There’s more to a good Visitor Management system than a shiny touchscreen. Of course, the touchscreen is important but it should have a host of supporting features that really deliver value for money.
The right feature set can have a real positive impact on your business bottom line by freeing up precious man hours, avoiding health and safety compliance issues and ultimately contributing to a positive visitor/customer experience.
To get the best out of your visitor management platform make sure these capabilities are included in your monthly subscription:
A Low Maintenance, High Performance Visitor Check-in
Choose visitor management system software that can work with very little staff intervention. Visitors are guided through a clear check-in process using an intuitive touchscreen workflow. If your business has specific requirements for checking in visitors look for some customisation ability e.g. setting up different categories of visitors with their own check-in process.
If you have specific health and safety requirements they can be incorporated into your check-in process and reported on if you need to demonstrate that no important steps were missed. You might even want to include a multimedia element such as a video to present specific Health & Safety information. Ideally your visitor management app will be cloud-based ensuring all data is securely stored off site.
Other features such as visitor pre-registration, group bookings and frequent visitor set up mean your reception reflects the high standard of efficiency and professionalism you want for your business.
Get it Looking Like You Want It. Easily.
An ID badge is an essential component of a visitor management system, but you want it to be dated, legible and ideally including a recognisable photo. Better still would be the flexibility to design a fully branded badge with simple drop and drag features. The same user-friendly, drag and drop function should extend to the touchscreen design so you can incorporate your corporate branding, colour palette and imagery.
Better Data for More Informed Decisions
A visitor management system should have a database of contact/visit information that can be outputted as a simple log or a customisable report based on date ranges, visitor type or any other parameter. This can help staff to plan resources more effectively and quickly locate any historic visitor data without trawling through paper records.
Everything Counts in an Emergency
Any business owes a duty of care to its visitors and staff, including having a robust evacuation process. In the event of an emergency, a good visitor management platform should be able to provide an
up-to-date visitor list using easy one-click access. This list should also be available on any internet browser device so fire wardens can easily access it from an external muster point.
Built-In Visitor Privacy Protection
In the light of GDPR, businesses will be reviewing any process which captures and stores personal data and visitor management is no exception. A good system will have the flexibility to communicate any data privacy policies with an option to turn off any dynamic search function which would display a sub-list of contact names to a visitor during the checking in process.
Where’s the 'Value Add?'
There are some things you can’t put a value on and a good first impression is probably one of them, but you can see how a good visitor management system can deliver a real return on investment:
Reduced administrative costs – whether you want to free up time for busy reception staff or run an unmanned reception; an especially useful option if you have multiple entrance/exit points
Brand value – brand equity is a key intangible asset on your company’s Purchase & Ledger sheet. Creating a positive user experience with a visitor management system branded with your corporate logo, livery and design elements enhances your corporate brand.
The high cost of non-compliance - health and safety breaches are expensive so if something goes wrong an organisation must demonstrate it’s dotted all the ‘i’s and crossed all the ‘t’s. Being able to demonstrate a formal checking-in process which accurately tracks visitors on site and communicates important health and safety information will contribute to improved workplace safety.
