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Glossary
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Review velocity
Review velocity is the rate at which a restaurant earns new reviews over time, and a steady, recent flow signals to search engines and diners that the business is active and popular.
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RevPASH (revenue per available seat hour)
RevPASH (revenue per available seat hour) is total revenue divided by the number of seats multiplied by the hours open, measuring how productively every seat earns.
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Same-store sales
Same-store sales (or comparable sales) measures year-over-year sales growth at locations open at least a year, stripping out the effect of new openings.
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Schema markup
Schema markup is structured code you add to your website that labels your information (menu, hours, location, cuisine, reviews) in a format search engines and AI can read precisely.
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Segmentation
Segmentation is dividing your guests into meaningful groups (lapsed regulars, VIPs, first-timers, big spenders) so you can send each the right message instead of blasting everyone the same thing.
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Self-order kiosk
A self-order kiosk is a customer-facing touchscreen where guests place and pay for their own order without a cashier, freeing staff and prompting add-ons every time.
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Sentiment analysis
Sentiment analysis is using AI to automatically score whether reviews, messages, and social posts are positive, negative, or neutral, and to surface the themes behind them.
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Service charge
A service charge is a mandatory amount, usually a set percentage, that a restaurant adds to the check, distinct from a voluntary tip the guest chooses.
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SMS marketing
SMS marketing is sending promotional and transactional text messages, from offers to table-ready alerts, to guests who have opted in to receive them.
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Star rating
A star rating is the aggregate 1-to-5 score a restaurant carries on a review platform, the single number a diner (and increasingly an AI assistant) sees first.
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Table turn time
Table turn time is the average time a party occupies a table from seating to when it is cleared and ready for the next party.
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Third-party delivery
Third-party delivery is order fulfillment through a marketplace app like DoorDash or Uber Eats that brings you demand in exchange for a commission on each order, typically 15 to 30 percent.
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Ticket time
Ticket time is the elapsed time from when an order is fired to when it is completed, the core measure of how fast the kitchen turns tickets during service.
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Tip pooling
Tip pooling is combining some or all of the staff's tips into a single pot and redistributing it by a set formula, rather than each worker keeping only what they were tipped directly.
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Upselling
Upselling is prompting a guest to add to or upgrade their order (a side, a drink, a larger size, a dessert) at the moment they are deciding, lifting the average check.
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Virtual brand
A virtual brand is a delivery-only menu concept run out of an existing restaurant's kitchen, sold under a different name purely to reach more customers online.
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Voice AI
Voice AI is software that answers phone calls or drive-thru orders in a natural spoken conversation, understanding what a caller wants and responding without a human on the line.
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Void
A void is the cancellation of an item or a check on the POS before it is paid, a routine correction that is also one of the most common ways cash and product quietly go missing.
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Waitlist
A waitlist is the ordered queue of walk-in guests waiting for a table, now usually run digitally so parties can be quoted an honest wait and texted the moment their table is ready.
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Walk-in
A walk-in is a guest who arrives without a reservation hoping to be seated; the same word also names the walk-in cooler, the room-sized refrigerator where a kitchen stores stock.
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Webhook
A webhook is an automated message one app sends another the moment an event happens, such as a new order, so systems stay in sync in real time.
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Win-back campaign
A win-back campaign is automated email or SMS outreach that re-engages guests who have stopped coming, before they are lost for good.