Frederik Van de Meulebroucke is COO at Phished, a cybersecurity scale-up with an annual growth of 350%. To ensure visitors receive a professional welcome — including after office hours — while reducing costs at the same time, he enlisted Bringme’s virtual receptionist.
Thanks to Bringme’s virtual receptionist, Frederik is now able to:
- Save £45,000 per year in reception costs;
- Invest another £225,000 over five years in training and customer service;
- Ensure customers and visitors receive a professional welcome 24/7.
Customers and job applicants don't stop coming after 5 pm
Achieving strong growth as a start-up requires a significant amount of labour — and a lot of visitors are likely to come and go too. In the past, Phished used one full-time and one part-time receptionist to deal with this flow of visitors. "But these people need time off every now and then, or might call in sick. On top of that, they only worked for 38 hours a week, while we receive visitors outside of regular office hours too," Frederik explains.
Fully automated reception: more professional and more innovative
To ensure visitors can be welcomed 24/7 while saving money at the same time, Phished uses Bringme’s unstaffed reception, or in other words: a fully automated reception system. The system is just as professional, and a whole lot more innovative. The unstaffed reception can handle the entire range of tasks normally carried out by traditional receptionists and more.
"We use a digital access control system that autonomously shows visitors and delivery drivers the way. The Bringme Desk keeps our workplace safe, and all our deliveries and parcels are handled by the Bringme Box."
90% of reception tasks automated
The unstaffed reception can handle the workload of one and a half receptionists. "An exception might pop up every now and then, such as signing for registered post, but in those cases, the Desk directly notifies the recipient."
Fully automated vs. staffed reception: a difference of £45,000
The main difference is not in the tasks the system can perform, but in the cost. On average, a traditional reception with 1.5 FTE, plus overheads, will cost a business around £65,000. A virtual reception, on the other hand, costs just £13,000.
"This translates into a saving of a quarter million pounds over five years — money I can instead invest in training our employees and improving our customer service."
