Think about it – how often do we rely on our reception team? We walk into the office in the morning and are greeted by a receptionist. 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 will say their role can be underappreciated and underestimated.
We’ve asked a group of receptionists what the most challenging things are about their job and how these can be overcome:
- Being the first impression for the business is a lot of pressure – you need to be at 100%, 100% of the time.
- People assume you know who they are and who they are there to see
- If they are not given a visitor list for the day, you aren’t sure who these people are
- Everyone in the office shops online now – and they 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, and people assume it’s the receptionist’s job to know what is on every single piece of that paper, word for word
- You’re expected 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 is designed to streamline your front desk procedures for your receptionist by digitizing 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?
- It assists with first impressions – the seamless self sign-in removes the pressure from your already busy Receptionist – allowing them to actually be 100%, 100% of the time
- The easy, simple check-in for visitors automatically alerts the host of their guests’ arrival, saving the Receptionist time notifying the host, allowing them to cater with refreshments while the host arrives
- When the Receptionist has stepped away, visitors can still check-in, this helps to mitigate that awkward moment of “what do I do here?”
- The system can capture the visitor’s photo – this puts a face to the name, avoiding the awkwardness of not knowing who people are
- 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
- Deliveries have never been easier. A delivery person can check-in with their parcel and notify the recipient – automatically sending an alert that their package has arrived
- The system can provide assistance in an Emergency Evacuation. Run a roll call, see who’s checked in and who needs to be accounted for in the evacuation process
- And finally, minimise the paperwork that scatters the office by hosting everything on the cloud.
A Visitor Management System is not designed to replace a receptionist. It’s designed to take the load of 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.
