David Castillo

Operations Manager

David leads operations at AgentTech I/O and writes about call center management, agent performance, and workflow optimization. His articles cover staffing strategies, KPIs, remote team management, and insurance sales best practices that help agencies scale efficiently.

Articles by David Castillo

Best Practices April 14, 2026

How Insurance Call Centers Deploy AI Agents Safely (Handoff + Guardrails)

Step-by-step rollout plan for AI agents: guardrails, disclosures, human handoff, QA, audit trail, and the metrics that prove ROI.

Best Practices April 11, 2026

The Agent's Guide to CMS-Compliant Medicare Enrollment Calls

A script-level walkthrough of a compliant Medicare enrollment call from greeting to close, highlighting every CMS-required disclosure.

Best Practices April 10, 2026

Summer Slowdown Strategy: Using Off-Peak Months to Train, Optimize, and Grow

How to use the summer months productively — agent training with AI mock calls, system optimization, publisher recruitment, and AEP preparation.

Best Practices April 7, 2026

ACA Open Enrollment Call Center Strategies for 2026

How to prepare your call center for ACA open enrollment, including staffing models, routing, and compliance requirements.

Best Practices April 3, 2026

AI vs Human Call Monitoring: When to Use Each (and How to Use Both)

Comparing AI-powered 100% call monitoring against traditional human QA sampling, and the hybrid approach that delivers the best results.

Best Practices April 2, 2026

January Medicare Disenrollment: How to Retain Members and Reduce Churn

Strategies for handling the January disenrollment window, including proactive outreach, retention scripts, and identifying at-risk members.

Best Practices April 1, 2026

Importing and Cleaning Lead Lists: A Step-by-Step Guide

Best practices for importing CSV lead lists, field mapping, deduplication, DNC scrubbing, and maintaining clean contact data.

Best Practices March 31, 2026

Dual-Eligible Beneficiaries: Selling D-SNP Plans Through Your Call Center

How to identify, route, and convert dual-eligible Medicare/Medicaid beneficiaries for D-SNP plan enrollments.

Best Practices March 28, 2026

Agent Status Management: Maximizing Available Time and Minimizing Idle Time

How real-time agent status tracking helps supervisors optimize staffing and reduce wasted seat time.

Best Practices March 27, 2026

Email Drip Campaigns for Insurance Leads: Automate Your Follow-Up

How to set up automated email sequences that nurture insurance leads from first contact through enrollment.

Best Practices March 26, 2026

Reducing Call Abandonment Rates: 8 Strategies That Work

Data-driven strategies to lower abandonment rates including queue optimization, callback options, and overflow routing.

Best Practices March 25, 2026

Agent Leaderboards: Using Gamification to Drive Insurance Sales Performance

How real-time leaderboards motivate agents, drive healthy competition, and give supervisors instant visibility.

Best Practices March 22, 2026

Telesales vs Field Sales: When Phone-Based Insurance Sales Wins

Data-driven comparison of telesales and field sales for insurance, including cost per acquisition, close rates, and agent productivity.

Best Practices March 18, 2026

Post-AEP Analysis: What Your Call Data Tells You About Next Year

How to analyze AEP call data — conversion rates, publisher performance, compliance scores — to improve next year's strategy.

Best Practices March 14, 2026

CMS Audit Readiness: 10 Things Your Call Center Needs in Place Today

A practical checklist of documentation, recordings, and processes your call center must have ready for a CMS audit.

Best Practices March 13, 2026

Running a Remote Insurance Call Center: Tools, Tips, and Pitfalls

How to manage a distributed team of insurance agents using browser-based tools, real-time monitoring, and structured communication.

Best Practices March 11, 2026

Operating Hours and Timezone Management for Multi-State Call Centers

How to configure operating hours across timezones, set holiday schedules, and ensure calls route correctly by time-of-day.

Best Practices March 7, 2026

How to Calculate Cost-Per-Enrollment for Your Insurance Call Center

A formula-driven guide to calculating true cost-per-enrollment including seat costs, lead costs, agent time, and technology.

Best Practices March 5, 2026

SEP Opportunities: How Special Enrollment Periods Create Year-Round Revenue

How to identify, market to, and convert Special Enrollment Period-eligible beneficiaries for Medicare Advantage.

Best Practices March 3, 2026

Q4 Call Center Readiness: Preparing for Medicare's Busiest Season

A quarter-by-quarter preparation guide for AEP from agent hiring in July to go-live in October.

Best Practices March 2, 2026

Contact Tagging Strategies for Insurance Agencies: Organize Leads That Convert

How to design a contact tagging system that lets agents instantly identify lead source, enrollment status, and follow-up priority.

Best Practices February 27, 2026

The 15 KPIs Every Insurance Call Center Manager Should Track Daily

A prioritized list of daily KPIs from answer rate to cost-per-enrollment with benchmarks specific to insurance call centers.

Best Practices February 24, 2026

Insurance Contact Center KPIs Improved by AI (AHT, FCR, QA, CSAT)

Which insurance contact center KPIs actually move with AI? A practical guide to AHT, FCR, QA, CSAT, speed-to-lead, and backlog metrics.

Best Practices February 23, 2026

7 Call Center Automations That Save 10+ Hours Per Week

Practical automation workflows that eliminate repetitive manual tasks for insurance agencies.

Best Practices February 20, 2026

SMS Follow-Up Strategies That Increase Medicare Enrollment Rates

How to use automated and manual SMS follow-ups to re-engage Medicare prospects after calls.

Best Practices February 19, 2026

OEP 2026 Strategy Guide: Maximizing Open Enrollment Period Results

Strategies for staffing, routing, compliance, and campaign management during the Medicare Open Enrollment Period.

Best Practices February 15, 2026

Insurance Lead Types Explained: Aged, Shared, Exclusive, and Live Transfer

Complete guide to insurance lead types. Costs, conversion rates, pros/cons for aged, shared, exclusive, live transfer, and referral leads.

Best Practices February 14, 2026

How to Reduce Agent Attrition in Insurance Call Centers

The real cost of agent turnover and 10 proven strategies to reduce attrition in insurance call centers. ROI analysis included.

Best Practices February 12, 2026

How to Calculate and Reduce Cost Per Acquisition in Insurance Sales

CPA formulas, industry benchmarks by insurance line, and 7 proven strategies to reduce your cost per acquisition.

Best Practices February 11, 2026

How to Start a Medicare Call Center from Scratch in 2026

Step-by-step guide to starting a Medicare call center. Licensing, technology, staffing, compliance, costs, and scaling strategy.

Best Practices February 8, 2026

Insurance Cold Calling Scripts That Actually Convert in 2026

Proven cold calling scripts for Medicare, life insurance, final expense, ACA, and small business health insurance with compliance-first approach.

Best Practices February 5, 2026

Scaling Your Inbound Call Center: How Publisher-to-Queue Architecture Changes Everything

How AgentTech's Publisher Queue architecture lets you scale from 5 to 50 publishers without losing conversions or control.

Best Practices February 3, 2026

7 Metrics That Reveal Your Best (and Worst) Call Publishers

Track the key metrics that separate high-quality call publishers from underperformers in your inbound call center.

Best Practices January 26, 2026

5 Call Routing Strategies That Increase Insurance Sales Conversion Rates

Optimize lead routing with AI-powered performance tracking.

Best Practices January 24, 2026

AEP 2026 Call Center Preparation Checklist

Complete checklist for Annual Enrollment Period success.

Best Practices December 15, 2025

Call Transcription Best Practices for Insurance Agencies

How to leverage AI transcription for compliance and training.