Nixle: Tipping Service

Updated September 25, 2023 23:48

Diane McCoy

Question:

How do I use the Nixle tipping feature?

Answer:

Nixle's tipping feature allows residents to proactively connect with your agency by submitting anonymous tips via web form and text messages. Tipping also provides your agency with a two way anonymous connection to help gather more information from residents of your Nixle Wire group.

NOTE:
The Nixle tipping feature is only available for the Engage and 360 platforms.

Creating a Keyword

To allow residents of your Nixle Wire group to anonymously submit tips, a keyword for the group must first be created. If a keyword has already been created for opt-in use, please skip to the next section.

To create the keyword, follow these steps after logging in to your agency:

Choose Groups from the menu bar.
From the Keyword column, choose Add One Now from your Nixle Wire group's row.
Enter the preferred keyword in the text field and then click Save Group.
1. The keyword must be more than four characters long.
2. The keyword must not match any other keyword created by your agency.

Submitting a Tip

Once your Wire group's keyword is created, your residents can now anonymously submit tips to your agency from their cellular phone by texting their tip to 888-777.

Their tip information must be preceded by TIP [KEYWORD]
An example text tip to an agency whose keyword was ALPHA would look like:
- TIP ALPHA tree branch down at Wooster and Main

Requesting a Tip from a Message

Your agency can request a tip when it sends a message to residents. To request a tip:

Check the box next to Request tips when creating the SMS (text message) portion of your message.

The text that appears by default can be customized to further specify any tipping instructions. This text counts against the 138 character limit for text messages.

Tipping Notification Settings

Agency users can specify how they are notified when a tip is either submitted or modified by following these steps:

Log in to agency.nixle.com.
Choose My Account.
Choose Personal Information.
Under Tipping Settings, check the boxes for the notification methods for:
1. when Tipsters submit information
2. when Agency Users modify tips
Choose Save.

Tip Information

Recent Activity Tip Notification When your agency receives a tip:

The Recent Activity area of the home page will include an entry for it.
Clicking either new tip, response or reported tip takes you directly to Tip Information.

The menu bar will also aggregate new tips with a counter:
Tips can be filtered by Status.
Tips can be searched by entering a phrase in the text field and clicking .
Clicking Tipping from the menu bar opens your agency's Anonymous Tips, where clicking the values in the Assigned to column or more in the Description column takes you directly to Tip Information.
Actions allows tips to be closed with and downloaded as a CSV file with .

A resident's tip will display specific Tip Details, such as: Tip Information 1

when the tip was received
how the tip was sent
status
a link to the message the resident provided a tip to (if applicable)
who the tip is assigned to

An agency user can save internal notes to the tip with Add Note.

Actions allows an agency user to assign status to the tip with Submit Changes.

Tip Information 2 An agency user can engage in a Tip Conversation with the resident by entering a response to the tip and clicking Send Reply.

The resident will be able to respond in kind if further information is needed regarding the tip, and any attachments the resident provides will display in Tip Images.

Embedding Buttons

Your agency can add a button to a website or blog that directs your residents to your agency's anonymous tipping web form. After logging in to your agency, the code for these buttons can be accessed by:

Selecting Tipping from the menu bar.
Selecting Embed Buttons from the sub-menu bar.

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