Article

Commercial building owners should take tech cues from airlines

In many respects, office buildings are at the same technological crossroads airports were at years ago, when the only way to get to their gate involved waiting in long lines for for a printed boarding pass.

March 11, 2015

By Mike Yoder, chief technology officer, Virtual Communications Corp.

You won’t catch many frequent air travelers praising airline customer service these days. But the ubiquity of technology that allows flyers to check themselves in and manage their flight preferences has vastly improved airline customer service in the terminal.

Building managers can take some valuable cues from airlines to bring their customer service and visitor management into the digital age.

Today, most flyers check in to flights either online or from their phones because airlines have rightly moved towards integrated systems, where mobile applications replace old-school practices. The precursor to this was the airport kiosk.

These pieces of technology introduced air travelers to the idea that they need not stand in endless queues in order to get their boarding pass. They reduced the uncertainty of having to plan for long lines, having no clue whether going from the curbside to the departure gate would be a pain or a breeze. Furthermore, even a slight return on investment — and airport kiosks do show a positive ROI — is welcome in the air travel industry, where airlines operate on razor-thin margins already.

Visitors to office buildings, especially large corporate campuses or those in big cities, are faced with similar problems. Murphy’s Law says if you’re already running late for a meeting, you’re going to waste time in the lobby for one reason or another. Digitizing the lobby or reception area minimizes this inconvenience for visitors and streamlines processes for companies. Commercial building owners and managers are coming to this realization, which is one small reason why the digital signage market has grown from $704m in 2006 to $13.9b in 2013.

There are many ways in which the technological needs of buildings and campuses and those of airports are alike:

• Service: Consumers have consistently shown that they want the latitude to do things themselves because it’s easier. It’s why they use Kayak.com instead of travel agents and ATMs instead of bank tellers.
• Security:While building security needs vary more from building to building than airport security needs vary from airport to airport, keeping the facility safe and secure is still a major priority for the systems they both use.
• Aesthetics:An under-appreciated component of kiosks is what they do to interiors: create additional visual space. While few people will uphold them as a dominant component of modern interior architecture, they do open up floor plans and give companies an extra screen to showcase their brand or put advertising on.

In many respects, office buildings are at the same technological crossroads airports were at years ago, when the only way to get to their gate involved waiting in long lines for for a printed boarding pass. Airlines upgraded to kiosks, saw the reduced costs, streamlined operations, and increased customer service that resulted, and that was an impetus for new, integrated technology that dynamically improve the flying experience.

Today, of course, static, in-building kiosks are not the complete solution — those screens need to be interactive to truly digitize the role of a receptionist. Building owners and managers should, and are, taking cues from airlines on these solutions while modifying the solutions to meet their own unique needs.

Mike Yoder is chief technology officer at Virtual Communications Corp., the maker of the ALICE virtual receptionist platform. (Photo by Grant Wickes.)