Choosing a Registrar - Registrar Recommendations

Hi All,

I see that this thread hasn't been used since 2022, but hopefully people will get notified and respond. Fingers crossed.

My company is currently looking for a new registrar body after having 3 poor to bad experiences with the one that we are currently accredited through. During the height of covid not being able to keep his mask on. The second one continuously told us that he had to cure to cancer but was waiting on a patent and had been since 1989 and continuously fell asleep. I wish I was making this stuff up, but I don't think I could have even imagined the wacky stuff that was going on.

We are a small business (<50 employees), located in Delaware, so looking for a registrar in the Mid-Atlantic region that has good customer reviews from people like you .

Any registrar experience is very welcome here, good and bad. I am only 1.5 years out of college with a Chemsitry degree. I love the quality side of what I am doing, but I feel very inexperienced. Any guidance that you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

qualtechDE said:

so looking for a registrar

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It looks like you are looking for a reasonable auditor. Not necessarily a different registrar. Unfortunately the demographics of CB auditors is quite skewed to the AARP crowd. Can’t your current CB (aka Registrar) find you a younger local auditor? Or at least one that doesn’t suffer from narcolepsy?

Better to develop and use your own selection criteria than to ask for personal recommendations from a bunch of people who themselves work for registrars.

May I offer one criterion?

Which registrars are used by your existing and prospective customers, and why?

Remember the registrar is your partner and the auditor is the key player. When I looked for a registrar, I found one that had experience in our business and depending on the maturity of your QMS, someone that had experience with beginners on up. I actually interviewed our initial auditor for over an hour, before we pulled the trigger for the registrar and the assigned auditor. Auditor is the most important, as everyone is different. I was told that by the auditor and actually gave me names for the rotation.

Sidney Vianna said:

It looks like you are looking for a reasonable auditor. Not necessarily a different registrar. Unfortunately the demographics of CB auditors is quite skewed to the AARP crowd. Can’t your current CB (aka Registrar) find you a younger local auditor? Or at least one that doesn’t suffer from narcolepsy?

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Yes, we have requested a new auditor and some information on each of the auditors. They were able to provide us with some bios for us to review. The issue is still that so many people at the company were displeased with the auditor and the experience that the leadership at the company would like to see what other registrars have to offer.

There are so many different registrars out there that it can be a little overwhelming. I have a list of registrars from the old list that was generated when we were first getting certified but was looking to see if anyone had other experience that they were willing to share about a registrar that they had auditors they liked.

gpainter said:

Remember the registrar is your partner and the auditor is the key player. When I looked for a registrar, I found one that had experience in our business and depending on the maturity of your QMS, someone that had experience with beginners on up. I actually interviewed our initial auditor for over an hour, before we pulled the trigger for the registrar and the assigned auditor. Auditor is the most important, as everyone is different. I was told that by the auditor and actually gave me names for the rotation.

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Thank you! I did not realize that interviewing auditors was an option. I have never been the "head" of the ISO audit, so there is a lot that I am trying to learn. Interviewing the auditor will definitely be something that I add to my checklist.

gpainter said:

Remember the registrar is your partner and the auditor is the key player.

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Then they should start acting like it…

In the past I have asked the registrar to provide the credentials of a couple of prospective auditors for review. The responses vary - often you can have your choice of auditor or the schedule, but not both, as good auditors can be busy people.

It seems to me that CB's are running a little thin on available auditors, especially for IATF. Its almost like you get who you get, and are lucky (or not so much) to have them.


Yes, they are paid to provide a service to your organization. It doesn't always seem that way, and I've had to ask some not to return. So, in my opinion, we all need to look at the ROI for this service. Costs keep going up; but are we always getting what we are paying for??

Mikey324 said:

Yes, they are paid to provide a service to your organization. It doesn't always seem that way, and I've had to ask some not to return. So, in my opinion, we all need to look at the ROI for this service. Costs keep going up; but are we always getting what we are paying for??

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I think many (most?) organizations view themselves as paying for the certification/registration and that the audit is just a hurdle they need to clear.

As such, the ROI from an audit would not be based on the improvements to the organization's quality system that result from the audit; it is based on the sales/profit they are able to make due to having the certification/registration.