The future welcomes you today

Virtual assistants and information kiosks promise to make human receptionists redundant, but they are not without drawbacks

THERE ARE 99 missed calls on the phone at the reception desk of UCD’s research building. The chair behind it is empty; the fax machine is terminally out of paper. This is the scene that has met frustrated couriers and visitors since the university cut back reception services last year.

Dr Prag Sharma, a tall, talkative project manager whose hair is streaked with silver, is demonstrating his solution: a virtual receptionist which now sits in reception instead of a person. On screen, a young woman looks up from reading The Ticket and introduces herself as Sam (Smart Administrative Module).

Sharma’s fingers glide across the touch screen as he flicks through its features: floor plans, details of everyone in the building (and who to contact in their absence), Google Maps highlighting UCD landmarks, bus routes and taxi pick-up points – there’s even the option to leave a message or contact emergency services, though it doesn’t answer the phone.

Given that the only signs in the building are for the toilets and emergency exit, it’s an obvious improvement.

“I saw an opportunity,” says Sharma, who works at UCD’s Complex and Adaptive Systems Laboratory. “A reception is the first impression you get of the building and it wasn’t professional – there were just pieces of paper strewn around.” Sharma and his colleague Daniel Leahy designed and developed the unit through their start-up, TouchApps Ltd, at a cost of about €6,000 – the same amount, Sharma says, that UCD has already spent on large, non-interactive plasma screens signposting information.

This is the second virtual receptionist on campus (the other features Chinese as well as Irish and English) and there are 10 more on the way. Future models will integrate a UCD-wide database and Skype video calls that connect to a central operator. Other universities facing similar cuts have expressed interest, and Sharma is confident that the kiosks will catch on elsewhere.

Yet, over his shoulder, there is a reminder of its limitations. The remnants of a gourmet sandwich spread are being preyed upon by students savvy enough to spot a free lunch. The virtual receptionist is powerless to stop them; the irony appears to be delicious.

“The bottom line is humans like to interact with humans and that’s always going to be the case,” says Sharma. “But it’s not always possible. That’s where technology can fill the gap, providing the same resources at better value.”

It holds an obvious appeal to under-resourced businesses, but will customers warm to the concept as easily? And, in a land where we pride ourselves on our warm welcome, can a machine really do better?

The best place to find out is the Dublin Tourist Office where, for the past seven years, there has been a kiosk outside where helpful information can be accessed 24 hours a day. When it was first installed, queues to speak to someone at an information desk could take up to an hour. Several more kiosks have since been installed inside, as well as at Dublin airport, Dún Laoghaire port and O’Connell Street. But a quick test reveals the drawbacks.

After navigating sluggishly to a car-hire quote, there is no date available beyond 2006; the theatre listings include out-of-date events and the weather section brings up an error message from which there is no return.

As in UCD, the Dublin Tourist Office has reduced staff: instead of a receptionist in the back office upstairs, there’s just a phone to dial the extension number of the person you’re looking for.

Paul Hayden, chief executive of Dublin Tourism, is sitting in the adjacent cafe, pointing out the resource-saving “queue-busters” below: two security personnel who also greet visitors and handle basic enquiries, effectively acting as intermediaries between the kiosks and the information desks.

Hayden says it would be feasible to eventually have kiosks only, though he doesn’t believe that will happen.

“Technology will bring better efficiency but we’ve got to remember that we sell our friendliness, so you have to get the balance right to serve visitors’ needs,” he says. “It’s difficult for technology to ‘up-sell’, whereas staff can provide experience. They will have gone on tours and can answer questions such as, ‘what was the guide like?’ Maybe that’s the next step that technology will bring us to.”

ICE Tech, a developer responsible for installations in shopping centres, museums, hospitals and banks since it began operating in 1998, has experienced a surge in interest.

“There’s no question that more organisations are using self-service,” says Ivan O’Connor, the company’s founder. “People are cutting back on staff numbers and making significant savings but it’s also to meet customer demand.”

Much of the industry’s growth in the last two years, O’Connor says, has been driven by the proliferation of smart phones. People who were previously unfamiliar with touch screens and virtual maps are now expecting that same level of usability with everyday transactions. As a result, self-service kiosks are popping up in supermarkets, cinemas, train stations, post offices, bicycle stands, airports and libraries.

“People used to go into a bank to withdraw cash,” he says. “Now you just don’t do it. If the ATMs weren’t available, there would be outcry. [Self-service] has become the preferred means of getting information, rather than queueing up and asking questions.” But as anyone who has become infuriated with a machine will know, self-service kiosks and queueing up to ask questions are not mutually exclusive.

“If it comes down to cancelling a flight, getting a refund or handling more complex transactions, you’ve got a problem,” says Esteban Kolsky of ThinkJar, a customer strategy consultancy.

“As long as these kiosks can do what people need them to, customers are going to be happy. But once they can’t get what they need, the customer’s frustration is exacerbated because the wait to talk to someone who can fix the problem is probably longer than it would have taken to deal with a human in the first place.”