Visitor Badges: An Easy Solution to a Serious Problem | eReceptionist

Who visited your office this past month? Last week? Today? Why were they there? Could you identify them? If someone walked in who wasn't supposed to be there, would you know it? Would your co-workers know it?

Although there's no need to incite unnecessary fear in your team, there's also no need to allow potentially dangerous individuals to wander about when it's so easy to identify visitors as legitimate. Keep in mind, modern workplace security needs to protect your people, your assets, and your data.

Let's pose a few questions involving routine security at your office.

• If a visitor came to your office, could he or she be identified immediately by office personnel as a potential threat or a legitimate visitor?
• If a visitor were discovered in an unauthorized area, could he verify his identity and purpose for being there?
• Could your receptionist identify each individual that comes into your office? Most likely, you don't even have a dedicated receptionist. 

If you cannot answer yes to these questions, you may have an easily resolvable workplace safety issue. It involves establishing an office-wide policy for identifying visitors that includes requiring visitors to wear professional-looking name badges.

Etiquette and professionalism

It has happened to all of us. Especially busy professionals. An individual walks into the office - a former client, a current client, a potential client, a partner, someone you met at that networking event last week - and you can't remember her name!

Understandable? Sure.

Professional? Not really.

Now, what if your digital receptionist were able to print name badges with visitor pictures as part of the check-in process? Let's just say it's a lot more professional to glance quickly at a name tag than to spend an hour distracted while racking your brain trying to remember that visitor's name.

In addition, if you use your office or shared working space to host coworking events and gatherings, name tags will allow complete strangers to know each other instantly. It'll also help your workers avoid that awkward name forgetting incident that occurs so frequently at office gatherings.

Visitor Badges for the Modern Office

Many businesses and public offices have used visitor badges for security and identity purposes for years. Even a highly digital office is likely to still use hand-written names on a tag that's pinned or stuck on an individual's shirt. Although you've probably never altered a name tag while visiting one of these places, you do realize it can be done quite easily.

You've probably also realized they look and feel a little silly in a professional setting.

Visitor Badges for Events

They aren't just for the office either. Use visitor badges for events like Meetups or conferences. Surely one of your goals for your event is to facilitate networking and building a community. A name badge makes walking into a conversation much easier. Visitor badges at events also makes it easier when you tell someone they should meet your connection across the room. That person becomes much easier to identify with their name in large, legible bold type.

The eReceptionist Solution

Just like the visitor sign in sheet has given way to the automated receptionist, what if instead of sticking an easily alterable, non-professional-looking name tag on an individual, you could easily print a visitor badge? As part of the visitor check in system! Well, here's some good news: Greetly is a full-service eReceptionist that can print visitor badges as part of the guest registration process. Greetly has partnered with Brother's name badge printer and can produce visitor stickers that include your visitor's name and photo, who they are visiting, along with the check-in date and time.

That means no guessing who's there, no forgetting client names, and no feeling a little silly with your sticky name tags and permanent markers.

Your eReceptionist also captures all of your visitors, or event attendees, in a digital visitor log book. You can add relevant attendees to your CRM database generating increased interest in your business.

Find out how Greetly can help with all your visitor check in app needs, including identifying visitors.

Visitor Name Badge Components

A temporary name badge should include the visitor's:

• Visitor first name
• Visitor last name
• Visitor photo
• Host - the employee or contractor that is responsible for the guest
• Check in date and time

Conclusion

Should your office use visitor badges?

In the middle of the day, walk to the middle of your office and roam around. Do you know everyone in your workplace? If the answer is now, visitor badges are an easy tool to help secure your office and let employees work more professionally with their guests.