Think about it – how often do we rely on our reception team? We walk into the office in the morning and a receptionist greets us. When we leave at the end of the day, our receptionist is the last one we say goodbye to. They are always there. Greeting our guests and offering refreshments, ensuring our visitors sign in and sign our business policies, setting up meeting rooms. They make sure we look amazing at what we do.

But if you ask any receptionist, chances are they may say underappreciate and underestimate.

We’ve asked a group of receptionists what the most challenging things are about their job. As well as how you can overcome them:

• Being the first impression for the business is a lot of pressure.  
• People assume you know who they are and who they are there to see
• If you don’t receive a visitor list for the day, you will not be sure who everyone is
• Everyone in the office shops online now so they may get their parcels delivered to work
  • Reception sends emails to everyone to say they have a package
  • People don’t read their emails then come up to ask if they have a package
• Everyone’s admin duties are given to reception because people assume the receptionist isn’t busy
• There is paperwork everywhere you look. People assume it’s the receptionist’s job to know what is on every single piece of that paper
• People expect the Receptionist to know where everyone in the office is at any given moment of the day
• In a fire drill or emergency, everyone looks at you even though you’re not the fire warden

So how can a Visitor Management System solve these problems?

A Visitor Management System will help to streamline your front desk procedures for your receptionist. This will digitalise the sign-in process for visitors, contractors, delivery and staff. But what does this mean in a practical sense? And how can this solution improve the day to day challenges of reception?

1. It assists with first impressions. The seamless self sign-in removes the pressure from your already busy Receptionist. This will allow them to give that great first impression
2. The easy, simple check-in for visitors automatically alerts the host of their guests’ arrival. This saves the Receptionist time notifying the host, and allows them to cater with refreshments while the host arrives
3. When the Receptionist has stepped away, visitors can still check-in. This helps to mitigate that awkward moment of “what do I do here?”
4. The system can capture the visitor’s photo. This puts a face to the name, avoiding the awkwardness of not knowing who people are
5. Staff can check-in and update their status throughout the day. The Receptionist will know if they are onsite, in a meeting, or offsite. If someone unexpected arrives to meet with someone, reception will know if the staff member is available 
6. Deliveries have never been easier. A delivery person can check-in with their parcel and notify the recipient. This automatically sends an alert that their package has arrived
7. The system can provide assistance in an Emergency Evacuation. Run a roll call, see who’s checked in and who needs checking in the evacuation process 
8. And finally, minimise the paperwork that scatters the office by hosting everything on the cloud.

Conclusion

A Visitor Management System will not replace a receptionist. It will take the load off the day-to-day manual tasks so your receptionist can concentrate on everything else.

Working with an online, automated solution has never been more important than is it today. If you would like to explore further how dita Visitor can work for your business, book a live demo today.