External Recognition™

Recognition from the outside in

Give customers, patients, clients, and partners an easy way to spotlight your employees—no login required.

customer story

How does external recognition work?

External recognition extends appreciation beyond employees to the customers, fans, and community members who experience an organization's work firsthand. See how the Utah Jazz lets fans publicly recognize staff during games via video board shout-outs.

 

How It Works

What is External Recognition?

Provide customer-facing roles with customer-sourced compliments.

Administrative Flexibility

External recognition made easy

Awardco makes it easy to source and display recognitions from satisfied customers.

Print or Link QR Codes

Outside parties scan an employee’s personalized code to recognize them instantly for the entire organization to see.

Celebrate Wins

Add simple approval flows and optional points to celebrate standout employees to make sure no good work goes unnoticed.

Only From Awardco

Where External Recognition works

Healthcare

After receiving outstanding care, a patient’s family scans the nurse’s QR code and shares a meaningful message—instantly visible on Awardco to all employees—inspiring better care everywhere.

 
Food Service

After great service, diners scan a QR code and leave recognition for their server. Their manager adds points, and it’s posted for the team to celebrate, encouraging continued spectacular service.

 
Education

A simple thank you from a student shows a teacher their extra effort mattered. Recognition that deepens connection and fuels engagement from student and teacher builds a better world for everyone.

 
Retail

A grateful customer scans a QR code to recognize a cashier’s friendly service. It’s instant, visible, and celebrated company-wide, which builds a culture of customer service that will set you apart.

 
Hospitality

After a technician finishes a job with care and professionalism, the homeowner scans a QR code to send recognition. The shoutout is instantly visible across the company, boosting pride and inspiring service excellence in every home.

 

Testimonials

What our customers say

Our frontline workers are the core of what we do and the core of our customer experience. We launched Microsoft Teams for all employees. We have the Awardco interface added to the platform, so our employees can now recognize each other directly from their phones on their app while they're working. If they see a great job, they can do an immediate shout out and make that difference.
Jessica Mollica
Vice President, Human Resources Field
Hertz
The metrics spoke for themselves—over eighty percent utilization and more than eight thousand recognitions. It’s exciting to see people using the program and finding real value in it.
Smiling young woman with long dark hair wearing a gray checkered shirt against a plain light background.
Paula Useche
People & Culture Manager
Greenfield Global
Awardco has made employees' lives easier. Working outside in the elements with the customers can be tough, but being recognized, seen, heard, and valued makes it easier.
Christina Castro
Training Leader
Quick Quack Car Wash
Awardco is central to our strategy around helping people feel connected across the organization in the work that they do. Our strength is that we have diversity across all our offices. So collaboration may be the soul of a layer group, that tie that binds our unique cultures together. But we really want to celebrate and recognize the diversity across our offices, and that is our strength. Awardco helps us create that visible platform for everybody to see the good work and the unique ways that people are solving problems around the organization.
Kristie White
AVP, Change Strategy & Organization Development
Alera Group
When employees feel seen and appreciated, they’re more engaged and engagement drives performance. Using Awardco helps leaders and managers recognize impact in real time and that momentum drives continued and lasting success.
Smiling woman with blonde hair wearing a black blazer and a delicate gold necklace against a white background.
Monica Gunderson
Talent Management Lead
PMG
The High Flyer program has created a culture where both individual and team contributions are celebrated. Success is seen as a shared journey, and recognition helps strengthen that sense of unity.
Close-up portrait of a woman wearing a black hijab against a white background.
Khulood AlMarzooqi
Director of Total Rewards & Employee Engagement, Dubai Airports
Dubai Airports
Through Awardco, we've been able to create an offer where they can go on and pick from a variety of gifts. It's super convenient that way. These gifts are exclusive. It's created just for them. We've done sweatshirts, bags, quarter zips, backpacks… we've done pickleball paddles.
Casey Glines
Director of Member Experience, Utah Jazz / SEG
Utah Jazz
The scalability of the Awardco platform makes it the perfect partner for Dubai Airports. It evolves as we evolve—allowing us to introduce new efficiencies and features while keeping recognition simple and user-friendly.
Portrait of a woman wearing a black hijab and light makeup against a white background.
Khulood AlMarzooqi
Director of Total Rewards & Employee Engagement, Dubai Airports
Dubai Airports

Integrations

Simplify your workflow

Make recognition part of the daily flow of work, building culture at every touchpoint.

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Who can submit an External Recognition?
 

External Recognition is designed for people outside an organization who want to recognize an employee or team member. Depending on the use case, submitters may include patients, family members, customers, partners, visitors, students, residents, or other members of the community.

Organizations can use External Recognition to make it easier for people who interact with frontline and service teams to recognize employees for outstanding work.

Is External Recognition a review or feedback form, or is it specifically for recognizing employees?
 

External Recognition is primarily designed to recognize employees—not to replace a formal review, complaint, survey, or Net Promoter Score process.

Organizations can configure the experience with prompts that help an external person describe what the employee did well. If an organization also needs to collect broader feedback, it can link to or place the recognition experience alongside an existing survey or customer-feedback workflow.

Can someone submit recognition without an Awardco account or login?
 

Yes. External submitters can typically use a public link or QR code without creating an Awardco account or signing in.

Organizations can place these links and codes in locations such as signage, surveys, discharge materials, email communications, badges, posters, or other customer-facing touchpoints. The goal is to make recognition easy for people who do not use the organization’s internal systems.

How does the submitter identify the correct employee?
 

Organizations can choose the approach that best fits their environment.

A general link or QR code can allow the submitter to search for or enter an employee’s name, department, location, or other identifying information. Organizations can also provide personal links or QR codes that take the submitter directly to a specific employee’s recognition form.

Employee-directory data and configured search fields can help route recognition accurately, especially when multiple employees have similar names. The available options depend on the organization’s setup and the employee data provided to Awardco.

Can we use one general QR code, or does every employee need a personal QR code?
 

Both approaches may be available.

A general QR code or link can work well for broad distribution across locations, signage, surveys, or shared customer touchpoints. Personal links or QR codes can take a submitter directly to a specific employee, which can reduce confusion and make recognition easier to attribute.

Organizations can choose a combination of general, department-specific, location-specific, or employee-specific links based on how they want to distribute External Recognition.

What happens after someone submits a recognition?
 

Organizations can configure an approval process so designated reviewers can review submissions before they are shared with employees or displayed in a recognition feed.

Approvers may be able to determine whether a recognition is public or private, route it to the appropriate manager or review group, and decide whether it should result in an award or points. Notifications to recipients and reviewers can also be configured based on the organization’s workflow.

Whether the external submitter receives a confirmation or follow-up notification depends on the organization’s configuration.

Can External Recognition protect privacy and moderate sensitive content?
 

Yes. Organizations can configure External Recognition around their privacy, compliance, and moderation requirements.

Common controls include anonymous submissions, configurable questions, approval before publication, public or private visibility, and routing to designated reviewers. For healthcare and other privacy-sensitive use cases, organizations may also use safeguards designed to identify and remove sensitive information before a submission is shared.

The specific controls and review process depend on the organization’s configuration, policies, and applicable requirements.

Can External Recognition connect to our existing surveys, employee directory, HRIS, or other workflows—and how is it priced?
 

External Recognition can be linked from existing customer or patient-survey workflows, and organizations may use employee-directory or HRIS data to help identify eligible employees and route submissions.

Organizations can also connect the experience to broader recognition and employee-engagement processes, such as internal awards or manager review workflows. The available integration method depends on the organization’s systems and implementation requirements.

Pricing, minimums, program limits, and packaging depend on the organization’s employee population, use cases, and desired scope. Awardco can confirm the applicable package and implementation requirements during the evaluation process.

Let everyone say thanks

Close the loop on recognition by enabling customers, patients, and partners to celebrate great work through External Recognition.