5 Major Front Desk Worries (and How to Leave Them Behind)

Executive Summary

• A visitor management system ensures great first impressions for all visitors and the efficient use of employee time.
• Even workplaces that receive few visitors will see productivity diminish without the right plan in place.
• Taking a few simple actions will maximize revenue and your human capital.

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Who’s covering the front desk at lunch today? Your CEO wanted to be alerted the minute a very important guest arrived, but your receptionist was stuck on the phone with a chatty new customer. Do we need to add an extra layer of safety to our entrance? We expect a rush at 10 a.m. every day, but don’t have the extra staff. What do we do?

These are all front-desk-related questions (anxieties, really) that are taking your energy and attention away from your primary business mission—day after day, week after week. Your reception area and front desk should be a streamlined point of entry for guests, visitors, deliveries, and staff that enhances your business, not a bottleneck that takes time away from it.

With Greetly, you can put your front desk worries to rest and modernize your reception experience while you’re at it. Our visitor management system has every feature your business needs, is easy to implement, and is incredibly user-friendly. So you can set it, forget it and leave these worries behind.

Worry #1: No One’s There to Greet Guests

For most office managers, this is an ever-present, nagging fear. There are lots of reasons your front desk may sometimes be unattended. Your reception staff may be using the restroom, in a meeting, or out sick. After you add an iPad or tablet loaded with Greetly software to your front desk, this is something you can completely take off your worry list.

Add some friendly “Welcome! Check in Here” signage, and your guests can self-register via Greetly and be notified of their next steps while the appropriate employee is automatically alerted to the visitor’s arrival. Instead of pacing the lobby or timidly ringing a service bell, visitors will know just what to do.

It’s so easy that many of our customers use Greetly as their sole receptionist, saving significant personnel costs and providing a professional, prompt experience for guests. Should a guest hit a snag at any point, a team member will be summoned immediately to help.

Worry #2: Customers Are Awkwardly Standing Around

The trouble with many front desks is that reception staff is often busy talking to other customers, either on the phone or in person, when someone else arrives. Your guest might be told to wait awkwardly as the call finishes up, a line might even form at certain times of day, and the first impression your visitors come away with is less than stellar. Take a cue from Disneyland and engage your guests while they wait. When they complete self-check-in using Greetly, idle time is put to use as they enter their own information, sign any waivers or forms you need to collect, watch an informational video, have their photo taken and visitor badge printed, and more.

Worry #3: I’m Putting My Frontline Employees in Danger

In the COVID-19 era, having employees be the first line of defense against preventing illness from entering your workplace requires more resources than ever and potentially puts your valuable team members at risk. This is the perfect scenario for “tech to the rescue.” Opt for the Greetly package that includes a built-in touchless temperature scanner and easily adds health screening questions to the check-in process. You’ll automatically save your staff from stress and exposure to illness.

From another safety standpoint, Greetly can help keep your employees from interacting with unwanted guests. You can instantly identify flagged visitors, screen and validate individuals or ID cards, and easily customize Greetly to take visitor photos, print badges, and require legal document eSignatures. In the event of an emergency, you’ll know exactly who is on-site so that you can ensure visitors are evacuated and accounted for.

Worry #4: Staff Closest to the Front Desk Resent Helping Out

Are you relying on an employee who sits close to the lobby to overhear when someone arrives or whose job it is to listen for when the front desk staff is too busy to greet new visitors? Or are they expected to cover when the receptionist steps away? If you’re worried they are getting constantly interrupted and harboring resentment, well, you’re likely right! And who can blame them?

Let your staff, no matter where they sit, focus on their primary responsibilities while Greetly covers the front desk 24/7.

Worry #5: We’re Not Capturing the Right Information

If you’re counting on your reception staff to manually type in guests’ information or, worse, you’re using a paper system, chances are you’re introducing a lot of errors into your customer database in the process.

Get it right the first time and save your staff huge amounts of data-entry time by having the customer fill out easy-to-understand fields at self-check-in. Bonus: You’ll automatically have a cloud-based digital visitor logbook so you can sort and filter your customer records, send targeted follow-ups, and track visits. It’ll even sync with your CRM for more options.

Ready to sleep better at night knowing your front desk is always taken care of? Let us give you a free tour of Greetly so you can see if it’s right for your office.