Turn time (service time)
Turn time is how long one customer occupies a chair or station from start to finish, and it drives how many people a business can serve and how long others wait.
Also called: service time, average visit time, handle time
Turn time is measured from the moment service begins to the moment the chair is free for the next person. For a quick fade, it might be twenty-five minutes. For a gel manicure, an hour. For an oil change, twenty. The figure includes sweeping, checkout and anything else that holds the station.
It is the main input to a wait estimate. If you know the turn time and how many people are ahead, you can predict when someone will be called. The common mistake is to use the length of the service alone and forget the time between customers.
Turn time varies by person and by day. Newer team members take longer, and a rushed Saturday often runs faster than a quiet Tuesday. Track it, update the figure when it changes, and treat it as a living number.
Example
6 people ahead, a 30 minute average visit and 3 staff on duty:
6 x 30 minutes = 180 minutes of work, shared by 3 people.
Estimated wait: about 60 minutes.
How NextUp Walk-in handles it
Wait estimates use your average visit time, or the duration of each service in the services method. Insights shows how quoted waits compared with real ones, which helps you tune those numbers.
Questions
What is the difference between service time and turn time?
Service time is the work itself. Turn time also includes checkout and resetting the station before the next customer, which is why it is the better number for planning waits.