Build Trust with Quality Seals, Quality Certificates & Awards
Show your commitment to quality and attract new customers and qualified employees with a USIQ quality seal, award or quality certificate.
Published criteria you can point to
Surveys of your own employees or customers
Every award checked by a second reviewer
A public verification page for every seal
PRESS RELEASES ABOUT USIQ ON
AND OVER 450 NEWS SITES
Published through the EIN Presswire distribution service. These are paid press release placements, not independent editorial coverage.
USIQ, the United States Institute for Quality, awards quality seals and quality certificates to U.S. employers and service companies that meet the published criteria of a specific program. USIQ is a private provider operated by Quality Standardization and Certification LLC. A seal is not a government approval or accreditation, and it is not a ranking or a comparison with other companies. Each assessment is paid for by the participating organization, and payment does not guarantee certification or a particular tier. If no award is issued, USIQ keeps only the $990 exam fee for the survey and its evaluation and refunds the rest. Seals are awarded in four tiers (Certified, Silver, Gold and Platinum) and are valid for 24 months from the issue date. Every certified organization receives a digital seal and a quality certificate with a unique ID. Each seal links to a verification record showing the organization, covered scope, tier, issue and expiration dates, and current status. Our programs include:
Assesses workplace practices through an employee survey and an HR assessment against published criteria.
Assesses how well an employer helps people combine work with family and caregiving, through a confidential survey of all employees and a family-focused HR assessment.
Assesses customer service through a survey of the company’s own customers and a management assessment.
An award for employers based on a meta-study of independent sources such as employer ratings, surveys and press coverage.
Benefits of Our Quality Seals & Certificates
Higher willingness to pay for products with a seal*
*Once consumers had read the seal criteria. Representative survey of 1,222 consumers in Germany, Dr. Grieger & Cie. Marktforschung, 2016.
Higher stated application intention with an employer seal*
*Percentage points, 53.9% vs. 38.0%. Randomized experiment with 1,093 participants (Scharfenberg, 2024). Details on the research page.
Higher purchase probability for products with a seal*
*Average across 12 product seals. Representative survey of 1,222 consumers in Germany, Dr. Grieger & Cie. Marktforschung, 2016.
Why Quality Seals Work
What is a quality seal or seal of approval?
There is no single definition of “seal of approval” or “quality seal”. The terms, together with “quality label”, are often used interchangeably. In general, a seal tells customers or applicants that an independent party has checked something against defined criteria. Learn more: What are seals of approval and how do they work? and What is a quality seal (and why do you need one)?
Quality seal or quality certificate: what is the difference?
A quality seal is the mark an organization shows on its website, in job ads or on its products. A quality certificate is the document that confirms the award. At USIQ, every certified organization receives both. The certificate carries a unique ID, and the seal links to a public verification page that shows the organization, the covered scope, the tier and the dates. A USIQ quality certificate is not an ISO 9001 management system certificate and not a personal certification.
Marketing packages that create visibility
With a successful certification, you receive a full evaluation in tables and the marketing package you ordered. Depending on the package, this includes a landing page, social media posts and a press release distributed to news sites through a press release service. See the packages: Pricing
Independent confirmation is more credible
Quality labels are most effective when an independent party awards them and when the criteria behind them can be checked. The clearer a seal and its symbols are, the easier it is for people to understand what it says. Learn more: What are seals of approval and how do they work?
How quality seals influence consumer behavior
A study published in Information Systems Research found that a third-party assurance seal on an online store increased the likelihood of purchase. The researchers ran a randomized field experiment with 9,098 shopping sessions.
The authors explain the effect with lower perceived risk: the seal acts as an extra signal of the retailer’s quality and reduces the information gap between shop and buyer.
The study looked at one online retailer and an e-commerce security seal, not at USIQ seals. Effects for other seals, industries and audiences can be larger or smaller.
(Koray Özpolat, Guodong (Gordon) Gao, Wolfgang Jank, Siva Viswanathan (2013). Research Note—The Value of Third-Party Assurance Seals in Online Retailing: An Empirical Investigation. Information Systems Research, 24(4):1100–1111. https://doi.org/10.1287/isre.2013.0489)
Built on scientific research
The certification process and criteria were developed by PhDr. Oliver Scharfenberg, MBA, CEO of USIQ. His MBA thesis and his doctoral thesis both dealt with quality seals for employers, and in a randomized experiment with 1,093 participants he measured how an employer seal changes the likelihood that candidates apply. The criteria draw on this and other research and state their limits openly. More on the team page and the research page.
Surveys with published participation rules
Every program sets out who is invited and how many answers are needed. For Top Employer and Family Friendly Employer, all employees in the covered locations are invited to a confidential survey. For Top Service, USIQ invites the company’s own customers. If participation stays below the published minimum, no result is issued. In every case, you receive the survey results in clear tables, whether or not a seal is awarded.
Watch: quality standards and seals of approval
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