Visitor management systems offer security and convenience for both organizations and guests. These all-in-one virtual receptionists create efficiencies by freeing up personnel, improving tracking processes and cost-effectively enhancing the overall visitor experience.
“The cost savings from freeing up resources, even partially, can be significant while still allowing companies to maintain necessary functions,” says Joelle Shepler, a Key Account Manager at Blue Technologies. “And the customizable technology allows for personalized interactions.”
Smart Business spoke with Shepler about visitor management systems, their functions and features, and how organizations of many types are benefiting from their deployment.
How do these systems work?
Using the ALICE system, a customizable virtual receptionist guides visitors through the entry screening process. That can include health screenings, custom surveys that identify special measures for their visit, and connects them, in most cases directly and unassisted, to the people or places they need to go. They work in concert with key fobs and other systems for security purposes, and the interactive monitor can be managed by a receptionist to keep track of lobby activity.
Visitor management systems can take multiple forms to fit the area, such as kiosks, a tablet, touchscreens, a computer monitor and more. Their tracking features accurately log guests and electronically stores them for more clear and accurate records of who’s coming in and out of the building. This allows organizations to get rid of messy paper tracking systems that often have illegible names, making it difficult to track who came in and out.
These systems have been deployed at nonprofits, at facilities where patients are seen, at large corporations to boost their security profile while still providing the personalized experience clients expect, at schools and in many other organizations. For those who work with children, visitor monitoring systems can be set up to quickly scan visitor IDs against public registries and log the details of the visit. These systems can even print out visitor badges.
How can visitor management systems offer a personalized experience?
The customizable ALICE avatars are interactive and can respond to visitors in nine languages, which organizations can set based on their visitor profiles. A vendor will work with organizations to set up the system in a way that best meets their needs and is a complementary fit within their workflow.
ALICE also offers different avatar models to fit the profile of the campus. These automated avatars greet visitors and help guide them through a number of options to connect them to what they need or where they want to go. The system can also be personalized to include a company logo or personalized a message.
Many organizations like how visitor management systems improve their overall security posture. In fact, it’s helped some companies meet certain requirements needed for cyber insurance coverage.
How are these systems typically deployed?
In some organizations, these systems can stand in entirely for the receptionist roll, offering guests and vendors a way to contact specific employees and gain entry into the building without the need of an employee’s help. Elsewhere, these systems are often a complement to front-desk employees, helping to prevent people from walking through the front door unacknowledged, providing security while enabling personnel handle other, more important tasks.
Organizations that have multiple locations, especially those that infrequently have guests, can have a difficult time justifying a full-time receptionist at each place. But with a visitor management system, that location can be monitored without having a full-time body there. Rather, one person at the main location can monitor those locations remotely.
Visitor management systems offer myriad benefits to organizations of all types and sizes. Guest and clients can often move through the building with greater ease, and organizations can customize the pre-screening processes to improve security and expedite visits. And because these systems can take a number of forms, and take on any number of functions, they can fit within any space while cost-effectively managing many preliminary screening responsibilities.
