Hack, i'm not even an official RJ pilot yet - so anybody, feel free to correct me on this. But the following has been my experience in the jumpseat of various airlines ....
But generally speaking there are many docking systems around the world and in the US as well. the APIS, PAPA board, there's even a new (8 years old now) sys in HKG that sends a laser beam to your nose and measure it's size, to determine automatically what type of a/c you're driving and will guide you to the stop location fully automatically w/o having a guy down there on the ramp tweak it, or have ramp control or cordination center tweak it ahead of time.
Also, in some places where you park on a remote stand (I.E. no jetway) the marshaller can stand farther back which allows him/her to be seen from the cockpit.
Hope this helps!
-schone