Professional FAQs - Protocols vs. Recommendations
A Recommendation is a personalized product suggestion sent to a specific client based on their unique needs. It’s tailored, direct, and helps you guide one person at a time.
A Protocol, on the other hand, is a reusable set of product suggestions and instructions designed for recurring needs—such as menopause support, elimination diets, or fitness goals. Protocols save time by letting you apply consistent care across multiple clients while still allowing customization when needed.
➡️ Visit your dashboard to start sending personalized recommendations and building reusable protocols.
Protocols are designed for flexibility across practitioner types. Any licensed professional using Metagenics—whether a recommender or reseller—can create them. This ensures every practitioner can establish reusable care frameworks that scale with their practice. Protocols are especially powerful when you regularly see the same client needs, allowing you to deliver faster, more consistent support while reducing repetitive work.
Protocols are especially helpful when you see the same client needs come up again and again. They let you deliver consistent care quickly, while still personalizing for each individual.
Examples include:
- Nutritionists using an elimination diet protocol for clients with food sensitivities. - Wellness coaches applying different supplement protocols for bulking vs. shredding goals. - Chiropractors recommending a steady supplement routine for menopausal clients.
By reusing and customizing these frameworks, you save time, maintain quality, and scale your ability to support more clients.
➡️ Explore your dashboard to build and customize protocols that fit your patients’ most common needs.
Yes. Protocols are designed to evolve with your practice.
You can edit a protocol at any time to ensure it reflects current product availability, new research, or client preferences. When you make changes, only future recommendations will reflect the updates—past recommendations remain intact for accuracy and client safety.
This means you can continuously refine your protocols without altering what clients have already received. You also have the option to delete a protocol. Deletion removes it from your professional view, helping you keep your list organized and avoiding confusion with outdated or incorrect versions. Together, these tools ensure your protocol library stays relevant, accurate, and easy to manage.
➡️ Manage, edit, or delete your saved protocols from your dashboard.
Not directly. To keep things clear and avoid duplication, protocols must be created separately from recommendations. This distinction ensures your reusable templates remain intentional and organized, rather than retroactively pieced together from individual client cases.
Yes—that’s the main benefit. Protocols are designed to save time by letting you apply the same structured approach across multiple clients. This not only ensures consistency in your recommendations but also supports scalability as your client base grows. You can apply, adjust, and resend with confidence, knowing the framework stays intact.
➡️ Reuse and apply your saved protocols from your dashboard.
Absolutely. Once a protocol is applied, you can add or remove products and adjust instructions to match a client’s individual needs. You decide whether to save those changes back into the protocol for future use, or keep them specific to that one recommendation. This balance of reusability and personalization makes protocols both efficient and flexible.
➡️ Customize protocols for your clients directly in your dashboard.
No. A recommendation is a snapshot in time. Once it’s sent, it remains unchanged in the client’s view—even if their needs evolve or products are updated later. If circumstances change, the best approach is to send a new recommendation that reflects their current needs.
Protocols should remain general, without including sensitive or highly personalized data. As the practitioner, you are responsible for ensuring that each recommendation is safe and appropriate for the client it’s applied to. For accountability, all past recommendations are logged so you and your clients can refer back to them anytime. This structure supports both safety and transparency in care delivery.
➡️ Review and send safe, transparent recommendations from your dashboard.
Many practitioners see recurring patterns in client needs. Protocols reduce repetitive work by giving you ready-to-use frameworks for common health concerns—so you can focus more on patient interaction and less on administrative setup. At the same time, they preserve flexibility for personalization, ensuring every client feels cared for as an individual.
➡️ Create your first protocol here and start saving time while scaling your impact.
When creating a recommendation, you’ll see an option to save it as a protocol. This allows you to send it to your client while also preserving the setup as a reusable template. Saved protocols include all the same details, with identifiers that help you distinguish them from one-off recommendations, and they’re stored in a dedicated list for quick access.
Common reasons include:
- Product discontinuation (removing or replacing unavailable items). - Product upgrades (updating with new or reformulated products). - Client tolerability issues (adjusting for flavor, form, or size preferences).
By keeping protocols current, you ensure client satisfaction, compliance, and continued trust in your recommendations.
No. Editing a protocol will only affect recommendations you send going forward. Past recommendations remain intact for historical accuracy and client safety. This way, you can continuously improve your protocols without worrying about altering what clients have already received.
Yes. Updated protocols can be applied to any new client, ensuring consistency in your care delivery while reflecting the latest best practices. This feature makes protocols a powerful way to scale your practice while still responding to change and innovation.
We recommend regularly reviewing your saved protocols to keep them relevant. Key triggers include receiving product update notifications, hearing repeated client feedback, or preparing for seasonal and promotional campaigns. Proactive updates ensure your care frameworks always reflect current products and client needs.
➡️ Check your dashboard regularly to review and update protocols.