Customer Experience & Feedback Glossary

A rule that decides when feedback becomes an alert, such as three negative ratings in a row at one location.

Comparing scores across sites, branches or touchpoints, often as a ranked list, to find the best and worst performers.

Also called: leaderboard, location ranking

Recording each cleaning visit on site with a timestamp, replacing paper logs with proof that a space was actually serviced.

Also called: verified check-in, digital cleaning log

Acting on each piece of feedback and following up, so the issue is fixed and, where possible, the person who raised it hears back.

Also called: close the loop, closing the feedback loop

A paper form left at a location for customers to write feedback on. Digital collectors have largely replaced them because paper is slow to read and rarely tied to a time or place.

A measure of how easy it was for a customer to get something done, such as resolving an issue or completing a purchase.

Also called: CES, effort score

The sum of every interaction a customer has with an organization, and how they feel about it, from first contact to after the visit.

Also called: CX

A visual of the stages and touchpoints a customer goes through, used to see where the experience works and where it breaks down.

Also called: journey map, customer journey

A measure of how satisfied customers are with a specific interaction, usually the share of positive answers to a question like "How satisfied were you today?".

Also called: CSAT, customer satisfaction

A named part of the day, such as breakfast, lunch or evening, used to compare feedback across shifts and service periods.

A one-click rating, usually smiley faces, placed in a staff member's email signature so customers can rate the service with every reply.

Everything employees encounter at work, from their tools and workplace to their managers, and how it shapes engagement and retention.

Also called: EX

The NPS method applied to employees: how likely staff are to recommend their organization as a place to work.

Also called: eNPS, employee NPS

Passing an unresolved issue to a supervisor or the next level when its deadline passes, so nothing is left open.

Any channel or device that gathers feedback, from a smiley terminal or tablet to a QR code, SMS, email, website widget or phone survey.

A physical device placed where an experience happens that lets people rate it in seconds, on a floor stand, counter or wall.

Also called: survey kiosk, customer feedback kiosk, visitor feedback kiosk

Feedback from staff who don't sit at a desk, such as store, plant, hotel or cleaning teams, collected through kiosks, QR codes or SMS rather than email surveys.

Also called: deskless employee feedback

AI models that create text, used in feedback platforms to summarize comments, answer questions about the data and suggest next steps.

Also called: AI feedback analysis

How guests feel about every part of a visit to a hotel, restaurant or venue - welcome, cleanliness, comfort, service and value.

Also called: GX, hotel guest experience

Every step a guest takes with a hotel, restaurant or venue, from booking and arrival to the stay, checkout and the review afterwards.

Also called: hotel guest journey, hotel customer journey

A grid where each cell is coloured by its value, such as satisfaction by day and hour, so weak spots stand out without reading numbers.

Feedback collected at the place and time an experience happens, such as at an exit, a counter or a washroom, instead of in a survey days later.

Also called: point-of-experience feedback

A named step in a customer journey, such as booking, arrival, stay or checkout, that groups related touchpoints.

A very short survey, often one question with an optional follow-up, designed to be answered in a few seconds.

Rules that stop one person from voting again and again, so a terminal's results reflect real visitors rather than repeated presses.

Also called: repeat vote filtering, fake response filtering

A loyalty metric based on how likely people are to recommend a business on a 0-10 scale: the percentage of promoters (9-10) minus the percentage of detractors (0-6).

Also called: NPS, net promoter

How travelers experience an airport, station or transit service at each step, from parking and security to washrooms, gates and arrivals.

Also called: passenger feedback solution, airport passenger experience

How patients and visitors experience care at a hospital or clinic - from waiting times and communication to cleanliness of wards and washrooms.

Also called: patient experience solutions, PX

A sensor that counts how many people pass through an entrance, so traffic can be compared with feedback, staffing and cleaning.

Also called: footfall counter, foot traffic counter, visitor counter, customer counter sensor, people counting sensor

A short description of a typical customer group, used to design and read a journey from their point of view.

A short survey played to callers when a contact-center call ends, answered by keypad or voice through interactive voice response (IVR).

Also called: IVR survey

Feedback given by scanning a printed QR code that opens a short survey in the phone's browser, with no app or account.

Feedback that reaches the team within seconds of being given, so they can respond while the customer or the issue is still on site.

The share of people who answer a feedback request out of everyone who was asked or passed the collector. It decides how representative your feedback is.

Tools a restaurant uses to collect diner feedback - at the table, the exit or after the meal - and act on it before it becomes a bad review.

Also called: restaurant feedback software

A way for visitors to rate a restroom, washroom or toilet in seconds and report issues, with alerts sent to the cleaner responsible.

Also called: washroom feedback system, toilet feedback system

Working out the underlying reason behind a pattern of low scores, such as a staffing gap or a supply problem, rather than treating each complaint on its own.

Also called: root cause

A flow chart where the thickness of each band shows how many responses move from one step to the next, for example from a location to the reason given.

Automatically judging whether a comment is positive, negative or neutral, and how strongly, so thousands of comments can be read at a glance.

A number showing how positive or negative a piece of text is, produced by sentiment analysis and often averaged across many comments.

An agreed target for how fast an issue must be handled, such as fixing a reported restroom problem within 20 minutes.

Also called: SLA

What an organization does to put things right after a service failure, ideally fast enough to change how the customer feels before they leave.

A feedback device with three faces - happy, neutral and unhappy - that people press or hover over to rate an experience as they pass.

Also called: smiley terminal, smiley feedback kiosk, smiley device, smiley feedback buttons, happy or not buttons, smiley feedback device, push button feedback device

A feedback request sent by text message, answered either by replying (two-way SMS) or by tapping a link to a short web survey.

Also called: text message survey, feedback SMS, SMS feedback

A wall- or counter-mounted tablet running a feedback app, used where a branded, multi-question survey is worth one more tap.

Also called: feedback tablet, tablet kiosk

Using natural language processing to turn large volumes of written comments into themes, sentiment and trends that can be counted and compared.

A subject that keeps coming up across comments, such as wait time, cleanliness or staff friendliness, found automatically by text analytics.

Also called: topic, cluster

Feedback given without touching a shared surface, either by hovering a hand over a sensor or by answering on your own phone through a QR code or SMS.

Also called: contactless feedback

Any point where a customer comes into contact with a business, such as a website, a front desk, a checkout, a washroom or a phone call.

A text survey the customer answers by replying to the message itself, rather than by opening a link.

Cleaning a space after a set number of visitors, or when feedback says it needs attention, instead of only on a fixed schedule.

Also called: demand-based cleaning, traffic-based cleaning

A program that collects, analyzes and acts on what customers say about their experiences, across every channel where they give feedback.

Also called: VoC, voice of customer

A small feedback prompt embedded in a website or app that asks visitors to rate a page or an experience without leaving it.

Feedback invitations sent over WhatsApp, where customers tap through to a short survey on the app they already use every day.

A picture of the words in feedback where bigger words appear more often, sometimes coloured by sentiment.

A task created for a specific person or team to fix a problem at a specific place, tracked from opening to verified completion.