Match Captured Electronic Leads To Similar Open Leads

Match Captured Electronic Leads To Similar Open Leads

When capturing electronic leads each enquiry the customer makes is treated as a unique lead.  Whilst a user with the right permissions can easily merge and find these leads we've now got a setting to automate this process.  

Under Settings>Company Settings>My Company there is a new section called 'Match Leads To Similar Open Leads' (only available to AP1 users or users with Company admin role).  Under this section you can set up your captured electronic leads to automatically match against the last user that had an open lead against the customer.  This functionality works on leads captured via;
  1. Email
  2. Lead API
  3. Data API


There are several settings available to use to determine just which leads are "similar" enough to be matched. As of the 24.3.1 release, multiple Match Leads to Similar Leads are able to be provisioned. To do this use the Add button, and to remove a setting, use the trash bin icon.

  1. Type dropdown. This will be the key factor when determining the setting. If you would like for this to be applied to ALL leads, then set this to be default, if you would like this to be applied to only a specific Type, this will need to be specificed on this drop down. Please be aware that you may need to create a Default setting to accommodate leads that are not set specifically by Type
    1. Walk In
    2. Email
    3. Phone
    4. Other
    5. Default
  2. Ignore Yard - with this setting enabled any lead being considered as 'similar' will NOT take into account the Yard of the primary listing on the lead.  If this setting is not ticked the Lead will need to be for the same Yard to be considered a 'similar' lead in order to match and be allocated to the original lead owner.
  3. Ignore Source - with this setting enabled any lead being considered as 'similar' will NOT take into account the Source of the primary listing on the lead.  If this setting is not ticked the Lead will need to be for the same Source to be considered a 'similar' lead in order to match and be allocated to the original lead owner.
  4. Ignore Campaign - with this setting enabled any lead being considered as 'similar' will NOT take into account the Campaign of the primary listing on the lead.  If this setting is not ticked the Lead will need to be for the same Campaign to be considered a 'similar' lead in order to match and be allocated to the original lead owner.
  5. Ignore Make - with this setting enabled any lead being considered as 'similar' will NOT take into account the Make of the primary listing on the lead.  If this setting is not ticked the Lead will need to be for the same Make to be considered a 'similar' lead in order to match and be allocated to the original lead owner.
  6. Ignore Type - with this setting enabled any lead being considered as similar will NOT take into account the lead TYPE of the existing lead 
  7. Ignore Listing Status - with this setting enabled any lead being considered as 'similar' will NOT take into account the Listing Status of the primary listing on the lead (whether the listing is ticked as New, Demo or Used).  If this setting is not ticked the Lead will need to be for the same Listing Status (New/Demo/Used) to be considered a 'similar' lead in order to match and be allocated to the original lead owner.  This means in order to match a lead on a New vehicle can only match with a existing lead on a New vehicle, Demo with Demo and Used with Used.





When 'Active' any electronic captured lead will automatically be allocated to the user with the most recent open lead for that customer record.  If no additional settings are completed then the following must occur in order to successfully match

Merge - When this is checked the system will do the above matching process and as an additional step, will merge the second lead into the first lead

If the Ignore Yard/Source/Campaign/Make/Listing Status and the Date Range Settings ARE NOT Enabled
  1. Newly captured lead must match and existing customer record (will automatically select the closest true match)
  2. Matched customer record must have at least one open lead against them (will automatically select the most recent lead by Created Date - lead can be any age if not specified
  3. If Yard setting is NOT set to Ignore then the lead must be in the same Yard to match
  4. If Source setting is NOT set to ignore then the lead must have the same source to match
  5. If Campaign setting is NOT set to ignore to then the lead must have the same campaign to match
  6. If Make setting is NOT set to ignore then the lead must have the same Make on the primary listing to match
  7. If Listing Type setting is NOT set to ignore then the lead must have the same Listing Type on the primary listing to match
  8. If a Date Range is NOT set to a date range then the most recent lead under that customer can have a created date of any age to match
When the rules outlined above are successfully achieved, then the newly captured lead will automatically be allocated to the user who currently owns the existing open lead.  With this setting enabled the user will be able to view both leads and merge them without input from their manager.  

The default settings are intentionally broad to ensure we minimise any false matches.   However It is also possible to be more broad about the types of leads you wish to match via the additional settings for Yard, Source, Campaign and the age of the lead. Please also note that the Contact Matching itself can be for rigidly defined for the account, more on that here



If the Ignore Yard/Source/Campaign/Make/Listing Status and the Date Range Settings ARE Enabled;
  1. If Yard setting is SET to Ignore then the lead can be in any yard or no yard and match
  2. If Source setting is SET to ignore then the lead can have any or no source and match
  3. If Campaign setting is SET to ignore to then the lead can have any campaign or no campaign and match
  4. If Make setting is SET to ignore then the lead can have any Make on the primary listing and match
  5. If Listing Type is SET to ignore then the lead can have any Listing Type on the primary listing and match
  6. If a Date Range is SET to a date range then the most recent lead under that customer must have a created date within the date range (i.e 30 days) in order to match
  7. When an automatic allocation is completed a note of this is added to the Lead History.
This functionality will work when you have a dedicated Lead Manager in AutoPlayAuto.com - bypassing the Lead Manager and allocating the lead to the user best placed to deal with the customers enquiry.  However where this setting will really come into it's own is when the dealership has Automatic Lead Allocation Rotation in place.  With this setting it allocates each captured lead to a new member of the sales team on a rotating basis (read more about this functionality  HERE).

Without the new 'Match Leads To Similar Open Leads' setting enabled with Auto Rotation on if a customer makes 5 email enquiries within an hour each new lead would be allocated to a different salesperson.  With the new setting enabled the Auto Rotation would be bypassed and each subsequent lead will be allocated to the user who owns the latest open lead in AutoPlayAuto.com - allowing him to view all the interactions with the customer and merge the leads as appropriate.

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