How to Manage Visitors at Your Manufacturing Company Lobby

40% of visitors to any company report having a bad experience and end up blaming this on their first impressions in the lobby. No matter whether you work for a manufacturing company or any other business, this can have a major impact on how external clients engage with you. It is important that you create a streamlined and simple method of checking people into the site while maintaining security.

This article will give you some tips on how to use an electronic system to ensure people feel like their visit was well handled. As you read the post, consider how such a system could improve visitors’ experiences of your business site in the future.

Automated Pre-Visit Reminders

If you expect people to visit, it is always good to send them a small reminder of their appointment. Not only can this act as a way to help people remember to turn up, but they can also use this as proof of an invite.

Such reminders will often come in the form of an email and can contain information such as:

• Your office location
• Parking details
• Room details for meetings
• Emergency phone numbers
• Expected fire drills

It is even possible to automate this process using visitor management software to ensure everyone gets the same message. By doing this in a way that is consistent, you can track metrics related to visitor comfort and improve the process over time.

Greet Visitors

The last thing you want is for a potential client to walk in the front door, look around for a bit, feel flustered, and then walk out again. When they enter, they need to engage with a welcoming sight straight away. This can even be something as simple as an automated system that tells them to sign in.

As such, if you opt to not have a physical person at the entrance, it can be a good idea to recognize people via an electronic process when they arrive. For those who are not scheduled visitors, you can also have displays that welcome them and sign them in on an ad-hoc basis.

On top of this, having someone’s name appear when they sign in can help people feel engaged with their visit. It will cause people to consider themselves welcomed personally. If you want to go into more detail than that, our system goes above and beyond with a full range of check-in processes available.

Get Visitors to Check In

You must ensure potential clients stay as safe as everyone else. They need to check in or otherwise have their presence recorded in case of emergencies. You can either make this your responsibility or theirs.

Company Responsibility

One option is to personally greet people entering the premises. This can take time away from your employees, though.

We would recommend you only do this in special cases. For example, if you need to verify proof of their identity for security reasons.

Having an employee free to divert to visitors can also be useful in the case of unannounced visits by emergency services or to sign for packages. Though, these are few and far between, and you can handle the vast majority of situations on-screen.

Visitor Responsibility

Despite a first impression being very important, there are times you cannot afford a full-time employee to handle visitors. Instead, you need to allow people to manage themselves.

The simplest version of this can happen during sign-up and tells people where they might want to go after signing in. On the more comprehensive end of the spectrum, though, you can use an automated visitor management system. 

Such a system can introduce visitors to the building in detail and tell people where to direct themselves. This then removes the need to distract employees from other work.

Physical Sign-In vs. Electronic

When designing a visitor lobby, you have a choice. You can either allow people to sign in to a physical log or do it with an electronic system.

Using a physical system might be easier for people to understand, but is harder to look through in the case of a mishap. Electronic systems allow for easily-searchable records, and once people get used to them can be a lot faster.

However you sign people in, bear in mind, you should get the following information:

• The visitor’s full name
• The body the visitor represents
• Why the person is visiting
• Who handles their visit (the “host”)

Regardless of which one you choose, though, this is a very important security step. Manufacturing companies have strict secrecy precedents in place that should be adhered to. So, if information or stock gets loose, you have a record to see who has entered the building.

Signing Out

Not only do people have to sign in with such systems, but you should also ensure they sign out. In the case of an emergency evacuation of the building, such as during a fire, this allows you to know who is in the building.

Let the Hosting Individual Know

Part of the sign-in process needs to be letting the host know about their visitor’s arrival. This ensures there is a handover of responsibility from any greeter to the host. There are a few ways to do this, and these are the most common.

Phone

If you cannot simply walk over or yell for someone to take responsibility for a visitor, such as in an open office, you can phone the host instead. This allows them to come and meet them, and any reception staff can know the host has received their visitor.

Automated Notifications

Another option is to ping the host via email or direct message. Alongside some sort of “read” status or one-click confirmation, you can know the host is aware of the presence of the visitor. You can then inform them that they can wait or ask them to come back as necessary.

Upgrade Your Manufacturing Company

With these tips, you can likely start to design a smoother experience for anyone visiting your manufacturing company. You might even be in the market for an electronic solution to help you handle all this with minimal hassle. Lucky for you, we have such a solution.

Alice Receptionist can handle your full visitor management process. It acts as a receptionist, visitor manager, and much more. So, give us a call, and we can discuss everything we have to offer as well as how it can help you.