Is it time to transition into a paperless visitor registration process?
Absolutely!
Once upon a time, a paperless office seemed like a far-flung idea from a sci-fi movie. But these days, paperless is quickly becoming the standard for every type of office.
It makes sense why. Going paperless offers benefits for both your visitors and your company. If you’re not ready to switch over to a completely paperless office, it makes sense to start with your registration process. It’s safer, more efficient, and more convenient to have a paperless check-in process. And it’s easy to get started.
In this post, we’ll explore why you should consider digitizing your visitor registration process.
1. Paperless Provides Security
Tracking everyone who enters in and exits from your office isn’t just nice to have. It’s absolutely essential. To maintain security for your employees and your visitors, you need to know who’s in your building at all times. This includes employees, customers, contractors, delivery people, and others. You simply cannot afford to have people come and go from your office without you knowing about it. This leaves your office vulnerable to theft and personal attack.
With a paperless registration system, your visitors check in when they arrive and are given instructions for what to do or where to go next. They don’t have unfettered access to your office. This limits aimless wandering.
It also ensures that you know who’s in your office and where they are within your building.
2. Increased Productivity
If you don’t have a full-time receptionist, you’re relying on other staff members in your office (especially those nearest to the door) to greet visitors as they arrive. But the hard truth is that those staff members are often busy doing other tasks and each visitor “interrupts” them from accomplishing other tasks.
Small interruptions can create a huge problem in the workplace. For every interruption, it takes your employees approximately 25 minutes to get back on track mentally. If your employees are constantly interrupted by visitors, they won’t be able to complete their other tasks efficiently.
But with a paperless visitor registration system, your employees won’t need to step away from their desks (and their tasks) to welcome visitors. The visitor can do the entire process themselves. This frees up your employees to focus on the higher level tasks that you hired them to do.
3. Extend the Reach of Your Front Office Staff
If you have a receptionist at your front desk, chances are, they do more than greet visitors.
Receptionists have an ever-increasing list of job responsibilities that includes being the face of your business to incoming visitors. But outside of the standard responsibilities, your receptionist may do anything from data entry to composing email newsletters.
Having a multi-talent receptionist is a great use of your resources. Your receptionist can help your business grow, and can fill in the gaps. But a receptionist is only one person. They can’t do multiple things at once.
This is why you need a paperless visitor management system in your office.
With a paper system, your receptionist would need to stop what they’re doing, provide a pen and a sign-in sheet, and then log that information into their computer.
Going paperless will lighten the load so that your receptionist is able to do other tasks while your visitors check themselves in. Your paperless visitor registration system can act as an additional receptionist and expand your ability to serve your visitors. This system will dramatically improve your visitor check-in experience.
Going paperless will lighten the load so that your receptionist is able to do other tasks while your visitors check themselves in. Click To Tweet4. Reduces the Number of Steps to Check In
The check-in process can be frustrating for your visitors.
If you have a busy office, your visitors may be stuck in the check-in queue behind a long line of others. The longer the queue, the greater their frustration. When they finally get up to the receptionist, they may have to wait even longer for the receptionist to verify appointment details or contact information. The receptionist may then need to call a specific department to confirm the visitor’s arrival and get instructions on what to do next.
On average, the process may take five minutes, but with a paperless system, check in can be completed in a fraction of that time.
In a common paperless check-in scenario, a visitor would walk up to a kiosk and click a button that indicates what type of visitor they are (customer, patient, interview, delivery, etc.). From there, the customer may enter their information or confirm pre-loaded information on the screen. The system will then provide the visitor with a list of instructions on what to do next (i.e. wait in the lobby, proceed to a designated meeting space). The system can also automatically notify relevant staff members of the visitor’s arrival via SMS, email, or a Slack channel.
Going paperless will create a quicker and more seamless check in experience for your visitors.
5. Contact-Free for COVID-19
We’ve all become more health conscious as a result of the global pandemic. As a result, your visitors may recoil at the thought of handling shared utensils and equipment, like pens, clipboards, or even a check-in kiosk.
For visitors who would prefer to minimize contact, we offer a contactless check-in feature. Visitors can arrive in the office and simply use their smartphone to scan a QR code that’s displayed on the check-in system. This action will launch a browser that guides them through the check-in process.
Learn more about our contactless check-in feature here.
6. Protect Your Visitors’ Privacy
Have you ever looked over the names on a sign-in sheet?
It’s not like you’re trying to snoop around, however you can’t help but notice the other names on the list.
Privacy is important to your visitors, whether they’re coming for a check-up or job interview. Your visitors may not want other visitors to know their name or other private details about them, such as their phone number, email address, or reason for the visit (common entries on a visitor log).
When you go paperless, your visitors only see a form that pertains to them. They don’t see others’ information and other people don’t see theirs.
This also protects your visitor log from competitors. That’s right. Unscrupulous competitors can come into your office and secretly scan your paper logs to find out who’s visited (along with their phone number!). They can use this information to steal your customers from you. It’s a very real security concern that you need to protect your business against.
7. Provide a Great First Impression
Nothing says “innovation” like a paperless office. When your visitors enter into your office and are greeted by a digital receptionist, they will be impressed by your integration of technology. A digital check-in process is smart, convenient, and efficient.
8. Save Money
Going paperless saves an incredible amount of money. From printer paper to ink to pens and clipboards, there are so many small purchases that can add up over a year’s time.
In addition to supply costs, having a paperless visitor registration system can eliminate the need to hire a human receptionist. This move alone can save you thousands of dollars each month.
Check out our straightforward pricing for a paperless visitor management system here.
9. Environmentally Friendly
Last, but certainly not least, going paperless is environmentally friendly. Do your part to save the environment by reducing your office’s reliance on paper products.
Did you know that 40% of the wood that’s harvested for commercial use becomes paper products? Paper may be recyclable, but that doesn’t mean it’s good for the environment. Paper cannot be recycled infinitely. It has a maximum recyclability of seven times. Our reliance on paper products has led to global deforestation, soil erosion, and water and air pollution.
When you go paperless in your office, you’re contributing to the future health of our planet.
Final Thoughts
Having a paperless visitor management system will improve your customer experience. Your visitor management system will free up your front office staff so that they’re able to do higher-level tasks beyond handling over a pen and clipboard.
It’s one of the best things you can do for your business and your visitors. You’ll save time, money, and sanity. And for your visitors, your paperless check-in experience will be safe, quick, convenient, and innovative. It’s a win-win situation.
Learn more about our paperless visitor management system here.
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