Category: New feature

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WhosOnLocation’s latest integration brings us one step closer to a fully virtual receptionist. Introducing Alexa for Business by WhosOnLocation. Welcome to the future!

What is a virtual receptionist? 

When we think about virtual receptionists, two different scenarios spring to mind. There are teams of remote receptionists who are contracted to take calls for a number of businesses. And then there is the futuristic type – AI fuelled robots who automate the entire process for you. 

Fully functioning robots aren’t widely available just yet. However, there are a number of technologies that can automate tasks and take the strain off under-resourced teams. 

• Visitor management software can automate the sign-in process. WhosOnLocation allows visitors to sign themselves in, presents instructions on where to wait, and automatically notifies their host. These self-serve kiosks are even available in a touchless, hygienic format. 
• Voice-activated assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa for Business, can further personalize this process. By integrating with visitor management software, we can take our virtual receptionists up a gear; audibly welcoming guests and announcing arrivals.

Benefits of a virtual receptionist

We’ve already hinted at a few of the benefits, but let’s take a closer look at why you might need a virtual receptionist. 

Your front of house team is busy

Small businesses can still make a big impact when their visitors arrive. Rather than scrambling to unlock a door or locate a visitor’s host, let a virtual receptionist take on some of the load. 

With visitor admin largely taken care of, your front of house team can use their time more wisely. They’ll also be able to run errands and take breaks in the knowledge the front desk is always ‘manned.’

You have a large facility with multiple access points

How do you cover every access point to ensure employees and contractors are always signing in? Whether you need to carry out health screening, contact tracing, or simply know who’s on-site for health and safety reasons, virtual receptionists can ensure no one slips through the cracks. 

Your facility contains a number of hazardous zones

Think of this less like a virtual receptionist, and more like a virtual health and safety assistant. By placing sign-in kiosks or QR code posters at the entrance to each of your hazardous zones, you can ensure your employees and contractors have the information they need. Check out this blog for more details. 

Alexa for Business integration 

WhosOnLocation’s latest integration with Alexa for Business enhances the way you use your subscription. Here are some possible use cases to get the creative juices flowing… 

Welcome your visitors

Have a spiel you need to communicate to all visitors? Whether it’s ‘please keep your visitor pass visible’ or ‘ensure you wear a mask’, have Alexa automate the process for you. Once a guest has finished signing in at your kiosk, Alexa can verbally welcome them, and pass on any important information they might need to know. 

Announce an arrival

Meanwhile, inside your facility, you can keep an Alexa device close to your employee workstations to act as a doorbell. Alexa can announce when a visitor or contractor has signed in and is waiting to be collected from reception. This announcement can include their name and who they are visiting. 

Deny employee entry

Currently, carrying out health screening or imposing maximum occupancy to adhere to social distancing? Whatever your reason for denying an employee entry to your facility, create a trigger in WhosOnLocation to automatically prevent sign in, and have Alexa communicate the reason why. 

Remind contractors of expiring documentation

Whether it’s a safety induction, insurances or a qualification in need of renewal, have Alexa verbally remind your contractors of expiring documentation when they sign in. 

From visitor management software to voice-activated assistants, we are certainly edging ever closer to a truly useful virtual receptionist.

Ready to get started? 

To get started you’ll need an AWS enterprise account and a WhosOnLocation subscription. Visit our Help Center for step-by-step instructions on enabling the Alexa for Business integration. 

New to WhosOnLocation? 

Get started with a FREE 30 day trial today. No credit card required. 

Custom fields are available in WhosOnLocation for employee, service provider, and service provider organization profiles. Instead of sticking to the pre-defined data fields such as ‘Employee name’ or ‘Employee email address’, you can now create and name your own fields. 

Whether you want a checkbox to indicate an employee’s eligibility to work, a calendar field to input their date of birth or to link through to their line manager’s profile – the options are endless!

How would I use Custom Fields? 

Imagine there are four or five pieces of information you ask every new employee or service provider when they start their employment. Most will be quite generic e.g. name, home address, emergency contact number. However, you probably have some questions that are very specific to your organization, too. They might even be required for compliance.

For example, you might only allow pre-approved vehicles to enter your site for security reasons. As a result, you’d need to note down the registration number of each employee’s car. 

You might also need to prove you’ve checked all employees are eligible to work in the country you’re based. Or perhaps you need to log information that will help run regular background checks, like an employee’s place of birth. With custom fields, you can be as specific as you need. 

Keeping things organized

You can hide all of the standard information you don’t need to capture, to keep your employee and service provider profiles ordered. Simply hide any fields you don’t need and drag and drop in the fields you do. 

You can even group fields together by ‘type’, saving them together in a tab. For example, for each service provider, you might have a contact information tab alongside an important documentation tab. This makes it quick and easy to locate the information your need – perfect for when the auditors come knocking. 

Set up a template that works for your organization to ensure you’re only capturing information that’s relevant. Get peace of mind you’re storing all the data required to help you stay compliant. 

Ready to get started with custom fields? 

Custom fields are available today, and included in your WhosOnLocation subscription. Visit our Help Center for step-by-step instructions on getting started. 

New to WhosOnlocation? 

Get started with a FREE 30 day trial today. No credit card required. 

The most foolproof way to carry out health screening is to automate the process. By using a people presence solution like WhosOnLocation, you can set up custom questions that are asked every time someone signs into your facility.

Health screening at every access point  

Placing a self-serve, sign-in kiosk in your main reception is a fantastic way to trace who’s moving through your site. Especially if you set it to touchless mode, for hygienic sign in/out. Not only does this create a slick, professional experience for your guests, but it also allows you to print ID badges with ease. 

But what about facilities with multiple entry and exit points? It’s often not feasible to place and maintain sophisticated hardware at every side entrance, gate or warehouse. That’s where QR code posters come in… 

How do posters differ from kiosks?

Similar to touchless kiosks, our new posters display a QR code that can be scanned on the guests’ smartphone. Once scanned, the employee, visitor or contractor is asked to enter their information and answer any health screening questions. 

By removing the need to buy expensive hardware, these posters are great for outdoor locations, or for placing at every access point in a larger facility. 

However, it’s worth noting these posters don’t have the ability to print badge passes. We would still recommend using an online kiosk at your main reception, especially if you’re signing in visitors. 

No app download required

To make it as easy as possible to screen everyone on-site, we’ve ensured our QR codes open in the guest’s browser. This is particularly great for visitors – no one wants to download an app for a one-off visit!

Get specific with contact tracing

The brilliant thing about QR code posters is that they can also be used to zone your facility. This can be really helpful should you need to carry out contact tracing in your facility. 

By splitting your facility into zones, you can assign your employees and contractors to each zone depending on their role. For example, if your accounts team sits on the top floor of your building, you can zone this area off and create a QR code for this floor. 

This makes it much easier to trace who has come into close contact with an affected individual, and which areas of your facility may require additional cleaning in the case of an outbreak of COVID-19. 

Security and best practice

Unlike our online kiosks, QR code posters can only be refreshed manually. This is achieved by printing a new poster. 

To ensure your QR codes are used only as intended, and to minimize the risk of mis-use, we recommend printing a new QR code poster once a month.

Ready to get started with health screening and QR code posters? 

All of the features mentioned are available today, and included in your WhosOnLocation subscription. Visit our Help Center for step-by-step instructions on enabling QR code posters. 

New to WhosOnlocation? 

Get started with a FREE 30 day trial today. No credit card required. 

Our latest feature update is a great example of this. Hosted employees gives you tighter control over global roamers. 

Employee security – Global roamers

Global roamers are employees who have access to multiple locations within an organization. Imagine a regional manager, who often travels between sites for meetings. 

With global roamer status, employees are able to come and go between locations as they please. For many sites, this may not be an issue. But when it comes to tighter security restrictions or special safety requirements, how can you ensure you’re notified of a visiting employee? 

Employee access comes with security risks

According to the 2019 Global Data Risk Report, employee access to data is leaving companies at risk. 55% of companies had over 1,000 sensitive files open to every employee. Across the whole data set, 22% of all files were exposed to all employees. 

When employees have access to sensitive data beyond that required for their role, you leave your organization vulnerable to leaks and data breaches.

This isn’t just a digital problem. By giving location access to employees from different teams, we are exposing our physical data too – whiteboards marked with the monthly stats, print outs left at reception, conversations overheard in the hallway… 

So how can we tighten up employee security between teams to ensure employees are only able to access the areas and information they need? 

Hosted employees

In the visitor management context, we’re all fairly familiar with the idea of hosting a visitor. We wouldn’t allow visitors to enter a facility unaccompanied and without record, so the process tends to follow similar steps. For example, using WhosOnLocation: 

1. A visit can be pre-registered by sending the visitor a calendar invite. 
2. This can be automatically followed up with a WolPass email, including a map, directions, car park instructions, the nearest cafe… and any other customizable information required. 
3. Once the visitor arrives, they sign in (usually at the kiosk) and select their ‘host’ by searching for the employee’s name. 
4. The host is notified and greets the visitor. 

Our latest update applies the same steps to visiting employees, for greater control and oversight of who’s on-site. 

These settings can also be set to ‘required’ so a visiting employee must select a colleague from that location to host them. 

Benefits of assigning a host

By assigning a visiting employee a host, you ensure someone in your facility is aware they’ve arrived on-site. If they aren’t permitted on-site, you have a record of their sign-in attempt and can alert security.

If they are permitted on-site, the host will receive a notification detailing the entrance they’ve arrived through, so they can be on hand to greet the visiting employee and escort them between meetings. This ensures they are only visiting areas of the facility they are permitted to access. 

Finally, by automating this host arrival notification, you also free up busy receptionists. Your front of house team no longer needs to contact meeting attendees on the visiting employer’s behalf. 

Ready to get started?

All of the features mentioned are available today and included in your WhosOnLocation subscription. Visit our Help Center for more information on enabling hosted employees to tighten your employee security today.

New to WhosOnlocation?

Get started with a FREE 30 day trial today. No credit card required. 

There’s a lot to consider when re-opening our facilities. We recently put together this handy white paper to help guide the process. 

When it comes to the essentials of safety, there are two main questions you’ll need to ask yourself. In the face of an outbreak of COVID-19 within your organization, how will you: 

1. Trace everyone who came into contact with affected individuals?
2. Log everyone coming on-site in a hygienic, touch-free way?

Why do I need contact tracing software?

As a business owner, you might assume you can alert all staff of an outbreak of the virus and be done. But what about the visitors who came on-site during the incubation period? What about the contractors who passed through last Wednesday afternoon? 

By formalizing your process for recording who’s on or off-site, you ensure you’re able to account for everyone who was exposed to risk whilst working in your duty of care. 

Choosing a touchless sign in solution

For organizations, a visitor management system is the most robust way to carry out contact tracing. The majority of these systems were originally built for a self-serve, touch screen kiosk. These are no longer viable as we look for hygienic solutions.

Enter: touchless sign in. The market has adapted quickly to the needs of businesses, and many providers now offer a touchless sign in solution. However, the speed to market meant not all solutions were created equal. There are a few questions to consider when choosing a touchless sign in solution… 

Does it service walk-in visitors? 

The majority of touchless sign in solutions on the market today are designed for pre-registered visitors only. They require all meetings to be booked in advance, and for the visitor to fill out their sign in details prior to arriving on-site. 

But what about visitors who turn up unannounced? Contractors, who arrive a day early? Meetings you forgot to register with the front-of-house team? If we’re really going to mitigate risk and account for everyone on-site, we need to be prepared for the unexpected. 

WhosOnLocation’s touchless solution allows for walk-in visitors to scan a QR code and sign in from their smartphone – no pre-registration required. 

Will my visitors need to download an app? 

Keep an eye out for providers who’s touchless sign in solution requires visitors to download a smartphone app – this can cause friction.

When choosing a touchless sign in solution, think about your one-off visitors. Walk in visitors may experience frustration at the need to download and grant permissions to an app on their personal smartphone, and those who aren’t tech savvy won’t be able to sign in with ease.

WhosOnLocation has kept the process as simple as possible, with browser-based sign in. 

What about employees and service providers? 

Contact tracing doesn’t begin and end with visitors. You’ll need to ensure your solution allows everyone coming on-site to sign in hygienically. That’s why WhosOnLocation’s touchless feature allows visitors, service providers and employees to sign in, and delivery drivers to register packages touch-free, too.

Can I screen who comes on-site?

Aside from contact tracing, a touchless sign in solution can also help you prevent access to those displaying symptoms before they come on-site. Check your provider supports custom questions, so you can tailor the sign in process to your own pandemic policy. 

With WhosOnLocation, you can set up automated rules (triggers) to deny access to those who pose a risk, and notify the appropriate person on-site. 

How secure is it? 

Giving visitors the ability to scan a QR code and sign in from their smartphones poses a new set of security concerns for businesses. What if someone maliciously distributed the QR code for bogus sign ins?

As an ISO 27001 accredited company, WhosOnLocation has ensured touchless sign in is only used as intended. The QR code is automatically refreshed after each use to ensure the person signing is in really on-site. Once signed in, guests only have access to the sign out page, and there’s a limit to the number of times a guest can search for employees to visit.

Does it include all the functionality I’d expect? 

For the most part, touchless visitor management features don’t currently support all the features you get in the standard, touch-screen format. For example, you might find visitor photo capture is available on the kiosk, but not for touchless.

WhosOnLocation has delivered a solution which 100% replicates the function of the kiosk, including:

• Badge pass printing
• Multi language support
• Photo capture
• Custom questions
• Signature capture for NDAs
• Acknowledgment notices

New to WhosOnLocation?

Try it for free with a 30 day trial. No credit card required. 

You can read more tips for getting back to work post COVID-19 in our latest white paper.

Opening your doors to visitors

When it comes to welcoming visitors, there are a number of ways you can minimize risk and reassure guests and employees that their safety is a priority. 

Reach out in advance

Taking the time to send visitors an email in advance of their visit can provide some much needed peace of mind. Use this opportunity to lay out your pandemic policy, ask they rearrange their meeting if they begin to feel unwell and explain the measures you’re taking to ensure their safety whilst on-site.

WolPass can completely automate this process for you. When employees send calendar invites to external guests, WhosOnLocation’s calendar integration can pre-register the visitor in the system and automatically generate a customizable email. This WolPass contains all your arrival instructions, including a QR or barcode that can be used for fast-track sign in. 

Make your sign in process safe

If you’re signing visitors in with your front of house team, you’ll need to ensure your staff are protected, and visitors are adhering to physical distancing during the sign in process.

If you’re using a self-serve kiosk to sign guests in, it’s worth noting the average sign-in process involves touching the screen around 35 times. Considering COVID-19 is spread through contact with contaminated surfaces, this isn’t ideal. You’ll need to ensure you keep a bottle of hand sanitizer next to the kiosk and remember to clean the screen frequently.

There is an easier way: our enhanced touchless sign in feature makes the process much safer.

We already supported touchless sign in for pre-registered visitors, but our most recent product update means even walk-in visitors are able to register themselves on-site safely. Visitors simply scan the QR code on the kiosk and complete sign in using their own smartphone.  

By making the sign in process touchless and compliant with your pandemic policy, your visitors will feel reassured that you’ve taken steps to protect their health during the visit. 

Tailor your welcome message

If you’re using a self serve kiosk or touchless solution, a few simple tweaks to your summary screen message can go a long way towards making your visitors feel welcome. Try something like: 

“Welcome back. We’ve asked our employees to maintain a 2 meter distance from visitors for your safety, and provided hand sanitizer throughout the facility – please help yourself. It’s good to see you again.”

Create a comfortable waiting environment

If your reception waiting area is scruffy, cluttered and anything short of spotlessly clean, your visitors are likely to feel uncomfortable as they wait. Regular cleaning is always important, but your visitors are more likely than ever to pick up on dirt and dust in the wake of COVID-19. 

A sparkling clean facility shows you’re taking the pandemic, and the health of your people, seriously. Similarly, if you’re using a touchless sign in solution, continue to send the right message by removing any shared reading materials or drink stations – which leads us on to… 

Contactless refreshments

Offering your guests a drink is visitor etiquette 101. However, this simple act requires some extra thought in light of COVID-19. Arranging a contactless method for serving drinks and ensuring your front of house team wash their hands between cups of tea and coffee will mean your safe sign in procedures weren’t carried out in vain.  

Already a customer?

The features discussed in this blog post are available with all subscriptions. Get started with touchless sign in today. 

New to WhosOnLocation?

Try it for free with a 30 day trial. No credit card required. 

Although we already offered touchless sign in for pre-registered visitors, and auto sign in/out via our WolMobile app, there are a number of great WhosOnLocation features which couldn’t be used in tandem with these options. 

Our latest enhancement utilises the kiosk and all of the great features which accompany it, so you can get the full WhosOnLocation experience touch-free. 

How does it work? 

Our touchless sign in solution uses a QR code to enable visitors, service providers and employees to scan and sign in on their smartphone. Here’s how it works in four simple steps: 

Same great kiosk experience 

Touchless kiosks are easy to set up, and will carry over all your existing kiosk settings. Touchless kiosks work seamlessly with your favorite WhosOnLocation features, including: 

• Custom questions
• Photo capture
• Badge pass printing
• Multi-language sign in
• Acknowledgment notices
• Signature capture for NDAs and waivers

Security first 

As an ISO 27001 accredited company, you know you’re in safe hands with WhosOnLocation. We’ve taken a number of measures to ensure touchless kiosks are secure. 

How we’re keeping your facility secure

Auto-refresh QR codes

QR codes immediately refresh after every use, so no one can sign in to your facility unless they are actually on-site. In the unlikely event a group scans the code at the same time and attempts to sign in together, the code will only be valid for the first five people who follow the link. 

Manual codes

For those who aren’t able to scan QR codes, we also offer the option to input a code manually. These manual codes update whenever the QR code refreshes, and there is a limit to the number of times a device can input a code. 

Time limits

To ensure touchless sign in only used as intended, we’ve imposed a number of time restraints. For example, once a QR code has been scanned, the user must start signing in within 5 minutes. Once started, they must complete sign in within an hour. 

Once signed in, they will only have access to the sign out page, and won’t be able to navigate back to the kiosk questions. The sign out page will time out if not used within 24 hours. 

Suggested settings for you

When you enable your touchless kiosk, there are a number of settings we suggest you review. They include:

Search result drop downs

To protect the data of your visitors, service providers and employees, we suggest you disable the returning visitor search function, and require an exact match when searching for names. This will prevent guests capturing names in your database on their smartphone. 

Triggers

Does your facility use triggers to unlock doors when someone signs in? Unlike a visitor signing in at a fixed kiosk, with touchless, the visitor does not need to be physically next to your door to sign in. If your facility has strict security needs, and you feel uncomfortable with doors unlocking remotely, you may wish to review your current process.  

Photo capture

Finally, you may want to make photo capture optional rather than required, to enhance the visitor experience. It isn’t uncommon for visitors to have restrictive camera settings for their smartphone, and feel uncomfortable about granting permission to access their phone’s apps. We recommend you give your guests the chance to skip this step.

Downloaded our handy poster

Place this poster next to your kiosk and help guide your visitors through the touchless sign-in process. 

What’s next?

The hard work doesn’t end there – we’ll be bringing custom questions to WolMobile and the front-of-house sign in/out manager soon. Watch this space… 

Ready to get started? 

Enabling touchless sign in is easy. This article will walk you through it in no time.