minute, then call by hand. Remind every renewal at 30 and 7 days. Keep emoji out to hold segments down. Scrub aged lists before you dial, and only text people who've opted in to hear from you or replied.

If that matches how your agency works, check the per-segment pricing, or sign up and send your first few one-to-one texts before you register.

FAQ

Can the dialer work through my lead list automatically? No. It's click-to-call from a dial pad, with recording, transcripts, inbound ringing and a Missed call card in the Inbox thread for each call you miss. There's no automatic dialing, voicemail drop or transfer. It's $0.025/min, and each started minute is billed in full.

Can I text aged insurance leads I bought? We don't recommend it. Vendor consent often doesn't clearly cover texts from your agency. Scrub the list, call by hand, and text once someone agrees to hear from you. Have counsel review vendor opt-in language.

What does a renewal reminder text cost? A plain-text reminder under 160 characters is 1 segment: $0.0075 plus a $0.0045 carrier fee. If you turn on scrubbing or landline validation, add $0.003 per segment for each.

Do I need 10DLC registration to text clients? Yes, for ongoing business texting. You can send up to 500 texts a month before registering. Registration costs $25/mo + $2 per number, and most approvals take 2 to 7 days.

Does DNC scrubbing protect me from TCPA lawsuits? It lowers your risk; it doesn't remove it. The standalone scrub is $0.005 per contact and screens out known litigators and DNC complainers. Consent records, quiet hours and honoring STOP still matter, and compliance stays with you as the sender.