Announce
On the touchscreen, the visitor picks the person they came to see — or simply states the reason for their visit.
Case study · The founding product, 2016
Well-come
The interactive reception kiosk. A touchscreen at the front desk: the visitor announces themselves, and the right person is notified immediately — by phone call, SMS, email or Slack. The product that launched Natives, and earned its stripes in the Swiss press.
The problem
No front desk is staffed 100% of the time: unexpected absences, lunch breaks, or a reception position that never gets funded at all. A visitor facing an empty counter is a failed first impression. In 2016, our answer fit in a piece of furniture: a touchscreen kiosk standing at reception.
The ambition was never to replace a human being — we already told Bilan in 2017 that the kiosk acts as a "back-up" for reception, during absences or the lunch break. Reception backup, ten years before that phrase became our trademark.
What the product does
Notify
The contact is alerted immediately, on the channel of their choice: mobile or landline call, SMS, email or Slack notification.
Back up reception
Unexpected absence, lunch break, a front-desk position that was never opened: the kiosk covers reception, for companies and buildings alike.
Handle side cases
An example published in the press: private banks used it so lunch couriers could reach employees directly — without mobilizing the bank's ushers.
In the press
"The interactive kiosk that guides visitors" — the launch
Read the PDF (FR) →Back-page feature: "The Geneva start-up reinventing reception"
Read the PDF (FR) →Made in Switzerland: the Well-come kiosk on air
Listen (FR) →"A digital reception kiosk for your company"
Watch (FR) →Economic interview: the contactless kiosk
Listen (FR) →Where it stands
Well-come did a pioneer's job: proving that a reception can stay open without a receptionist. In 2019, the Tribune de Genève devoted its back-page feature to it: around a hundred companies across the Lake Geneva region were using it — Geneva SMEs, multinationals in the canton of Vaud, coworking spaces.
Ten years on, the conviction hasn't moved — but it lost its hardware: QR-Bell now plays the same role, with no kiosk and no wiring. Well-come remains a product of Natives Sàrl, the company I co-founded in Geneva.