MetaLocator includes a powerful automation feature called Lead Reassignment, designed to increase engagement and response rates by automatically sending unacknowledged leads to an alternative location when certain conditions are met. This ensures inquiries don’t go unanswered and end-users receive timely follow-up, even if the originally assigned location does not respond.
What Is Lead Re-assignment?
Lead Re-assignment is an automated background process that:
Identifies leads that have not been viewed within a specified amount of time.
Reproduces the customer’s original search, excluding the originally selected location.
Finds the next best matching location(s) based on the search results.
Creates and sends new leads to those alternate locations.
Marks the original lead as reassigned in the lead log so it is never reassigned twice.
Awards the lead to the first location to Acknowledge the lead. Once Acknowledged, any outstanding copies of this lead will be marked as expired.
This improves customer experience and distributes inbound opportunities more reliably.
How Lead Re-assignment Determines Which Leads to Reassign
During each run of the Lead Reassignment job, MetaLocator evaluates leads using these criteria:
✔ The lead is unacknowledged
A lead qualifies for re-assignment only if it has not been viewed by the original location.
✔ The lead is recent, but not too old
Two timing thresholds determine eligibility:
Elapsed Time – The minimum age of a lead before it can be reassigned
(e.g., "Reassign leads older than 30 minutes")Expired Time – Leads older than this window are too old to be reassigned
(e.g., "Do not reassign leads older than 7 days")
Only leads between these two timestamps are considered.
✔ The lead has not already been reassigned
MetaLocator checks the lead log to ensure each lead is reassigned only once.
✔ The lead is not expired
Expired leads are not eligible for re-assignment.
How MetaLocator Finds New Locations for Reassignment
1. Reproducing the Original Search
Each lead stores its complete search_context, including:
Keywords
Tags
Postal code or geographic coordinates
Any filters applied by the user
The system restores these search inputs exactly as the customer entered them.
If the user relied on AutoFind for detecting their location, the process also restores the latitude/longitude from their original session.
2. Excluding the Original Location
The system ensures the originally assigned location does not appear in the new results.
3. Running the Search Through the Same Interface
The re-assignment job uses the same interface (Itemid) the customer used when submitting the lead. If an Reassignment Interface Id is provided through settings, it uses that one instead.
4. Limiting Results
MetaLocator will return a configurable number of alternate locations (Reassignment targets). By default, at least one new location is selected.
5. Sending the Reassigned Lead
For each matching location:
A new lead is generated as a copy of the original lead.
A reassignment log entry is added
Notifications are sent exactly as they would for any new lead.
Only the first recipient to Acknowledge the Lead will be able to view the lead details.
Configuring Lead Reassignment
Login to the MetaLocator Control Panel.
Navigate to Leads > All Leads.
Click Lead Reassignment Settings under the [...] menu in the toolbar
Complete the form presented
Configurable Parameters
You may configure the following settings when scheduling the re-assignment job:
Parameter | Description |
Elapsed time (minutes) | Minimum number of minutes before a lead becomes eligible for re-assignment. |
Expired time (minutes) | Maximum age of a lead; older leads are excluded. |
Reassignment targets | Number of alternate locations to receive the reassigned lead. |
Reassignment Interface Id | Optional override interface ID. If omitted, the lead’s original interface is used. |
Optional Reassignment Interface Id
The first step happens automatically after an unacknowledged lead ages past a configurable time frame, show below as elapsed_time. This step is where the system initiates a query to determine candidates to receive this lead. The query is defined by an Interface configured in your MetaLocator account. This special interface, called the Reassignment Interface, is used to obtain the results used in the subsequent algorithms, shown above as Round Robin, Blast or Single.
The Reassignment Interface's ID number is passed to the LeadReassignment job which is responsible for executing the process described in this article.
MetaLocator staff will initially configure this job for you based on your requirements and it will be available under the job status queue as shown below:
Creating a Reassignment Interface allows you to filter and sort the locations used for reassignment differently than the Interface used by the customer. For example, one could configure the Reassignment Interface to:
Sort by highest rated dealers (as determined by our rating system)
Include only a special pool of lead managers (as determined by a custom field or category)
Exclude dealers not in Bronze, Silver or Gold categories.
The above are examples of logic that can be built into this and any interface using the same filtering and sorting tools found in the Interface Builder.
Manual Lead Reassignment
To manually reassign one or more leads, check the box next to the lead under Leads > All Leads and choose Reassign as shown below:
Summary
The objective of these algorithms is to ensure your customer is contacted as soon as possible depending on the preferences of your business and dealer network. It should effectively diminish the Ignored Rate and boost the Acknowledgement Rate resulting in more revenue, happier customers and more effective dealers.
