- Dealer Marketing Magazine

Livonia, MI — June 28, 2018 — Valassis Digital, a leader in digital marketing, announced today its newest chatbot solution to help automotive dealers better target potential car shoppers, reach in-market leads, increase customer engagement and drive dealership traffic and sales.

Notably, Valassis Digital's chatbot is a free, customizable and turnkey solution available for download by automotive brands wishing to enhance their conversational user experiences.

With messaging emerging as the preferred channel for customer service — overtaking both email and phone — chatbots are becoming an increasingly critical component to modern-day brand success.

In fact, according to RetailMeNot, 40% of companies are planning to implement instant messaging services or chatbots in 2018 in an effort to positively drive sales growth. Valassis Digital's automotive chatbot solution for car dealers is accessible via Facebook Messenger and delivers key car buying user experiences in automated instant messaging including:

Searching dealership inventory: enables users to browse the dealer's current new and used inventory.
Estimating trade-in value: allows users to get an estimated trade-in value for their current vehicle.
Getting prequalified: provides users with their real-time Transunion credit score to help them prequalify for finance offers.
Setting up appointments: enables users to request and confirm a test drive or service appointment.

"We live in an increasingly digital-first world where consumer convenience reigns supreme,"

said Mike Balducci, Vice President, Strategy, Valassis Digital.

"From auto dealers to grocery stores, brands are constantly innovating to better blend the physical and digital realms and improve the customer experience. Artificial intelligence, like chatbots, is a prime example of this effort. It provides cost-effective solutions that alleviate brand and consumer pain points, drives brick-and-mortar traffic and bolsters employee functions."

"We pride ourselves at Allstar Kia of San Bernardino on listening to customer feedback, then working to make car shopping a more convenient and enjoyable experience," said Chris Ferrall, Director of Internet Marketing, Allstar Kia of San Bernardino.

"Valassis has been a strategic partner as we incorporate new ways of engaging and assisting customers. Although it's early in the pilot, the preliminary results we're seeing are positive in that our clients who engage with the chatbot are getting answers to their car buying questions any time of day, all without any sales pressure. We're excited how this chatbot extends our website's capabilities into Facebook Messenger and demonstrates to our clients that Allstar Kia is listening to their feedback."

You can learn more about Valassis Digital's automotive chatbot here and test the solution here.

About Valassis Digital

Valassis Digital is a leading digital marketing intelligence company, providing a best-in-class data management platform and online and offline targeting capabilities that fuels superior display advertising and expanded media offerings, such as in-store campaign solutions, for advertising clients.

Through proprietary technology, Valassis Digital creates meaningful marketing and advertising impact for businesses — from planning, delivery, and attribution.

Valassis Digital taps into meaningful, actionable insights that drive better campaign performance.

About Valassis

Valassis helps thousands of local and national brands tap the potential of industry-leading data through intelligent media delivery — understanding, engaging and inspiring millions of consumers to action with smarter cross-channel campaigns.

We've been a part of consumers' lives for decades, introducing new ways to deliver offers and messages that activate them — whether via mail, digital, in-store or the newspaper. NCH Marketing Services, Inc. and Clipper Magazine are Valassis subsidiaries, and RetailMeNot Everyday™ is its consumer brand.

Its signature Have You Seen Me?® program delivers hope to missing children and their families. Valassis and RetailMeNot are wholly owned subsidiaries of Harland Clarke Holdings.