Understand contact registration requests

In addition to account registration requests, you can allow an existing account-based shopper (contact) or a registered non-account-based shopper to submit a contact registration request.

A registered non-account-based shopper can be defined as a shopper with an email address that is not registered. An existing account-based shopper would have an email address that was registered as part of their role as an account-based shopper.

Note: A logged-in account-based shopper can also submit a contact request with the email address of a different account-based contact or with an email address that does not exist in the system. A contact registration request cannot be submitted by/for an existing registered non-account-based shopper - that is, with the email address of an existing registered non-account-based shopper. If the email address is that of a registered non-account-based shopper, the system returns the error message that the email address must be new or be that of an existing account-based contact.

A contact registration request means that either type of shopper wishes to be added as a contact to an existing business account. The contact registration request is then either approved or rejected by a merchant administrator or by a delegated administrator. This type of request is not the same as an account registration request that is described in previous sections of this chapter. Unlike account registration requests, there is not an administrator user interface setting to enable or disable this feature.

The request process feature lets a shopper submit a request to be added as a contact to an existing business account by providing required contact and account details. The information is reviewed by an administrator or a delegated administrator from the merchant side after the shopper submits the required details. If needed, the administrator may request additional details from the shopper. Additional information that is needed must be requested and received separately from this feature either via a phone call or through emails. The contact registration request is then either approved or rejected. If the request is approved, the new contact for the account is activated and added to the account.

Understand the contact registration request process flow

An example of how this basic contact registration request process works is provided in the procedural list that follows. Anyone with an Administrator, Delegated Administrator, and/or Account Manager Role can view, update, accept, and reject contact self-registration requests.

Note: This high-level description is provided only as example and an introduction and does not necessarily mean that your process would work exactly this way. For example, all of the emails that are sent during the approval/rejection process are only lightly touched upon in the example process flow. For more detail on the automated emails described in the process, refer to Configure Email Settings.

• A registered non-account-based shopper or an existing account-based shopper uses the store interface (via a widget provided with the layout) to request to be added as a contact to Account A. Refer to Submit new contact registration information for additional details.
• The registered non-account-based shopper or an existing account-based shopper gets an email acknowledging that the request has been received. The request’s status is New.
• The administrator or the delegated administrator for Account A are notified via an email that there is a new contact self-registration request that has been received.
• The administrator sees the new request in the Contact Registration Requests area of the Accounts administration user interface. The delegated administrator sees the request via a widget provided on the store.
• The administrator or the delegated administrator for Account A opens the registration request and begins reviewing it.
• The administrator or the delegated administrator for the account saves some changes and/or explicitly sets the status to “Review.”
• The delegated administrator for the account decides more information is needed before an approval decision can be made and changes the status to “More Info Needed.”
• Outside of Commerce, the delegated administrator emails the registered non-account-based shopper asking for information.
• The registered non-account-based shopper sends the delegated administrator an email with the required information.
• After reading the registered non-account-based shopper’s email, the delegated administrator opens the request, adds some information, and sets the request’s status to Review.
• The administrator or the delegated administrator opens the request and makes a decision.
• If they accept the request then
  • Optionally, they provide comments (if needed) to add to the approval email.
  • The request disappears from the Request list.
  • The registered non-account-based shopper receives an email indicating that the contact request is approved.
  • The shopper now appears as a contact in Account A.
• If the administrator or the delegated administrator rejects the request then
  • Optionally, they can provide comments to add to the rejection email.
  • The request remains in the Contact Registration Requests list with a status Rejected.
  • The shopper receives an email indicating that their request is rejected.