Queuing glossary for businesses

Service

Assistance given to customers aimed at fulfilling their need or demand. Depending on the industry, a service may come in a form of products, consultancy, expertise, medical treatment, transportation, etc.

Clerk

A person providing the services and/or managing the queues. Clerks are usually staff members with limited control over the queuing software (see other location roles).

Queue area

A place or places in which waiting occurs.

Queue length

The number of people currently in a queue. Queue length, especially its visual look, is important to attracting new customers.

Ticket

A separate case of a served customer, as shown in the visitor history. Depending on the context, ticket may also refer to the obsolete ticket queue management technology.

Wait time

The time needed before a customer is being served. Wait time can be characterized as actual (i.e. based on exact time measurements) and perceived (i.e. based on internal perception of time). Along with queue length, wait time is an important metric to attracting new customers.

Service time

The time required to serve a customer. Despite being a separate term, service time may be considered a part of wait time by some customers.

Idle time

The time spent by a server not providing the services to customers.