I was chatting to someone the other day about what I do and he said, “Oh you mean tip-offs lines? We’ve had one for years and it doesn’t work!” After I had taken a few deep breaths, wiped the blood off the guy’s nose and helped him to his feet, I calmed down and gave his comments some serious thought.

I thought about one of our champion subscribers who has been using our services for more than 8 years and who has experienced nothing short of brilliant results. I wondered what it is about them and what they do that makes them so successful. When we asked him, the following emerged:

• It is critical that top management of the organisation supports the service from the outset and on an on-going basis. This support needs to be communicated to all concerned at every opportunity.
• The existence of the service needs to be advertised to all stakeholders at the outset and continuously.
• A “champion” of the appropriate seniority should be appointed to manage the service.
• All reports received should be investigated thoroughly and dealt with even-handedly.
• These reports (and the results of the investigations) need to be reviewed by the relevant committees and the board to ensure that reports are dealt with appropriately and nothing is swept under the carpet. •
• In the case of this organisation, the head of each business unit is accountable to investigate every report and report to head office. The “champion” referred to above has a watching brief and co-ordinates all the reports to the committees and the board. On the other end of the spectrum we had a subscriber who did absolutely no awareness communication but still complained that he was not receiving reports! It’s like leaving your car parked in the garage and expecting to get great service from it! Dare I say – Duh!