Month: February 2020

Generally referred to as the front desk or the front office, the office reception forms a critical touchpoint for visitors and guests coming in. Right from the backdrop to the furniture and the lighting the front desks are carefully designed and a lot of investments go in to create that first impression. 

Do you think that’s all it takes? No.

Even with state-of-the-art furniture crafted from the finest quality wood to extremely classy lightings many large enterprises fail to provide a premium visitor experience due to manual handling of visitor records using outdated techniques – a soiled visitor logbook and a ballpoint pen. This lack of automated software for efficient registration and maintenance of visitor records can be costly to your brand’s image. 

The importance of implementing an efficient and smart visitor management system is known to all, and there are several such systems and software available in the market today. However, before you deploy any such system at your front office it is important to understand the common problems every reception area is affected by and the ways in which you may find the right software.

We have gone through surveys and reports and have found out three of the most common yet critical problems that immobilize the front office operations. To further delight you and make this piece of content more relevant, we will be sharing a premium visitor management solution at the end of this blog. 

Problem 1: Messing up the Brand Image

Let us understand the problem by imagining a situation where your visitor is standing in front of a visitor logbook scribbling his details at the bottom of a long visitors list. Then he is required to show his IDs, have his photos taken and wait till his visitor pass is printed out and handed to him. 

This is a major flaw in the traditional visitor registration process that instantly makes the guest offended. Owing to it being a regular practice, it often misses out being an important priority. But, it is.

However, you can avoid annoying your guests by simply installing a smart visitor management system at your front office. Your guest will walk up to a self-servicing mobile application, register his details and mentioning the purpose of his visit, and the host he wants to meet. The host will be notified about the meeting request via an email, an IVR call or an SMS. Upon receiving an alert the host will take out his phone and accept, reject, or forward the meeting after reviewing the information sent from the front desk kiosk. Hence, a smart visitor management software helps in streamlining the entire process from visitor check-in and check-out, as well as give a refreshing experience to your visitors or guests.

Problem 2: Security concerns for office facilities 

The information entered by your visitor in the visitor logbook is neither validated nor secured. This means that the information can be counterfeit since there is no verification system in place. There are also chances of the information getting stolen by the next set of visitors visiting your office – thereby data security of your organization is compromised.

You can fix this problem with a visitor management technology which verifies the information entered by sending an OTP on his/her registered phone number. With this smart visitor management software, you can collect visitor information and store it in a centralized database for easy retrieval at any given time and from any location. Thereafter, upon his next visit, he is just required to give his registered mobile number or he can scan his QR code, and step into your office. This is because all his details will be made available to the front desk executive by the system – thereby saving time and forgetting unwanted queues.

Problem 3: Time consuming

Let us also understand the concerns from the visitor perspective now.

Waiting in queue, dealing with front desk security, fumbling with a visitor register or logbook, producing IDs and waiting for the approval consume much of your visitor’s precious time. Some of them may be delivery guys who have a huge delivery list that day.

What you can do is automate and streamline the entire check-in and check- out process with an advanced registration system. So, no more waiting, no queues, and smooth execution!

With the digital revolution right around the corner, it is now time that you replace your dull paper logbook and manual process with a smart visitor management software that will help you to get rid of these common and useless problems that are making your front office look shabby in performance.

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Rapid digitization around the world is changing the nature of work and the experience of the workplace. Reports suggest that by the end of the year, millennials would form 50% of the global workforce. This new generation of professionals prefers multi-tasking and love staying connected through modern apps. These young minds and their disruptive ideas promise to have a great impact on the workplaces of the future.

Organizations who boast of having a futuristic vision have already begun substituting old-school and traditional ways of doing things with new-age technology – artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, workplace sensors, etc.

In light of this, most of these large-scale enterprises are initiating digitization right from the front desk. They are rethinking traditional visitor management techniques that involved a redundant pen-and-paper process and are shifting to more advanced solutions for increasing efficiency and strengthening the security standards. The front desks of organizations form the first touchpoint for any visitor and are responsible for the security of data, people, and facilities.

Leveraging the Right Technology for the Right Job

Today’s fast-evolving technologies are changing the nature of work, dynamics of the workforce, and the notion of the workplace. Owing to this change the modern workforce is empowered to take up more responsibilities and become more productive. By going digital you can minimize the need to perform soul-destroying and repetitive tasks manually – thereby, managing your time efficiently. So, automation is key to increasing efficiency and reducing human errors.

Therefore, by introducing an automated cloud-based visitor management system at your front desk you are lessening the burden of the receptionists and allowing them to perform other important tasks.

The solution then is a self-serving application where a visitor can register himself by taking a little help from the front-desk executive if at all required. There is a possibility that the visitor visiting your office is not acquainted with English, so having a multi-lingual feature is an added advantage. One such smart visitor management application not only redefines the visitor experience but also disburdens the receptionist or the front office executive.

Rethinking Meeting Schedules and Smart Actions

Scheduling a meeting with a premium guest is an ad hoc responsibility of a front office executive. Numerous phone calls with follow up emails, and the intense pressure of getting the meeting scheduled, often take a toll on the professional. 

A robust and digital visitor management system helps you schedule a meeting with the visitor and send in the meeting details in the format of a mail or simply an SMS. Upon receiving an alert the smart visitor management system allows the host to take smart action after reviewing the purpose of the meet right from the mobile app. This not only makes the process of scheduling meetings efficient but also helps you to build on the experience of the visitor. 

Re-envisioning Visitor Experience

Your reception area is the first point of contact for any visitor/s coming into your office. It plays a crucial part in creating a positive impression of your business and the brand. Therefore, by replacing your age-old outdated visitor management methods with a smart visitor management system you can create a lasting impression. 

An ideal digital visitor management system allows your visitors or guests to register themselves the first time with all the mandatory details. A verification process is carried out for validating contact details of the concerned individual which may be used later when they visit again. The detailed information from such systems is usually stored in a centralized database so that it may be retrieved at any given time from any location.

To sum it up, a visitor management system should have the following – 

1. Cloud-based mobile platform
2. Data validation procedures
3. Centralized database
4. Smart actions, and
5. Multilingual support

Without all of these in place, a reception can never be completely digitized. And without a digital transformation starting right from your front office, you would never really be able to start your journey to the digital workplace of the future.

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Global enterprises are realizing the importance of securing their data, people, and facilities. The emerging security concerns in the world today are forcing us to move beyond paper logbooks as well as simple access management software/applications. Modern security needs are undoubtedly more complex for old school security techniques, and therefore, we need something more advanced and in tune with the current needs.

Integrating security with everyday operations is a primary need today for most organizations owing to the recent increase in threats of data breaches, property damage, physical threat, and so much more. Therefore, the implementation of a robust security culture in your business is important, with an easy to access digital visitor record being the starting point!

Let us look at 4 key trends that will help to reshape visitor management practices in 2020:

The Cloud Approach

Recent developments in cloud computing have been a major disruptor in the technology domain that has increased the reliance on how data can be stored, formatted, and analyzed. As for visitor management systems, cloud computing promises of offering a secure and optimized platform for the visitors, the host, and the admin. This new decade, cloud computing is all set to throw light on new trends that will be the foundation of disruptive innovation.

It must be mentioned here that all organizations are already running most of their workloads on the cloud, however, the understanding about securing the cloud is blurry. This makes security only but an afterthought with cloud deployments owing to traditional security measures may inhibit the agility of a business.

Today, leading security solutions are trying to align themselves with the new paradigm of cloud-based and flexible architectures that deliver effective security services at great speed. We need to remember that increasing reliance on public cloud infrastructure might be risky as there are chances of an outage. This means that companies would be looking at their existing data center/s and cloud deployments. They may also consider hybrid environments that comprise both public and private clouds.

Cloud services that are hosted and managed using the likes of AWS RDS, would be more safe and secure, and promises that your company data will be maintained in a safe and secure way. Moreover, these service providers would promise comprehensive protection against loss of data and downtime.

Improved Analytics and Insights

Analytics has always been a crucial game-changer for organizations. The trend will remain the same in the future as all major tech companies have finally figured out that data will be ruling the future, and more importantly, the real-time processing of it.

Replacing a manual visitor logbook with a digital visitor management software means that you do not just remove human intervention, but also obtain clean and insightful visitor information which is stored for all future use. By analyzing the available analytics, visitor/security management service providers are then able to offer extensive data reports for highlighting all the necessary visitor trends to their clients.

A proper report enables you to ascertain the reason for a visitor to send in a meeting request, and improve any on-site visitor management including any meetings, events, etc.

Development and Integrations

All the leading visitor management solutions that are available in the market have a host of impressive features to address the needs of an organization pertaining to managing their visitors and guests. It is based on the premium features that a brand offers, that organizations find it easy to pick and choose a VMS.

Facial recognition which had been only a part of sci-fi movies has become a reality today with more and more brands integrating it with their products. With this advanced AI biometric technology, check-in processes become easier and more effective, along with improved workflows in your reception desks. The solution improves the visitor experience for those who visit regularly.

Focusing on User and Customer Experience

We are all aware of the fact that successful digital transformation is dependent on user and customer experience (UX/CX). And, this same emphasis will be driving the business investments for digital transformation.

Digital visitor management features such as real-time notifications and custom workflows will help organizations identify priority visitors/guests and improve on their experience. It needs to be kept in mind that you should invest in a user-focused visitor management system in order to be able to showcase your company’s commitment to delivering your guests with a best-in-class experience.

With the help of an automated visitor management system, you can be able to print customized badges, check-in using QR codes, track visitors on your site, and send out meeting invites to premium guests. This not just ensures hassle-free visitor management but also promises that you fortify the security compliance standards of your organization.

In conclusion, all we have to say is that upgrading your visitor management systems not only digitally revolutionizes the front desk of your office, but also ensures that your employees can work effectively. A cloud-based visitor management software is focused on the future and is a scalable solution that helps you manage your visitors, guests, contractors, and events from one location. So you just need to look out for these four key trends when you are thinking of leveraging a next-generation visitor management service that would help you make your front office look smart!

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