Hiring a Private Investigator without proper guidance can be a stressful process that leaves you on tenterhooks and with more worries than you would have bargained for. Here, you’ll be exposed to relevant measures and steps you can take to make the process of hiring a Private Investigator easy and uncomplicated for yourself.
You think about Private Investigation when trying to track a person down, keep an eye on someone or an organization, or learn information about them. There could be various reasons for these activities — a background check, gathering information for use at a trial, or tracking the movements and actions undertaken by these persons or organizations.
Private Investigation is brought to life by Private Investigators — these are independent contractors you hire to analyze clues and provide you with facts, information, and evidence related to the whereabouts or actions of a person or organization.
When hiring an efficient Private Investigator, the process is very different from what you might be used to based on what you’ve seen in movies or heard from friends. When you’re expending resources to get investigative services, you’re not thinking of walking across the street and entering the first office you see with a door plaque that says ‘Private Investigator’. That’s just not how it works.
You have to face the difficulty of establishing the credibility of whomever you’re hiring — a process that can be tedious if you don’t approach it correctly.
So if you want to know how to hire the best Private Investigator for your investigative needs successfully, here are some specified techniques, measures, and steps you’re encouraged to take before and during the process of hiring a Private Investigator:
Define your case
In the lead-in to hiring a Private Investigator, you must clearly define what your needs are.
Private Investigators have numerous skills and offer different services, from tracking people down to finding information on people and organizations. Some specialize in corporate investigations, while others focus more on private investigations — working on cases of infidelity, divorce, and cybercrime.
When you understand that Private Investigators may have a specialty, you will better define your purpose of hiring them and ask appropriate questions when you’re face-to-face with them. Some of these relevant questions include the following:
What is your experience in handling my type of case?
Where do you mainly operate?
To what extent can you guarantee the confidentiality of our transaction?
What licenses, skills, and experiences do you generally have?
Do you work alone or with other professionals, and are these professionals screened?
How is your company insured?
What is the daily rate or fixed fee for my request?
How does your customer service work? Do I sign a contract?
Can you provide references or reviews regarding your level of efficiency and professionalism?
Undertake Preliminary Research
This is what starts the process of hiring a Private Investigator. You should undertake preliminary research into what to expect from a Private Investigator, how the skills of Private Investigators vary, things to look out for in a good Private Investigator, and average costs of hiring a Private Investigator, among others.
The output of this research will give you the basic knowledge you need to know what to expect or look out for during the hiring process. This research will also help you realize essential questions to ask when you’re face to face with a potential hiree.
But say you already have a prospect in mind, perhaps based on a referral, you’ll still need to research the efficiency of the Investigator. Here, you’ll be examining their track record and feedback from any of their past clients, testifying to their professional capacity.
Look out for specific skills and traits in the Private Investigator
Private Investigation is an art that requires critical thinking, a keen eye, and observation skills to be brought to life. As such, in hiring a Private Investigator, you should be confident that whoever you’re considering has these skills to a tee. You get to confirm this by taking a good look at their track record and feedback given by their previous clients on their level of professionalism and efficiency.
Other skills you should keep an eye out for in whoever you’re hiring include top-notch surveillance and monitoring, documenting and reporting, and researching, among others.
Confirm the qualifications of the Investigator you’re hiring
Before you hire a Private Investigator, you want to be sure they can provide the service you want efficiently and professionally; you realize this before you hire them by confirming that they have certain qualifications and credentials that suppose their ability to handle your needs.
The Investigator’s resume will likely indicate these credentials and licenses, so be sure to ask for their resume and examine it thoroughly to see if they have any relevant qualifications that reflect their capacity to provide you with the service you need in the best way.
The primary starting point will be confirming if the Investigator is licensed. Most states require Private Investigators to be licensed to practice in the territory where they work, either full-time as employees or with private detective firms, police departments, private businesses, organizations, and individual clients.
Seek Professional Assistance
You can’t expect a picnic in hiring a Private Investigator without base knowledge of what to expect during the process. You can get this knowledge from professionals in the security industry with high levels of expertise in varying fields, including Private Investigation.
You could receive consultation from security-inclined organizations that directly or indirectly provide such services, like us here at Security Pro (slowly raising our hands). These organizations will provide guidelines and directives that can make the process seamless for you from start to finish; you’ll know factors to consider before hiring a Private Investigator, what to expect from the Investigator you employ, and the process you will go through to hire that Investigator.
Seeking professional assistance doesn’t stop there, though. You could also ultimately assign the rough work of finding the best options the industry has to offer to experienced professionals who have access to these investigators and can connect you with them. If that’s your desire, you’re in great luck because that’s right up our forte.
At Security Pro, we’re in the business of researching and connecting our clients with the best professionals in the fields of security and investigation. These are professionals who’re part of our extensive network, and we’re sure have the professional capacity to handle inquiries into any type of matter within your radar.
How it works is simple — All you have to do is schedule a free consultation with us whenever you want or contact us to determine if your needs would be met best by Private Investigation. When we determine that Private Investigation is the best route, we’ll handle the rough work of running through the professionals within and outside of our network, vetting each to arrive at a set of options we’re certain have the verified capabilities needed to handle your unique demands. Our job ends when you finally decide who you think can meet your needs most efficiently.
You should be familiar with these techniques when hiring a Private Investigator. Private Investigation is a complex art that requires capable hands to be brought to life in a well-planned and organized manner. As such, these techniques, once executed, will present you with a seamless view of how to successfully hire an excellent Private Investigator that can meet your needs adequately.