Recommendations help you know what to pitch and when to pitch it.

The meat and potatoes of the Proton app are our product recommendations. When you view a customer/account page, you’ll see these in the main window of your screen.

So what are recommendations? Essentially, these are products that our AI has determined to be a good fit for each specific customer based on different criteria. These are all tailored to each specific account; no two customers will have the same recommendations. Proton uses data like purchase history, purchase patterns of similar customers, and even your customers’ search data from your website if your company uses Proton for e-commerce. Additionally, you can use the Categories tab to sort between different types of products for a more specific set of recommendations. Just click whatever type of product you’d like to filter, and the category will be automatically applied to recommendations below. Clicking the type again will allow you to remove the category when you’re finished.

Recommendations are broken down into four main types: Due to reorder, Recommended Products, Campaigns, and Recently Viewed Online. Let’s start with Due to reorder first.

Due to Reorder

Due to reorder recommendations are the most frequently used recommendations on the Proton app. Our AI takes data from your ERP to identify when a customer might be running low on a specific item, and therefore be due to reorder it. We use past purchase history (as well as similar customers’ purchase history) to determine when a customer might be due to reorder a specific item, so you can have confidence in recommending each item to your customers. Additionally, every recommendation in the Due to reorder category is a product that your customer has purchased before; we’ll never include brand new items here. Due to reorder recommendations are the most likely recommendation type to convert into order - these are items your customers are familiar with and have bought in the past - so it’s always smart to lean on this type of recommendation.

Curious about how to fit a due to reorder recommendation into your pitch?

Recommended Products

The second type of recommendation is our Recommended Products. Recommended products are products this customer has never ordered (or hasn’t ordered in 18+ months) that could be a good fit for them. Proton looks at products purchased by similar customers to make these recommendations. For instance, if one of your customers is a dental office but has never purchased toothbrushes, Proton may use data from other dental offices to determine that your customer could use a box of toothbrushes.

We aim for spot-on recommendations, but sometimes they might not match your needs. If you spot a product that doesn't fit in an account’s 'Recommendations' tab, just hit the thumbs down button. This blocks the item for six months. Remember, this option is only for AI-generated suggestions. After clicking, a feedback form appears. If you mark an item as 'Not Ready For Order', it'll be blocked for just a week. We recommend using this feature sparingly.

Campaigns

The last type of recommendations is Campaigns, which are specific items that your company selects to highlight to all customers. These items are hand-picked and therefore not necessarily relevant to every customer, so we always recommend including a mix of other recommendation types instead of leaning solely on campaign recommendations. You can learn more about campaigns here.