Long and short of it: We offer a customized meal plan that's designed to help people lose weight. While our program isn't COVERED by the insurance companies, it IS the only one that is ENDORSED by them, so we offer their people a 15% discount. What I need to do: I need to add a couple of fields to the DB - I want to offer a checkbox and dropdown list that basically says [Checkbox] I am a current member of a health insurance plan from [dropdown box: Not Listed/Company1/Company2/Company3/Company4] If they check the checkbox and select one of the four companies, they get 15% off either one of our two products; they just have to supply us with their member ID from their insurance company, and we manually forward it to the insurance company for verification. If they either DON'T check the checkbox, or leave the choice in the dropdown box as the Default ("Not Listed"), they pay full price. How the HECK do I pull THAT one off? I know there are probably a variety of ways to skin this cat, but I need both the way that will LOOK best, and the way that is EASIEST for this newbie to achieve. Thanks --N
Interesting problem! This just might work. Make a coupon for each insurance companies clients, giving the 15% off. Or a single coupon would do if the discount is identical, though for reporting purposes separating them would be good. Alter the coupon field to be a hard coded drop down list, with the names of the insurance companies and the value of each select item the relevant coupon code. The tick box would be just a custom field for your own use - I can think of no way of linking it to the select - anyone? After that you just need to add a custom field to collect the Insurance Co member ID. Possible problem: anyone looking at the source could see the coupon codes, so if you have another field for coupons they could enter it there. However given that there is manual intervention required anyway (people could just say they were with x company and make up a membership number) it hardly matters.
I like this idea. You led me to think of THIS...see, the insurance companies are going to be telling their people about the discount and the new website in a big mailer that's going out soon. Could I just designate one coupon number, and if they fill in the coupon number, it adds an extra field for them to fill in where they enter their info using the drop-down box and ID field (optionally, this part could be on another page)? That way, if no one has a coupon number, they won't bother filling in that field, and I don't have to worry about 'em. Am I close? And if I am, can you give me a HINT at how to code that one? Remember, I'm quite wet behind the ears with this prog. Thanks --N PS - Yes, the discounts are the same for all the insurance companies. PPS - But would vieweing the source also reveal the coupon code with this solution?
Yes you could do it that way. In fact that is how I would do it, as it means you can more easily see how may each company sends to you. I cannot again see how you would have the extra field or fields appear only if a coupon number was used, but it would be easy to add, just below the coupon field, additional fields that you ask them to complete only if they are using a coupon. The coupon numbers would not be visible in the source this way. Although the discount is the same for each company I would be inclined to issue them with different coupon numbers. It only takes a minute to set up a coupon and you will later be able to see at a glance how many of each coupon has been used and thus which Insurance Company is giving you the best returns.