Digital visitor management systems for ensuring safety
All businesses will have visitors, whether that is contractors, field sales representatives, interviewees or clients, to name a few. Traditionally, a signing-in book is used to record the comings and goings of these visitors, but as with all aspects of a modern business, moving your visitor management to digital technology offers many benefits and improvements that will simplify managing your daily visitors and recording their data.
When managing visitors to your business, there are 4 main factors to consider. Identity, reason, security and access. Who are they, why are they visiting, are they secure, and what access do they need?
A visitor management system ensures the identification of all guests, welcomes them to the premises, notifies the person they intend to see, and monitors their movement throughout the visit.
How does visitor management system work?
Visitor management software allows you to modernise and improve your existing visitor process. It is designed to improve security, save time, and reduce wastage.
All of these improvements create an impression of quality and forward-thinking for your business. It is GDPR compliant, saves storage space by eliminating the need for paper records, saves time and effort for the signing-in process, aids your business's environmental commitments and improves security.
Visitor management software gives you the option of sending emails ahead of the visit, therefore allowing you to provide relevant information to the visitor, such as any changes to the visit.
How do you manage visitors?
Does your business still use a paper-based visitor book? This method carries a lot of risk with regards to security and data protection, and you must store the paperwork for future audits.
By introducing a digital visitor management system, you instantly create a quality first impression, showing your guests that you are a forward-thinking company – as a paper signing-in book often ends up looking worn and tired. It can leave the first impression of a business that isn’t moving forward in the modern world. Contractors and other visitors will visit a variety of businesses and will inevitably compare you to the others (including your competition).
The digital process is simpler to use and leaves your receptionist to greet visitors and provide a warm welcome to the building – and your business.
Visitor management software makes conforming to GDPR rules and regulations a lot easier as your visitors can simply tick a box as to whether they are happy to have their data on record or not, and the visitor’s details are not on display.
The increased security of visitor management software is a feature that benefits both your visitors and staff. Printed cards can provide access control to your staff and visitors, and limiting the areas that some visitors can access provides peace of mind to your staff. In addition, a visitor management system has fewer errors and inaccuracies – with the simple addition of a photograph on the card, you can eliminate the risk of any mistaken identity and false information.
In the event of a fire, as digital visitor management software records when visitors (and staff) enter and exit the building, it is much easier to take a digital copy of who is on-site at present time. This provides a higher level of safety.
What should I look for in a visitor management system (VMS)?
It is important that your visitor management software is relevant and suited to your business. The digital software offers a variety of options and benefits for your business.
VMS should be simple and easy to use both for installation and usage. Whether you have a permanent receptionist or are in a situation where you will require the software to be used by the visitor themselves, it must to be simple to use. The benefit of an easy-to-use visitor management software is that it simplifies the process, reducing the time signing in takes and improving the efficiency of your business.
Visitor management software instantly eliminates the need for data entry and logging all the hard copy information onto a spreadsheet. The information is instantly gathered digitally and can be accessed quickly whenever needed, even at a basic level of the visitor ‘clocking out’ after their visit. The benefit of digital information is that it can be accessed from anywhere (providing it is you are using a cloud-based software) and managed from a remote location. You can customise the data gathered and export any reports that you require, depending on what is relevant to your business.
If your business has multiple entry/exit points or multiple buildings, you can link different licenses – meaning that a visitor management system offers a single area for you to monitor and manage your visitors with ease.
Even at a basic level, a visitor management system will prevent the need for a guest to search back through the signing-in book to find themselves and sign out.
Why visitor management system is required?
Which is harder to gain entry to, your mobile phone or your business? Fingerprint and facial recognition are a part of daily life and will only continue to improve with the advances in technology being at our fingertips. Because of this, people are used to, and in most cases, expect, a higher level of security than ever before.
By choosing a visitor management system, the guest/visitor can sign in prior to arrival and then be sent an email that provides the important information for their visit ahead of time, such as location, date, times, who they will be visiting and why. They can also be a great way to remind people of company policies, such as health and safety and any other measures.
Implementing visitor management software will improve your security as it monitors in greater depth than the classic paper signing-in book. Cards can provide access control to certain areas of the business, including entry to the building itself.
The visitor management system helps to speed up the signing-in process and improves the productivity of your reception department. A recent study discovered that it takes approximately 23 minutes to recover from a distraction at work and regain focus. Based on this information, if a receptionist has 5 visitors a day, that equates to 115 minutes (nearly 2 hours) of wasted time during the working day.
This lost time adds up, and by implementing a quality visitor management system, you can save time and increase productivity.
Embrace the paperless revolution
Sustainability and a focus on being green are an important part of modern business. By removing a signing-in book and moving to a digital platform, you help remove reliance on paper, from the book itself to filing and storage of the older documents.
After a period of time, you will be required to destroy the physical information, and doing this on visitor management software is a lot simpler and quicker than the traditional paper-based method. It is the difference between finding the appropriate box of records and physically shredding them as opposed to just pressing the delete button.
When printing the visitor's passes, you can either choose recycled short-term use paper cards or opt for a card rewrite printer. This means you can remove even more paper from the process and print onto reusable plastic cards to maintain your green credentials.
Whichever option you choose, you will reduce long-term spending on signing in books and pens.
How much does a visitor management system cost?
When it comes to implementing a visitor management system into your business, it is important that you have features that are relevant to your business requirements. The ideal solution is one that suits your business in the present but is also capable of growing with your business’s success.
Because of this customisable factor, there is no fixed price to a visitor management system for your business. There are a wide variety of options available, including bundles with printers and cards included.
For more information on our range of visitor management software, please – click here or get in touch with a member of our expert team.
