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Glossary: Industry Terminology

This glossary helps you interpret key terms related to digital customer engagement, compliance, and reputation management. It includes widely recognised regulatory concepts and fringe industry terms that arise in online conversation analysis, sentiment monitoring, and compliance contexts.

Consumer Duty (UK)

A regulatory standard from the UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) that requires financial service firms to deliver fair value, support customer understanding, and ensure good outcomes throughout the customer journey.

Treating Customers Fairly (TCF)

A regulatory principle used in the UK and South Africa that promotes fairness across product design, service, communication, and claims handling. TCF has six core outcomes that are frequently used in DataEQ’s segmentation models.

Market Conduct Regulation

Aims to ensure fair treatment of customers and maintain trust in the financial system. DataEQ’s Market Conduct dashboards help clients align with this by mapping online mentions to TCF outcomes and related risk indicators.

Regulatory Technology (RegTech)

Technologies used to streamline and improve regulatory compliance. Analyse serves as a RegTech solution by providing evidence-based reporting aligned with frameworks like Consumer Duty and TCF.

ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance)

A sustainability framework used to assess corporate ethics and long-term impact. Brands often track online mentions of ESG failures or wins as part of their reputational risk monitoring.

Greenwashing

A reputational risk where companies exaggerate or falsify sustainability claims. This topic can be tracked using custom search terms within Analyse for ESG monitoring.

SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals)

Seventeen global objectives defined by the UN, aimed at promoting equity, sustainability, and well-being. Brands aligned with SDGs may monitor public conversation for alignment or reputational scrutiny.

GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)

A European regulation that protects user data and privacy. Applies to any brand handling data on EU citizens. EQEngine processes public data in a way that aligns with GDPR principles.

POPIA (Protection of Personal Information Act)

South Africa’s data privacy law. Requires informed consent for personal data collection and responsible information handling. Relevant when reviewing data sources or setting up alerts.

Digital Conduct

A catch-all term referring to how financial or telco brands behave in online spaces—especially in relation to advertising disclosures, complaint resolution, and transparency.

Fair Disclosure

A principle (especially relevant in finance and telecoms) requiring brands to share truthful and clear information in advertisements and service updates. Breaches of this can lead to reputational damage.

Financial Inclusion

The effort to make financial products and services accessible to underserved populations. Often monitored in public conversation for indicators of brand equity, trust, and criticism.

NPS (Net Promoter Score)

A single-question customer survey metric that gauges brand loyalty. While popular among DataEQ clients, it differs from Net Sentiment, which reflects unsolicited, real-time feedback from online platforms.

CX (Customer Experience)

The full sum of a customer’s interactions with a brand. Includes perceptions shaped by support interactions, marketing, and product/service delivery. DataEQ solutions monitor and benchmark CX via operational sentiment.

CSAT (Customer Satisfaction Score)

A customer service metric usually captured via surveys. Unlike Net Sentiment, CSAT is subjective and snapshot-based. Some clients use CSAT alongside EQEngine data for a multi-dimensional view.

VoC (Voice of the Customer)

A framework for collecting customer insights to inform product and service improvements. DataEQ captures VoC via unsolicited feedback from online platforms—complementing surveys or CRM data.

NLP (Natural Language Processing)

The use of AI to analyse and interpret human language. EQEngine uses NLP as a preprocessing layer to support accurate sentiment and topic classification.

Crisis Monitoring

The use of real-time tracking and alerting during periods of reputational or operational risk (e.g., product outages, legal scrutiny, or viral backlash). EQEngine enables proactive issue triage.

Reputational Risk

Any threat to a brand’s public perception that could negatively impact business outcomes. Common triggers include policy violations, regulatory censure, or social media criticism.

Sentiment Volatility

A fringe metric describing rapid sentiment swings (e.g., after a product launch or crisis event). High volatility may signal polarised perception or pending reputational risk.

Baseline Sentiment

The average sentiment associated with a brand or product over time, used to assess whether current spikes or dips are statistically significant. EQEngine supports baseline tracking via time-series views.

Opportunity-to-See (OTS)

An estimated measure of how many people may have seen a mention, based on author reach or domain authority. OTS can indicate the potential impact of a positive or negative post.

Dark Social

Refers to social sharing through private channels (e.g., DMs, WhatsApp) that cannot be easily tracked. EQEngine captures and processes private messages (with account authorisation) to help surface this hidden layer of customer insight.

Customer Churn Indicators

Behaviours or statements (e.g., "I'm switching providers") that signal potential customer loss. Often tracked through “Cancel” tags in RPCS classification.

Data Minimisation

A GDPR principle requiring that only necessary data be collected and stored. DataEQ adheres to this by limiting data collection to public and authorised private mentions only.

First-Party Data

Information collected directly by a brand from its users (e.g., DMs, survey responses). Authorising profiles in Analyse allows integration of first-party social data into the insights workflow.

Third-Party Data

Publicly available information from social media, forums, and news sources not owned by the client. EQEngine analyses this to produce sentiment and thematic insights.

Troubleshooting Questions

  • Can Analyse track emerging compliance risks, like greenwashing or digital conduct violations?
     Yes. You can configure custom searches and alerts for keywords or sentiment changes related to these risks.

  • How is dark social handled if it’s “invisible”?
     Private messages on authorised profiles are captured by Analyse. While true dark social like WhatsApp remains untrackable, DMs provide valuable insight.

  • What’s the difference between VoC and CX?
     VoC is a methodology for listening to customers; CX is the experience you’re measuring. DataEQ helps with both.

  • Can EQEngine alert us during crises?
     Yes. Analyse can trigger real-time alerts based on sudden spikes in risk-related mentions or sentiment volatility.

  • How do sentiment metrics compare to NPS or CSAT?
     Sentiment offers continuous, unsolicited feedback across the customer journey—whereas NPS and CSAT are periodic, solicited snapshots.