What is a reception-less lobby or reception area?
Every week we are asked what is the best way to put a self-service kiosk in place for visitors to sign in alerting the host that the visitor has arrived.
To set up a self-service kiosk for your visitors, contractors or any other person that comes to your location you will need a number of things.
- Internet, Wi-Fi, 3G or 4G connectivity
- Self serve kiosk
- optional USB barcode scanner
- optional USB RFID reader
- optional USB DYMO or Brother Label printer
Once a kiosk is installed connected to the Internet and you have logged in to your visitor management software visitors can start to sign in and out. As soon as the visitors start to sign in and out the host will receive an e-mail and/or SMS.
A very popular self-serve kiosk is the iPad or tablet. IPads are very popular in schools due to their low cost
Businesses often choose an all in one touchscreen as a visitor management kiosk in a reception less lobby or reception area. The advantage of an all in one touchscreen over an iPad is an all in one touchscreen can include several USB ports to connect visitor label printers, barcode scanners and RFID readers
Corporate officers may look more for the airport style self-serve kiosk where everything is built into the kiosk including wireless technology, RFID readers, barcode scanners and visitor label printers.
Self-serve visitor kiosks can be branded for your company including very clever background images on the sign in screen.
You can install multiple self serve kiosks at a single location enhancing the collection of data into a centralised database no matter how many access points you have into your location. It is common to see a kiosk at reception and a kiosk in the warehouse or factory or engineering department at the back of the building.
No matter the kiosk that you choose at your location the aim is to make the process for a visitor as easy as possible when signing in while still completing the location requirements for health and safety.
The type of information that you can collect when a visitor signs in at a self-serve kiosk includes
- Name
- Company
- Name of host
- Mobile phone number
All of this information can be reported on in the back end of the database any time in the future.
