After much careful consideration and in-depth analysis, we elected to forego SMS text tips within P3. Most users of text tips have surely received some useful tips from time to time. It’s just not nearly as effective as what your program could be doing.

Please trust me on this SMS issue. We have been there and done that. We pioneered the best SMS tip routine available anywhere and could and would have done it again had we felt it was prudent. Truth is, it’s never proven to be anywhere nearly as effective as so many felt it would be... and there is a far better way to get tips from mobile devices these days.

What is our better solution? A dedicated mobile app! Rich tips and more actionable tips with attached images, documents, and videos with unlimited length messaging and two-way dialog. We have also just rolled out our real-time chat feature for the mobile app which allows instantaneous and unlimited length real-time communications between the operators and tipster. We also incorporated anonymous push notifications so you can reach out and discretely ping your tipster on demand without having to text them and have your actual SMS message pop right up on their screen, potentially at the wrong time while they are in mixed company with whom they may be reporting on.

It is far easier to brand and promote a mobile app than it is to try to get the public to recall and use both a short code and keyword combo to reach you via text. And for those who don’t want to quickly grab our free mobile app to do their business with you, they can even access the exact same functionality via their mobile browser just by going to P3Cam- pus.com. This allows them to communicate with you at will while leaving little to no trace they ever engaged if someone were to grab and flip thru their apps in suspicion.

I could provide you with countless testimonials supporting my claim here, but below is just one. This coming from a longtime TipSoft user who has made the move to P3.

”The ease of use of P3, more choices to individualize, easier access by the program and tipsters, great tech support all made this change a no brainer for us. The ease of use of the P3 app by our tipsters has already made a big difference in our program. We received some text tips in the past, but as soon we started promoting the P3 App our tips went through the roof. Our total tips for the 5 months we have been using P3 have increased by 22% over the same period last year. There have been no other changes in our program except to moving to P3.”

Michael R. Blatman, CPP Crime Prevention Specialist 
Kennewick Police Department Law Enforcement Coordinator- Tri Cities Crime Stoppers

It will take a while for everyone to realize how they could be doing things not only differently, but better. We have even switched over the largest program in N America and they are beyond happy with the results they are seeing with P3 mobile vs the old approach of soliciting SMS text tips. We also now have over 4000 schools using P3 without SMS and they could not be happier and their tip counts are higher than ever.

Colorado’s statewide Safe2Tell campus program dropped TipSoft and switched over to P3 July 1, 2015. Even though they too have received a good number of SMS tips in the past... they began promoting their dedicated P3 mobile app and dropped SMS altogether. In the last six months of 2015 they received over 1000 more tips than they did in all of 2014. The majority of those tips were via their mobile app and that trend continues today. They are very pleased with P3 and with the mobile app and had no idea what they were missing out on all this time! And while their tip volume has gone through the roof, the new features of P3 make it even easier than ever for the users and recipients to manage and work with those tips. Not to mention our product so far has a 100% uptime, unlike some others... and we are always here and ready to support you as needed.

Kevin Anderson
Founder | CEO