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How easy is it for you to track how many visitors you have at your company each day? Does it involve digging through a log or sign-in sheet? Do you have a database of guests that allows you to track when they arrived and departed, down to the minute?
If any of these questions don’t have satisfactory answers, it’s time to take a look at a digital visitor management system for your workplace.
Visitor management systems are designed to augment or even replace a receptionist position in your lobby. They’re a completely automated digital interfaces used for checking in guests, providing clear instructions, signage, and even maps for your visitors. They can print badges, stream training videos, and even notify employees when a guest has arrived for their visit.
While the following list of benefits isn’t exhaustive, it highlights some of the amazing ways a VMS can help your company.
How Can a Visitor Management System Help You?
1. They boost office efficiency
Have you ever walked into an unfamiliar building and wasted a bunch of time trying to figure out what to do, where to go, and who to talk to? It doesn’t exactly inspire confidence.
Conversely, a visitor management system eliminates second-guessing and wasted time. When your visitors walk in, they are greeted by a receptionist on a screen, and they know exactly what to do. With an intuitive user interface, visitor management systems provide clear, easy to follow instructions about a company’s layout, who the visitor should talk to, and any other steps that may be necessary.
When visitors waste less time wandering around your facility, asking several employees where they are supposed to be, your employees waste less time trying to handle a situation for which they may not be well prepared.
Many companies today have unattended lobbies, unlocked doors, and wide-open floor plans. There’s no telling who might decide to walk in at any given time, and there’s nothing to stop them.
Crime deterrent: When all employees must check in and visitors must register, any would-be criminals will likely think twice
Post-crime investigation: In the event of any illegal activity, a VMS provides a detailed log of down-to-the-minute visitor and employee activity
Facility security: Visitor management helps security personnel know who’s staying late, who’s already gone, and who shouldn’t be there after hours
3. They make an impression
Visitor management does more than just track a list of names. It provides your visitors with an experience.
A visitor management system starts educating your visitors about your company the moment they walk through the door. Using your branding on a visitor management system immediately immerses visitors in your company identity and gives them a clearer picture of who you are.
Visitors can find their way around with a map, check in for a meeting, drop off a package, scan their ID for identity verification, watch necessary training videos, and more. By setting your visitors at ease right off the bat, you’ll leave them with a strong impression about the way your company is managed.
Get Started with a Visitor Management System
Using a powerful, productive digital visitor management system has many benefits for your organization. It boosts your productivity, helps keep you and your visitors safe, and gives your visitors a great first impression.
Customers matter. You might have the most skilled staff on your team. You might even have a highly sought-after location. Without a steady stream of customers, though, your business can’t reach greater heights or extend into new avenues.
Does your company employ a part-time receptionist? Does your staff take turns handling the front desk? If your business is struggling to handle walk-in customers, you’re likely looking for a solution to capture those customers and increase your bottom line. So, what can you do? You can set up a virtual receptionist for your business.
What Is a Virtual Receptionist?
A virtual receptionist, unlike a remote or off-site receptionist, is not an employee. It is a receptionist system that uses recorded video personalities and built-in functionality to interact with customers and handle everything from check-in to employee notifications and document signing.
What Are the Benefits?
There are numerous benefits to a virtual receptionist and visitor management system. While some of the benefits focus on customer relations, others focus on overall customer perception.
1. Immediate Visitor Greeting
Even with a dedicated receptionist handling the front desk, there will be times in which customers do not receive an immediate greeting or inquiry about their needs. While a moment or two of waiting is understandable, anything longer might develop into frustration.
Frustrated customers may share their negative experiences online, or they may take their business elsewhere. You can avoid these situations by directing customers to a virtual receptionist system. No waiting means a better experience for all.
2. Streamlined Interactions
Another benefit is a streamlined interaction. This means that customers receive the same experience regardless of the time of day or the activity level in the office lobby. The first step is customer detection, followed by a greeting and on-screen directions.
Busy receptionists juggle many tasks, and sometimes they are unable to address all customer inquiries. This leaves some customer experiences cut short. A virtual receptionist can step in when a receptionist cannot. This way, all customers receive equal attention and a complete experience.
3. Information-Driven Screen
More and more customers like full information upfront, allowing them to make their own decisions and self-direct on what they need. Just like with self-checkout machines at a supermarket, a virtual receptionist system puts the customer in control. When the customer sees information presented on-screen, they can quickly check in for a meeting, contact an employee, or see a map of the office layout.
4. Tech-Oriented Experience
Lastly, having a virtual receptionist system in place sets your company up as a tech-forward business. Many people already interact with smart technology on a regular basis. When they see similar technology in your office, they will be familiar with the protocol and will feel comfortable interacting with the system.
Being tech-oriented will impress visitors as well as existing and potential customers. A positive experience will help to further your brand and your company reach.
The Takeaway
If you’re ready to streamline your customer service, look no further than ALICE. The ALICE Receptionist virtual receptionist system has the functionality and customization your business needs to ensure a better experience for all your customers.
How to Reduce Coronavirus (COVID-19) Exposure in the Workplace using Visitor Screening Software
With the current worldwide coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, businesses are implementing policies and procedures to ensure employee safety and reduce the risk of an in-office infection that could affect both employees’ health and business continuity. In addition to policies in place for employees, companies are putting into place policies that dictate how visitors to an office building are processed in an effort to reduce the risk of infection from non-employee individuals.
Due to the nature of the coronavirus being transferred by personal contact, reducing unnecessary personal contact with others has become one of the key measures governments and health agencies around the world are recommending to reduce the spread of the virus.
Global spread of COVID-19
For businesses that have customers, vendors and guests visit their buildings, personal contact with visitors is increasingly becoming a serious concern they are starting to address.
Visitor management and virtual receptionist solutions came onto the market less than a decade ago, but are increasingly being deployed by businesses around the globe to manage visitors to their buildings. These automated solutions add many benefits for businesses including; greeting guests, displaying building maps and other information, connecting guest in the lobby to employees at their desk with audio and video calls, as well as checking-in and screening visitors. So how can a system like this help a business establish policies for visitors that will help address coronavirus related issues? Below are two important steps businesses can take.
Screening Questions
Customers, vendors, and visitors who arrive at a building can be asked a set of screening questions to help identify individuals who employees should avoid personal contact with. Some of the screening questions we are seeing business ask include:
Do you currently have any of the following cold or flu symptoms: fever, cough shortness of breath, breathing difficulties or other respiratory symptoms?
In the last 30 days, have you traveled to or from (including stopovers, connecting flights) to any known high-risk areas (e.g. China, Hong Kong, Iran, Japan, Northern Italy, Singapore, South Korea)?
In the last 30 days, have you been in contact with someone that has traveled to a country or jurisdiction where there is a high risk of infection of a virus (e.g. Covid-19, other flu strain)?
In the last 30 days, have you been in contact with someone that has exhibited symptoms or disclosed they are ill with a virus (e.g. Covid-19, other flu strain)?
These are only a few examples; it will be important for businesses to update their list of questions as more information and the risk related to the coronavirus change over time.
If a visitor answers “yes” to any of the screening questions they should be informed that they will need to reschedule a visit for a future date. This will help reduce the risk of a non-employee introducing the staff of an office building to the virus.
Avoidance of unnecessary personal contact
Not all, but some virtual receptionist or visitor management solutions are able to fully manage visitors to a building without needed to have an employee stationed at a receptionist or front desk in the lobby. By eliminating the need to have a staff member exposed to visitors as they enter the lobby of a building, companies are already better positioned to protect their employees. A virtual receptionist solution can present guests with a list of company employees whom they can call from the lobby. This gives the employee the ability to speak and with some solutions, see the visitor in the lobby without needing to go out personally and speak with them.
Remote employee communicating with visitor without direct contact
ALICE Receptionist
Here at ALICE Receptionist, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to improve the workplace environment for employees, help businesses implement visitor standards and policies, as well as provide an elevated experience for visitors to our clients’ buildings.
ALICE Hardware Options
Individuals who are interested in learning more about ALICE Receptionist and the benefits it offers businesses can visit us at our website to request more information.
No matter what line of work you’re in, effective lobby management is an important part of business success.
Company receptionists who greet and track visitors can often become overwhelmed with other tasks. Simple lobby directory signs can bring other challenges, such as issues with visitor and vendor access.
An effective solution to your lobby management challenges is to install a visitor badge system that handles visitor management, interactive directories, and backup reception duties. Here are five ways a visitor badge and management system can help your business succeed.
1. Increases Office Security
Many businesses want to know who is in the office and what part of the company they have access to. This is important not only for security purposes but also for health, safety, and liability concerns.
Setting up a visitor management system lets you track every visitor who comes through your door and refer to the log later if needed. And if you have a locked door leading off the lobby, you’ll have one more layer of protection between the public and your employees and company documents.
2. Improves Emergency Responses
Another benefit of a visitor badge system is streamlined emergency responses.
3. Prints Easy-to-Identify Visitor Badges
If your company receptionist normally handles visitor check-in and check-out, you know there are many challenges with generic stick-on badges. Not only do these badges not fully identify visitors, but they may lack company logos and a visible date. Plus they don’t always look professional.
Visitor management systems enter identifying information from visitors, such as full name, phone number, and organization. Typically, these systems can scan a driver’s license or other photo ID and take an instant photo of the visitor for badge purposes. This information remains in the system, with pertinent details printed on the badge as well.
4. It Helps Track Contractor Time
If your company does business with contractors and other vendors, you likely receive bills for vendor services. Knowing how long the contract work took is critical to ensuring appropriate billing.
By setting up visitor management, you can require all contractors to check in upon arrival and check out upon completion of the work. This tracking system will mean an accurate account of hours worked. You’ll know if the contractor bill reflects surplus time, so you can reach out accordingly.
5. It Lowers Operation Costs
Finally, installing a visitor badge system reduces the demand for more staff. You won’t need to hire additional front desk assistance because the visitor management system will already be in place, ready to help out. You’ll also cut back on the need for printer paper, log books, and other office supplies, further reducing your overhead costs.
Get Started with ALICE
How can you reap these benefits? Turn to ALICE, the solution for your visitor management needs. ALICE Receptionist lets your company screen visitors, connect visitors to employees, print instant badges, keep track of visitors and contractors, and improve your office security. Reach out to us today if you want to see how we can help your business.
