Question 1

What is a virtual front desk?

Accepted Answer

A virtual front desk keeps everything a physical front desk does at the location (check-in, forms, payments, printing, scanning) but moves the person doing it off site. Visitors check themselves in at a kiosk, and when they want help, a real receptionist appears live on the screen. Nothing about the desk disappears; only the requirement that someone sit behind it does.

Question 2

How does a virtual receptionist platform work?

Accepted Answer

A screen and camera at your counter connect to a receptionist working live in the HiBridge portal. They can see and speak to the visitor, and they can drive the printer, scanner, and card reader at that desk. Because the portal shows every location at once, one pooled team can cover several lobbies.

Question 3

Is the person on screen real, or is it AI?

Accepted Answer

Real, and live. There is no chatbot, phone tree, or recorded avatar in the visitor-facing role. That is a deliberate design decision, not a limitation we plan to remove.

Question 4

Is HiBridge software, or a receptionist service?

Accepted Answer

HiBridge is the platform. The staffing model is a separate decision: some customers run it with their own team from one central location, others staff it with a remote receptionist sourced through HiBridge. We will always tell you which one you are being quoted.

Question 5

Virtual front desk versus a traditional receptionist: what actually changes?

Accepted Answer

Coverage stops being tied to a chair. Lunches, breaks, and call-outs no longer empty the desk, peaks are absorbed by a pool rather than a single person, and a second location adds a screen rather than a hire. What does not change is that a real person handles the conversation.

Question 6

Will our visitors accept it?

Accepted Answer

The most useful evidence is from visitors rather than from us. Tim Bibee, who describes himself as not tech-savvy, found the guided check-in easy on his first try. Leonard Wheeler, who prefers dealing with real people, said the human connection and his privacy stayed intact. Both stories are published in full.

Question 7

How many locations does this make sense at?

Accepted Answer

The advantage starts at two and grows. Single-site operations still gain coverage through lunches and call-outs, but the cost case is strongest across multiple locations, because peak-staffing each site independently is the specific waste being removed.

Question 8

What hardware do we need?

Accepted Answer

A kiosk, iPad, or Surface Pro in the lobby, and a receptionist desk with a minimum of two monitors. Every device can be purchased through HiBridge or you can bring your own. Full detail is on the hardware page.

Question 9

How much does a virtual front desk cost?

Accepted Answer

It depends on locations, volume, coverage hours, and staffing model, so any number published on a web page would be misleading. The staffing and savings calculator models your own numbers and produces a preliminary estimate, and a demo turns that into a real quote.

Question 10

How do we calculate our current front desk cost?

Accepted Answer

Loaded salary per receptionist multiplied by headcount is the starting point, but the number people miss is peak-versus-average staffing: you pay for the busiest ten minutes all day, at every location. The calculator separates real-time visitor work from administrative work so you can see where the hours actually go.

Question 11

Is it HIPAA compliant?

Accepted Answer

HIPAA is a central design constraint and the subject of a full recorded webinar in our library. For your compliance file, including a Business Associate Agreement and the current state of any certification, ask us and we will send the actual documentation rather than a marketing claim.

Question 12

What happens if the internet goes down?

Accepted Answer

A fair question that we address head-on in a recorded webinar rather than pretending it never happens. Ask us about redundancy for your specific setup during the demo.

Question 13

How long does implementation take?

Accepted Answer

Ask us for a current timeline for your specific configuration during the demo. As a reference point on the evaluation side, Rose City Physical Therapy spent three to four weeks on due diligence before choosing HiBridge.

Question 14

Which industries do you have real customers in?

Accepted Answer

Our documented, named customers are concentrated in physical therapy and wider healthcare, and those stories are published with the customers’ names on them. The other industry pages describe how the platform applies to that front desk rather than claiming existing customers in it. Ask us and we will be specific about your sector.

Question 15

Can we talk to a reference?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and you should. Ask on the contact page. Reading a case study is not the same as asking an operator what went wrong during their first month.

Question 16

What was Virtual Sally?

Accepted Answer

Virtual Sally was our previous name. Same company, same patented platform, same founders.

The questions operators actually ask.

Virtual front desk questions