HelpRun the queueRunning a multi-stop visit

Running a multi-stop visit

A multi-stop visitA visit that passes through several stops in order (e.g. reception → consult → pharmacy). Each stop is its own line. — reception, then the doctor, then the pharmacy — is one visitor, one number and one tracking link moving through several lines. Setting one up is in Journeys. This is what it's like to RUN one at the counter.

Everyone Where: Queue → a guest's action panel 5 min read
Each stop is an ordinary line. It has its own counters, its own hours and its own waiting list, and you serve it exactly like any other. The only thing that's different is how somebody leaves it — instead of Complete, you send them on.
  1. 1Reception
    A-7
  2. 2Doctor
    Send to next stage
One visit, three stops — the visitor keeps one number the whole way.

Sending somebody on to their next stop

While you're serving a multi-stop visitor, one extra tile appears — Send to next stage.

  • One tap ends your part and puts them in the next stop's line.
  • They keep their place there — by when they first arrived, never at the back.
  • They keep their number and their tracking page updates itself.
RuleWhat it means
It only shows while you're serving them Not while they're waiting, not while they're called — press Start serving first. Tapping it too early is told plainly — “Start serving this visitor before moving them on to their next stop.”
At the last stop it isn't there at all There is nowhere left to send them, so Complete is the ending.
Two people can't send the same person twice If a colleague got there first, only one of you moves them; the other is told what actually happened, and nothing is done twice.
Every role can do it Staff included, at the lines they work.
They keep their place — only the wait clock restarts. The next stop's line puts them by when they first arrived. Somebody who arrived at reception at 9:00 and reaches the consult at 9:20 goes ahead of a person who got to the consult at 9:10. What starts again is the wait clock — somebody who waited 25 minutes at reception arrives at the consult with a clock reading zero, because each stop only sees its own waiting. (A transfer to a different line is the opposite: they join the back.)
  • That is deliberate, so each stop is staffed for the load it really has.
  • If the promise you make is about the WHOLE appointment, there's a line setting for that — see Journeys.
  • One thing does carry across — a priority tierAn optional label (e.g. senior, accessibility need) that moves someone up the line ahead of ordinary walk-ins — kept separate from emergencies. or an emergencyThe highest-priority flag — called ahead of everyone, including due bookings. Off by default. keeps its rank at every stop.
If the next stop isn't open Closed, paused, or already at its capacity — they aren't lost and they aren't dropped. They're parked at that stop (see below) and told, and the moment it reopens they're let in at their proper place.

Their visit — seeing and changing the plan

Next to a multi-stop visitor's name is a button, Their visit — see and change their steps. It shows their whole route.

  • Each step numbered, a tick on the ones done.
  • “Here now” on the one they're at.
  • “Still to do” on what's left.
  • If they aren't on a multi-stop visit it says so rather than showing you an empty list.

Three things can be changed, and only on steps that HAVEN'T STARTED YET:

You pressWhat happens Who can
Any counter Each not-yet-started step offers this by default; pick one of that step's own counters instead and they'll be sent there when they reach it. Useful when you know which room or which stylist they need. Anyone can do this, staff included. Anyone on the team
Add a step at the end Give it a name and it's added to this one visitor's plan. It doesn't change the journey for anybody else. Manager
Take this step out Removes a not-yet-started step. Use Put this step back to undo it. A taken-out step stays visible with a line through it and, where we know it, who took it out and when. Manager
A done step, or the one they're at right now Carries no controls at all — it has already happened, and changing it would only make the record untrue.
The counter list is greyed while it's loading — on purpose. An empty-but-usable list would read as “this stop has no counters”, when the truth might be “we couldn't load them”. If it stays greyed, the counters didn't load — close it and open it again rather than assuming there are none.
One thing to watch when finishing If you press Complete on somebody who still has a step to come, you're stopped and asked first — “Steps still to come” — because completing ends the WHOLE visit and skips what's left. Use Send to next stage to keep them going.

When a multi-stop visitor misses their turn

Mark them No-show as usual. When they reappear, their tile is NOT “Put back in line” — it's Re-check in.

  • It returns them to THE STOP THEY WERE AT, at THEIR ORIGINAL PLACE in that queue.
  • They don't go back to the beginning of their visit, and they don't go to the back.
Why the ordinary “Put back in line” is refused here. A multi-stop visit is one thread with one live place in it. Putting an earlier stop back by hand would give the same person two places at once and lose track of where they really are.
If you try You're told — “This visitor is on a multi-step journey — use their next step instead of putting them back in line.”
  • Once a multi-stop visit has properly ended, it cannot be reopened at all — if they come back, add them as a new visitor.

Parked at a stop that was closed

When people arrive at a stop while it's paused or full, they don't queue — they're parked, and a Paused tab appears on the Queue holding them. It only exists while somebody is actually parked there.

Resume joins lets them all back in AT THEIR ORIGINAL ARRIVAL ORDER — nobody goes to the back for having been parked, because their join time is never touched.

  • Priority still outranks the clock, as everywhere else.
  • You're told how many came back.
  • Any role can do this, at the lines they work — the person on the floor when it gets busy is the person who needs to be able to stop and restart joins.

The record of one visit

ViewWhat it shows
Their visit — see and change their steps What is still to happen — the plan.
Their visit, step by step (the clock button) What already happened — joined, called, served, held, put back — with times in the shop's own clock and who did each thing.

For a file you can keep or send, open Report issue and take Download journey (PDF) from the bottom of that window — it lists when each thing happened, at which line, and who did it.

Only an owner or a manager at that branch sees this button. It isn't shown to staff at all. If you're staff and need the file, ask a manager to take it.

Related: Journeys (multi-stop visits) · Call & serve · Hold, missed & putting people back