Because of the demands of reception work, which include routing hundreds of calls each week, finding people quickly, organizing contacts logically, and making quick transfer decision, a receptionist or team is likely to develop specific efficient workflows.
And newer and better tools are constantly being developed to push the efficiency envelope. But systems that force them to abandon these workflows may do exactly the opposite.
Here’s what organizations miss when evaluating reception software: receptionists in different contexts need completely different methods.
The best receptionist tools add flexibility, not rigidity.
When “Better” Tools Almost Made Things Worse
The 30-Year Veteran’s Workflow Problem
A large law firm was ready to implement Landis Attendant Console for Microsoft Teams. They wanted the advanced call handling, comprehensive reporting, and intuitive interface that Attendant Console provided.
Their receptionist had used Microsoft Teams for years. She found people by typing their initials and the @ symbol: “SLM@” would show everyone with those initials. It was efficient, accurate, and required little thought.
But Attendant Console’s standard search didn’t support that method. She’d have to type full names instead, and for a veteran receptionist handling dozens of calls per hour, this workflow disruption would make her slower and less confident.
Ironically, the specialized reception tool would have made her slower than the general-purpose tool she was leaving.
However, thanks to People Search – a flexible feature that accommodates different search patterns, the receptionist could keep using her initials method, search by full name, use partial matches, or whatever worked for her. The deal moved forward.
Different Organizations Need Different Workflows
This law firm needed flexible search patterns. Other organizations have different requirements.
Accounting Firm: Organized by Department with Live Status
Williams Keepers, a Central Missouri accounting firm with nearly 60 CPAs, needed a different approach after migrating from Cisco to Microsoft Teams.
Since their receptionist handles calls and sorts contacts across multiple departments: partners, customer service reps, auditors, and IT staff, an alphabetical contact list wasn’t enough. She needed contacts grouped by department with live presence status visible before transferring calls.
With Attendant Console’s configurable contact lists, she organized custom contact groups by department.
Now, she can choose to see only a few relevant contacts at a time, with every contact showing their live Teams presence. She can see who’s available, in a meeting, or out of the office before starting a transfer.
Higher Education: Organized by Department and Role
Colchester Institute, a UK further and higher education provider, needed yet another configuration.
When transferring calls to departments like Additional Learning Support, receptionists needed to quickly identify coordinators rather than practitioners. They needed to see entire departments at a glance to route inquiries appropriately.
During evaluation, they tested systems that only offered alphabetical lists or basic search. For their receptionists, that meant every transfer to Additional Learning Support would require multiple steps: search for the department, scan names looking for coordinator titles, check availability separately.
“Contact groups allow us to view entire departments,” explained a team leader in Admissions. “It gives a clearer view of who’s available and makes managing calls simpler.”
Attendant Console’s configurable contact groups eliminated those steps. The software organized contacts the way their receptionists thought about them. Receptionists can see department-wide availability in real-time, making it faster to identify the right person or team without unnecessary transfers.
The Pattern
In each case, the reception team had already solved the problem. They knew how to find people efficiently. They’d developed mental models that worked for their specific organization.
The only question was whether their software would support that expertise or require them to abandon it and start over.
When reception tools don’t flex to match how your team works, you pay in several ways:
Call routing slows down. Receptionists hunt through rigid directories or try to remember which workaround to use. Average handle time increases. Hold times lengthen.
Transfer accuracy suffers. The receptionist is less confident about routing decisions when needed information isn’t visible. More calls get transferred twice. More callers get frustrated.
Training time extends. You’re not just teaching people to use new software. You’re teaching them to abandon workflows that already worked.
Organizational changes become painful. Rigid contact structures can’t accommodate new departments, location changes, or restructuring without forcing everyone to relearn how to find people.
How Landis Attendant Console Adapts to Your Workflow
Landis Attendant Console’s flexible configuration exists for one reason: reception work isn’t one-size-fits-all.
People Search accommodates different search patterns: initials, partial names, phonetic spelling, or whatever matches how your team naturally thinks about finding people.
Configurable contact list views let your team organize by department, location, role, or custom categories that match their mental model of your organization.
Personalized display preferences mean each receptionist can choose what information shows and in what order. One person might need location first. Another needs department. A third needs job title. They can all have what they need.
Custom contact organization adapts to your specific operational context rather than forcing you into someone else’s idea of how reception “should” work.
What Flexibility Delivers
Service quality stabilizes during transitions. Your team isn’t learning to work differently. They’re using better tools to do what they already know how to do well. Call handling metrics maintain or improve rather than degrading during rollout.
Staff satisfaction increases. Receptionists feel competent and efficient rather than frustrated. When tools work with their expertise, they embrace new systems. Adoption accelerates.
Organizational agility improves. Your reception structure can adapt when your business does. Open a new location, reorganize departments, or change staffing models, and your team can adjust their contact views without abandoning everything they’ve learned.
Institutional knowledge gets preserved. That 30-year veteran’s expertise becomes an asset the system amplifies rather than an obstacle it ignores.
Ask the Right Questions When Evaluating Reception Software
Your reception team knows how your organization works. They understand who reports to whom, which departments collaborate, where people are located, and what information helps them route calls correctly. They’ve developed workflows and search patterns that work for your structure and culture.
When you evaluate reception software, ask this: “will this software flex to match how my team works, or will it force my team to flex to match the software’s assumptions?”
Landis Attendant Console was built to respect that expertise. This flexibility keeps your service quality stable regardless of how your organization evolves.
Book a demo of Landis Attendant Console to see the flexible features.
