Who a visit is for
Visits for several people, a team or no one in particular, the Needs someone list at the front desk, and visitors for senior people who go through their office.
Agoo is in early access. This page describes the feature as it ships to early-access organisations; screens are illustrative.
Not every visitor comes to see one person. A parent comes for Admissions, an auditor for three people in Treasury, and someone asks for the managing director without an appointment. In Agoo a visit can be for one person, several people, a team, or no one in particular, and a visitor nobody has taken yet waits in one list, Needs someone, where the front desk finds who will see them.
All of it is on every plan, Free included, and counts against nothing.
Four kinds of visit
| The visit is for | Who is told | Who the host is |
|---|---|---|
| One person | That person, as always. | That person. |
| Several people | Everyone named, each on their own channels. | The first person named leads. Their name is on the pass, and the others are on the visit. |
| A team | Every member of the team. | Nobody yet. The first member to say yes becomes the host, and the others hear it's been taken. |
| No one in particular | Reception at that site, or the person or team you name to receive such visitors. | Nobody yet. Whoever receives the visitor finds someone, or takes the visit themselves. |
A visit is for 10 people at most. For more than that, make it for their team.
Teams
A team is a group visitors come to see, or that looks after visitors together: Admissions, Accounts, Treasury, the Head Teacher's Office. Teams live in Console → People → Teams, and whoever manages your directory (Owners, Admins and Site admins) makes them. A person's department stays what it is, a word on their profile; a team is the group that is told when a visitor comes.
Add a team
Select New team and give it a name, as a visitor would say it. Choose its site, or Every site: a team at one site is offered there only.
Add its members
Search for people by name, job or department and add them. Everyone in the team is told when a visitor comes for it. Choose Make lead beside one of them if the team has a lead.
Decide whether visitors may choose it
Turn on Visitors may choose this team for a team visitors ask for by name, such as Admissions. Left off, the team shows Staff only: your staff can make a visit for it or pass a waiting visitor to it, and visitors never see it.
Make teams from departments. If your people already have departments on their profiles, select From departments. Agoo lists each department in use and how many people are in it; nothing is ticked for you. Tick the ones that should be teams, choose whether visitors may choose them, and confirm. Each new team gets its department's active people as members, and people's departments stay as they are.
Archive a team you no longer use. It takes no new visits and leaves the pickers, its past visits keep its name, and you can bring it back. A team with nobody in it can't receive visitors.
Say who a visit is for
When your staff invite a visitor or check in a walk-in, the form asks who the visit is for, with three choices:
| Choice | How |
|---|---|
| People | Type a name or department and add one person or several. The first is the Lead; choose Make lead beside another to change it. |
| A team | Type the team's name. The whole team is told, and the first of them to say yes becomes the host. |
| No one in particular | Nothing to choose. Reception receives them, or whoever the visitor type names, and the visit waits under Needs someone once the visitor arrives. |
- Invite visitor asks it as Coming to see. See Invitations and passes.
- Check in walk-in asks it as Who are they here to see?. See Front desk.
- In the Workspace app, Invite a visitor on Hosting and Register a walk-in on the Desk offer the same three choices. See The Agoo Workspace app.
A host inviting their own visitor stays on the visit as its lead. They can add colleagues who'll be there too, or invite for a team they're in. No one in particular is for the front desk.
Your own staff can always make a visit for anyone. What visitors may choose is decided by each visitor type, below.
What visitors are asked
Each visitor type has its own rules for the question "Who are you here to see?". Owners and Admins set them in Console → Settings → Forms → (visitor type), in the Who are you here to see? panel above the form.
| Rule | Choices |
|---|---|
| Is the visitor asked? | Always: they must say who before they check in. They can skip it: they may say who, or choose "No one in particular". Never: they aren't asked, for deliveries, open days and events. |
| What may they answer? | One person (always offered), Several people, A team (only teams you've marked for visitors, at the site they're at) and No one in particular. |
| Who receives a visitor with no one in particular to see? | Reception at the site they came to, A person such as the office manager, or A team such as Admissions. If that person leaves or the team is archived, reception receives these visitors instead. |
| When a visit is for several people, who decides? | Anyone on the visit: the first answer counts, and the others are told. Only the lead: the others are told and can see the visit, and only the lead says yes or no. |
| A walk-in nobody has taken yet | Always waits for a yes, whatever the site's walk-in rule. Or Follows the site's walk-in rule: where walk-ins need no approval they're let in at once and whoever receives them is told, for events. |
A type nobody has changed asks for one person, as every type did before. A school's Parent pickup type might never ask; a Delivery type might send everyone to reception; a Meeting type might offer a person, several people or a team.
These rules apply wherever a visitor answers for themselves: at the kiosk, with or without a connection, and on your visitor pages.
Needs someone
Console → Visitors → Needs someone lists every visitor waiting for someone to take them, longest waiting first. The count on the tab turns amber while anyone waits. Three kinds of visitor wait here:
- one with no one in particular to see,
- one who came for a team nobody in it has taken yet,
- one who asked for someone whose visitors go through their office (see Senior people).
Reception, security and admins see the visitors waiting at their sites. The person named to receive a visitor, and the members of the team that has it, see theirs.
Each row says who the visitor asked for, who is receiving them, who has been asked and what they answered, and what to do next, such as "Kwame Mensah asked them to wait 10 minutes. Let the visitor know." Open the visit to act on it. Whoever receives the visitor has six choices:
| Choice | What happens |
|---|---|
| Ask someone | Ask a person: they get a message now and answer from it. A yes makes them the host. Or pass the visit to a team: its members are told, and the first to take it becomes the host. Add a line for them if it helps. |
| Write down an answer | You phoned them instead. Choose whose answer it is and what they said. The record keeps both names: theirs, and yours for writing it down. |
| Take it myself | Their business is done at the desk. You become their host, a waiting visitor is checked in, and anyone who was asked hears it's been taken. |
| Book in for another time | Choose a day, a time and who they'll see. A new invitation is made and this visit closes. Tick Send them their pass for the new time if they gave a phone number or email; if not, tell them the day and time before they leave. |
| Hand over | Pass the visitor to Reception, A person or A team to receive them in your place. They get the same six choices. |
| Turn away | Nobody can see them. You give a reason, which only staff see; the visitor is told politely that nobody can see them today. If they could come another day, book them in instead. |
You can ask anyone active in your directory, including people who don't usually receive visitors. Every question, answer, hand-over and turning away is on the visit's timeline and in the audit trail, with who did it.
On your phone
The Workspace app has the same list. Needs someone comes first on the Desk, with its count, for whoever receives the visitor: the front desk at their sites, the person named, and the members of the team that has the visit. Someone who receives visitors without working the Desk, such as an assistant or a member of the Head Teacher's Office, has it at the top of Hosting instead, with the same choices. The list is kept on the phone, so it's there with no signal and changes by itself as visitors arrive and are taken.
Open a visit for the same six choices. Asking a person or a team, writing down an answer, taking the visit, handing it over and booking the visitor in for another time need a connection: each one tells people and changes who has the visit, and what Agoo answers is what you tell the visitor. Turn away takes a reason if you'd like to give one and, like Decline in the app, works with no signal. See The Agoo Workspace app.
When you are asked
When the front desk asks you to see a visitor, or a visitor is waiting for your team, you're told in the Workspace app, then by SMS or email, as you chose in Account → Notifications. Answer from the link in the message, without signing in, or on the visit in the Workspace app or the Console, under Will you see them?
| Answer | What happens |
|---|---|
| I'll see them | You become their host. A visitor who is waiting is let in. |
| Ask them to wait | Say how long: 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes, or any number up to two hours in the Console. Reception tells the visitor, who keeps their seat, and you let them in when you're ready. |
| Not today | The front desk is told, and can book the visitor in for another time or ask someone else. The visit isn't declined. |
| I won't see them | It goes back to the front desk, to pass on or turn away. Add a reason if you like; it stays with staff. The visitor keeps waiting until the desk decides. |
- Asking them to wait is offered once the visitor has arrived.
- If someone else answers first, your link or the app says so and there's nothing more to do.
- In the Workspace app, the visit is on Hosting, and tapping the notification opens it. Answering there needs a connection, because the first answer counts and the app tells you at once if a colleague got there first.
- Once you say no, you're off the visit and stop seeing it.
- A note for the front desk is never sent to the visitor.
Answering a visit you host, or an arrival you're told about, works as it always did: see Host approvals.
Several hosts on one visit
A visit's page lists everyone it is for under Hosts, with the Lead marked and each person's answer. The front desk at the visit's site and the lead host can:
- Add a host: they're told, and the visit shows among theirs.
- Make lead: change who leads.
- Take someone off: they stop being told about the visit and can't see it any more.
Whether anyone on the visit may approve, decline or answer an arrival, or only the lead, is the visitor type's rule. Where only the lead decides, the others are told without a link that can decide.
In the Workspace app, Hosting shows the visits you lead, the visits you're on with someone else leading, and the visits your team has while nobody has taken them. Each says your part and who else is on it. Where only the lead decides, the others see the visit without the buttons, with a line saying the lead answers.
Senior people: visitors through their office
Some people are asked for at the door all day: a head teacher, a director, a doctor. Open them in Console → People and find Visitors go through their office. Whoever manages your directory changes it; the person sees their own setting.
| A walk-in asks for them | What happens |
|---|---|
| Straight to them | They're told at once and decide. This is how everyone starts. |
| Through reception | The front desk receives the visitor and asks them, takes the visit, or books the visitor in. |
| Through their assistant | One named person receives the visitor first. |
| Through their office | A team receives the visitor, such as the Head Teacher's Office. |
The visit waits under Needs someone, saying who the visitor asked for. The visitor isn't told why they wait. If the assistant leaves or the team is archived, reception receives these visitors instead.
Only walk-ins go through their office: at the kiosk, from a check-in poster, at the front desk, or asking to visit from your visitor pages. A visitor the person invited, or who booked a time with them, is expected and comes straight through.
Show them to visitors on the kiosk is a separate switch. Turned off, the person is left out of the names visitors can find at the kiosk and on your visitor pages; visitors choose their office or "No one in particular" instead, and your staff can still invite for them. Being left out hides nobody from colleagues.
When a visitor names several people and one of them is seen through their office, the whole visit waits with that office, and the others stay on it, so nobody is reached around their office.
What the visitor sees
At the kiosk and on your visitor pages (self check-in and request a visit), the question follows the visitor type's rules. On the visitor pages:
- A name: they type three letters of a name and choose, as before. There is never a list of your staff.
- A team: where the type offers teams, typing three letters also finds teams you've marked for visitors at that site, labelled Team.
- Several people: where the type offers it, they add another name after the first, up to five. The first person named is told first, and the others too.
- No one in particular: "I don't have an appointment, or I'm not sure who to ask for. Reception will help."
- A type that never asks skips the step.
While they wait, the page says what it always said: "Please wait a moment. Reception will let you in shortly." It doesn't say who has been asked or what they answered.
Their pass says who the visit is for: "Meeting Kwame Mensah", "Meeting Kwame Mensah and Esi Darko", "Here for Treasury", or "Ask at reception".
At the kiosk, the question comes after "What brings you in?", and works with no connection. The visitor types three letters of a name and taps it, adds up to five names where the type offers several people, taps a team from the teams you've marked for visitors at that site, or chooses "No one in particular". A type that never asks skips the step. The screen at the end says who the visit is for in the pass's words (a name, "Here for Treasury" or "Ask at reception"), and a visitor who waits is asked to take a seat, never told why. See Kiosk check-in.
Alerts
Five alerts keep everyone in step. Each goes to the Workspace app first, then by SMS or email as each person chose; they don't use WhatsApp.
| Alert | Goes to |
|---|---|
| A visitor needs someone | Whoever receives the visitor: the site's front desk, the person named, or the team's members. |
| Asked to see a waiting visitor | The person the front desk asks. |
| An answer about a waiting visitor | Whoever asked, else the site's front desk. |
| A waiting visitor was taken | The others who were told, so nobody answers twice. |
| A visitor booked in for another time | Whoever the visitor will see at the new time. The visitor gets their pass. |
In the Workspace app, the five are in Account → Notifications with your other alerts, and tapping one opens the visit it's about: on the Desk's Needs someone for whoever receives the visitor (on Hosting for a team member who doesn't work the desk), with Will you see them? for the person asked, on the Desk for an answer, and on Hosting for a visitor booked in to see you. The two that ask for an answer have no buttons on the lock screen: open the visit to answer.
Set what people start with in Console → Settings → Notifications. See Notifications.
Reports and exports
Console → Reports has By team: visitors who came to see a team, or whom a team received. The visits export has Visit for, All hosts and Team beside Host and Department, and searching Visitors finds a visit by any of its hosts or by its team. A visit nobody took is named for its team, or "Reception". See Home and reports.
Privacy
- Who sees a visit follows who it is for. A host sees the visits they are on, a team's members see a visit while it is with their team, and whoever receives a waiting visitor sees it. Nobody else gains anything, and someone who declines stops seeing the visit.
- Visitors never see a staff list. They find people and teams by typing three letters, five matches at most, without anyone you've left out and with only the teams you've marked for them.
- Staff notes stay with staff. A reason for turning someone away, a note for the front desk and a line added when asking are never sent to the visitor.
- Everything is recorded. Who asked, who answered, an answer written down for someone else, every hand-over and every turning away, on the visit's timeline and in the audit trail.
What works now
| Feature | Available |
|---|---|
| Teams, visits for several people, a team or no one in particular, Needs someone and senior people's settings in the Console | Now |
| The question on self check-in and request a visit, the four answers from a link, and who a pass says the visit is for | Now |
| Agoo Kiosk asking what the visitor type allows (several people, a team, no one in particular), offline too | Now, on iPhone, iPad and Android |
| In the Workspace app: Needs someone on the Desk, Will you see them? and visits for your team on Hosting, and the five alerts | Now, on iPhone, iPad and Android |
| Inviting or registering a walk-in for several people, a team or no one in particular in the Workspace app | Now, on iPhone, iPad and Android |
| A booking type hosted by a team | Planned, with team scheduling |
These are in the current version of Agoo Kiosk and Agoo Workspace, from the apps page. A copy of an app from before it keeps working: a kiosk asks for one person, a walk-in there for someone whose visitors go through their office still goes to their office, someone left out of the visitors' search isn't offered, and a visit nobody has taken shows as for "Reception".
Host approvals
How hosts approve, decline or tell reception they're coming from a push on their lock screen, WhatsApp, an SMS link or email, and how timeouts keep nobody stuck at reception.
WhatsApp replies from visitors
Read and answer visitors and guests who reply on WhatsApp about their visit or booking, in the console and the Agoo Workspace app.