Executive Summary
- The COVID-19 pandemic sped up adoption of many touchless technologies. This is especially true for contactless workplace visitor management.
- Touchless visitor management allows guests to self-check-in without interacting with a reception or security personnel, or a kiosk placed in the lobby of your premises.
- QR codes are the more practical way of enabling touchless visitor management. Guests will receive a unique QR code which they scan at the entrance to gain access to the premises.
Visitor management software systems are reception solutions that guests utilize to check into a businesses's premises. Historically the data might be received by reception or other admin personnel, or a security guard. With modern cloud-based visitor management systems guests would enter the information themselves using a kiosk.
However, the COVID-19 pandemic brought about guidelines on frequently touched surfaces, which called for contactless visitor management systems. These systems enable visitors to complete their registrations on their smartphones, including scanning QR codes to complete the check-in process.
What Is Visitor Management?
Many visitors walk in and out of your business premises every day. These guests might include important customers, vendors, interview candidates, friends, and multiple mail, package, and food deliveries. Keeping track of who they are, whom they want to see, and where they want to go is a challenging exercise that would conceivably require multiple administrative staff members.
That’s where a visitor management system comes in. It is a virtual receptionist that automates the visitor welcoming process. A competent system should record visitor check-in information and instantly notify the right employee.
The best visitor management software can do much more. They can scan driver's licenses, take visitor photos, capture electronic signatures on legal documents, show safety videos, have guests answer healthy and safety questionnaires, and send emergency notifications. Greetly's digital receptionist can also send important messages to visitors like evacuation maps, links to job applications, or surveys about the guest's experience at your workplace.
What Is Contactless Visitor Management?
Contactless or touchless check-in systems work from a mobile web browser without the need for the visitor to interact with human staff or a shared kiosk. Instead of keying in the details, visitors can access the reception software from a customer check-in app installed on their smartphone.
However, business owners figured out quickly enough that installing apps was not the way to go. They settled on a QR code check-in system to better utilize contactless visitor management. That way, guests don’t have to waste any time completing the check-in process.
Workplaces benefit from using visitor management software by increasing efficiency. It can also help regulated organizations maintain compliance and quickly pass audits. With touchless visitor management it also keeps COVID and other illnesses out of their work environment.
How QR Codes Enable Touchless Visitor Management
A QR code sign-in system lets you pre-register visitors’ information into your systems and grant them easy access to your premises. All they have to do is download the unique QR code to their phone or print and authenticate it by scanning it when they reach your office. That improves your touchless visitor management as guests don’t have to use the kiosk.
Why is this important to visitors?
- Fast Check-In: When a pre-registered visitor gets to your premises, all they have to do is scan their phone to gain access to the relevant departments of your office. The receptionist software makes it seamless and intuitive.
- Customizable: Every organization is different, and their QR code sign-in system requirements will be unique to them. The software is customizable, and clients can add elements they want, enabling rapid and pain-free customer access.
- Improves Efficiency: Once visitors log into your system, all they need is their QR code to access your premises, get directions, and inform their host, eliminating the need to interact with receptionists or badges.
- Data Privacy: The QR code will typically make periodic updates to ensure you stay compliant with data privacy laws, such as GDPR or CCPA. Similarly, the sign-in system will secure your personal information to make it available to people with the legal right to view them.
- Notifications: When visitors check in, they will immediately alert the host of their presence on the premises. The company does not need the receptionist to call or go looking for the host physically. The best reception systems can send notifications by phone call, text message, email, and integrations with Slack, Google Chat, or Microsoft Teams.
- Access to Specific Areas: The sign-in system needs to differentiate between different visitors to provide access. For example, a delivery driver’s requirements will differ from a client’s needs. Therefore, you can customize the system to allow access to different sections of the premises.
- Security: The security features of a visitor management system cannot be understated. First, you can integrate a temperature scanning device that only lets in people with normal temperature levels. Next, you can further authenticate the visitors’ information on other governmental sources using ID scanning. In addition, you can check if they are on any watchlist and determine the risk factor of letting unknown visitors into your premises.
- Unique Visitor Experience: A front desk digital receptionist is a bold move even by today’s standards. Visitors will have a fantastic experience as intuitive as dealing with a receptionist, if not better. The other thing to remember is that this will be part of your organization’s image, which will create a memorable experience for visitors.
- Integration: The visitor management software needs to integrate and work well with other organizational systems. It should not be its own stand-alone thing but part of a cohesive ecosystem.
- Facilitates Emergency Evacuation: Visitor management software provides security and better situational awareness in workplace emergencies. For example, when guests check into a building, the visitor management system automatically adds them to the evacuation list. In addition, it will instruct security and emergency workers on the exact number of occupants and where they last would have been.
- Automatically Compile and Saves Visitor Data: Visitors don’t have to wait for a chance to give their information to a receptionist and security to scan them. Instead, they can preregister and complete the tedious process ahead of time.
- Provides Directions: Some companies operate in vast premises with a maze of a floor plan for where employees work. Finding their way around such premises is a nightmare for guests so the visitor management system can provide directions to the host’s location.
- Eliminates Disease Spread: Since visitors don’t have to touch anything on the premises, it stops the spread of diseases that spread through touching surfaces. Additionally, guests won’t have to wait in the lobby, preventing airborne illnesses like COVID-19.
Conclusion – QR Codes Are Vital for Touchless Visitor Management
Business dynamics keep changing companies’ behavior, which is more apparent after the pandemic. Most premises have adopted the radical measure of installing a touchless visitor reception system.
The best implementation of touchless reception software has been the adoption of QR codes. After confirming their identity, guests will receive a QR code on their email, which they can download on their smartphones. They will scan this at the entrance to gain access to the premises.