Roll out the welcome mats. Tenants are finalizing their return-to-office plans, with many organizations setting their sights on a post-Labor Day phased re-entry. But tenants won’t be coming alone. As buildings slowly return to higher occupancy levels, you’ll also need to welcome tenants’ guests, service vendors, third party leasing teams, and more. This is where visitor management software can help.
While tenants might not have previously minded hustle and bustle in shared spaces, COVID-19 has increased sensitivity to crowding (to say the least). It’s now up to property teams to play traffic guard, limiting crowds, reducing contact, and ensuring that no unwanted guests enter the building.
But with building traffic under a microscope, many property teams are finding a manual visitor management process isn’t up to the job, particularly in larger buildings.
Here’s how visitor management software can help keep your building occupants safer during COVID-19.
Eliminate Long Lobby Lines
The visitor check-in process is an opportunity for your building to make a great impression on whoever enters. But if building guests spend ten minutes waiting in line to check-in, your building is falling short of expectations. And during COVID-19, queueing up in a confined lobby massively increases the risk of disease spreading.
Manually checking in visitors using spreadsheets or pen and paper also leads to overworked security teams and tenants frustrated at guests held captive in line.
Instead, try using visitor check-in software that enables tenants to pre-register guests. This way security teams can bypass the process of logging guest information and requesting approval. Your team can receive this information days before a guest enters, approve or deny the visit, and ask any follow-up questions without holding up a line.
Limit Time in Buildings
For many office tenants, the traditional 40-hour office workweek has gone the way of the cocaine in Coke. Because of the pandemic, many tenants only come to the office for scheduled appointments with clients, vendors, or prospective employees. Visitor management software can keep scheduling smooth, so neither tenants nor their guests need to be in the building longer than necessary.
Quick, software-enabled check-in processes ensure building guests enter their destination rooms sooner and appointments aren’t delayed. Teams can also track checkouts to ensure guests leave in a timely manner, without lingering posing a safety risk.
Reduce Contact
Disease transmission unfortunately remains a major concern as new coronavirus variants spread and COVID-19 cases swell. Tenants expect property teams to help limit unnecessary contact. In this climate, many tenants and visitors are wary of passing plastic visitor badges back and forth.
Thankfully this contact is no longer necessary. Instead, visitor management software solutions enable visitors to access entrance badges straight from their mobile devices in QR code or bar code format. They allow tenants to quickly scan in, contact free.
Manage Visitor Count
Depending on the size and location of a building, you may choose to enforce visitor capacity limits. (Property teams should regularly review local and CDC guidelines to inform a sensible visitor policy.)
Modern visitor access software solutions make it easy to monitor visitor headcount and the risk of overcrowding. The best solutions have dashboards to track traffic flows and see which days and times are the most popular. This information allows you to add additional security personnel or signage as needed to enforce safety standards.
Communicate in the Event of Outbreaks
When relying on paper lobby sign-in sheets, property teams are often left with incomplete or illegible guest information. This makes contacting all prior visitors challenging in the event of a disease outbreak, or some other health or safety concern.
With visitor management software, teams have a detailed record of every visitor on every day.
And with full contact details captured at the point of check-in, it’s simple to send email or text communications notifying guests of any important developments.
Integrate with Security Systems
As powerful as visitor management software may be, it can’t singlehandedly keep your building safe. Chances are you’ll need to integrate your visitor management software with building access control systems (BACs), or door entry systems. When selecting visitor management software, ensure your platform or point solution can integrate with your building’s security systems. This will make it easy to share critical information between one solution and the other.
Be Our Guest, Be Our Guest
COVID-19 has shone a spotlight on building guests and traffic flows. But even in ordinary times, visitor management software is crucial to keep building occupants safe. Your visitor management process is the first line of defense against unwanted visitors that could jeopardize building security.
When you’re looking for secure visitor management software, consider Prism Visitor Access, from Building Engines. Prism Visitor Access makes it easy to check in visitors quickly and securely, without overburdening security teams.
To learn how Prism Visitor Access can streamline your visitor management process, watch the on-demand webinar: Introduction to Prism Visitor Access.
