Why Is Visitor Management Even More Challenging During the Holidays

Executive Summary

• Having a plan for holiday visitors, especially during Black Friday or Cyber Monday sales events is vital for smooth operations during significant visitor influxes.
• A visitor management system will most likely have the right tools that will allow you to manage business visitors remotely, allowing you to spend time with your family while monitoring business operations.
• Visitor management software is crucial during the holidays when most employees are having time off work and only a few people will be left onsite.
• Communicating with visitors is essential during holiday visits, and visitor management tools allow 2-way communications to avoid human error when working remotely.

During the most wonderful time of the year, the holiday season, the work environment can slow down. People are traveling and on vacation, attending company holiday parties, and taking extra time to spend with family and friends.

For others, the holiday season is business as usual. Or, even, crunchtime and people try to finish the year strong. 

During the busiest time of the year, visitor management can get even more challenging for business owners and operators.

Steps for Amazing Visitor Management Any Time of the Year

Have a Plan

Instead of seeing holiday visitors as a hassle, you can view it as an opportunity for the business to generate more sales and network connections for upcoming projects. Holiday spending has been significantly increasing with retail sales in the US reaching up to $886 billion in 2021, which is an excellent opportunity for retailers and firms to boost productivity in sales.

Although employees would prefer to spend time at home with their families during the holidays, it shouldn’t be a problem if only a few people are left onsite during these times—as long as you create an effective plan to manage holiday visitors.

Use Visitor Management Software

The best way to handle the challenge of visitor management during the peak holiday season is to utilize advanced tools, such as visitor management software. Some visitor management systems are fully customizable to accurately represent your brand and fulfill all your reception needs.

With an influx of potential clients expected to visit during the holidays, it’s always better to be prepared by utilizing cost-effective solutions. Having the right visitor management system is kind of like having a virtual receptionist. Instead of countless hours of training and outsourcing jobs to staffing agencies, you can easily set it up and manage every single visitor going in and out of your place of business.

Have Great Communication and Utilize It

What a visitor thinks about a company relies a lot on their first impression. Visitor management systems are excellent for communicating with visitors, whether you are physically in the place of business or you are working remotely. From greeting the visitor to walking them through the process, great communication is always key to a good business-consumer relationship.

When the holidays arise and with more visitors coming in and out of the workplace, it may be hard to keep track of and communicate with each and every one of them. And that is where reliable visitor management software comes into play.

Know Who Is Left Onsite at All Times

During the holiday season, many employees take their vacation leaves to spend time on their personal affairs, which can get confusing for business operation managers. Each employee has their own set of skills, strengths, and weaknesses.

In order to delegate tasks and select the right person to execute these tasks during the busiest time of the year, it’s always best to know which employees are onsite and utilize their strengths for more effective visitor management.

Why Is a Visitor Management System Essential During the Holidays?

Visitor management is a system that consists of plans, processes, and step-by-step procedures for welcoming visitors and tracking their movements in an organization. Losing track of visitors in an organization might not be best for business, which is why these visitor-related tasks are given to receptionists.

Although receptionists have been doing stellar jobs in the past years, people tend to make mistakes, especially during busy seasons such as the holidays. With that said, visitor management systems offer highly effective receptionist tools as an alternative— whether it’s the holiday season or not.

Other benefits of implementing an effective visitor management system all year round include:

Free up Human Capital

raditional visitor management methods such as hiring multiple receptionists with alternating shifts can cost a lot of money. The average annual salary of a receptionist is almost $37,000, not to mention how time-consuming it is to fix their schedules, especially during the holidays.

With a self-service visitor management system, you are significantly cutting down costs while increasing the effectiveness of visitor management. Although, having advanced tools and self-check-in kiosks for visitors does not affect the projected demand for receptionists in the upcoming years.

Employees Can Work Remotely

Whether there is another pandemic or circumstance that will require hybrid working schedules, effective visitor management software runs 24/7. This will allow businesses to operate normally even with fewer people on-site at any time of the day, and any day of the week.

A Tailor-Made System for Any Type of Business

Visitor requirements and standard operating procedures vary from company to company. And an effective visitor management system software that will allow you to personalize requirements and compliance, based on your company’s standard operating procedures—saving you time and a lot of headaches in the future.

Visitors can self-check in, get visitor badges, get building directions, and most of all—get a professional first impression of the company.

Third-Party Software Integrations

Many companies rely on software for their operations and communications, and most visitor management software options are built with third-party software integration. With this technology, you can link communications software like Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Google Chat, directory software, including Active Directory, Azure AD, Google Workplace, Rippling and others, Zapier, and more to your visitor management software to flesh out operations.

Conclusion—Visitor Management Tools are Essential During the Holidays and All-Year-Round

Since many workers prefer staying at home during the holidays, it makes visitor management a lot more challenging for operation managers. With that being said, the benefits of having automated tools such as visitor management software can significantly help companies handle a large volume of visitors, even in a hybrid workplace where only a few people are left onsite.

In addition to convenience, receptionist software such as self-service visitor management promotes workplace safety, creates better impressions on the company, at ensures effective tracking of visitors coming in and out of the workplace.