FAQ: Using Virtual Front Desk

A bird’s-eye view of what Virtual Front Desk is, how it works and what you can do with it. Each answer links to the full tutorial.

The big picture

What is Virtual Front Desk?

Virtual Front Desk is a virtual reception platform. A touch screen in your lobby welcomes visitors, signs them in and connects them by live video to a real person on your staff, wherever that person is. One receptionist can welcome visitors at several entrances, buildings or cities at once, and your front desk is never left empty.

How does Virtual Front Desk work?

A visitor walks up to the screen in your lobby and taps a button, for example “Reception” or “Deliveries”. The call rings the right person or group on your staff, on their computer, phone or in Microsoft Teams. They see and talk to the visitor face to face, and can help them sign in, sign documents or show their ID, just as they would at a physical front desk. Every visit and call is recorded in your history.

What are the two sides of Virtual Front Desk?

The station: the screen your visitors see and touch in your lobby.
The dashboard: where your staff set up stations, answer visitors and review activity.

Both are web apps that run in a browser, so there is no software to install: the station runs at station.virtualfrontdesk.com and the dashboard at app.virtualfrontdesk.com (or your region’s address). For answering calls on the go, staff can also use the iPhone, iPad and Android apps.

Key concepts

What is an organization?

An organization is your company’s account in Virtual Front Desk. It contains everything: your locations, stations, users, groups, content and history. A user can belong to several organizations, for example a property manager serving several buildings or a company managing separate brands, and switch between them. To learn more, read Organizations, owner, admin and regular users.

What is a location?

A location is a building or site where you have stations, such as your head office or a clinic. Locations keep your stations organized, and their address helps the AI agent give visitors directions.

What is a station?

A station is the screen visitors use in your lobby: an iPad, an Android tablet, a Windows touch-screen computer or a Neat Frame running the Virtual Front Desk welcome screen. Each station belongs to a location and has its own buttons, look and settings. To learn more, read Creating Stations.

What is a button?

Buttons are what visitors tap on the station. A button can call a person or a group, open a sign-in form, show a document, a QR code or a website, or call a phone number. Buttons can follow a schedule, so they only appear when they are needed, such as during business hours.

What is a user?

A user is a person in your organization who has a Virtual Front Desk account, such as a receptionist, an office manager or an employee who receives visitors. Users answer calls and, depending on their role, manage the account. Users can be invited by email or imported from Microsoft Entra ID (Azure AD). To learn more, read Users.

What are roles?

Each user has a role that decides what they can do:

Owner: the account holder, with full control, including billing and transferring ownership.
Administrator: manages everything, including billing, except transferring ownership.
Manager: manages stations, users and settings, without access to billing.
User: answers calls, views history and manages their own settings.

To learn more, read Organizations, owner, admin and regular users.

What is a group?

A group is a set of users who answer calls together, such as “Reception” or “Shipping”. When a visitor calls a group, it can ring everyone at once or one person after another, and roll over to a phone number if no one answers. Groups make sure a visitor always reaches someone. To learn more, read Groups and call queue.

What is the Content library?

The Content library is where you keep what your stations show and use: PDFs, QR codes, websites and online forms for visitors, and the context files that teach the AI agent about your organization. To learn more, read Documents, PDFs, QR Codes & iFrames.

What is History?

History is the record of everything that happens on your stations: video calls, visitor sign-ins, pre-registrations, payments and AI agent conversations, with any documents, photos and signatures captured. Records are kept for 12 months. To learn more, read History.

Answering visitors

Where can staff answer visitors?

Anywhere: in the dashboard on a computer, in the iPhone, iPad and Android apps, or directly in Microsoft Teams. Staff are notified of calls in the app they use, and can also receive alerts by SMS, email, Slack or WhatsApp. Calls can also be forwarded to a phone number.

What is the difference between answering in the Virtual Front Desk app and in Microsoft Teams?

Virtual Front Desk app (dashboard and mobile apps): available to every user, and the only place with all the live call tools, such as ID capture, document scanning, documents to sign, printing and payments.
Microsoft Teams: calls ring in the Teams app your staff already use, without signing in to Virtual Front Desk, and can go to a Teams call queue or auto attendant. Teams calls are video and audio with live captions, without the Virtual Front Desk call tools. Teams users need a Microsoft Teams Phone license.

Many organizations use both: front-desk staff in the Virtual Front Desk app, and other employees in Microsoft Teams. To learn more, read Ms Teams integration.

What can staff do during a live call?

Everything a receptionist does at the desk: see and talk to the visitor, capture their ID, receive documents scanned with the visitor’s phone, send a document to sign, print, share their screen, show a QR code, send a message, put the call on hold, switch between calls and take card payments. Live captions translate what the visitor says. To learn more, read Live Call Features.

Visitors

What is visitor sign-in?

Visitor sign-in replaces the paper guest book. Visitors fill in a form on the station with the information you choose, and can sign documents, take a photo and print a badge. When they leave, they sign out, so you always know who is in the building. To learn more, read Visitor sign in, sign out and Express QR code sign in.

What is pre-registration?

Pre-registration lets expected visitors fill in the sign-in form before they arrive. They receive a QR code and sign in at the station in seconds. Invitations can be sent from the dashboard or from your Outlook calendar. To learn more, read Outlook Calendar add in for Pre Registration.

What is the AI agent?

The AI agent is a virtual receptionist that talks with visitors at the station. It greets them by voice when they step up, answers their questions about your organization, guides them through checking in and calls the right person when needed. To learn more, read AI Agent Setup Guide.

Can visitors use the station in their own language?

Yes. Visitors choose their language on the station, and the screen is translated on the spot by AI. To learn more, read Translator.

And more

What else can Virtual Front Desk do?

Live monitoring: view a station’s camera to check on your lobby (Enterprise plan).
Badge and document printing: print visitor badges and documents on site (Enterprise plan).
Payments: collect card payments at the station with a Stripe Terminal reader (Enterprise plan).
Timesheets: staff clock in and out of their shifts.
Branding: your logo, background images or videos and custom buttons on every station.

To learn more, read Monitoring or Live streaming your stations, Printer, Printing Badges and Documents, Payments Stripe Terminal, Clock in Clock out, Timesheets and Customization.

What if something isn’t working?

Most common issues, such as a station showing offline or a camera that does not work, are covered in Troubleshooting Guide, Firewall and Permissions. You can also contact our customer support through the live chat, available Monday to Friday, from 7 AM to 7 PM Eastern Time (New York).

FAQ: Using Virtual Front Desk