Customer Referral Tracking H-E-L-P!

[joyjoy]

Hi everyone, I know that this has been covered a lot and there's a lot of confusion with this. I need help...I hear that Linda is an expert is this *hint*hint*

Here's what I am trying to do. I would like a discount coupon to generate for each new customer. This customer can share this code with friends/family. Each time this code is used, it will be linked back to the orignal customer. After 5 new orders have been completed with the use of this code, the original customer would be rewarded with another (one time use) discount code.

I know that zen cart has the ability to auto create a discount code for you. Would it be possible to keep this on a "loop" so that each new customer receives a different code? Also, is it possible to have this code generated based on the new customers account information?

Thank you!!

[Ajeh]

You need to customize the code to generate the new Discount Coupon for each customer when they create an account ...

Then you need to decide if you need more detailed tracking than the minimal tracking that the Referral Code gives ...

But for what you are wanting, 75-90% of this is custom code ...

[joyjoy]

There's the pro! Thanks for the quick response.

So just to clarify, zen cart does not have the ability to auto generate a unique discount code for each new customer?

I think I can manage the manual tracking of the code. But I do want the create account process to be smooth where the email with code would be sent out immediately...that's kinda where I'm stuck.

[Ajeh]

No, there isn't an auto generation of a unique code per customer creation of an account ...

For that you would need to re-write the code ...

[joyjoy]

WOW. That's too bad.

So I guess the only way around this without rewriting the code(which I would royally mess up) would be to create a new coupon for each new customer to enable referral tracking then? Am I understanding this?

Just out of curiosity, do you know if customizing the code to create a new discount for each new customer would be a big job? Should I even attempt it or can it be coded with "ifs" and "thens" functions?

[Ajeh]

You need to build records in two tables for the:
coupons
coupons_description

and then customize the email to include the new code that was generated so the customer knows what to hand out to others ...

Minimal tracking of a Referral Code is built into Zen Cart that can be setup as the first Discount Coupon used by a customer and/or as a Referral Code when creating their account ...

Next, you should probably think about how to manage Customers who do not have a Referral Code to use and whether or not they are allowed to use their own Discount Coupon code ...

Being able to use their own Discount Coupon code is a good idea, as it encourages them to shop, but it may also discourage them from using another Customer's code ...

[joyjoy]

Help please...Linda? Are you there?

So I've combed through the forum and I see that there are a few posts on how to get the customer referral code placed on invoices. I'd like to have the customer referral code placed on the customer account page so the customers have easy access to it, in case they forget it.

I've tried a bunch of things...but nothing works. Any advice? Thank you.

[Ajeh]

This code can be used on any of the templates ... the echo is just so you can see the results:

<?php
// bof: get customers_referral
$chk_customers_referral_query = "SELECT customers_referral from " . TABLE_CUSTOMERS . " WHERE customers_id = '" . $_SESSION['customer_id'] . "'";
$chk_customers_referral = $db->Execute($chk_customers_referral_query);
echo 'CUSTOMERS_REFERRAL = ' . $chk_customers_referral->fields['customers_referral'];
// eof: get customers_referral
?>

NOTE: be sure to use your templates and overrides ...