CX glossary
Plain-English definitions of the customer experience, review and guest feedback terms restaurant teams use every day.
A
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AI Agents for Restaurants
AI agents for restaurants are AI systems that read guest and operational data and take actions, such as replying to reviews or taking orders, within set limits.
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AI Review Response
AI review response is the use of AI, usually a large language model, to draft or post replies to online reviews in a business's own voice.
B
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Brand Health
Brand health is how well a brand is known, perceived and chosen by guests over time, tracked through awareness, satisfaction, loyalty and reputation.
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Brand Mentions
A brand mention is any time your restaurant brand is named online, in reviews, social posts, news, forums or videos, whether you're tagged or not.
C
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Closed-Loop Feedback
Closed-loop feedback is following up with each guest who gives feedback and fixing the underlying cause, so the loop ends in a reply and a change.
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Comment Cards
Comment cards are short printed feedback forms that guests fill in at the table or counter, usually left with the bill, to rate their visit and add a note.
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Customer Data PlatformCDP
A customer data platform (CDP) is software that collects customer data from every source, unifies it into persistent profiles and shares them with other tools.
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Customer Effort ScoreCES
Customer Effort Score (CES) measures how easy guests find a specific task, such as ordering, booking or getting help, usually on a 1–7 agreement scale.
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Customer Satisfaction ScoreCSAT
Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) is the share of customers who rate a visit or interaction as satisfying, usually 4 or 5 on a 5-point scale.
D
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Delivery App Ratings
Delivery app ratings are the scores guests give a restaurant after ordering on apps such as DoorDash, Uber Eats, Grubhub, Deliveroo, GrabFood and foodpanda.
E
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Employee Net Promoter ScoreeNPS
Employee Net Promoter Score (eNPS) measures how likely employees are to recommend their company as a place to work, on a scale from -100 to +100.
F
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First-Party Guest Data
First-party guest data is information a restaurant collects directly from its own guests, with consent, through channels it owns.
G
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Google Business Profile
A Google Business Profile is the free listing that shows a business's details, photos and reviews on Google Search and Maps, managed by the business.
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Google Local Pack
The Google local pack is the map and short list of nearby businesses that Google shows in Search results for local searches such as "tacos near me".
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Guest Complaint Resolution
Guest complaint resolution is the step-by-step process a restaurant follows to handle one complaint, from intake and triage to the fix, follow-up and records.
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Guest ExperienceGX
Guest experience (GX) is the sum of every interaction a guest has with a restaurant brand, from discovering it to ordering, dining, delivery and follow-up.
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Guest Feedback
Guest feedback is everything guests tell a restaurant about their experience, from surveys and reviews to comment cards, messages and conversations with staff.
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Guest Journey Map
A guest journey map is a visual of every step a guest takes with a restaurant brand, from discovery to return visit, showing what they do, feel and run into.
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Guest Lifetime ValueGLV
Guest lifetime value (GLV) is the total value, in revenue or margin, that a restaurant can expect from one guest over the whole relationship.
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Guest Retention Rate
Guest retention rate is the share of a restaurant's guests from one period who come back and visit again in a later period.
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Guest Satisfaction Survey
A guest satisfaction survey is a short questionnaire a restaurant sends after a visit or order to measure how satisfied guests were and why.
H
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Hyperlocal Marketing
Hyperlocal marketing is marketing aimed at people within a small radius of each location, often a few blocks or a short drive, to bring nearby guests in.
I
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Influencer Marketing for Restaurants
Influencer marketing for restaurants is working with social media creators, paid or hosted, to show your food and locations to their local audiences.
K
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Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for Restaurants
Restaurant KPIs are the few measurable numbers, such as prime cost, ticket times and guest scores, that show whether a restaurant is meeting its goals.
L
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Local SEO for Restaurants
Local SEO for restaurants is the work of helping every location appear when nearby guests search Google, Maps and other local search tools for a place to eat.
M
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Moments of Truth
Moments of truth are the brief points in a guest's journey that most shape their impression of a restaurant, such as the greeting, the wait or the bill.
N
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Negative Review Response
A negative review response is a business's public reply to a critical review, written to acknowledge the problem, make it right and reassure future guests.
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Net Promoter ScoreNPS
Net Promoter Score (NPS) measures how likely customers are to recommend a business, from -100 to 100, based on one 0–10 question.
O
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Online Reputation ManagementORM
Online reputation management is how a business monitors, responds to and improves what people say about it on review sites, maps listings and social media.
P
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Post-Visit Survey
A post-visit survey is a short survey sent automatically after a dine-in, takeout or delivery visit, linked to that visit, to capture the guest's feedback.
Q
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QR Code Feedback
QR code feedback is guest feedback collected through a QR code on a receipt, table tent, bag or packaging that opens a short survey on the guest's phone.
R
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Repeat Guest Rate
Repeat guest rate is the share of a restaurant's guests in a period who have visited more than once, or the share of orders that come from those guests.
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Reputation Score
A reputation score is a composite index that combines star ratings, review volume, recency, responses and sentiment into one number for online reputation.
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Restaurant CRM
A restaurant CRM is software that keeps a record of each guest, with visits, orders, preferences and feedback, so you can recognize, segment and market to them.
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Restaurant Loyalty Program
A restaurant loyalty program rewards guests for repeat visits or spending, usually with points, free items or perks, and identifies them at each order.
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Review Aggregation
Review aggregation is collecting reviews and ratings from many sites into one feed, page or summary score, such as an aggregate star rating.
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Review Gating
Review gating is screening guests' sentiment first and inviting only the happy ones to post public reviews, a practice Google, Yelp and regulators prohibit.
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Review Management
Review management is the ongoing practice of monitoring, answering, requesting and analyzing customer reviews across every platform and location.
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Review Recency
Review recency measures how fresh a business's reviews are, such as the days since its latest review or the share of reviews from the last 90 days.
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Review Response Rate
Review response rate is the percentage of reviews a business replies to in a given period, usually tracked by platform, location and star rating.
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Review Sentiment
Review sentiment is the share of your reviews that are positive, neutral or negative, tracked overall and by topic, location and period.
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Review Solicitation
Review solicitation is asking guests to share their experience in a public review, in a way that treats every guest equally and follows each platform's rules.
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Review Velocity
Review velocity is the rate at which a business gains new online reviews, usually measured per week or per month for each location.
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Review Widget
A review widget is an embedded element that shows your ratings or guest reviews from Google, Yelp or other sources on your own website or location pages.
S
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Sentiment Analysis
Sentiment analysis uses AI to read reviews, surveys and comments and label the feeling in them as positive, negative or neutral, often per topic.
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Service Recovery
Service recovery is everything a restaurant does after a service failure to put things right with the guest and keep them coming back.
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Share of VoiceSOV
Share of voice (SOV) is your brand's share of the mentions, reviews, ad impressions or search visibility in your market, compared with competitors.
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Social Listening
Social listening is tracking and analyzing online conversations about your brand, competitors and category to find themes, risks and opportunities.
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Star Rating
A star rating is the average score, usually from 1 to 5 stars, that guests give a business on review sites, maps and delivery apps.
T
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Third-Party Review Sites
Third-party review sites are independent platforms, such as Google, Yelp, Tripadvisor and OpenTable, where guests publicly rate and review restaurants.
U
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Unified Guest Profile
A unified guest profile is a single record per guest that combines their orders, visits, reservations, loyalty activity, feedback and reviews from every system.
V
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Voice of the CustomerVoC
Voice of the Customer (VoC) is the program of capturing what guests say across every channel and turning it into decisions that improve the experience.
W
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Win-Back Campaign
A win-back campaign is a series of targeted messages, often with an offer, that invites lapsed guests to return to a restaurant they've stopped visiting.
X
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XMExperience Management
Experience management (XM) is the discipline of measuring and improving how customers and employees experience a business, and acting on what you learn.
Y
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Yelp for Restaurants
Yelp for restaurants covers how restaurants use Yelp's free business page, reviews, replies, ads and booking tools to reach guests who search on Yelp.
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