ATLANTA, June 12, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Contact At Once!, a LivePerson company (Nasdaq: LPSN), and Hearst Autos, announced that web and mobile messaging is now available on Car and Driver.com, enabling direct consumer-to-dealer connections from vehicle detail pages (VDPs) on Car and Driver's vehicle listings platform (https://www.caranddriver.com/cars-for-sale). Dealers who advertise their inventory can now choose to opt into the Car and Driver.com chat and text program at no additional cost. 

A recent study by automotive market research and advisory firm, Root and Associates shows that 73% of consumers would be very or extremely likely to use live assistance if they have a question and that 58% preferred chat to calling a dealership. Consumers preferred the convenience of messaging dealers on their own schedule to get support, ask questions, or even to complete some of the buying process online. 

"This partnership further transforms Car and Driver, the most trusted resource for automotive research, into the ultimate car shopping experience. Chat and text are effective, natural ways for consumers and dealers to communicate. Adding messaging to our dealers' VDPs enables car buyers to have their questions answered faster, which will ultimately improve the relationship between the buyer and the dealer," said Brian Abrams, senior director product innovation, Hearst Autos.

Contact At Once! provides the automotive industry's most widely deployed messaging platform to deliver conversational commerce at scale. "In some of our most recent analysis, we see consumers favoring messaging over other types of communication when they are in market for a new car," said Denise Chudy, Contact At Once! General Manager. "Car and Driver.com is one of the most recognized brands in the automotive space, and we think it is a natural next step to enable shoppers to text and chat with dealers directly from the site."

ABOUT HEARST AUTOS
Hearst Autos delivers qualified, in-market car shoppers directly to dealer websites through the credibility and trust of Car and Driver's research, listings, and shopping tools, and the scale and performance of Jumpstart Automotive Media's audience of more than 20 million unique monthly car shoppers. Jumpstart Automotive Media's rich data coupled with our AdTech software positions a dealer's customized display advertising in front of the uniquely matched in-market shopper wherever they're shopping across Jumpstart's diverse portfolio of publishers (Car and Driver, U.S. News Best Cars, J.D. Power Cars, NADAguides, Autoweek.com, AutoWeb, Autolist.com, Daily News Autos, LeftLaneNews.com, CarSoup, CarBuzz, CarStory, and VehicleHistory.com).  With industry-leading data, insights, and analytics, Hearst Autos engages the car shopper from inception to the point of purchase decision.

Visit us at www.hearstautos.com

ABOUT CONTACT AT ONCE!
Contact At Once!, a LivePerson Company, helps create satisfying connections and build relationships between auto shoppers and dealers by making it easier for consumers to ask questions and get information in the micro-moments when they shop—whether on a brand or retailer site, via online advertising, on social media and more. Contact At Once! is the industry's leading provider of messaging platforms with over 17,000 businesses using our solutions to build relationships with online, mobile shoppers. For more information, visit www.contactatonce.com.

ABOUT LIVEPERSON, INC.
LivePerson makes life easier by transforming how people communicate with brands. Our 18,000 customers, including leading brands like Citibank, HSBC, Orange, and The Home Depot, use our conversational commerce solutions to orchestrate humans and AI, at scale, and create a convenient, deeply personal relationship — a conversational relationship — with their millions of consumers. For more information about LivePerson (NASDAQ: LPSN), please visit www.liveperson.com.

MEDIA CONTACT
Allison Franzese
LivePerson
afranzese@liveperson.com
212-609-4224

Lou Laste
Hearst Autos
Lou.laste@hearstautos.com
678-492-2737

SOURCE LivePerson, Inc.