Why use a VMS (Visitor Management System)?

If you have a lot of visitors and security is of concern there is a clear reason to look into visitor management if you haven’t already. It’s also slowly becoming the norm that visitors come to expect from a professional company. The obvious benefits for any medium to large company are decreased pressure on the front desk personnel and a better visitor experience for important clients. The less obvious benefit is that the system gathers so much data that can be translated to insights for facility managers, helping them optimize the premises.

It is hard to say exactly how many companies are using a VMS today, it is certainly an increasing trend to sign in digitally, wherever you go. Automatization is here to stay, whether at fast food restaurants or in receptions. The VMS technology is becoming more and more popular with schools, healthcare facilities, and businesses of all kinds. The visitor management market took a slight hit during the pandemic, but is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years. Today, it’s more common in Europe, and that is why a big part of the growth is believed to happen in the US and Canada that is “catching up”.

This is the electronic version of the old guest book that’s been the gold standard of pre-internet days. Think of it as a collection of separate gadgets helping your visitors to register their visit. So besides the actually software that connects everything you also have several optional parts that can enhance visitor management, like a printer for visitor badges and a camera to put an id photo on the badge.

The process is pretty straightforward. The visitor enters the premises and at the front desk they can either register themselves or get help from a receptionist. Often they present an ID card or just state their name so a visitor profile is created. Often a badge is printed to make sure everyone can help the visitor. Modern technology has enabled personalized greetings if you have a camera with facial recognition.

The system keeps track of all visitors that make an entrance to the building. This makes for a more secure environment and is why electronic visitor management systems are increasingly popular for schools, hospitals, large companies and government buildings.

First impressions last

One way of realizing the benefits of a visitor management system, or a VMS, is to think of how professional it is to be met with a personalized greeting. Guests will find the sign in process very smooth and by notifying the host immediately, the waiting time at receptions or in lobbies can be kept to a minimum. Just as the office design and personnel can make someone feel welcome, the tools you use to greet visitors highly adds into the overall impression and experience of your brand.

Takes a load off the front desk staff

In certain industries or in larger offices, the stress put on the front desk personnel can at times be daunting. Technology can help to relieve them from many manual tasks, giving them more time to focus on problem solving or providing excellent customer service.

Gather data on visitors and employees

To further streamline and effectivize your business, digital visitor management tools can help track employees and gather data and statistics which help office and facility management to make things run smoothly and make the right choices when dealing in the design, routines and supplies of the office and workplace.

It’s the process of welcoming visitors to your premises. A digital management system can handle the sign in process, which previously was a manual process. And looking back even further, it was represented by a physical guest book. What we have today is a way to do the same things but much more efficiently. The technology of today has enabled visitor management to grow to a very integrated solution with multiple benefits. Not only can you make the sign in process for guests an easy task, you can extend the system to include security and safety features, notify hosts that their guests have arrived and easily make guests comply with terms, non-disclosure agreements or other visiting rules and information that are unique to your company.