Reception Desks

A reception desk is a place where visitors are received: the main gate, the office reception, the factory security post. You list them here, say who covers each desk and when, and write down what the man on the desk is supposed to ask every kind of visitor for.

Where

Visitor Management › Setup › Reception Desks

Who uses it

The implementation consultant, once per desk

When

Before the first visitor is registered

Needs first

Nothing

What it is for

Every visit is registered at a desk, so the desks have to exist before anybody can be registered. At a 500 person manufacturer there are usually two or three: the main gate where deliveries arrive, and the office reception where customers and interview candidates are received.

The two tabs are there to settle the arguments a client has about the front desk. The coverage tab says who is on which desk on which day and between what times, which is the answer to "who was on the gate when that man walked in". The registration requirements tab says what has to be collected from each kind of visitor: a delivery driver needs his identification checked, an interview candidate needs a phone number, a customer needs the company he is from.

Be straight with the client about what those ticks are. They are the written standard for the desk, and they are what you train the receptionist on. They are not enforced when a visitor is registered, so a receptionist can still save a visit without the company name. If the client needs a field to be compulsory on the registration screen, that is a field setting, not a tick here.

Every field, in plain words

Header

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Reception Desks	The short code for the desk.	GATE1	Must be unique.
Name	What the desk is called.	Main Gate Security Post
URL	A web address held against the desk.	Leave it empty	The screen stores whatever you type. Nothing in the module reads it, so agree a use with the client or leave it alone.
Notify by email host on guest arrival	Records that the host should be emailed when his visitor arrives.	Tick it if the client wants the policy recorded	Recorded only. No email is sent when a visitor is registered. The receptionist still has to telephone the host.

Desk Coverage and Assignments

One line per day, per shift, per desk.

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Line	The line number.	Fills itself. Leave it.
Day	Which day of the week the line covers.	MON Monday	Pick it from the list: Monday to Sunday.
Time From	When that cover starts.	08:00
Time To	When that cover ends.	17:00
Responsible	Who is on the desk.	The security supervisor	Pick it from the list of responsible people.
Line Text	A note on the line.	Covers the lunch relief as well.

Registration Requirements

One line per kind of visitor, saying what must be collected from them at this desk.

Field	What it means	What to put in it	Notes
Line	The line number.	Fills itself. Leave it.
Visitor Type	Which kind of visitor the line is about.	DLV Delivery	Pick it from the list. See the values below.
Email	The visitor's email must be taken.	Leave it unticked for a delivery driver	The written standard for the desk. Not enforced on the registration screen.
Phone	The visitor's phone number must be taken.	Tick it
Company	The company the visitor is from must be recorded.	Tick it for a customer or a vendor
Identification	The visitor's identification must be checked.	Tick it for everybody at a factory gate
Host	A host must be named on the visit.	Tick it for a customer or an interview candidate

Visitor Type values:

• DLV Delivery. A driver dropping goods off. Usually no host, but always identification.
• CUS Customer. Received at the office reception, with a host and a company.
• VEN Vendor. A supplier's representative. Same requirements as a customer.
• INT Interview. A candidate coming in to be interviewed. Needs a host, which is whoever is interviewing him.

How to configure it

1. Open Reception Desks. Code GATE1, Name Main Gate Security Post. Save.
2. On Desk Coverage, add a line per day the desk is manned: Monday, 08:00 to 17:00, Responsible the security supervisor. Copy it for Tuesday to Saturday.
3. On Registration Requirements, add a line per visitor type the desk sees. For a gate: Delivery with Phone and Identification ticked, Vendor with Company, Phone, Identification and Host ticked.
4. Create the second desk the same way: code RECEP, Name Office Reception, with lines for Customer and Interview.
5. Now create the Hosts and assign them to the desks they are reachable at.

Scenarios

Deliveries come to the gate and customers to the office reception

Two desks, with different registration requirement lines on each. The gate has a Delivery line with Identification ticked and no Host. The office reception has Customer and Interview lines with Host ticked. The receptionist at each desk then knows what she is expected to ask, and the visit record says which desk the person came in through.

We want the host emailed the moment his visitor arrives

Tick the setting so the policy is on record, and tell the client plainly that no email is sent today. The practical arrangement is the one that already works at most clients: the receptionist registers the visit and telephones the host.

What it is connected to

• Create Hosts assigns each host to the desks he can be asked for at.
• Visitor Registration is done at one of these desks, and the desk is the first thing the receptionist picks.

If something looks wrong

• "The desk list is empty on the registration screen" - no desk has been created yet, or the one you want was never saved.
• "I ticked the requirements and the receptionist can still leave the field blank" - that is how the ticks work. They are the standard for the desk, not a rule the screen enforces.
• "Nobody got an email when the visitor arrived" - no email is sent from this module. Tell the host by phone.