What kind of wait estimate does the app give?

The app has features for showing rolling averages as guides for staff to use in assigning a wait time, and the Pro & Platinum services also have historical wait estimates that pull data by day/hour for the past 4 weeks. More details on that can be found here. 

We have found that having the actual wait times displayed next to the quoted times helps staff get better at providing accurate wait estimates since they're able learn and adjust based on how close they are when serving guests. So there are a lot of data points that are easy to see at a glance and improve wait estimate accuracy.

If you're using the Add Yourself Web Widget, there are several options for displaying an estimated wait. These options are solely displayed on the main widget page; they are not sent to a customer in a text message.

The various options for wait estimates that can be displayed in the widget are as follows:

• People and Groups – Show the number of parties and the total number of people on the list. 
• People – Show the number of people on the list. 
• Minutes By Group – Display an estimated time by multiplying the number of parties by a number of minutes you specify. For example, selecting 5 minutes will multiply the number of groups on the list by 5, and present that result as the estimated wait. 
• Minutes By People – Display an estimated time by multiplying the total number of people on the list by a number of minutes you specify. 
• Last Estimated Time – Report the last estimate given by your staff. 
• List View – Show the public view of the waitlist, so people can see where they are in line. 
• Hide – No estimates, just go straight to the Add Yourself part.

The estimated wait time shown when customers use your widget can be customized by logging in to www.waitlist.me and navigating to Settings > Add Yourself, then scrolling to the Main View fields.

This page here also gives a few visual examples of what the various options will look like from your customer's view. 

If you want an estimated wait time included in the confirmation text message, then it would be a good idea turn off auto-approve for waitlist requests. As each request gets approved by a staff member, they can assign an estimated wait which will then be included in the confirmation text sent to your guests. Otherwise, no estimate gets assigned and the message will show "0" for the wait time. You can change this setting in the Add Yourself section of the settings, under Confirmation & Approval.