Automation at Reception
Bryn Irwin, August 2017
We're a busy shop, and there are times when nobody's at reception to greet guests. Being a software development company, we decided we should build something to help solve this problem. As we started thinking about how we would solve it, we realised this would be a great opportunity to showcase one of our products. So everybody who comes to visit us at Satellite would get a firsthand demonstration of the types of things we do.
Satellite Visit was born... an app to greet guests, allowing them to check themselves in and announce their arrival.
How it works
Firstly, we agreed the size of the iPad Pro was perfect, so we designed it to fit this nice big touch screen.
Guests tap to start, and are prompted to enter their mobile number. This serves several purposes, firstly it's quick and easy to enter, secondly it becomes their unique identifier in the database, and thirdly (thirdly?) it enables us to send them an SMS.
Once they enter their number, first time visitors are prompted to enter their name and company. Returning visitors get these bits pre-filled (based on recognising their phone number).
The last step asks them to enter the name of the person they're here to meet with. This auto-suggests staff as they type.
Health and Safety
The next step provides us an opportunity to tick the OSH box. Guests are shown our health and safety policy and asked to agree that they have read and understood it.
Then, the magic happens
- The person they're here to visit receives a txt message informing them that their guest has arrived at reception
- A notification is posted on our internal messaging system (Mattermost), also tagging in the staff member
- The guest receives a txt message, with a link to their personalised mobile companion website.
Mobile Companion
The personalised mobile companion website can be used to provide more detail about their visit. In our case we show a floor plan of the building highlighting locations of exits and the bathrooms. There's a link to our portfolio - enabling us to showcase some other recent projects while they're waiting at reception.
The guest also uses their mobile companion to check out when their visit is finished and they leave the building.
The Database
All the guest data is securely stored using Satellite Tag, our event and conference solution. Satellite Tag manages the notifications and serves up the mobile companion.
