How it works
From the card at the door to "It's your turn".
Antechamber runs one first-come line for your shop. Here is everything it does, and what it does not.
1. Open a line
On Open a line type your business name, how many minutes a customer usually takes, your time zone and a ticket letter. There is no account and no e-mail: you get a private counter link. Save it (bookmark it, or keep it on the tablet at the counter). Anyone with that link runs your line, and we cannot send it to you again.
2. Put up the card
The counter has a poster to print: your business name, a QR code and a short link. Tape it to the door or the counter. The lobby board link shows "Now serving" on any TV or tablet browser.
3. Customers take a number
- Scan. The code opens your join page: whether the line is open, how many are waiting and an estimate.
- Type a first name. And a party size, 1 to 6. That is all we ask. Names with phone numbers or web addresses are refused.
- Wait anywhere. The ticket page shows their number, their place and the estimate, and checks for news every 10 seconds.
4. Call them up
On the counter, Call next rings up the customer at the front of the line and marks whoever was at that counter as served. Their ticket turns gold: "It's your turn". Next to every called customer you can also mark Served, No-show, or put them Back to the front if they stepped out. A waiting ticket can be taken off the line. With a Line Pass you can run up to 3 counters, and the ticket says which one to go to.
5. Pause, close, start again
Pause joining stops new joins (add a short note like "Back at 2:30"); everyone in line keeps their place. Close for today ends every waiting ticket and clears the names. Your line's day runs from 4 AM to 4 AM in your time zone: at 4 AM numbers restart at 1 and the line waits closed until you press Open the line, so nobody can join while nobody is watching.
The wait estimate
It starts from your own minutes-per-customer number. After three customers have been served today it switches to the middle value of your last ten real service times (called to served). The wait is that time multiplied by the people ahead (plus those at the counters), divided by your counters, rounded to a five-minute range. It is always labelled as an estimate and says what it is based on.
Your numbers
Every line sees today's joins, walk-ins, served, no-shows and people who left, the average wait and service time, and arrivals by hour. A Line Pass keeps 90 days and gives a CSV.
What it is not
- Not appointments or bookings, and not a payment system for your services.
- Not for medical, emergency or safety queues.
- Not a chamber of commerce, a directory or a membership: Antechamber is a software tool from GarfieldChambers.com.