Your reception area is the first point of contact when clients enter your building, and it’s essential you give them the best possible impression of your business.

If you have a busy lobby, your reception staff will be busy, queues can form, and customers can be inconvenienced. Fortunately, with the advancements in technology, you can now have a virtual receptionist service that can streamline your introductory processes and provide the ultimate client experience as soon as guests walk in the door.

Let’s dive in and learn about five crucial benefits delivered by ALICE virtual receptionist service.

1. Health Screenings

Health screening can be an important step for looking after both your clients and your employees. ALICE receptionist can recognize if a visitor is wearing a face mask, and also take temperature readings. In addition, you can create custom health questionnaires for customers to complete before they enter the building.

The system can then advise your clients of any additional steps they may need to take. This is a rapid process that allows your staff to keep a safe distance from anyone who could present a risk to their health. Your visitors may also appreciate this health and safety feature, as they’ll know everyone in your office will have followed the same procedure.

2. Fast Track Check-In

Your reception staff is already busy answering phones and dealing with other tasks, which can slow down the check-in process. This can frustrate busy clients who are in a hurry to have a meeting with your employees before they carry on to their next appointment.

ALICE virtual receptionist allows you to pre-schedule guests who are visiting your business. These clients can then easily announce their arrival by scanning a QR code. Or they could key in a visitor code supplied by the system via email prior to their arrival.

Should your clients be in a rush, they can also review the induction materials in advance. This allows them to move seamlessly through your lobby and on to their meeting in a matter of minutes. ALICE can even take a photograph of your customer as they stand in front of the screen. The system will then add the image to their visitor pass to further speed up the booking-in process.

3. Employee Notifications

ALICE virtual receptionist will also alert the relevant employee when their client has completed the check-in process. This notification is sent automatically, so there is no need for another staff member to let their colleague know a visitor is waiting. Employees don’t even have to be at their desks, as ALICE receptionist can send notifications by email, text, or even via Slack.

Although this may save just a couple of minutes at a time, this can add up to thousands of hours over an extended period. Your reception staff can then use this time to get on with other work.

Should a visitor wish to talk to your employee before they meet, there is also an option to make video and audio calls directly from the touch screen. This can be an excellent option should a client unexpectedly have to leave the building as they can still make contact with your employee.

4. Visitor Documentation

Alice receptionist can verify visitors using the ID scanning feature. The system can then provide guests with all the relevant documentation required before they can enter the building.

This could be important in a situation such as needing visitors to confirm they have read your health and safety procedures. In this scenario, ALICE can automatically request they sign a form which you can then keep on record.

You can also add custom surveys for guests to complete which can identify if you need to take any special measures for their visit. For example, this could occur if you have an area of the building that has restricted access, and a visitor could be having a meeting in that location.

Their survey answers would flag up this fact and send an alert to an appropriate member of staff who can provide them with access to their meeting room. As these surveys will be stored on your ALICE receptionist system, you can design them once, but use their time and time again.

ALICE receptionist will also print off a visitor badge. This can contain relevant information such as name, organization, and check-in date and time. This will all happen quickly and remove the risk of human error during the boking-in process.

5. Interactive Features

One of the most overlooked virtual receptionist jobs is to raise your business’s customer service levels. When using ALICE receptionist, you can give your clients access to local weather and transportation information, helping them to plan their onward journey. You could also provide welcome messages, employee directories, and even maps of your building layout.

These are all tasks that could take up a huge amount of an employee’s time. However, your ALICE receptionist can impress your clients 24/7, 365 days a year, without ever getting tired.

Learn More About ALICE Virtual Receptionist Service

The ALICE virtual receptionist service can have a transformative effect on how you greet and interact with your clients. You can reassure customers by providing health screenings to everyone who enters your building and streamlining the check-in process to avoid delays.

You can also provide clients with all the information required to ensure they have an efficient and pleasant visit to your offices. The best bit is you can customize our software to meet your requirements, and trial our system to see how it can work for your business.

For more information about ALICE virtual receptionist, and to get a free quote, contact our friendly team today.

It’s harder than ever to get good help. And that’s not because there aren’t skilled workers out there. It’s because of things like sick leave and parents having to stay home to take care of their kids.

If you’ve been the victim of the labor shortage and are at your wits end trying to find a receptionist, consider hiring one that never takes a day off: a virtual receptionist.

We’ll go over what our virtual receptionist service can do for you and your clients, below.

What Is a Virtual Receptionist?

Have you ever been to a mall or airport kiosk where there’s a big interactive touch screen display, showing you how to navigate the building or providing flight information?

A virtual receptionist is somewhat like that, but much more personable. It can be a small or large kiosk that has an on-screen personality that can greet and orient your clients. Almost like Siri or Alexa had a video-based human form.

We call our virtual receptionist system ALICE — and we can’t wait for you to meet her. These video-based receptionist systems can do a lot more than you think. We’re going over ALICE’s capabilities and what it can do for you, below.

1. They Can Greet Clients

ALICE has a built-in motion sensor that greets individuals as they walk in the door. No visitors have to search your lobby for how to get assistance. ALICE draws their attention gives them instructions — explaining that she is the virtual receptionist and will be the first touchpoint for them.

The range of motion sensor has distance settings, so you can customize when ALICE greets someone.

Once they greet the guest, ALICE…

2. Can Check Clients In

Even though it’s well past 2020, it seems that reducing the number of people in offices or waiting rooms is the way of the future. And if that’s true for you, ALICE can explain that to your clients and check them in.

Or, she can simply make sure they’re in the right place and direct them to where they need to go.

3. Provides Security

Your virtual receptionist can collect information about your clients or patients, scan drivers’ licenses, and even print visitor badge stickers with custom fields. Active visitor reports mean you can know who’s in your building at any time.

4. Can Do Health Screenings

ALICE has built-in features to keep people safe. She can check temperatures using a thermal sensor and verify if clients are wearing a mask or not.

A short survey is available for businesses that are required to have their clients confirm that they are symptom and exposure-free.

Not only will this ensure your staff stays safe, but it takes the burden of awkwardness off you. No longer do you need to put your team at risk when turning away maskless individuals.

5. Can Send Employee Notifications

If your client is checking in to see a certain employee, then ALICE can send a text message or email notification letting the employee know that their guest is here. This text or email includes the guest’s name and their company — if applicable.

You can load ALICE with your entire company directory. If your client has a question at check-in, they can call for assistance. This can be either a simple phone call, or you can provide a face-to-face interaction using a video call.

6. Can Help with Guest/Meeting Scheduling

Many of our clients use ALICE as a receptionist in buildings with multiple businesses – so clients go to the right place on the first try and not get lost. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t a perfect solution for individual companies.

ALICE can help schedule meetings for you, which is great for companies who are low on administrative help. It’s as easy as making a meeting invite and cc’ing the ALICE receptionist email account.

Once you’ve done that, the system will send a confirmation to your guest, along with an optional code that links them to any pre-appointment paperwork or forms.

Other ALICE Functions

Our virtual receptionist system can really do a lot. Along with being able to do everything above, she can:

•    Show building maps
•    Display calendars & company directories
•    Present the weather
•    Show local transportation (bus/train) times
•    Display a slide show
•    Give a customized welcome message
•    and more!

The ALICE system even has multiple language options – different voices for English and the ability to converse in several other languages. You can even pick what you want ALICE to look like. For example, changing to a male avatar. It’s fully customizable.

Your Life, Made Easier With a Virtual Receptionist

No matter what your lobby situation looks like, there’s an ALICE option for you. We have both virtual receptionist kiosks, wall-mounted displays, and desktop systems that come in a variety of sizes to fit your office. Visit our Hardware page to learn more.

ALICE is fully customizable to any business sector — from medical to tech. We’ll even send you a personalized quote, based on what you need.

But you know what’s even better about our virtual receptionist service? We offer trial options, so you can see if ALICE will work for you. Get started, here.