Getting Started Guide for Visitor Management Kiosks
In this article, we will cover the Visitor Management kiosk apps, what they can do, and the general setup process.
The Visitor Management kiosk application + visitor management portal offers a complete set of tools to manage guests, including the creation of visitor documents (non-disclosure agreements signed upon arrival), printing of visitor badges, and a kiosk application for visitor check-in.
Visitor check-in kiosk app (for iPad or similar)
Custom document signature on tablet during check-in
Notification of a contact person during check-in
Confirmation emails (for guests) with signed document
Customizable Badge Printing (Black & White or Color, 100% customizable badge templates)
Admin portal to see logs of previous sign-ins, retrieve documents, etc.
The setup process for this suite generally follows the following steps:
Provision a Visitor Management Tablet Kiosk
Create your document(s) & customize your display (branding, language, etc.)
Choose your hardware (badge printer & tablet)
Set up your receptionist workstation (primarily for printing badges) w/ Kiosk Tablet
Instruct your receptionist / staff on how to sign in and print badges, verify check-in, etc.
Sign in to the visitor management admin portal using your Meeting Room 365 credentials. If you like, a new account can be created for receptionists / non-admin staff to access badge printing and check-in logs.
Create a new visitor management app from the visitor management portal. This will create a default non-disclosure document, with your US state or country, and company / organization name. These can be changed.
Click on the display you just created to navigate to the "Edit Display" page.
Download the Meeting Room 365 app from the app store, to a new tablet display, and enter the display key provided on the display edit page. This is the same app used for meeting room displays. You can also preview the app from the display edit page.
That's it! You can now preview the app, customize your display (logo, style, etc.), and legal document.
Note: If you would like to remove the legal document signature step, you can simply clear all text from the NDA field(s).
Currently, the NDA is created using Markdown & HTML, in the "Edit Display" page for your kiosk app.
If you are unfamiliar with markdown, a guide is available by clicking the help button on the document editor, and here.
If you have a document in another format, you will need to convert it to markdown. There are numerous tools on the web for doing so, including Stackedit. For most documents, you can simply paste their contents (rich text) into Stackedit and see the resulting markdown.
You can interpolate variables in your document as well. Currently, the following variables are matched:
Note: we do not provide any advice or modifications to the legal document at this time. Document credit Join Contract Club. We are not lawyers, and you will need to evaluate the usefulness of the document provided, or create your own.
Only two steps are required for setting up a receptionist workstation: Printer installation and giving your employee(s) access to the Visitor Management App website, where they can print badges and verify check-ins.
For most organizations, this workstation should already exist and meet the requirements of our application. You simply need to add a compatible label printer (see below).
We designed the app to work with the Brother QL series of printers, which are currently the most popular badge-printing devices on the market, and offer a pretty good mix of reliability, ease-of-setup, connectivity options, and inexpensive labels. There is a wireless option (w models), and our typical usage scenario suggests connecting this to either a Mac or PC, at the reception desk.
One drawback of this thermal printer, however, is quality. Image quality is acceptable for most customers, but lower than you're probably used to seeing for typical inkjet or laser printer.
For that reason, we allow complete customization to use any printer you can connect to your receptionist PC or Mac. We give you access to modify the template, and the dimensions of the label (PDF) generated.
We offer a customization option for automatic badge printing, in conjunction with PrintNode -- which has a free tier for up to 50 prints per month, and provides drivers for most devices and operating systems.
Once deployed, your kiosk will welcome visitors and give them the ability to check-in, and notify a designated person of their arrival via email.
Once checked-in, your designated person can verify the check-in from the Visit History tab of the admin portal.
From here, they can view the signed document (optional), and generate a print-ready badge.
You can allow users to sign out of your building using the tablet device, by re-entering the email address they signed in with.
This is currently enabled via the advanced configuration editor, via the key signout (i.e. signout is set to true). Reach out if you'd like help enabling this.
Once enabled, a "Sign out" button will appear on the splash screen of the tablet device.
A button on the splash screen can be configured to share your office Wifi details, by setting the SSID and public Wifi password in the display configuration editor.
This is currently enabled via the advanced configuration editor, via the keys ssid and wifipass (i.e. ssid is set to my-wifi-name and wifipass is set to your password). Reach out if you'd like help enabling this.
Once enabled, a "Wifi" button will appear, which discloses the SSID and password when tapped.
You can make changes to the look and feel of your visitor badge templates, by editing the default HTML used to generate a badge. Reach out if you'd like help with this.
For example, you can add a logo to the badge with a variation of the following code: https://codepen.io/kidGodzilla/pen/RwwVYWg
For reference, here is the default (simple) badge template: https://codepen.io/kidGodzilla/pen/jOOoYOQ
How it Works
The Visitor Management kiosk application + visitor management portal offers a complete set of tools to manage guests, including the creation of visitor documents (non-disclosure agreements signed upon arrival), printing of visitor badges, and a kiosk application for visitor check-in.
Features
Visitor check-in kiosk app (for iPad or similar)
Custom document signature on tablet during check-in
Notification of a contact person during check-in
Confirmation emails (for guests) with signed document
Customizable Badge Printing (Black & White or Color, 100% customizable badge templates)
Admin portal to see logs of previous sign-ins, retrieve documents, etc.
Set-up process
The setup process for this suite generally follows the following steps:
Provision a Visitor Management Tablet Kiosk
Create your document(s) & customize your display (branding, language, etc.)
Choose your hardware (badge printer & tablet)
Set up your receptionist workstation (primarily for printing badges) w/ Kiosk Tablet
Instruct your receptionist / staff on how to sign in and print badges, verify check-in, etc.
Setting up a Tablet Kiosk
Sign in to the visitor management admin portal using your Meeting Room 365 credentials. If you like, a new account can be created for receptionists / non-admin staff to access badge printing and check-in logs.
Create a new visitor management app from the visitor management portal. This will create a default non-disclosure document, with your US state or country, and company / organization name. These can be changed.
Click on the display you just created to navigate to the "Edit Display" page.
Download the Meeting Room 365 app from the app store, to a new tablet display, and enter the display key provided on the display edit page. This is the same app used for meeting room displays. You can also preview the app from the display edit page.
That's it! You can now preview the app, customize your display (logo, style, etc.), and legal document.
Note: If you would like to remove the legal document signature step, you can simply clear all text from the NDA field(s).
Creating a Legal document / NDA
Currently, the NDA is created using Markdown & HTML, in the "Edit Display" page for your kiosk app.
Editing Markdown
If you are unfamiliar with markdown, a guide is available by clicking the help button on the document editor, and here.
If you have a document in another format, you will need to convert it to markdown. There are numerous tools on the web for doing so, including Stackedit. For most documents, you can simply paste their contents (rich text) into Stackedit and see the resulting markdown.
Variables
You can interpolate variables in your document as well. Currently, the following variables are matched:
{{name}} -- name of the visitor
{{company}} -- companyNote: we do not provide any advice or modifications to the legal document at this time. Document credit Join Contract Club. We are not lawyers, and you will need to evaluate the usefulness of the document provided, or create your own.
Setting up a Receptionist Workstation
Only two steps are required for setting up a receptionist workstation: Printer installation and giving your employee(s) access to the Visitor Management App website, where they can print badges and verify check-ins.
For most organizations, this workstation should already exist and meet the requirements of our application. You simply need to add a compatible label printer (see below).
Choosing / Connecting a printer
We designed the app to work with the Brother QL series of printers, which are currently the most popular badge-printing devices on the market, and offer a pretty good mix of reliability, ease-of-setup, connectivity options, and inexpensive labels. There is a wireless option (w models), and our typical usage scenario suggests connecting this to either a Mac or PC, at the reception desk.
One drawback of this thermal printer, however, is quality. Image quality is acceptable for most customers, but lower than you're probably used to seeing for typical inkjet or laser printer.
For that reason, we allow complete customization to use any printer you can connect to your receptionist PC or Mac. We give you access to modify the template, and the dimensions of the label (PDF) generated.
Automatic Badge Printing
We offer a customization option for automatic badge printing, in conjunction with PrintNode -- which has a free tier for up to 50 prints per month, and provides drivers for most devices and operating systems.
Day-to-day usage
Once deployed, your kiosk will welcome visitors and give them the ability to check-in, and notify a designated person of their arrival via email.
Once checked-in, your designated person can verify the check-in from the Visit History tab of the admin portal.
From here, they can view the signed document (optional), and generate a print-ready badge.
Customization
Enable Users to Sign out
You can allow users to sign out of your building using the tablet device, by re-entering the email address they signed in with.
This is currently enabled via the advanced configuration editor, via the key signout (i.e. signout is set to true). Reach out if you'd like help enabling this.
Once enabled, a "Sign out" button will appear on the splash screen of the tablet device.
Share your Wifi details
A button on the splash screen can be configured to share your office Wifi details, by setting the SSID and public Wifi password in the display configuration editor.
This is currently enabled via the advanced configuration editor, via the keys ssid and wifipass (i.e. ssid is set to my-wifi-name and wifipass is set to your password). Reach out if you'd like help enabling this.
Once enabled, a "Wifi" button will appear, which discloses the SSID and password when tapped.
Customize visitor badge templates
You can make changes to the look and feel of your visitor badge templates, by editing the default HTML used to generate a badge. Reach out if you'd like help with this.
For example, you can add a logo to the badge with a variation of the following code: https://codepen.io/kidGodzilla/pen/RwwVYWg
For reference, here is the default (simple) badge template: https://codepen.io/kidGodzilla/pen/jOOoYOQ
Updated on: 25/11/2019
Thank you!