Walk-In Queue: Manage Drop-In Customers Without the Chaos

Not every customer books ahead. Walk-ins are a reality for hair salons, clinics, repair shops, and dozens of other service businesses — and managing them fairly and efficiently has always been a challenge. Resvly's new Walk-In Queue feature brings the same structure and transparency you already have for pre-booked appointments to your drop-in customers.

How It Works

The walk-in system revolves around a kiosk page — a clean, full-screen interface you can open on any tablet or shared computer at your front desk. Customers walk in, pick the service they need (and optionally a specific staff member or "first available"), enter their details, and instantly receive a confirmation with their queue position. From that moment on they are in the system and can wait comfortably knowing exactly where they stand.

Behind the counter, your staff see a live queue dashboard. Each service you mark as walk-in enabled gets its own tab. A single tap on Call Next pulls the next eligible customer from the queue and notifies them — either the next person who asked for that specific staff member, or the first person still waiting in the shared pool, whichever comes first. Nobody jumps the queue; the order in which customers joined is always respected.

Setting Up a Walk-In Service

Enabling walk-in mode on an existing service takes seconds. Open Booking Services, edit the service, and flip the Walk-In Queue Service toggle. From there you can configure:

• Operating hours — the window during which the auto-scheduler will open and close the queue for you
• Operating days — which days of the week the queue runs
• Auto-schedule — let Resvly open the queue automatically at your start time and close it 30 minutes before the end time, giving staff enough time to serve the last person in line
• Staff assignment — attach specific team members so they appear as choices on the kiosk
• Custom attributes — collect extra information (pet name, vehicle registration, preferred product) right at the kiosk when a customer joins

Once configured, Resvly generates a dedicated Walk-In Link for each provider. Pin that URL to your kiosk browser and your customers are ready to self-serve from day one.

The Queue in Action

Every time the queue moves — a customer is called, completes their service, or is released — all remaining customers in the queue receive a position-update email. The messaging is tailored to their position: customers who are next hear "You're next!", those two spots away get "Almost there", and everyone else sees their exact number in line. No one is left guessing.

Smart Staff Routing

Walk-in services with multiple staff members use a fair routing system designed to keep service moving without anyone cutting in line:

• Named preference: if a customer chose a specific staff member, they wait in a dedicated slot for that person
• First available: customers who are happy with any team member sit in a shared pool — the next available staff member pulls from this pool in strict queue order
• Single query, no jumping: when a staff member calls next, the system runs one combined query across both their dedicated entries and the shared pool, ordered by queue position, so the person who arrived first is always served first

Walk-Ins Become Full Booking Records

When a staff member marks a walk-in as completed, Resvly automatically creates a booking record in your system. The start time is recorded as the moment the customer was called from the queue; the end time is when the service was marked complete. This means:

• Walk-in completions appear in your Manage Schedules weekly calendar with a green WI badge, including the customer name and email
• Customers can view their walk-in history in My Bookings just like any pre-booked appointment
• You get accurate service duration data for every walk-in — useful for capacity planning
• If it is the customer's very first interaction with Resvly, they automatically receive a welcome email with their new account details