Excellence Again: Ethico’s Ethics Hotline Achieves 92% Positive Rating in Q2 2025

When people feel unheard everywhere else, 10 out of 11 callers say Ethico made them feel heard.

Table of Contents

A Remarkable Quarter of Connection

In Q2 2025, a trend of excellence has continued here at Ethico. Thousands of people called into our in-house ethics and compliance hotline—a service we provide to a vast array of clients in many places in the world across many industries—these callers are individuals who have often exhausted every other avenue for raising their concerns locally. These callers reached out feeling unheard, frustrated, and sometimes desperate. Yet when 11,000 of them were surveyed as their call concluded, 92% rated their call as a positive experience.

This builds on our consistent track record of excellence—Q1 2025 saw similar participation with a 91% positive score. What makes these ongoing results so remarkable isn’t just the numbers themselves, but what they represent in the context of human psychology and the reality of caller experiences.

The Psychology Behind the Numbers

Research in customer service psychology reveals a sobering truth about human nature: people are naturally wired with “negativity bias”—a cognitive tendency where negative experiences have a disproportionately greater impact on our psychological state than positive ones.¹ This evolutionary programming helped our ancestors survive by paying close attention to threats, but it creates unique challenges for modern customer service.²

Studies show it takes 12 positive customer experiences to make up for one negative experience, and negative experiences stick around much longer in memory than positive ones.³ When you consider that ethics hotline callers often arrive at their breaking point—having already encountered roadblocks, dismissive responses, or outright rejection from local management—the deck is stacked against positive outcomes.

Yet our callers consistently report the opposite experience.

The Ethico Difference: More Than Just Answering Phones

What transforms potentially negative encounters into overwhelmingly positive experiences? The answer lies in Ethico’s comprehensive approach to ethics hotline management, built around three core differentiators:

1. The Adaptive Interview: Intelligence in Action

Unlike basic call centers that rely on rigid scripts and checkbox questionnaires, Ethico employs what we call the “Adaptive Interview” approach. Our specially trained issue intake professionals understand that each caller’s situation is unique, requiring flexibility and insight to uncover the full picture.

Consider this scenario: An employee calls to report unfair treatment from a supervisor. During the conversation, they casually mention that the supervisor recently approved a contract with a company owned by the supervisor’s spouse. A traditional call center agent following a script might miss this critical detail entirely. Our adaptive interview specialists recognize the conflict of interest red flag and explore it thoroughly, ensuring both the original complaint and the potential compliance violation are properly documented and addressed.

The goal is to collect detailed information for clients, who want to investigate these issues of non-compliance. The best way to elicit this information from people is a personalized, intelligent approach to intake. The side effect of this is that callers often feel truly heard and understood, rather than processed through a mechanical system.

2. Human Connection When It Matters Most

While our competitors rely on automated systems, lengthy hold times, and mechanized processes that can miss 10-30% of incoming calls, Ethico has maintained an abandonment rate of less than 1%. Every call is answered by a live person who understands the sensitivity and importance of ethics concerns.

During high-traffic periods, rather than leaving callers indefinitely on hold, our team proactively communicates wait times and offers callback options. This simple human touch acknowledges the caller’s time and demonstrates respect for them in coming forward.

3. Empathetic Elicitation: The Heart of Our Training

Our representatives undergo extensive training in empathetic communication techniques designed specifically for ethics and compliance situations. They understand that behind every call is someone who has likely struggled with their decision to speak up, worried about potential retaliation, and questioned whether their concerns will be taken seriously.

This specialized training in empathetic elicitation enables our team to create an environment where callers feel safe, respected, and valued—regardless of the complexity or sensitivity of their concern.

The Tapestry of Excellence

These individual elements—adaptive interviews, human-first service, empathetic communication, and proactive caller care—weave together to create something greater than the sum of their parts. They form what we call our “tapestry of excellence,” where each thread reinforces the others to consistently create positive caller experiences.

The result? Quarter after quarter, the vast majority of people who contact Ethico’s whistleblower hotline say they feel heard, respected, and many confident that their concerns will be addressed. In a world where 32% of individuals will abandon a brand after just one bad experience, this level of satisfaction represents more than good issue intake—it represents trust in the compliance process itself.⁴

Looking Forward

As we move into Q3 2025, Ethico remains committed to maintaining these high standards while continuously seeking ways to improve. Because when someone finds the courage to raise an ethics concern, they deserve more than just a response—they deserve to feel heard, valued, and confident that their voice matters.

After all, in a field where people often call as a last resort, transforming 92% of those interactions into positive experiences isn’t just kindness—it’s a testament to what’s possible with a human touch.

Ethico’s After Call Surveys (ACS) are offered to all callers at the conclusion of their hotline interaction. Participation is voluntary, and surveys are designed to capture genuine feedback about the caller’s experience with our ethics hotline service. The Q2 2025 results reflect responses from over 11,000 survey participants who chose to share their feedback.