Recommendation Control Room

Steer recommendations without breaking buyer trust.

Prioritize preferred brands, margin, stock and assortment strategy, while the relevance guard keeps bad recommendations out. Watch one decision resolve, live.

Merchant view Recommendation control room Neutral ranking · fit only
1Neutral
2Policy
3Guard
4Buyer sees
Buyer asks
"Which quiet espresso grinder should I buy under €500?"
persona: home barista use: espresso · daily priority: quiet budget: ≤ €500
1 Eureka Mignon Specialità€399 · in stock Mid 90
2 Fiorenzato AllGround€499 · in stock Premium 90
3 Eureka Mignon Silenzio€349 · in stock Mid 86
4 HouseGrind Pro€229 · high margin · loud burr Entry 38
Relevance guardrail fit ≥ 70
step 1  ranks by raw fit, blind to brand, availability & strategy
Buyer view Waiting for the advisor to decide…
“I’d go with the Fiorenzato AllGround.” Quiet conical burrs, dialled for espresso, and it comfortably fits your €500 budget.
Meet the relevance guard
Merchant steers the ranking · the guard holds the line · the buyer just sees a trustworthy answer
The tension

Three advisors. One question. Very different answers.

Most recommendation engines pick one of two failure modes. Klariton is the third option: commercial steering that lives inside a trust boundary.

Neutral advisor
Whatever's closest
Recommends the most semantically similar product. No business awareness at all.
Top pick
Eureka Mignon semantic match
Ignores your preferred-brand strategy entirely.
Leaves margin, stock and assortment strategy on the table.
Two equal-fit products? It can't tell you why it chose.
Good for the buyer · blind to the business
Pushy merchandising
Whatever pays
Promotes the highest-margin product, fit be damned. The buyer can feel it.
Top pick
HouseGrind Pro highest margin
Recommends a loud entry grinder for a quiet-home brief.
Breaks trust the moment the buyer reads a review.
Wins one sale, loses the relationship.
Good for this quarter · toxic for trust
Klariton
Controlled steering
Reorders genuinely good options toward your strategy, and stops at the relevance line.
Top pick
Fiorenzato AllGround fit 90 · preferred
Preferred brand wins, because fit was already equal.
HouseGrind is locked out below the fit threshold.
The buyer sees a real reason and believes it.
Steered · bounded · trusted
Rule builder

Business levers that reorder, never override fit.

Compose a preference from the signals that matter commercially. Fit is always scored first; these levers only re-rank products that already belong in the answer.

1Preferred brands

Lead with strategic brands and lines, applied only when fit is genuinely equal.

Fiorenzato · Mahlkönig
2Strategic assortment

Steer toward the entry / mid / premium segment that fits the buyer's budget and persona.

premium grinder
3Availability

Never lead with a product you can't ship right now.

in stock only
4Stock pressure

Gently surface ageing or overstocked lines, but only while they're still a strong fit.

clear ageing stock
5Contribution margin

A quiet tie-break between equally good options, it can never promote a worse fit.

tie-break only · low weight
Composed rule · Grinders studio / control / merchandising
When
segment is premium grinder and fit is equal
Prefer
Fiorenzato Mahlkönig over Eureka
Only when
stock availablefit ≥ threshold
Relevance guard is always applied. This rule can only reorder products above the fit threshold, it can never promote one below it.
Preview

Run the policy against real questions, before it ships.

Ask the questions your buyers actually ask. See how the ranking changes, and what the guard blocks, before a single customer sees it.

Policy preview · draft v12 not published
Before · neutral ranking
1Eureka Mignon Specialitàfit 90
2Fiorenzato AllGroundfit 90
3Eureka Mignon Silenziofit 86
4HouseGrind Profit 38
After · your policy
1Fiorenzato AllGround▲ rule
2Eureka Mignon Specialità▼ −1
3Eureka Mignon Silenzioheld
HouseGrind Proguard
Before · neutral ranking
1Quick Mill QM67fit 89
2Bezzera Duo MNfit 89
3Lelit Biancafit 84
4SingleShot Homefit 52
After · your policy
1Bezzera Duo MN▲ rule · stock
2Quick Mill QM67▼ −1
3Lelit Biancaheld
SingleShot Homeguard · café fit
Before · neutral ranking
1HouseGrind Profit 41
2Eureka Mignon Silenziofit 83
3Baratza Encore ESPfit 80
After · your policy
1Eureka Mignon Silenzio▲ fit-first
2Baratza Encore ESP▲ +1
HouseGrind Proguard · 41 < 70
The trust boundary · cannot be switched off

Strategy can reorder good options. It can never override fit.

Brand, assortment, stock and margin only ever re-rank products that already fit the buyer. The relevance guard sits underneath every lever as a hard floor. It cannot be disabled, overridden or bought, that's what keeps the buyer's trust intact.

It blocks
Below-fit promotions

A product under the relevance threshold can never be recommended, no matter how high its margin.

It blocks
Strategy beating relevance

A preferred brand still has to fit the buyer. The rule fires only on a genuine tie.

It blocks
Silent overrides

Every demotion the guard makes is logged, visible to you and auditable later.

41 below-fit promotions blocked · last 90 days
What the buyer sees

Steering you can explain is steering they'll trust.

Every recommendation arrives with a plain-language reason, drawn from the same fit score and rules that produced it. No "because we said so." No black box.

1
Fit, in their words

The reason describes why it suits their brief, quiet, espresso, within budget, not why it suits you.

2
Honest about the trade

If a cheaper option was close, the advisor can say so. Steering doesn't mean hiding.

3
The same reason, on the record

What the buyer reads is what lands in your audit trail. One explanation, two audiences.

Which quiet espresso grinder should I buy under €500?
AI Advisor Recommended
Fiorenzato AllGround
€499 · in stock
Why this one
Its conical burrs run quietly and hold a fine, consistent espresso grind, exactly what a daily home setup needs. It's the best fit inside your €500 budget, and it's in stock now.
quiet · fit 90 espresso-ready within €500
A close second, the Eureka Mignon Silenzio (€349), is a strong quieter-budget pick. Ask to compare.
Audit trail

Every steering decision is on the record.

Who changed which rule, when, and what the guard blocked along the way. Nothing the advisor does to a ranking is invisible.

Steering log · Grinders recording
TimeTypeDecisionBy
14:02 · today rule Published Prefer Fiorenzato / Mahlkönig over Eureka · premium grinder, on tie MKM. Krause
11:47 · today threshold Raised relevance threshold 68 → 70 · grinders TST. Schaaf
11:46 · today guard Blocked promotion of HouseGrind Pro on "quiet espresso under €500" · fit 38 < 70 Guard
Mar 12 rule Set margin weight medium → low · grinders, fit kept dominant MKM. Krause
Example dashboard

Commercial outcome, trust intact.

Illustrative example · not live data Sample figures for layout, connected to your funnel, these populate from real attribution.
~+18%
Recommendation lift
Conversion on steered shortlists vs. neutral baseline
41
Guarded demotions
Below-fit products the guard kept out of recommendations
100%
Explained picks
Every recommendation carries a buyer-facing reason
~€124k
Revenue attributed
To preferred-brand steering, last 90 days
Next step

Test your recommendation policy.

Bring your own categories, margins and preferred brands. Watch the ranking move, and watch the guard hold the line.

See the whole system
Steerable · bounded · transparent