DON’T Ring Bell For Assistance — Greetly Automated Receptionist
Greetly’s mission is to modernize your office’s reception area. Nothing reminds us of the lobby dark ages more than the infamous “ring bell for assistance” sign. “Ring bell for assistance” sends the message that visitors just aren’t that important to your company and that you don’t care about your employees’ productivity.
What “Ring Bell For Assistance” Says To Visitors
Take a second to think about who comes through your office’s reception area. Your visitors likely include your customers, your most important vendors and prospective employees. It is important to create a great first impression for these high-priority visitors. From a functional standpoint, the goal for your reception area should be to make visitors comfortable and to efficiently connect them with their host employee.
Unfortunately, the “ring bell” sign will have the opposite results. Rather than conveying “modern office”, the $5 bell screams “cheap”. After ringing the bell, visitors will typically be confronted with the closest employee; someone who is unprepared to welcome the visitor, and who then needs to scramble to find the right employee.
How “Ring Bell For Assistance” Impacts Employees
Having visitors ring a bell also diminishes your company’s productivity. Research at the University of California, Irvine suggests that employees take 25 minutes, on average, to return to the previous task after every workplace distraction. Over the course of the workday, employees lose an average of 2.1 hours from interruptions.
The “ring bell” sign also turns your employees into de facto receptionists. Given that receptionists have low job satisfaction levels, this surely has a negative impact on employee morale. This is especially true for employees whose workstations are closest to the reception area. It also take employees away from the higher value tasks you hired them to do.
Become Smarter Than The Bell
The bell also leaves no trace as to who came to your office, who they visited, when they came and left, and why they came. This information is valuable in measuring employee productivity and utilization. More importantly, if your office ever experienced an emergency evacuation, having a detailed visitor log allows you to verify the safety of everyone that was onsite.
Conclusion
Let’s face it, there are several ways your “ring bell for assistance” sign works against your company’s productivity. Even if it only appears occasionally when your receptionist steps away from their desk. Create professional impressions with your visitors and improve employee productivity — get Greetly today. The iPad receptionist for the modern office starts at just $49 per month.
Photo credits: Frank Jakobi (man reaching to ring bell), Dave Milliken (please ring bell for assistance sign)
Originally published at www.greetly.com.