Selecting The Right Agency
Selecting The Right Agency |
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As in all business decisions, before the selection of a suitable agency can be made, information is required. There is no such thing as the "best agency", because every client's needs and priorities will be different. They will be different because the type of assignment you have will match one agency's experience, resources and track record closer than another's. You need an agency whose background is tailored to your requirements.
Depending on what your requirements are, a Commercial Intelligence agency such as No Hiding Place Ltd., may not be the most appropriate agency of choice, particularly for trivial work. What this section aims to do is examine various aspects of investigation work, and provide a basis for agency evaluation in those areas.
"Run of the mill" work such as basic tracing and, perhaps, locating a primary (first) bank account (the most common account used for household expenses) is likely to be in the budget range of investigation work. Most reasonably equipped private detectives and private detective agencies will be able to help you here. You will receive a basic report. Intelligence agency reports go further and can reveal most of the entire iceberg, rather than just the tip of it. Consequently, CIA (Commercial Intelligence Agency) reports will be in greater depth and much more comprehensive.
For an intricate case, a CIA will use a greater number of resources, contacts and expertise to conduct assignments. When challenged by what may seem to you an impossible case, a CIA can score anything up to a 95 per cent success rate compared with, say, a 50 per cent success rate, if the next best category of agency is used.
A CIA is also likely to have a proper management process for decision making ensuring the reports you receive are much more comprehensive, with all the salient points covered.
It is your decision as to the quality and size (resource wise) of the "engine" you need to achieve your task. You will have your own criteria guiding your decisions on whom to choose when interviewing the principals of the short list of firms you compile.
Some detective agencies may attempt some of the investigations that a CIA does. However, in all probability, most detective agency capabilities will not be developed to the same depth or experience as an intelligence agency. The available resources of detective agencies also do not qualify them to complete certain assignments to the same comprehensive satisfaction that intelligence agencies can.
It is wasteful to buy a sledgehammer to crack a nut when a nut cracker will do.
If you require your wife tailed or a simple trace conducted (on a non elusive debtor), then any competent private detective agency can do this for a modest fee. If you need court papers served on someone at a known address, a registered process server in the area you wish the papers served, will do the job better (and cheaper) than any other category of investigative agency.
However, if you require a very elusive debtor traced, who is deliberately trying to avoid you and others, and taking pains to do so, or has arranged his affairs in such a way as to have his assets "hidden" from others, then a CIA (Commercial Intelligence Agency) is your best bet.
There are different degrees of proficiency in any one task, within any one category of agency considered. In the following table, it is assumed that the most capable agency within any one category is compared with the most capable agency from another.
For example, the most proficient CIA within its group receives 5 ticks for tracing elusive persons in the UK, whereas the most proficient private detective agency receives only 3 ticks.
| Process Servers | Debt collection | Commercial Bailiffs | Private Detective (One man band) | Private Detective Agencies | Commercial Intelligence Agency (CIA) | |
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| Service of court documents |  |
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| Debt collection | |
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| Collection of commercial rent | |
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| Tracing elusive people (UK) | - | |
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| Tracing elusive people (worldwide) | - | - | - | |
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| Asset Tracing (UK) | - | - | - | |
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| Asset Tracing (Worldwide) | - | - | - | |
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| Commercial Intelligence (Internal) | - | - | - | |
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| Commercial Intelligence | - | - | - | |
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| Electronic surveillance (external) | - | - | - | |
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| Undercover Operations | - | - | - | |
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| Physical Surveillance (UK) | - | - | - | |
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| Physical Surveillance (Overseas) | - | - | - | |
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| Understanding of corporate culture | - | - | - | - | |
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| Professional Management | |
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| Professional Management and control of the case and its agents | |
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| Overall intelligence proficiency rating | - | - | - | |
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Experienced Coordination, ensures the results you need.
Cheap
is expensive when corners are cut.
Selecting a specific agency will require more thought than choosing the category of agency you need. This is because the similarities and differences between the agencies within any one category will be less pronounced than between the categories themselves.
At the higher end of the scale, you will need to be clear as to exactly what you need out of your agency, to ensure that you match the agency's strengths or specialities to your requirements.
No agency is a master of everything and most CIAs will specialise in two or three areas to secure their dominance in those specific parts of the market. The standard private detective or detective agency tends to be less specialised in any one field and will cater more for the budget end of the investigation industry. They are more like the general practitioners, rather than the specialist surgeons of the investigation world.
The following checklist is a useful selection guide:
Confidentiality
and Modus Operandi.
It is vital to establish the degree of confidentiality you can
expect in the handling of your assignment. Most CIAs treat their
client's projects in the highest confidence as a business
prerequisite. However, large CIAs use a multi layered chain of
"cut off" agents. This is to protect their legal (and
security) position. The chains lengthen in the riskier
assignments, where there can be up to four layers of agents
before the assignment reaches the man who actually does the job.
The effects of this "chaining" are threefold:
A) More people know about the assignment than is necessary. This increases the chances of a leak or the target discovering that he is under investigation. This is not only very embarrassing for the client but can ruin the chances of the agency succeeding.
B) The large CIA has less control over the detailed modus operandi and relies on agents who have to pass on instructions to and control other agents who in turn have to pass on the instructions to and control other agents. How much real control over the assignment does the large CIA end up with?
C) The costs of the assignment become inflated as each agent in the chain has to be paid both as an operative and as a "cut off".
The smaller to medium sized CIAs are usually as competent and resource equipped as the large CIAs without all these problems. For instance, the smaller CIAs usually use one or two cut-offs at the most, so limiting, if not eliminating, the problems of large CIAs. Try to avoid large CIAs if you can.
Specialities.
Try to discover the major type of work that the agency is
involved in. Avoid an "all things to all people"
agency. They will not do any one assignment well enough for you,
unless it is straightforward or easy.
Attention to
detail.
Professional attention to detail and comprehensiveness in
investigations are vital to ensure that no stone is left
unturned. These on their own will often make the difference, in
an assignment, between an inferior agency selection and a wise
one.
Background of
the operatives.
The background of the operatives that the agency uses should be
relevant to the assignment requirements. Again look for
experienced personnel in the area concerned - eg: ex police
officers may be appropriate for interviewing and following
people, but not for people tracing, asset tracing or electronic
surveillance.
Compatibility.
The "chemistry" between yourself and the agency case
controller with whom you will be dealing should be compatible.
The relationship has to work to ensure you get the most out of
the case controller.
Professional
management reporting standards.
Choose an agency that reports to you in proper management
reporting style with proper management standards. That means
written reports covering all salient points at regular intervals.
The issue of who will be coordinating your case is so important that this section has been specifically allocated to this.
CIAs will allocate a case controller to direct the management of your assignment. This is the man who will take a brief from you, analyse the situation and present you with various options. He should also discuss the pros and cons of each option with you and cost each option out to give you a variety of itemised budgets to consider.
A professional case controller must have two important attributes:
Experience in
complex intelligence work.
Experience, knowledge and creativity all count as part of a case
controller's abilities. This enables the case controller
effectively to analyse a particular situation and understand both
what its implications are and how to choose the best option for
its solution among the various approaches that exist.
A professional
manager.
The case controller must be a professional manager, accustomed to
reporting in professional report format. He must be an
experienced management decision-maker. This applies not only in
the context of intelligence work, but also outside it to ensure
professional planning.
Ideally, such a person could be equally suited to being on a board of directors of a blue chip company or at least a general manager. This is necessary because, in order to understand corporate problems, the case controller should understand the need for carefully analysed and considered decisions. He must readily back up his recommendations with relevant experience and often research. This is all vital. You need quality decisions, not guesswork. And, in the context of intelligence work, you need the utmost discretion.
You therefore need to ensure that the case controller who will handle your affairs is first class at not only his job as an experienced intelligence coordinator, but also as a general manager. (This is why ex-police or customs officers of junior rank do not usually make good case controllers).
What is the case controller's experience in solving problems in your specific area? How much analysis is he giving your case? How is he justifying his suggested solution(s) to your assignment? Is he more concerned with what you need or what you want? Does he look towards a long term relationship with you or is he just taking on each assignment as a single job? How often will he report to you? Will the reports all be written? What "after sales" service can you expect?
A mediocre manager will not make best use of first class resources. Many CIAs within the same speciality are likely to have access to similar levels of resources and the ability to obtain information covertly. What separates a top case controller from a mediocre one largely depends on how he generates his initial leads. It doesn't matter how good the team is if their guidance is second class and a team needs to be directed where to start if the client's brief is broad, such as a hidden asset trace assignment. You must ensure you are happy with your prospective case controller and the way he intends to spend your money using his resources. Make him explain his plan to you and why he is confident it will work. He will be the captain of your ship and needs to succeed in getting you from A to B with results, not excuses.
When choosing any agency from a category, you must decide what type of agency will best meet your needs. If a CIA is chosen, you must be aware of where their specialities lie and how relevant these are to your assignment. Some agencies have already established reputations for being specialists in certain fields, such as identifying and tracking down product counterfeits. However, this does not mean that this type of agency is equally competent at employee screening and monitoring, tracing and asset tracing, electronic surveillance or any other specialist area of intelligence work.
Many CIAs have climbed the "investigation ladder" to reach the position that they have today. Some may have been detective agencies in a previous incarnation specialising in a particular field or whose experience, contacts and track record qualified them to tackle the more complex assignments that they do today.
Applying your selection criteria
to the right category of agency will provide you with a short
list of agencies. Establishing agency charging policies,
experience and resources can often be done over the phone after
receiving each agency's prospectus. Interviewing the case
controller of the remaining agencies on your short list, will
narrow your choice down to one agency.
And for the Right agency, There's No Hiding from Know-How.
