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The spread of COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how much of the world works, and businesses are trying to catch up. To make sure people stay safe and healthy, they need to implement new systems and change normal operations. People can’t simply walk into a store and wander around like they used to.
Instead, businesses need to control how many people enter their buildings at a single time. They need to keep an eye on the max occupancy of their buildings, to make sure everyone stays safe. And it can be hard to manage the number of employees, customers, clients, managers, and everyone else.
It’s up to companies to manage the number of people in the building and to make sure they are following all safety guidelines. By letting more people into your building than the max occupancy, you risk spreading COVID-19 to more people. Your company may be held responsible for putting people at risk.
Keep reading below to learn more about how important it is to follow max occupancy guidelines, and how you can keep everyone safe!
After COVID-19 began spreading through different communities, states across the U.S. began passing new laws. They began to limit how many people could enter businesses at once, and the kinds of businesses that could keep their doors open. They didn’t pass these kinds of laws to cripple businesses, but to keep people safe.
If businesses don’t follow these new policies, they may be culpable for spreading this new and dangerous virus.
By reducing the max occupancy in buildings, health officials made sure COVID-19 had fewer chances to spread. An infected person can spread the coronavirus to several other people, far more than if they had the flu or another common virus. This is because of a few simple reasons.
First, viruses are innately contagious. They spread to other people through people, and a person can get sick by getting too close to someone with a virus. Secondly, there is no immunity built up to prevent COVID-19.
The virus is too new for people to fight the virus off as they have for the flu. By reducing the number of people allowed to gather in one area, the virus spreads slower and fewer people are put at risk.
Another key component of preventing the spread of COVID-19 is social distancing. It’s a simple concept — social distancing is just about maintaining at least 6 feet between people.
And businesses need to make sure that people have the room they need to stay apart. The best way to make sure that everyone has enough room to stay safe is by enforcing stricter rules and limiting the max occupancy.
As a business, you have a responsibility to make sure that everyone stays healthy while they work with you. Most of the time, this means making sure your building is clean and that you follow basic guidelines from officials. However, times have changed and you need to play a more active role in keeping people safe.
Make sure to have social distancing guidelines posted throughout your building, to help people keep themselves safe. There should be ways for people to tell when they’re six feet apart from someone, such as with tape on the ground. You should also hang up informational posters explaining the new expectations.
The new normal can be scary, and the changes can seem like a lot to wrap your head around. For most business owners, it can seem like they have a lot of new responsibility they didn’t sign up for when they started the business. However, there are some good things to come out of the pandemic.
For example, businesses have the opportunity to get more control over their buildings. New technologies like digital receptionists can automatically control who has access to your building. They can be programmed to only allow a certain number of people in a single time, so you’re always following guidelines from health officials.
They can also tell people about new programs you have in place due to COVID-19, and keep track of the people in your building. With them, you will have immediate access to information about the people in your business, while they’re in it. And that can be invaluable for both recording who does business with you and for your security.
While businesses are now responsible for controlling the number of people in their buildings at once, they shouldn’t take their new power too far. It can be easy to get accused of making discriminatory policies when you start controlling who has access to your building and who doesn’t.
Make sure that everyone has the same chance to access your business, regardless of who they are. You may need to put in a little effort to accommodate people with disabilities or people who may not be able to do some things for personal reasons.
It’s up to you to accommodate everyone, even if you need to work a little harder to do it! Luckily there are technologies, like visitor management systems, to help you include others while keeping them safe.
The spread of COVID-19 is a global crisis, and it takes effort from everyone to slow it down. The average person now needs to wear masks and be conscious of how close they are to people. And business owners need to make some new steps, too.
They need to stay conscious of the max occupancy of their buildings and encourage people to maintain social distancing. It’s not easy, but it’s a vital part of staying safe and making sure communities emerge into the other side of the pandemic safely. We can help you help your community stay healthy.
Contact us, and we’ll show you how our virtual receptionist technology may be the perfect solution for your business! It will help your customers stay safe, and help you stay compliant with guidelines from health officials.
Managing an office complex, or anywhere else with reception can be exhausting work. Some of the real challenges of the job come with simply keeping track of everyone in your property at any one time.
This includes checking people in, checking people out, and everything in-between. But have you ever considered that this crucial part of the job could be much easier?
We promise it can be if you look at investing in a visitor management system.
How you ask? Well, here at Alice Receptionist we’ve outlined what exactly a visitor management system is, as well as 5 major ways it can benefit your business.
There’s nothing all that complicated about what a visitor management system is, despite how intimidating it sounds.
A visitor management system is a system 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.
These systems are considerably more accurate and reliable than outdated methods like guest books, and also often come with additional features. If you need to know more, please see our previous blog post.
Below are 5 ways in which investing in one could help your business.
The first and most obvious benefit to visitor management systems is increasing your efficiency. You’ll no longer have to have huge books and pen and paper methods to collate your data.
Instead, everything can be inputted instantly into the system, which can reliably track and save this information. Not only is it much easier to follow, but its also so much safer.
Further measures can be taken to increase efficiency even more. Pre-scheduling information could be sent to visitors before they arrive, which can streamline the entire check-in process.
This can be exceptionally helpful for conferences or large meetings, as everyone attending can check in upon arrival with a unique code and be logged into the system quickly.
Not only is a visitor management system more efficient and safer at keeping your data, but it also works to make your building safer and more secure overall.
Think about it; you operate a pen and paper check-in system and are trying to find out whether an individual is in the building. You have to manually look through your huge book to find this potentially dangerous person, wasting employee time and putting people at risk.
With a software based system, guests can be located quickly and easily. Everyone can be logged into the same reliable system, and their information can be found much faster.
The system also keeps confidential information much safer and can prevent breaches in guest data which could otherwise have seriously harmed your business.
A visitor management system can also help make your office or building appear modernized to visitors. A fully automated reception system is a real surprise for guests and can positively impact their first impressions of your company.
Science shows people make judgments 12 seconds after seeing you; this is the same for when they see your building. If you “wow” them with a streamlined, automated check-in, they’ll take that experience with them throughout their time in your building and beyond.
Think about how this system could also be customized to show off your brand if you own a high-tech office or hotel. This can help to both modernize and advertise your company to those who most need to be impressed, your visitors.
A visitor management system allows for a fully paperless reception. This makes it a considerably more environmentally friendly option than a regular reception.
Paper waste is one of the worst things for the environment today. Adopting a visitor management system can help you to create an automated visitor badge system that saves on paper. Not only that, but the system being entirely online means that no paper is wasted there either!
It can be a real positive initiative for your business in its efforts to protect the environment. It can also positively affect guest satisfaction as a result, as they will likely be impressed by your efforts and feel like they are helping to positively contribute.
Thanks to host notifications and elaborate system management, a visitor management system can reduce the waiting times of any reception. This is vital for buildings that experience a huge footfall in visitors every day but remains important for smaller businesses too.
This is because not only does it reduce guest waiting time, it reduces the time spent by your employees on checking guests in and monitoring guest movements. This means they can spend their working time on other important tasks.
Ultimately, this is how a thorough visitor management system can save your business money. Your customer service staff will no longer have to handle reception duties, meaning their time is better spent on the overall operation of your business.
Your guests don’t have to wait as long, so you don’t lose as many potential customers due to waiting times. Thanks to these facts, implementing a visitor management system may be one of the most cost-effective decisions you make.
If you’re looking for a comprehensive visitor management system, Alice Receptionist has you covered. Our innovative receptionist and management system provides a professional experience for guests as well as a more secure environment for employees.
If you’d like to find out more about how an Alice Receptionist system can transform your building, please contact us directly. Or, you can request a quote directly on our website today.
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