Reviews on NAVER Smart Place Boost Possibility of Customers Visiting
Reviews on NAVER Smart Place Boost Possibility of Customers Visiting
Reviews on NAVER Smart Place Boost Possibility of Customers Visiting … Greater Effect for SMEs, Indicating Potential to Promote Various Local Businesses
- The NAVER D-Place Report 2022 Part 2 indicates that NAVER achieved both business satisfaction and growth by making efforts to enhance its review system
- According to Professor Yoo Byung-joon and his research team at SNU, reviews on NAVER Smart Place have positive effects on enhancing business performance
- “Proactive efforts to improve the review culture in the local sector, such as visit authentication and keyword reviews, have led to improved user reliability,” says the research team
- The introduction of Keyword Reviews, which is a first in the industry, has resulted in high business satisfaction as it highlights the strengths of the businesses and provides customer feedback
2023-03-09
On the 8th, NAVER released the NAVER D-Place Report 2022 Part 2, which reports on research conducted by Professor Yoo Byung-joon of Seoul National University and his research team regarding the effects of NAVER Smart Place reviews on business performance. The research has confirmed that NAVER's pioneering efforts to improve its review system, such as Visit Authentication and Keyword Reviews, have been well-received by local businesses and have had a positive impact on their performance.
* Since 2021, NAVER has been publishing the NAVER D-Place Report to analyze the platform's usage and value for local businesses, as well as to determine its role and direction through data-based empirical analysis. The Part 1 Report was released in December of last year and revealed that various tech solutions provided by NAVER Smart Place, including NAVER Booking, contributed to an increase in customers and sales.
The research team analyzed the correlation between NAVER Smart Place reviews and local business growth and assessed the satisfaction of its review system. The study encompassed 109,463 enterprises from different sectors, including restaurants, beauty salons, accommodations, photo studios, exercise facilities, travel, and tourist attractions. And 876 participated in the satisfaction rate survey.
NAVER Smart Place Reviews Increase Consumers' Potential to Visit … Greater Effect for SMEs
The study revealed that NAVER Smart Place reviews have a positive impact on the likelihood of potential customers visiting local businesses, as it was found that businesses with more reviews on NAVER Smart Place receive more page views (PVs) and attract more users to view their page. The study also found that there was an increase in user engagement, including ▲finding directions, ▲saving places, ▲sharing places, and ▲making phone calls.
The research team stated that NAVER has been implementing various measures to ensure the authenticity of reviews for many years, which has helped to establish user reliability. The team also noted that the fact that NAVER Smart Place reviews result in practical user actions, such as using NAVER Map Directions, signifies the high reliability of these reviews, highlighting their practical value as a source of information.
To reduce the number of fake reviews and increase the reliability of reviews, NAVER made changes to its review system. Users are now required to go through *visit authentication before writing a review. In addition, NAVER introduced "Keyword Reviews" and removed star ratings in 2021 to reduce malicious reviews and allow Smart Place reviews to provide information about the business's characteristics.
* In 2019, receipt reviews were introduced as a part of visit authentication, and in 2023, visits can be authenticated based on credit card history linked to NAVER Pay’s “My Assets” service.
In particular, the impact of Smart Place reviews was found to be more significant for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) compared to franchises. The increase in user engagement such as page views (PVs), finding directions, and others were, on average, 1.5 times greater for SMEs than for franchise businesses. The research team added, “This indicates that Smart Place reviews are helping to bring attention to and connect lesser-known businesses with potential customers.” Smart Place reviews are currently being utilized as content within NAVER's various local services, providing users with detailed information on the businesses.
Local Business Owners Express High Satisfaction Rates with Keyword Reviews, Allowing Them to Improve Customer Service Quality
The research team also analyzed the satisfaction rate of local business owners through NAVER Smart Place reviews. The reviews received a satisfaction rating of over 3.67 points (out of 5) among business owners, as they were deemed "useful for business management." The Smart Place reviews were particularly helpful for businesses in terms of increasing sales, attracting new customers, managing existing customers, and boosting their online recognition.
The team also examined the satisfaction rating for the keyword review system, especially in comparison to the previous five-star rating system. Keyword reviews garnered a satisfaction rating of 3.77 points among business owners recognizing that they were more effective as they reveal the businesses’ characteristics. Furthermore, with the keywords acting as customer feedback, the service quality can be improved. These results suggest that the concept of “review ecosystem as a channel of communication” is being established, which was NAVER's objective when introducing this system. However, they also pointed out the lack of diversity in keywords and the need for a feature to select suitable keywords for each business.
Lee Yung-seong, the senior leader of NAVER Smart Place Review, said, “NAVER aims to establish Smart Place reviews not just as a means for evaluation, but as a communication channel between customers and businesses. This approach is intended to allow customers to engage with businesses through their visit experiences. NAVER acknowledges the importance of user and SME feedback in developing Smart Place reviews that effectively help businesses grow and improve review experiences. As we were able to gather and listen to SMEs' thoughts, we will continue to refine and enhance the Smart Place reviews system to better serve businesses and customers alike."
-END-