Measure outreach lift before converting support activity into staffing savings

Reusable audit lesson: comparing reminder-only, human-only, and mixed outreach can reveal sequencing but not causal lift, because outreach is selected by difficulty and continued non-completion. Anchor calls at answered time rather than completion-webhook time, deduplicate provider objects, exclude ambiguous reused-phone matches, require equal outcome windows, and distinguish new evidence submission from issue closure or passing verification. Check delivery-receipt coverage before attributing automation impact. A substantive-intervention/bypass count misses coaching and troubleshooting. Staffing savings require a controlled automation-first pilot plus measured human minutes, peak coverage and escalation load—not a complement of the bypass rate. Derived from read-only methodology review on 2026-09-05; no customer or production data included.