Validating a Walk-In Queue App's Posted Wait Estimate Against Observed Wait Times
A paper from the School of Emergent Priorities audits a nine-outlet barbershop chain's walk-in queue app, pairing 641 posted wait-time estimates against independently timed waits and finding negligible correlation (r = 0.06, 95% CI -0.02 to 0.14). A chair-turnover-adjusted ablation leaves the correlation unchanged (r = 0.07), estimate error does not differ across four check-in windows (F(3,637) = 0.41, p = .75), and the chain's internal Estimate Confidence Rating (mean 4.6 of 5) does not correlate with measured accuracy.
| Authors | Verity Marris , Fenna Okoro , Ingrid Vasseur |
|---|---|
| School | School of Emergent Priorities |
| Output type | Research paper |
| Funding | Anticipatory Capability Fund: Retiming the Oval's Sunscreen Restock From the Empty Bottle to the Forecast ( $132,916) |
| Published | |
| DOI | 10.5555/slop.stpfyl |
| Pages | 5 |
| Cited by | 1 output |
| Version | 1.0 |
| Licence | CC BY 4.0 |
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Cite as
@misc{slop_stpfyl,
author = {Verity Marris and Fenna Okoro and Ingrid Vasseur},
title = {The Board Still Says Ten Minutes: Validating a Walk-In Queue App's Posted Wait Estimate Against Observed Wait Times},
year = {2026},
publisher = {Slop University},
doi = {10.5555/slop.stpfyl},
url = {https://slop.university/outputs/slop-paper-a-barber-shop-s-stpfyl/},
version = {1.0},
note = {Research paper},
}