3 Advantages of a Virtual Doorman Over a Real One
At Virtual Doorman, we have a bit of problem: Real doormen don’t like us! That’s because we’re providing a service that, in many ways, makes them obsolete. While there are some expensive buildings that will always have doormen as a prestige symbol, our remote doorman service is more than enough to handle the needs of many buildings that would rather not have to have a real person on duty 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week. But why are so many building owners and managers switching over to remote doorman services? Isn’t one as good as the other? In most cases, the answer is clear: virtual doormen provide advantages that just can’t be beaten. Let’s take a look at some of the most common reasons people are switching to a virtual doorman system. No Payroll Without a doubt, this is the primary reason that most building managers decide to go with Virtual Doorman. We’re not talking about small saving here, either. By not having to have a doorman on call around the clock, buildings can end up saving 90% on their doorman services. That cost savings can be used to improve the building, keep rent from rising, or just be pure profit for the building owner. How can we provide such savings? First of all, there’s a considerable amount of automation involved. Renters will be able to open doors remotely with their phones, both for the main doors and for their own apartment. This means that our virtual doormen — actual people manning the system — don’t need to respond every time someone walks into the building. Even more important, our remote doormen are watching over multiple buildings at a time. A real-life doorman can only watch one building, and 95% of the time they aren’t doing anything at all. Our virtual doormen are much more efficient because they don’t experience nearly as much downtime and are able to watch over multiple buildings. Language How many languages does a typical doorman speak? They might be able to greet tenants in a few languages, but that’s it. But there are more than 6,000 languages in the world, 800 spoken in New York City alone, and about 135 commonly spoken languages in NYC. Doormen simply can’t keep up. With the latest version of our virtual doorman, tenants can be greeted in their own language. That’s a nice little touch that a real doorman just can’t pull off. No Awkward Chit Chat The personal touch offered by a real-life doorman can be a pleasant experience for some people. They might even like to get to know their doorman and don’t mind the banter as they make their way to the elevator. But in reality, most people just aren’t interested. It might sound mean, but it’s true. Life in New York is hectic, and most people would rather just have the automatic doors work for them than make small talk with someone they don’t really know. Are You Ready For A Virtual Doorman? Those are far from the only reasons that building owners choose virtual doorman, and, in fact, we’ll be back in the next blog to give you even more reasons why our remote doorman services are a good idea. But if you’re already convinced, click here to compare the service options you can get with Virtual Doorman. We look forward to working with you!
4 Advantages Of Virtual Doorman Services You Can Advertise To Tenants
If you own a building or are a building manager, it’s important to remember just how important your tenants are. You can have the nicest property in the world, but if you don’t have the services customers are looking for then you’re not going to be able to fill the spaces as quickly as you’d like. When potential buyers or tenants are considering your building, they might be looking for the services of a doorman. At first, they might be apprehensive about living in a building that uses Virtual Doorman service, technology they’re probably with unfamiliar with. You might have to sell them on the idea of a virtual doorman system, so here are some advantages to convince them that you should stay in a building with our cyber doorman service. 24/7 Service Having a round-the-clock doorman will cost a building hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. This high price tag has caused some properties to cut back on the hours during which they employee a doorman. This can leave quite a bit of time during which there’s no basic security or package services being provided. Our virtual doorman service is on-call 24/7/365 in order to let the right people into the building and accept packages. There’s no time during which tenants will be left in the lurch. Front Doors Can Always Remain Locked One of the primary duties of doormen is to provide basic security for a building. But in order to do so, they will usually have the front doors unlocked and perform this security from the front desk. That means that anyone who shouldn’t be in the building already has access to the building, and if they overpower the doorman then they have complete access. With our virtual doorman service, the doors remain locked at all times until a tenant or approved guest comes along. This makes sure that the first line of defense — the front doors — aren’t breached. There’s No Tipping This might be a small point, but it can be surprisingly appealing to customers. Even the biggest tippers out there realize that we’re reaching “tipping overload,” as tipping has become more and more ubiquitous. While it’s great to tip actual doormen when they are part of a highrise’s offerings, not having to tip — or worrying about how much to tip — can be an appealing selling point for Virtual Doorman. Virtual Doorman Is Impressive! The job of doorman has been around for at least 2,000 years and a part of New York City life for hundreds of years. So while it still impresses people to say “we have a doorman in our building,” it certainly doesn’t hold the weight it always has. In fact, some people are uncomfortable having someone wait on them in such a fashion. Everyone is impressed with Virtual Doorman, though! We’ve worked hard to incorporate the software and hardware to make it work as smooth as possible and to accommodate every instance in which it could be needed. When you tell potential tenants that they can let their friends in by tapping their phone, they’re going to brag about it! Impress Your Tenants With The Best Services If you’re looking for the best virtual doorman, there’s only one option with all of the services to impress the people who are considering living in your building. Find out more about how it works, then get a free quote.
Virtual Doorman Continues To Bring Service to New Buildings Across the Country
This week our techs have taken off to Sacramento to put another Virtual Doorman building online in California! Our newest VDM building is at the L Street Lofts in the heart of Midtown, Sacramento. The building is eager to experience the amenities of its first remote doorman! There is a lot of planning and coordination that goes into bringing service to buildings outside of our home base in New York City. One of the very first steps to the process of bringing Virtual Doorman to a building is having our Installation Manager complete a site survey by physically visiting the building to make sure our service is a viable option for that location. This is a little harder to do when the building is not around the New York City area. Being that places like California are so far away from us, we have to complete a site survey virtually through pictures and video conferencing to see exactly what we are working with. Things we look for during a site survey are what kind of intercom, access control and CCTV systems a building may already have to see if/how we can integrate those current systems with our own. If a building doesn’t currently have any of these structures in place, we find the best approach to adding them based on the buildings construction. Once this is complete, and the building looks like a good match for our service, our team starts the process of planning installation by working with building management, owners, etc. It’s an extensive process of trip planning, ordering equipment and getting it to the site prior to our techs arriving (or our techs hauling it with them on their trip), ensuring the building has the proper phone and internet lines, and many other important steps to bring the Virtual Doorman service online. Our techs will be in Sacramento for a little less than a week, also stopping in at some of our other buildings in both Sacramento and San Francisco to make some service calls to our customers there. No matter how far away a building is from our home base, we always make sure everything is running smoothly for them, and that we are there to service them if/when needed. In each new city that we put online, we actually train and certify a new dealer in that area so that our client is supported and doesn’t have to wait for one of our homebased techs to fly out. This also makes things easier for future installations. By the end of this week, L Street Lofts will officially be the sixth building to go online with our Virtual Doorman service in the state of California! We look forward to making them a part of our rapidly growing amenity!
Real Doormen vs. Remote Doormen
A doorman is typically defined as a person who is employed to attend the doors at a residential building to welcome residents and their guests, oversee deliveries and provide security for the building. Today the average cost of employing a traditional doorman around the clock is $375,000 a year. While the need for a doorman at many buildings is essential, the cost of employing a traditional doorman is not something that many buildings can justify these days. As building budgets get tighter and the need for security and added amenities increases, remote doorman services are gaining popularity as a cost effective alternative to a physical doorman. Remote doormen are a true alternative to an on-site doorman or concierge and provide the same services as a traditional doorman, but at a fraction of the cost!
Virtual Doorman: Real Savings.
Entrepreneur Regal Real Estate has selected Virtual Doorman (VDM), the remote doorman service bat provides traditional doorman services remotely, to offer services in four of its Manhattan properties, namely: 21 Maiden Lane, 33 Union Square, 9 East 16th Street and 112 Fulton Street. Regal ultimately plans to install VDM throughout its entire 22-multifamily building New York City, portfolio.
Brooklyn Residential Buildings Go High-Tech
Brooklyn Daily Eagle | By Linda Collins BROOKLYN — Virtual Doorman, a high-tech electronic doorman system, is finding acceptance in Brooklyn. Several new condominium buildings have installed the service, including Park Slope’s The Argyle at 251 Seventh St. at Fourth Avenue; 101 N. 5th St. in Williamsburg; and 585 Sixth Ave. in South Slope.
The EZPass of Doormen
The New York Observer | By Bonnie Kavoussi From Ocala, Fla., and Unity, Maine, the fate of New York doormen may be decided. The two towns headquarter the remote command centers of the Virtual Doorman, a technology that, as the name suggests, acts as a building’s doorman in everything but a warm body. Plus, it’s cheaper: $9,000 to $17,000 for installation, maintenance extra, while a real, live doorman might run a building $80,000 annually.
Ding Dong the Doorman’s Dead!
New York Post | By Sarah Ryley It’s the rise of the cyborg doorman. Cash-strapped developers are trying to save bucks and lure buyers with lower common charges by installing “virtual doormen” – staffers sitting in command centers as far away as Florida who can buzz guests and deliveries into buildings at a fraction of the cost of a regular doorman. One Manhattan-based company, Virtual Doorman, saw its sales jump last quarter· with 10 new buildings, its biggest quarterly increase since· starting in Cyberdoorman, based in The Bronx, said business could double this year to 76 buildings.
Today in New York
Hip to be Small
Security Products When people think of Manhattan, they usually envision soaring high rises equipped with white-gloved doormen or charming and luxurious prewar brownstones. Yet within the last year, the real estate market has seen a rise in a new and exciting breed of buildings — what many are dubbing “the boutiques.” A growing pocket of new buildings, as well as older refurbished ones, have created a resurgence of interest from homebuyers and sellers within Manhattan. These boutique buildings, usually with less than 40 units and consisting of younger, tech-savvy clientele, are smaller than their more traditional counterparts, yet have fetched record prices for developers and homeowners alike. Why the trade in taste? It’s all about demographics. For this clientele, these smaller buildings provide a much more intimate and personalized feeling without the high costs associated with maintaining the traditional amenities offered in older full-service buildings. In addition, these high-end buyers are looking for some degree of anonymity from their neighbors and the doorman and prefer the smaller set-up.