Automated Front Desks: Simple Reception in Complex Facilities

Step into a purely efficient and seamless workplace where employees and visitors sign themselves in quickly, providing complete, verifiable information that meets all your site, security, and compliance requirements. This is the reality of enterprises using reception sign-in software. Automated front desks remove bloated manual processes and imprecise visitor logs for a more accurate, efficient, and user-friendly visitor experience.  

Site managers face the daunting task of ensuring their location's security and safety while complying with industry and internal regulations. The challenge compounds with the high volume of visitors, employees, and contractors in enterprise and large manufacturing facilities. All this traffic slows down visitor induction and increases security risks.  

Industry leaders are turning to lobby management software to mitigate risk by improving visitor tracking and experience. An automated visitor management solution makes your facility safer with enhanced visitor verification. Replacing pen and paper books with a digital visitor log ensures faster sign-ins and saves staff from poring through pages of records.  

Upgrading reception with automated front desk software helps keep your facility safe and compliant with updated regulations. Discover how your workplace can use transformative technology to replace the outdated manual processes that are eating into your productivity and profitability. 

What is Automated Reception Software?

Automated lobby management software is an integrated platform of digital tools that facilitates and eases visitor management. Smart reception software enables a truly streamlined workplace. It can also help them avoid the complications associated with manual delivery management.  

Consider that it is a system for employee and visitor tracking in more than one location. You might implement an automated front desk for legal compliance or security reasons. You can also implement it to enhance the visitor experience and provide quicker processes.  

The receptionist software's capabilities and roles can differ depending on the location, industry, individual organization, and type of facility; however, the underlining theme is to provide automated processes.  

Traditional reception software is unsophisticated. It is often just someone at the front desk with a pen and notepad taking guest names and entry times. This outmoded method lets you collate rudimentary information about your visitors. However, it creates a host of problems.   

• Is there a way to ascertain if the information is accurate?   
• How do you validate guests' information?   
• Are the entry times and dates logged correctly?   
• Can any worker account for visitors' whereabouts after they gain access to the facility?  
• What areas did the visitor visit while in the facility?  

For accountability and security, you must be able to answer these questions. You must also organize, sort, and review this information to track workplace insights or incidents.  

User-friendly and organized, the lobby management software comes with real-time dashboards that enable informed management—onsite and online. Your reception software organizes and stores information, generating internal and audit reports in seconds. This also helps to strengthen office security with enhanced security checks and trackable visitor identification badges.   

Integrating automated reception software also gives new and returning visitors a great first impression. 

Which Front Desk Tasks Can Be Automated? 

Facility operations can automate a plethora of front desk tasks using reception software. They include: 

• Host notifications once visitors gain entry to the facility 
• Photo ID validation 
• Secure personal data 
• Legal document and form signing 
• Badge printing 
• Compliance management 
• Pre-registration process before visitors arrive on sight 
• Front desk sign-in 

How Automated Reception Software Improves Visitor Experience?

The lobby is typically the first impression for most of your visitors. That makes your lobby management software the first chance to wow visitors.  

Integrating an automated front desk into your organization can help create an impressive and seamless experience. With the reception software, you can send pre-registration to guests, ending the cumbersome front desk sign-in linked with traditional front desks. This technology allows guests to enjoy contactless visitor registration using QR codes generated on their smartphones.  

Visitors scan their QR codes at the self-sign-in kiosk. No need to manually input information or touch germ-covered surfaces. Lobby management software replaces time-consuming manual processes. For example, replacing physical paperwork for digital agreements and automatically printing visitor badges upon successful sign-in. 

10 Benefits of Automated Reception Software

The best reception software is configurable to your organization's unique requirements. The following are just a few of the features: 

1. Create Workplace Trend Insights

By automatically recording and storing all visitor information, your lobby management software can guide business intelligence, providing you with insights into workplace trends. Visitor tracking and monitoring provide deep insights that inform your processes, as well as security and emergency planning. 

Leveraging your online visitor dashboard provides detailed workforce management trends. Employee management tools help workplaces:  

• Adapt to a changing workforce 
• Improve employee efficiency 
• Enhance planning capabilities and effectiveness

2. Automated Records and Instant Reports

Automated receptionist software removes the need to sift through handwritten visitor logs and discarded badges. Manual sorting is time-consuming and often impractical (if not impossible). On top of it all, handwritten data entries are disorganized and difficult to read. Plus, you can't always count on visitors to enter all the necessary information.  

All of this can be negated by switching to digital visitor logs. Take the guesswork and manual labor out of creating visitor records with automation. All data is immediately collected and organized, with mandatory fields ensuring all required data is provided and entry dates captured digitally. For further accuracy, your visitor sign-in kiosk can validate credentials and ID on the spot. It is fast and easy for visitors, and your team is no longer stuck trying to decipher sloppy handwriting.  

The database can store visitor logs, making it easy for workers to search for pertinent information. For instance, you can create a list of individuals on the premises or view visitors that a particular worker had on a specific day. 

3. Ease Compliance to Industry & Regional Standards

Industry standards and regulations are complex and strictly enforced. Efficient compliance processes protect a business, its employees, and its reputation. Reception software helps facilities fulfill statutory compliance requirements.  

For example, automatically screen visitors during sign-in against denied parties lists and government watchlists. Keep with privacy and GDPR compliance requirements with strict data policies and encryption.  

Empowering your front desk with a visitor management system that eases compliance helps protect your organization from fines, stoppages, and risk. 

4. Online Pre-Registration 

Enlisting a visitor pre-registration platform is the most effective way to speed up guest sign-ins. Advanced sign-ins are more efficient for guests and hosts. There is no waiting around, keeping your lobby clear and keeping visitors from waiting around.  

The host sends the visitor an email with a visitor registration link. Once the guest completes all required information and supplies any necessary documents or e-signatures, registration is complete. A QR code is sent straight to their smartphone, which they scan at the visitor kiosk, instantly signing them in. 

5. Badge/Entry Printing

Onsite visitor badge printing automates the distribution of visitor passes. Personalized and configurable information and badge formats enable individuals to identify visitors within the facility.  

You can develop badges for various visitor types. For instance, you can print color-coded badges to differentiate between VIPs, staff, and guests at a glance. You can also integrate QR codes for fast, accurate visitor badge printing. 

Kiosk badge printers make the process automatic, printing the badge as soon as the sign-in is complete. This expedites front desk sign-in, with no need for receptionists or security to print and give out badges by hand.   

Printing visitor badges on demand improves security, eases access control, and speeds up entries. 

6. Host Notifications 

Communication is the heart and soul of an effective and efficient workplace. Digital receptionist software creates a fluid, automated system for communication.  

Visitor-host notifications are shared directly through the visitor management system for consistent, immediate communication. As a result, there is less confusion and greater collaboration without needing a receptionist to act as an intermediary.  

The visitor simply enters the name of the worker they intend to see, and the lobby management software notifies the employee. The visitors no longer need to wait, as the process eradicates any superfluous steps. It also ensures that all involved parties stay in the loop.  

Workers can even select the way they receive notifications. Reception software can utilize workplace dashboards that support in-demand integrations, such as SMS, email, and Slack. Furthermore, custom notifications can save you time—instead of having to track people down, you can simply check your email to access the system. 

7. Emergency Management

Enable streamlined emergency response from your front desk or online with emergency management software. An enterprise emergency management platform leverages your front desk software to track and engage all visitors onsite when an incident occurs. These user-friendly tools make it easy to: 

• Digitize mustering 
• Improve communication with two-way messaging and sending maps to muster points 
• Speed up evacuations with smart data, reports, and tracking. 

8. Eradicates Queues and Lobby Traffic

With automated reception software, you no longer have to deal with visitors lining up while they wait to check in manually with a receptionist. The visitor sign-in kiosk allows visitors to check themselves without waiting for help.   

Self-serve sign-ins are much faster without using valuable person-hours on repetitive tasks. Returning visitors and pre-registered guests allow even faster sign-ins for even less time at the kiosk. No more lineups, just streamlined, free-flowing movement of visitors with complete accountability. 

9. Simple Site Location Management

Managing facility operations and security in organizations with multiple locations and entry points require a powerful solution. Lobby management software is a strong solution that simplifies coordination in complex enterprises. With this reception software at the front desk, you can manage compliance, security, and monitor employees, visitors, and contractors in real-time. 

10. Turnkey Implementation

iLobby's white glove service gets you started right out of the box. All the hardware and software you need comes preconfigured and ready to use. There is no complicated setup or lengthy installation.

Upgrade your front desk with iLobby's VisitorOS and simplify coordination in your complex enterprise. iLobby's pre-configured enterprise-level hardware comes ready to use, so there's no complicated setup or lengthy installation. Keep your people safe and your company in compliance with streamlined, secure visitor management. Request a demo today and optimize your complete visitor check-in process with VisitorOS.