Is your business successfully managing the volume of visitors you receive on-site? Or do you struggle to implement protocols for visitors and employees coming in at all hours?
If you’re struggling to keep up with your hosting experience, then you need to look into visitor management systems.
It is the new and improved solution that will help you deliver consistent and reliable guest experiences for everyone in your facility.
Read on to learn what a sound visitor management system entails and why it is the answer to all of your problems.

What Is Visitor Management?

Visitor management refers to practices used to welcome, interact with, and manage visitors that come into your premises.

Management includes good practices and hardware additions that together allow your administrative and security team to monitor and manage visitors.

Types of Visitor Management Systems

There are many different features of visitor management systems based on the type of visitors and the level of access they require.

These often boil down to the three visitor management systems in use today:
1. Pen and Paper Solutions
This age-old method involves visitors writing down their personal details on paper. This method poses a significant risk of data theft and misplacement of records. Not to mention, it is a waste of resources for your organization. Thankfully, many facility owners and managers have left behind this traditional visitor tracking method and have leveraged advancements in technology for more sophisticated solutions.

2. Software Solutions (On-Premise)
This on-premise solution uses host-bound visitor management systems. It is one step ahead of the analog check-in but does have issues such as data breach risk and high investment costs.

3. Cloud-Based Visitor Management Solutions
The most secure visitor management systems are cloud-hosted. They can be accessed from anywhere and come with fewer setup costs.

A common trend for businesses is incorporating on-premise software and cloud-based systems to manage their visitors. These integrated systems are best for premises with high security risks and many elements to their visitor management setup.

What Does a Visitor Management System Do?

A visitor management system automates processes involving visitor registration, arrival, check-in, collection by host, premise navigation, check-out, and post-visit analysis.

What Businesses Need a Visitor Management System?

Every business or workplace with a regular flow of visitors needs a visitor management system. It is crucial to track everyone that goes in and out of the premises, whether it’s the regular delivery personnel, janitorial staff, clients, business associates, employees, shareholders, and more.

These systems include check-in systems, host notification features, or visitor registration. For workplaces with high traffic volume or high security requirements, they require even more features.

Regardless of the type of business you run, you need a visitor management system to ensure the continued safety and comfort of everyone in your organization.

Let’s discuss the benefits of such a system to your business:

Benefits of Visitor Management for Your Business

Streamlined Communication and Sign-in Processes
The reception desk is the first point of contact for your visitors, and it's often a make-or-break interaction for clients. Easy sign-in processes, host notifications, and friendly greeters are some of the crucial communication elements in visitor management. Failure in one or more of these can lead to long lines, misunderstandings, and other situations that will hamper this initial interaction. An efficient visitor management system will prevent these pain points. Your system should let your visitors quickly pre-register or self-register upon arrival. Hosts must automatically be notified once their guest checks in.

Any reminders or announcements for guests should also be delivered at this initial point of contact.
Efficient Monitoring and Enhanced Security
Visitor management systems also improve the visibility and monitoring of all visitors. This ultimately allows you to better manage employees, visitors, and guests on the premises at every moment.

Better Storage and Compiling of Visitor Data
Cloud-based systems such as Gfacility can help your business collect and store important visitor data. A robust visitor management system keeps this data safe and makes it available for easy access to security teams during emergencies.

Improved Operational Efficiency
Whether you have front-desk employees or security teams, they all become more efficient when they don’t have to deal with unnecessary tasks. When visitors can move around the premises without constant assistance and supervision, your employees can focus on more important responsibilities.

Good Visitor Impression and Business Reputation
With the help of an efficient visitor management system, your employees and visitors can easily enter and move around the premises. Your administrators are also armed with all the information they need in case of emergencies.

By automating your visitor management processes, you can remove or limit the points of in-person interactions that result in poor visitor experiences. This way, you can deliver a pleasant visit experience for your guests and clients, thus building a good business reputation.

How to Choose a Good Visitor Management System?

Here are essential things to consider when narrowing down your search for a visitor management system:

  • Drawbacks of your existing visitor management system
  • Volume and type of visitors
  • Type of registration required for each type of visitor
  • Workflows needed to be set up for different kinds of visitors
  • Directions and wayfinding
  • Integration options
  • Whether you need 24/7 visitor monitoring or additional visitor screening
  • Health screenings
  • Secure guest WiFi network
  • Compliance with industry regulations on data security
  • Data security and user privacy risk
  • Code-enabled badges or visitor identification
  • Whether you need any NDAs or digitally signed documents
  • Insights and reports for data-driven decision making
  • Potentially scaling up or down in the future

These should help you outline a list of requirements for your business’s visitor management system. You must partner with a company that will provide all the features you need to run your facility smoothly.

With a visitor management solution like Gfacility, you can integrate and manage all your business functions from one place. This includes management solutions for your workspace, visitors, assets, maintenance, and events.

If you want to see how it works for yourself, schedule your free demo here!

Wrapping Up

Streamlining your facility management can feel overwhelming if you’ve been using analog methods for years. Software solutions and automation will streamline all of your visitor processes from entry to exit.

Optimize your business operations to reach your business potential today with Gfacility.