Teem
August 6th, 2021

RELATED GUIDE

The Ultimate Workplace Visitor Policy Template

You’re reopening your doors and welcoming people back into the workplace. But it’s not just employees that you have to plan for, you’re bringing visitors back, too.

Soon, a variety of clients, vendors, and contract workers are going to start visiting your offices. If you have experience managing visitors, you know that the check-in process can make or break a first impression.

Even before visitor management system software existed, nothing had the potential to damage someone’s first impression of your company quite like a slow and unwelcoming experience. But when you factor in how the world has changed over the course of the pandemic, it’s likely that you’ve never had to manage visitors in a time as complicated and uncertain as this before.

What is a visitor management system?

The rise of the visitor management system is part of a larger pattern of technological advancements being made throughout the workplace. Digital tools offer the promise of a new and improved workplace, one that is more automated, intelligent, and seamless than ever before. Visitor management system software helps deliver on that promise.

A modern visitor management system puts the power of technology to use and broadens your management capabilities in these key areas:

  • Pre-registration
  • Capacity management
  • Badge printing
  • Host notification
  • Digital logs
  • Security checks
  • Data analytics

A visitor management system takes the complexity out of managing your visitors and has the ability to change the visitor experience in ways you might not even imagine.

Visitor management system benefits for the post-pandemic workplace

New safety concerns and an increasingly hybrid workforce mean that each day in the office will look a little different after your organization returns to the office. The resources and services you need will vary day-to-day based on who’s coming into work on any given day.

If you haven’t already, we recommend revisiting your workplace visitor policy before reopening the office to visitors. (Check out our free template for help getting started.)

Check-in needs to be efficient, convenient, and safe. At the same time, you don’t want that to be at the expense of making a great first impression on your guests. That’s a hefty check-list. And with no room for errors, you have to find a way to manage it all without any major blunders. 

If everything goes exactly according to plan and there aren’t too many one-off deviations from the schedule, maybe, maybe sign-in sheets or spreadsheets will be sufficient. But realistically, that method is prone to errors. That’s where a visitor management system comes in, here’s how it works.

Top advantages of a modern visitor management system

Pre-register your visitors

When guests are greeted with a hassle-free process for checking in, their visit gets started off on the right foot. Having the ability to register your visitors ahead of time helps keep check-in time to a minimum and convenience to a maximum.

With the Teem platform, hosts can use the desktop web app to pre-register their visitors or do it directly from the email plugin. Once registered, their guests will receive an invite via email that contains all the information they’ll need — such as directions, parking information, Wi-Fi passwords, etc. — for a seamless visit.

visitors-registered

Strengthen security and safety in the workplace

Due to the pandemic, it’s very important for leaders to continue to reduce physical touchpoints and prevent congestion in front lobbies. A paper sign-in sheet is not only wildly inconvenient and inefficient, it’s also risky for your office security and could stand in the way of taking quick action when needed.

Paper is not a secure way to store information. It can be ripped easily, stolen without much effort, ruined with a spilled coffee, sneezed on, or accidentally thrown away. Plus, you can’t easily run a visitor’s information against your security watch-list if you’re collecting everything on paper, either.

And since handwriting is sometimes ineligible, it makes getting contact information difficult.

Since you may need easy access to visitor information for contact tracing purposes in the event of an outbreak or potential exposure, you should consider implementing a secure, digital visitor log. Not only will that enable you to quickly notify anyone of the exposure, a digital visitor log ensures compliance with detailed documentation of every guest entering your property. 

With Teem’s native LobbyConnect app, you can also prompt visitors to complete any relevant forms, such as NDAs or wellness checks.

Streamline the experience with integrations

The features of a modern visitor management system can also help provide the data your team can use to plan ahead.

Organizations that are going hybrid will need the ability to plan for a mix of on- and off-site workers, which gets even more complicated with multiple locations. That’s complicated enough on its own, but is even more so when you add visitor management into the mix.

Visitor management system software helps enable these new work arrangements by keeping things simple for employees and visitors.

Teem’s Visitor Management System, LobbyConnect, has Outlook and Google Calendars plugins, so employees can pre-register their guests directly from their work calendar. Plus, integrations make it easy to notify hosts via Slack and HipChat when a visitor checks in. 

If you’re having visitors complete forms or wellness surveys, you can choose to use Box or Dropbox to capture visitor documentation, and even speed up the check-in process for their next visit.

For organizations requiring visitor badges, look for a visitor management system that easily integrates with a badge printer. Teem’s wireless printer integrations mean your visitors can quickly take a picture and receive their guest badge with their photo, name, and other information.

Choosing a visitor management system software

When you’re deciding on a visitor management system, find the solution that will take the visitor experience from average to exceptional. 

If you’re not sure where to get started, we have the perfect solution.

Teem Visitor Management helps deliver a seamless, secure visitor experience that works for guests, hosts, and workplace leaders. By modernizing your front desk, you can make a great first impression on your visitors, and maintain consistency across visits. Stronger security measures keep your employees feeling safe while they’re in your office and minimize the risk of unwanted visitors. 

Make sure you’re prepared to manage your visitors once you reopen.

Want to see what it can do for your organization? Try Teem free for 15 days.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Teem

Teem by iOFFICE provides enterprises with space scheduling and management, workplace analytics, building, and campus wayfinding, and visitor management to help cultivate workplaces that fuel productivity, efficiency, and creativity.

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