Items Available only to Certified Customers

Company C supplies equipment and chemicals to laboratories. It sells only to customers who have received training and are certified to use the equipment and chemicals. It also sells online training courses to people interested in becoming certified.

Also of relevance is that the training is manufacturer-specific. The certification for manufacturer A covers all its equipment and chemicals. However, Manufacturer B requires separate certification for its equipment and its chemicals.

Layout

First, Company C must decide how to segment their items and customers. Let’s look at how their answers to some important questions helps to layout PCV:

Question	Answer	Layout Input
What are the customer groups I need?	Certified Customers (Manufacturer A), Certified Customers (Manufacturer B equipment), Certified Customers (Manufacturer B chemicals), non-Certified Customers, and the general public	Certified Customers (Manufacturer A), Certified Customers (Manufacturer B equipment) and Certified Customers (Manufacturer B chemicals). Non-Certified Customers could possibly be All Users but it will depend on other answers.
On what basis will I assign a customer to one group or the other?	We are the exclusive suppliers of training for Manufacturer B. If the customer has bought and successfully completed the classroom-based equipment training course, the instructor fills in a form, which automatically updates the customer record to show that they are now certified. If the customer has bought the online chemicals training course from us, when the customer completes the course, their customer record is automatically updated to show that the customer is now certified. The customer should be automatically included in the correct certified group based on the information in the customer record. Manufacturer A has different suppliers for its certifications so a customer who wants to buy Manufacturer A products from us must email Customer Support and provide proof of certification. If the customer has bought the training course from us, their customer record is automatically updated upon completion of the training.	Certified Customers (Manufacturer B equipment) and Certified Customers (Manufacturer B chemicals) should be dynamic customer groups that use saved searches based on the custom Certification fields on the customer record. Certified Customers (Manufacturer A) should be a static customer group so that Customer Support can manually add customers to it when they receive proof of certification. However, it would make more sense to have a dynamic group for the customers who buy the training from Company C. It would be a better customer experience if such customers did not have to have to send in evidence of completing a course. Therefore, we can have two groups for such customers - a static one for external certification and a dynamic one for internal certification.
Do I want any of my customers to be in more than one customer group?	Yes. We support three certifications - Manufacturer A, Manufacturer B (equipment) and Manufacturer B (chemicals). Customers can have one or more of these certifications so should be in the customer group for whichever certification they have.	We need to consider what items customers in more than one group can see.
What item segments do I need?	Manufacturer A Products, Manufacturer B Equipment, Manufacturer B Chemicals, Certification Courses	Item segment to be created - Manufacturer A Products, Manufacturer B Equipment, Manufacturer B Chemicals, and Certification Courses
On what basis do I want to assign an item to one segment or another?	For equipment and chemicals, based first on manufacturer and then on type of item. For certification courses, based on type of item.	Use mass updates to assign items to item collections. For certification courses, there are only three courses so they can be added manually.
Do the item segments correspond to the sections in my website navigation or are they different?	They are different. The website is categorized by type of product, for example, microscopes, electronic burettes, etc.	Since company C does not already use commerce categories and because the navigation structure is not identical to the item segments needed, it is best to use item collections for the item segments.
Which item segments should be visible and purchasable to my customer segments? Which item segments should be visible but not purchasable? Can all customer segments view item prices?	Certified Customers (Manufacturer A external) - can buy Manufacturer A Products, Certification Courses. Can view all products. Certified Customers (Manufacturer A internal) - can buy Manufacturer A Products, Certification Courses. Can view all products. Certified Customers (Manufacturer B equipment) - can buy Manufacturer B Equipment, Certification Courses. Can view all products. Certified Customers (Manufacturer B chemicals) - can buy Manufacturer B Chemicals, Certification Courses. Can view all products. Non-Certified Customers - can buy Certification Courses and view all products It is time to expand our understanding of the requirements for this group. Some further questions: Can customers with one certification see the other certification courses? - Yes, they can Can customers with a certification see the certification course they have already completed? – Yes, they can Can any visitor to the website see the certification courses? - We only sell to schools, universities etc. Only their members can buy from us. They can buy products they are certified for and they can view all other products and certification courses. Any other visitors to the site can see our product catalog, including certification courses. However, they cannot see prices and they cannot buy anything. If they want to buy our products, they must contact our Sales team to have their institution added to our customer list.	Certified Customers (Manufacturer A external) and Certified Customers (Manufacturer A internal) customer groups permitted to buy to Manufacturer A Products and Certification Courses. Permitted to view all products. Certified Customers (Manufacturer B equipment) group permitted to buy Manufacturer B Equipment and Certification Courses. Permitted to view all products. Certified Customers (Manufacturer B chemicals) permitted to buy Manufacturer B Chemicals and Certification Courses. Permitted to view all products. Recognized and Logged In Customers permitted to buy Certification Courses. Permitted to view all products. Anonymous Users permitted to view but not buy products. Also, they cannot see product prices.
Who should be able to view any items that are not in item segments mapped to a customer segment? Should they be able to view the prices?	All item segments should be mapped to customer segments. If there are any items that are not in item segments, it is because they have not yet been classified. They should not be visible to any customer.	Unmapped items should be set to Hide Fully
Do all my customers fall into one or more customer groups or do I have some ‘leftover’ customers? What items, if any, do I want the leftover customers to see?	We do not sell to the general public. If a person who is not a registered customer visits our website, they should not see any products for sale.	All certified customers will be in one or more customer groups. Non-certified customers who are recognized and logged in can see all products and buy the certification courses. Any customer who is not logged in or recognized should not see any products at all.

Implementation

From the layout inputs, Company C creates the following in NetSuite:

• Three saved searches that return customers certified by Company C on Manufacturer A products, customers certified on Manufacturer B equipment, and customers certified on Manufacturer B chemicals respectively

• Customer Groups (dynamic based on the saved searches): Certified Customers (Manufacturer A internal), Certified Customers (Manufacturer B equipment), Certified Customers (Manufacturer B chemicals)

• Customer Group (static, to be updated by Customer Support): Certified Customers (Manufacturer A external)

• Item Collections: Manufacturer A Products, Manufacturer B Equipment, Manufacturer B Chemicals, Certification Courses

• Personalized Catalog View Setup:

  • Manufacturer A Products item collection set to Display Fully for Certified Customers (Manufacturer A internal) and Certified Customers (Manufacturer A external) customer groups

    Set to Disable Purchase for Recognized and Logged in Users

    Set to Disable Purchase and Hide Price for Anonymous Users

  • Manufacturer B Equipment item collection set to Display Fully for Certified Customers (Manufacturer B equipment) customer group

    Set to Disable Purchase for Recognized and Logged in Users

    Set to Disable Purchase and Hide Price for Anonymous Users

  • Manufacturer B Chemicals item collection set to Display Fully for Certified Customers (Manufacturer B chemicals) customer group

    Set to Disable Purchase for Recognized and Logged in Users

    Set to Disable Purchase and Hide Price for Anonymous Users

  • Certified Course item collection set to Display Fully for Recognized and Logged In Customers

    Set to Disable Purchase and Hide Price for Anonymous Users

  • Sets Unmapped Items segment to Hide Fully

Related Topics

Personalized Catalog View Examples

General Notices