If you manage a large school, hospital, or office space, you probably know that keeping track of visitors can be difficult. A visitor management system can help you streamline the process and keep track of who is coming and going.
A visitor management software solution is a system that helps organizations track and manage visitors. The system includes everything from visitor registration and badging to tracking visitors throughout their visit.
For example, if you want to track which employees are working late or on weekends, you can use a visitor management software solution to log when people are clocking in and out. This data can be used to measure employee productivity and can even help you detect suspicious behavior.
You can also use the software solution to contact visitors later. This is useful when you need their feedback on your services or you want to invite them to future events.
The software can also help you prevent your location from becoming too crowded. Locations with heavy foot traffic can benefit from a visitor management solution by allowing security teams to monitor possible incidents of overcrowding.
One particular pain point with manual visitor management is that it could become difficult to track who your visitors are and the details of their visit. Should an incident occur, it might be difficult to determine who was there and when it happened.
Many establishments feel content with a security guard at the entrance, but that manual system only goes so far. Visitor management software allows you to quickly generate a report of everyone who visited the premises within a particular period. This data is essential for legal, health, and security purposes.
Key Features of Visitor Management Solutions
Let’s take a look at some key features you can expect from a typical visitor management software solution.
First, your visitor management software should be able to generate detailed reports. These reports allow you to gain insight into who is visiting your facility, when they are visiting, and for how long they intend to stay. You can even require visitors to explain the purpose of the visit and with whom they expect to meet. This information is essential for both security and customer service.
Second, visitor management software should allow you to create custom check-in processes that fit the specific needs of your company. You should be able to set up different types of check-in workflows for different types of visitors.
For example, an employee might only be required to do a fingerprint scan or tap an employee ID or badge. Meanwhile, a visitor or guest may have to sign certain forms first before being allowed entry. You should be able to add or remove steps as needed.
In addition to custom workflows, visitor management software may also have the capability to print out visitor badges. These badges can help security personnel identify visitors as they roam the premises. Each badge should include the visitor’s name, photo, and time and date of their visit.
Lastly, the best visitor management software solutions should be easy to use for both visitors and staff. The software must be intuitive and easy to navigate. Ideally, you wouldn’t need to have the technical experience to customize or modify each step of the sign-in process.
In the upcoming sections, we’ll explain in detail each of the benefits you can expect once you’ve started to use a visitor management solution in your office.
Professional Branding and First Impressions
Investing in a top-notch visitor management solution is also an investment in your corporation’s branding and human relations.
New hires, potential clients, and VIPs are just some of the possible visitors you might expect daily. Their first impression of the company needs to be a positive one. A visitor management solution is often the first point of access for any visitor and as such, should immediately reflect a positive image of your company. Having an advanced visitor management solution with a seamless and hassle-free check-in system gives visitors the impression that the company is friendly, professional, modern, and a secure place to visit.
In addition to professionalism, most solutions allow customers to reinforce their branding. You will be able to customize devices to show your company’s logos and branding colors. This will allow you to imprint your company’s identity on your visitors as soon as they walk through the entrance.
Real-time Information and Reports
Visitor management software solutions will enable you to access real-time information about who’s currently on the premises. The software can help you manage large amounts of data that are constantly changing.
Teams can use these reports to prevent crowding or keep track of people who were present during a particular event or incident.
Look for visitor management software that stores visitor information in a cloud computing database. The database should give you the ability to search, analyze, and retrieve visitor data for any given period.
Reports should be able to provide insight into how many visitors arrived on site on a particular day. You should also have an idea as to whether this person is a repeat visitor or is visiting the premises for the first time.
Sustainability
Visitor management software solutions can also help with sustainability in several ways. Sustainability refers to a company’s ability to maintain a certain level of environmental, economic, and social systems indefinitely.
OSHA describes sustainability as a mindset that strives to balance three bottom lines: people, planet, and profit. This often manifests in policies that lower the amount of energy used or decrease the amount of waste generated.
By automating the process of visitor check-in and check-out, businesses can reduce their paper use. In other words, this system allows paperless visit management and is, therefore, a more environmentally friendly option.
Automated visitor management systems can also help businesses keep track of their energy use and carbon footprint. In addition, many visitor management software solutions offer reporting features that help businesses track their progress toward sustainability goals.
Pushing for sustainability may affect the satisfaction of visitors. They will likely be impressed by the establishment’s efforts and will also feel that they are taking part in the initiative.
Safety and Compliance
Corporate compliance covers both internal policies and procedures as well as external policies such as national or state laws.
Depending on your industry, you may need to collect certain data from the individuals who visit your workplace. Using visitor management software, you can generate an automated workflow that provides screening questions during the check-in procedure.
There are several legal reasons why you should invest in a visitor management solution for your office.
Suppose your organization was subject to an on-site incident. The visitor management solution can act as a reliable point of reference and source of truth on who was present when that incident occurred. In some cases, these software solutions can generate reports that can be presented in a court of law.
Software solutions can also help visitors sign digital copies of NDAs or T&C forms that will help cover your bases legally.
Visitor management solutions are also helpful when it comes to complying with certain health protocols. Streamlined solutions have become more popular lately due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The software can automate temperature checks or ask visitors for a medical certificate. The main benefit of visitor management software is that it gives you a complete audit trail of every visitor that you can use for both safety and compliance purposes.
Management of Multiple Locations
If you work at a medium or large company, you may have to manage multiple locations. With multiple premises to keep track of, it might be difficult to ensure that each of these locations is secure and running at targeted levels.
Visitor management solutions can be a huge help for corporations in monitoring multiple locations. The software should be able to sync real-time data from each location to a centralized database.
Increased Productivity
Visitor management solutions can also be useful for increasing company productivity.
Receptionists no longer have to handle every step of the check-in process since guests can use the visitor management solution to pre-register. You can even provide a self-service check-in option that will only require minimal attention from your receptionist.
Your receptionist will be able to focus on more valuable tasks such as answering customer questions or screening phone calls.
Keeping track of visitors manually is a time-consuming effort. This tedious work ties up your employees with a chore that prevents them from focusing on more critical tasks. Visitor management software should help you automate the process of tracking visitors, making room for your employees to optimize the performance of their core tasks.
The software solution also allows your security team to be more productive than spending a big chunk of their time helping with sign-ups and other forms of paperwork. A visitor management software solution frees the team to focus on their primary task of securing your premises and people—addressing actual security concerns and monitoring surveillance systems in an efficient and timely manner.
Pre-booking Visitors
Pre-booking visitors is a great way to stay organized and ensure that your visitors have a smooth experience.
Organizations that host large events and conferences can benefit from a visitor management solution that allows pre-booking. The pre-booking feature gives guests the ability to pre-register their attendance before arriving on site. Many visitor management solutions allow you to generate unique reference numbers that guests can present as either QR codes or bar codes that can be scanned in seconds.
Instead of spending several minutes at a registration booth, they simply need to scan a QR code generated by the pre-booking feature.
This feature allows businesses to better manage their event space and get alerts for when their event has reached a certain capacity.
Integration with Other Systems
The visitor management system you’ll invest in doesn’t have to work alone and render the security system installed in your office useless. Many visitor management solutions can integrate visitor data with the existing systems you have already invested in.
For example, you can connect your access control system to your visitor management system. This will enable the latter to keep logs of every time an employee enters a particular location.
You can also integrate your location’s video surveillance or intrusion detection system into your visitor management solution. It should be possible to pull up security footage that shows when a particular guest or employee has arrived on site.
You may also connect your HRMS system with the visitor management solution. This will allow your HRMS system to keep track of when particular employees punch in and punch out.
It is beneficial to have all of these systems integrated since it can give the concerned team real-time visibility on who is visiting your location.
Taking into account the benefit of using visitor management software with security systems and HRMS systems, many software providers often bundle these services together. It’s always a good idea to ask providers for these bundles to take advantage of the benefits of having a fully-integrated solution.
Conclusion
Visitor management software solutions offer a large number of benefits for businesses. These include improved safety and compliance, a better first impression for guests, and increased productivity.
Corporations can achieve a greater level of compliance and security by using these software solutions to keep track of visitor data and streamline the digital signing of documents.
In providing a seamless check-in experience, visitor management solutions help businesses further improve their branding and image to their customers and visitors. Adapting a visitor management solution will also increase productivity by automating manual processes, freeing your employees to work on tasks with greater business impact.
There are several visitor management software solutions available on the market, so it is important to find one that fits the specific needs of your business. With many options available, it can be difficult to know where to start. However, by taking the time to research and study the different options to find the software solution that best serves your business's needs, you can ensure that your guests will have a positive experience visiting your location.