Glossary
The F&B retention glossary
Plain-English definitions for the words that actually matter when you're trying to keep more of your customers — written for restaurant and café operators, not data scientists.
Customer churn
Customer churn is the percentage of customers who stop visiting your restaurant or buying from your café over a defined period (typically 30, 60, or 90 days).
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RFM analysis
RFM analysis is a customer segmentation method that scores each customer on Recency (how recently they visited), Frequency (how often), and Monetary value (how much they spend).
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Win-back campaign
A win-back campaign is a targeted message — usually with an incentive — sent to customers who have stopped visiting, with the goal of triggering a return visit.
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Loyalty program
A loyalty program is a structured incentive system that rewards customers for repeat purchases, with the goal of increasing visit frequency and customer lifetime value.
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Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) is the total revenue a customer generates for your business across their entire relationship with you, before they churn.
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Repeat customer rate
Repeat customer rate is the percentage of unique customers in a period who came back at least once more in a defined follow-up window.
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Customer retention rate
Customer retention rate is the percentage of customers you keep over a defined period — the inverse of churn — measuring how well your venue holds onto guests.
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Average Order Value (AOV)
Average Order Value (AOV) is the average amount a customer spends per transaction at your restaurant or café over a defined period.
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Zalo OA marketing
Zalo OA (Official Account) marketing is the use of Vietnam's dominant messaging app to reach customers with loyalty, broadcast, and 1:1 conversational messages.
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First-time visitor conversion
First-time visitor conversion is the percentage of brand-new guests who return at least once within a defined window (typically 30 days).
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Cohort analysis
Cohort analysis groups customers by a shared starting event (usually their first visit month) and tracks how each group's behaviour evolves over time.
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Loyalty program ROI
Loyalty program ROI measures the incremental profit (not revenue) generated by your program, after netting out reward costs and software fees.
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Stylist-tied loyalty
A retention model where loyalty points, rebook reminders, and personalised offers are linked to the specific stylist or technician a guest last saw — not just the venue. Critical in barbershops, hair salons, and nail bars where the personal relationship drives 60–80% of repeat behaviour.
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Barbershop rebook window
The interval (typically 3–6 weeks) inside which a barbershop guest is statistically likely to return for a maintenance cut. Guests crossing the window without a touch-point have ~3× higher churn risk than those nudged at week 4.
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Fill-in vs full set
Two distinct nail-salon visit types with different retention curves: fills run on a 2–3 week cadence and reward proactive reminders; full-sets cycle every 6–10 weeks and reward seasonal/occasion-driven win-back.
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No-show rate
Share of booked appointments where the guest fails to arrive without cancelling. A 12%+ no-show rate is the dominant drag on service-venue revenue and is usually fixed with deposit-on-booking + 24h + 2h reminders.
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Deposit on booking
Small non-refundable charge taken at booking time, applied as credit toward the service. Reduces no-shows by 50–70% on high-demand slots without hurting conversion when capped at 10–20% of ticket.
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Reminder cascade
A sequenced set of pre-appointment messages (booking confirm → 24h reminder → 2h Zalo/SMS), each with a one-tap reschedule link. Cuts no-shows materially even before deposits are introduced.
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Service-vertical CLV
Customer lifetime value for service venues, calculated as average ticket × visit frequency per year × expected retention years. For mid-market salons, a retained regular is worth 8–14× a first-time guest.
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Prepaid service pack
A bundle of N services paid up-front at a modest discount (e.g. 5 cuts for the price of 4). Locks in revenue, raises visit frequency 15–25%, and is the single highest-ROI loyalty mechanic for barbershops and nail salons.
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Service-venue membership tier
A subscription giving members standing privileges (priority booking, % off retail, included add-ons) for a monthly fee. Common in spas; underused in barbershops where churn is otherwise highest.
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Course of treatments
A spa/beauty multi-session protocol (e.g. 6 facials, 10 laser sessions) sold as a single package. Clinically and commercially superior to single bookings: completion rate rises to 80%+ with proper reminder cadence.
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Gift voucher
Prepaid credit purchased by one guest for another. Highest-ROI Q4 product for spas and salons in Vietnam; ~40% of redeemers become first-time guests who then enter the regular retention funnel.
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Referral bonus
Credit given to an existing guest when a referred friend completes a first visit. Service-venue referrals convert at 2–3× the rate of paid ads and produce guests with 30%+ higher first-year CLV.
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Retail attach rate
Share of service tickets that include a retail product purchase. A 15%+ attach rate doubles per-visit margin in hair salons and spas; stylist-led recommendations outperform passive displays 4:1.
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Chair utilisation
Booked-hours ÷ available-chair-hours. The dominant ops metric in barbershops and nail bars. Below 60% signals a marketing problem; above 85% signals scheduling friction and lost upsell time.
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Walk-in vs booked mix
Ratio of walk-in to pre-booked guests. Higher booked share predicts lower no-shows, higher ticket size, and meaningfully higher loyalty enrolment — booked guests give you a phone number before they sit down.
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Service menu engineering
Structuring the service list to anchor a premium tier, surface a profitable mid tier, and use a value tier for discovery. Lifts average ticket 10–18% without changing prices.
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Add-on conversion
Share of bookings that accept a prompted add-on (scalp massage, paraffin, hot-towel). A scripted add-on prompt at check-in converts at 25–40% in trained salons — pure margin.
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Tourist vs resident mix
For coastal and heritage-city venues, the split between one-trip tourists and resident regulars. A 70/30 tourist-skewed venue needs a different retention engine (review capture, gift voucher) than a resident-skewed one (rebook reminders, membership).
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Birthday trigger
An automated message and offer sent in the week before a guest's birthday. Conversion rates of 18–28% on a single send make it the highest-ROI evergreen automation for beauty venues.
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Service anniversary trigger
A message marking the anniversary of a guest's first visit. Often outperforms birthday triggers in barbershops where stylist relationships matter more than personal occasions.
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Lapsed guest flag
A status applied when a previously regular guest crosses a vertical-specific dormancy threshold (barbershop: 8 weeks, hair salon: 14 weeks, spa: 16 weeks). Triggers the win-back sequence.
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Rebook at checkout
The single intervention that moves service-venue retention more than any other: asking for the next appointment before the guest leaves the chair. Lifts 6-week return rate by 25–40 points when adopted consistently.
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Operator dashboard
A single screen for venue owners showing today's bookings, no-show risk per slot, lapsed-guest counts, and outstanding win-back queues. Replaces 4–6 spreadsheets and a manual phone-tree.
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Service CLV cohort
A group of guests acquired in the same week or month, tracked through their first 12 months to compare retention curves. The honest way to evaluate whether a campaign acquired guests who actually stuck.
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Loyalty layer
A retention/CRM system that sits on top of an existing booking platform (Booksy, Fresha, Mindbody, KiotViet) rather than replacing it. PEKO's positioning: keep your bookings where they are, layer retention on top.
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Booking platform vs loyalty platform
Booking platforms (Booksy, Fresha) optimise the calendar; loyalty platforms (PEKO) optimise the relationship. The two are complementary — replacing one with the other almost always loses something.
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Zalo OA broadcast
A scheduled message sent to a subscribed Zalo Official Account audience. In Vietnam, the default retention channel for service venues — open rates of 60–80% materially beat email or SMS.
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Zalo ZNS vs Zalo OA
ZNS is transactional, template-approved, and reaches even non-followers; OA is conversational and broadcasts to followers only. A complete Vietnam stack uses ZNS for confirmations and OA for relationship messages.
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VND pricing anchor
A round-number price (95k, 150k, 250k VND) chosen for psychological anchor effect rather than cost-plus. Service menus that round to these anchors test 8–12% higher in willingness-to-pay than odd-cent equivalents.
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Tết seasonal pack
A pre-Tết gift bundle (voucher + retail + take-home product) launched mid-January. The single largest Q1 revenue lever for Vietnamese salons and spas.
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District cluster effect
In Vietnamese cities, clusters of competing venues in one district (District 1, Tây Hồ, Hải Châu) compete primarily on rebook discipline, not novelty — the cluster lifts foot-traffic for everyone, and retention decides the spoils.
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Stylist portability
The risk that a popular stylist takes their book of regulars with them when they leave. A venue-level loyalty layer (vs a stylist-only book) is the structural defence.
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Service recovery
The deliberate process of converting a service failure into a stronger relationship via fast apology, comp, and personal follow-up. A well-recovered complaint produces a guest with higher loyalty than one who never had a problem.
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Review capture loop
A post-visit prompt asking the guest for a Google or Facebook review at the moment of peak satisfaction. Properly timed, lifts public review volume 5–10× without paid incentive.
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NPS for service venues
A one-question post-visit survey (0–10 likelihood to recommend) that segments guests into promoters, passives, and detractors. Useful as a trend line; less reliable as an absolute score in <100-respondent samples.
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Second-visit conversion
Share of first-time guests who return within the vertical's rebook window. The single most diagnostic number for new-customer retention — below 30% indicates an experience or follow-up problem, not a marketing one.
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Loyalty program vs discount
A loyalty program rewards future behaviour and trains repeat visits; a discount rewards past behaviour and trains price sensitivity. The two look similar on a receipt but produce opposite long-term economics.
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Punch-card mechanic
The simplest loyalty pattern: N paid services earn one free. Underrated for barbershops and nail salons because the "almost there" effect lifts visit frequency in the final 1–2 punches.
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Surprise-and-delight
An unannounced gift to a regular at an unexpected moment (free upgrade, take-home product). Produces stronger word-of-mouth per dollar spent than any predictable reward — but only when genuinely unexpected.
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Retention cohort curve
A plot of % of an acquired cohort still active at month 1, 3, 6, 12. The shape (steep early drop vs slow leak) tells you whether the leak is onboarding or relationship.
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Win-back window
The interval after a guest's dormancy threshold during which a win-back offer still recovers a meaningful share of guests. Closes at roughly 2× the rebook window — beyond that, win-back economics collapse.
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Service attach bundle
A multi-service combo (cut + beard, mani + pedi, facial + massage) priced below the sum of parts. Lifts average ticket and visit duration without adding marketing cost.
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Cancellation policy tier
A graduated set of rules (free >24h, partial 24–2h, full <2h) that aligns guest behaviour with operational reality. Combined with deposits, eliminates the worst 5% of no-show offenders.
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Stylist commission model
How a venue splits revenue with its stylists (% of service, % of retail, hourly + tip). Determines which behaviours stylists will actually push — and therefore which loyalty mechanics will work.
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VIP list management
A small, deliberately curated set (50–200 names) of top-decile guests who receive concierge attention, priority slots, and named-by-stylist greetings. Drives a disproportionate share of annual revenue.
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Referral attribution
The process of crediting a referring guest when a new guest arrives — by code, by name-mention, or by phone-number lookup. Without this, no referral program works at scale.
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Loyalty program ROI
Incremental margin attributable to the program ÷ total cost. For service venues, properly designed programs return 4–10×; poorly designed ones (over-discounting top customers) can be margin-negative.
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Retention vs acquisition spend
The split between budget aimed at new guests vs at existing ones. Most service venues over-spend on acquisition by 2–3×; reallocating to retention typically lifts EBITDA without changing topline.
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Operator onboarding time
Hours from contract-signed to first automated message sent. A loyalty layer that takes >2 weeks to onboard a small venue is friction; the PEKO target is under 5 days.
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AI rebook prediction
A model that scores each guest's probability of returning in the next N days based on visit cadence, service mix, ticket trend, and seasonality. Prioritises which lapsing guests deserve a personal call vs an automated nudge.
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Kopitiam loyalty
Kopitiam loyalty is the small set of retention mechanics — usually a digital tab, a 10-kopi punch, or a WhatsApp reward — that Singapore coffeeshops and hawker stalls use to convert walk-ins into named regulars.
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PayNow loyalty
PayNow loyalty is a Singapore retention pattern that uses the customer's PayNow mobile number or UEN as the loyalty identifier, with rewards settled directly back to PayNow — eliminating the need for a separate loyalty app or card.
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SGQR loyalty
SGQR loyalty is retention software that attaches to transactions routed through Singapore's unified SGQR standard — a single QR code that accepts PayNow, NETS, GrabPay, and most major wallets — using the payment identifier to recognise returning customers.
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Touch ’n Go eWallet loyalty
Touch ’n Go (TNG) eWallet loyalty is a Malaysian retention pattern that uses the customer's TNG handle as a loyalty ID and settles cashback or credit back to TNG — leveraging the country's most widely-installed mobile wallet.
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DuitNow QR loyalty
DuitNow QR loyalty is retention software that attaches to transactions routed through Malaysia's national QR standard — accepting Touch ’n Go, GrabPay, Boost, MAE, and bank apps — using the routed payer reference to recognise returning customers.
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Mamak loyalty
Mamak loyalty is the set of retention mechanics — late-night WhatsApp broadcasts, TNG cashback, and digital tabs — that Malaysian mamak and 24-hour eateries use to convert walk-in regulars into a named, contactable customer base.
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GCash loyalty
GCash loyalty is a Philippine retention pattern that uses the customer's GCash handle as the loyalty identifier and settles cashback or credit directly to GCash — leveraging the country's most widely-installed mobile wallet.
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Maya loyalty
Maya loyalty is a Philippine retention pattern that uses the customer's Maya (formerly PayMaya) handle as the loyalty ID and settles cashback or credit back to the Maya wallet — typically used alongside GCash to cover the full Philippine wallet footprint.
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Cashier bottleneck
The cashier bottleneck is the failure mode where a loyalty program only enrols new members when the cashier remembers to ask for the customer's phone number — so member growth stalls as soon as the venue gets busy or staff give up asking.
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Loyalty death spiral
The loyalty death spiral is a self-reinforcing 6-step loop that quietly kills a points program from the inside. It starts with cashiers skipping enrolment on busy shifts, drops new-member growth to near zero, hides point balances from members so they forget the program exists, and ends with the owner concluding 'loyalty doesn't work here' and shutting it off.
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Self-enrolment loyalty
Self-enrolment loyalty is a program design where guests enrol and earn points on their own — via table QR, receipt QR, or scanning their receipt with OCR — without the cashier having to ask for a phone number. It's the structural fix for the cashier bottleneck.
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Payer-only ceiling
The payer-only ceiling is the structural limit on loyalty growth that arises when enrolment happens through the receipt or the payment transaction: because a party of any size produces one payer and one receipt, the programme can capture at most one member per visit.
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Loyalty integrity
Loyalty integrity is the set of controls that keeps a self-enrolment loyalty programme honest — rate limits, receipt-age and receipt-total thresholds, cross-customer duplicate-image matching, repeated-failed-scan detection, and risk-tiered automatic actions.
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Counter-bound loyalty
Counter-bound loyalty is any programme in which the four jobs that keep it alive — joining, earning points, redeeming rewards, and following up with the customer — can only be done at the counter, in front of a member of staff, at the moment of payment.
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