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A501(c)(6) non-profit entity, CIRQ complies with ISO the standards for requirements for certification bodies and is managed with oversight from an independent Board of Directors and an annual review by external authorities on ISO requirements.

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is recognized worldwide as the authority on quality management. The ISO Research Standard is accepted and in some cases required globally. An accredited certification bearing the ISO brand is understood to be a mark of quality around the world.

Studies have shown that companies certified to ISO 20252 experience increased productivity and improved financial performance, compared to uncertified companies. This is due to less re-work, improved employee production and greater client satisfaction leading to repeat business, especially in industries partial to standardized processes and quality controls.

Companies that go through the implementation of ISO 20252:2019 create a Research Process (Quality) Management System and have given a lot of thought to their processes and how to maximize quality and efficiency. Once certified, the processes are established and guidelines in place for anyone to follow easily, making training, transitions, and trouble-shooting easier.

Defined roles and responsibilities, accountability of management, established training systems and a clear picture of how their roles affect quality and the overall success of the company, all contribute to more satisfied and motivated staff and ease of training new recruits.

As more processes are outsourced for efficiency and to access data in global markets, supplier relationships and quality control are increasingly critical to producing accurate and actionable data. Certification to ISO 20252 requires a company to have procedures in place to ensure that a supplier understands the requirements of the global market research standard as it relates to the work provided. There must be established agreements and methods for evaluating suppliers. Mutually beneficial supplier relationships are one of the key attractions to certification.

ISO 20252 certification requires documentation of all processes and any changes, errors and discrepancies. This ensures consistency throughout production and accountability of all staff. This also guarantees traceable records are available in case of errors or omissions or to repeat a study. This is also helpful if staff changes occur on a project.

All processes from cost quotation or proposal to client deliverables are defined, outlined and documented, minimizing error. Change management is also documented, ensuring that efficiency is maximized.

Certification to the ISO global market research standard provides third party proof of your quality commitment. Your company will be differentiated in the marketplace with this unique and respected global credential. Link here to read more: Celebrate your certification

Client is sent the FC 8001 1.5 CIRQ Client Feedback Form for scoring and comments on audit planning and auditor performance. A formalized client interview via phone can also be requested after the client audit to discuss the audit management process.

Note: CIRQ must be informed in writing (email is accepted) if you wish to change the SoA or if the structure of your organization changes. This may impact your audit process and the audit program may need to be adjusted. It is always in the best interest of a company to keep their SoA current and to keep it as full a statement as possible. Therefore, always inform CIRQ as soon as you believe the SoA of your certification could or should change.

No. ISO 9001 and ISO 20252 are different standards, and while a company can pursue ISO 9001, CIRQ is not accredited to certify to this standard. Our management system and processes are not aligned to the requirements of ISO 9001. CIRQ is accredited by ANAB to ISO 17021 and ISO 17065, the two standards applicable to certification bodies certifying management systems and processes.

The ISO 20252:2019 Statement of Applicability (Clause 4.1.1) replaces the old Scope Statement from ISO 20252:2012/ISO 26362:2009. Basically the answer is YES; however, consider an 80/20% rule. If 80% of your business consists of certain services provided to your client groups, then this is the general scope of your business. Within the revised ISO 20252, subcontracted services are considered within each Annex and are included in the Statement of Applicability. The 20% of your business remaining may include specific project related work for a particular client or clients that are not your normal market research standard operating methodology. These jobs can be left out of the scope of works as long as they do not grow to represent more than approximately 20% of your business. Additionally, some market research companies provide other services such as strategic planning that do not have a direct market research function. This work does not fit within the bounds of ISO 20252:2019 and therefore should not be included in the scope of work.

That really depends on the scope of your certification, how prepared you are for the audit and how you progress the documentation throughout the certification journey. We have seen companies be audit ready in 6 months.

This rarely occurs but when it does the matter is addressed according to a documented process. As a CIRQ client, the Complaint & Appeal Process is outlined in the CIRQ Standard Certification Agreement. For a description of the Complaint/Dispute/Appeal process, please access the link for the CIRQ Complaint Appeal Dispute form. Once completed, please submit to julian...@cirq.org. You can also access the CIRQ Quality Manual which details this process.

First your quality system must be completely documented and have been in place for at least 3 months so that you have RECORDS or EVIDENCE to demonstrate your compliance with the ISO standard to which you wish to be certified. At least some of these RECORDS or EVIDENCE must be available for closed projects. Then when you have completed all sections of the self-assessment form you should submit it to CIRQ for a pre-assessment evaluation and report conducted by a CIRQ auditor. Before you submit the self-assessment, go through it and ensure you have or are creating RECORDS or EVIDENCE for every statement you have made in the assessment. This is your true indication of whether you are ready for a certification audit. A CIRQ auditor will conduct a pre-assessment review against your self-assessment and inform you if it is determined that you are not ready for an audit.

CIRQ is committed to impartiality in the audit and certification services it provides. This Quality Policy outlines that CIRQ understands the importance of impartiality in carrying out its management system certification activities, manages conflict of interest, and ensures the objectivity of its management system certification activities.

CIRQ has established an Impartiality Committee, comprised of representatives from the market research and insights community, to undertake annual evaluations of areas of potential and unforeseen risk.

CIRQ is currently accredited to both ISO/IEC 17021-1:2015 and ISO 17065:2012 by the ANSI National Accreditation Board (ANAB) and complies with all requirements of these two framework standards for certification bodies to ensures impartiality for all its personnel related to all certification activities.

CIRQ has established processes to identify, analyze, evaluate, treat, monitor, and document risks related to conflict of interests arising from provision of certification including any conflicts arising from its relationships on an ongoing basis. In case of threats to impartiality, CIRQ documents and demonstrates elimination or minimization of such threats and documents residual risk. In cases of residual risk, each instance is then reviewed to determine if it is within the level of acceptable risk. The demonstration covers all potential threats that are identified whether they arise from within the certification body or from activities of other persons, bodies or organizations. Whenever a relationship poses an unacceptable threat to impartiality then certification will not be provided.

CIRQ personnel, or committees, who could influence certification activities will not allow any commercial, financial or other pressures to compromise impartiality are required to sign and submit a No Conflict Statement. CIRQ personnel will not accept assignments in which they may have (1) a vested interest in the assigned client, (2) been employed by the client in some capacity within the past three years, currently, or will agree to be employed by the client in some capacity in the next year (3) provided consulting services to the client within the past two years or will provide consulting to the client in the next year, or (4) provided specific and tailored training services to the client within the past two years.

CIRQ requires the revealing and recording of any situation of conflict of interest from its personnel prior to or during the course of an assignment. If a situation in which CIRQ personnel believe the impartiality of the audit can be/has been compromised, they will notify the CIRQ Managing Director immediately.

At least the core processes should be proven and available for audit prior to undertaking a certification audit. An auditor requires evidence; a documented process that has not been fully enacted cannot be audited and therefore, you would not be ready for certification. However, a process that is only just recently changed but 80% of the process history remains would be considered sufficient to continue to audit. All core processes, such as proposal, report, body of the job, i.e., data collection, coding, analysis, must have a minimum of 3 months history with several projects having worked through the system from proposal to reporting for a system to be ready for audit.

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