Offering a flexible and contactless visitor management experience is no longer a “nice to have”, it is an essential part of connecting people to buildings safely.
As CBRE’s Occupier Sentiment Survey showed, 35% of workers will return to the office at least 3 times a week and 29% will be an equal mix of both remote and office-based work.
As people return to the office, you need to have a solution in place to safely check-in and manage access for visitors of all types such as short-term, contract, event attendees and suppliers. Tenants will also want to be involved in creating these journeys as their requirements for the workplace flex.
Building management teams, including receptionists, are the frontline for ensuring the safety, security and wellbeing of visitors and staff to buildings. Implementing a contactless visitor management experience is key to helping the team do their job, minimise risks and create an enhanced experience for visitors.
Read on to find 4 ways visitor management can provide a better and safer visitor experience for your people with Yardi Bluepoint.
1.Pre-plan, pre-screen and validate
Let your building’s tenants use cloud-based visitor management solutions, such as Yardi Bluepoint, to invite visitors to your building. They’ll receive an email invitation that includes a unique QR code for faster check-in and view your health and safety information.
This pre-planning of visitors gives awareness to reception and building management about the visitor from arrival to destination – and more importantly who they are going to meet. This allows building management to proactively plan for the right number of reception and security staff and, if required, make sure social distancing obligations are met.
Similar to Advanced Passenger Information used by airlines, pre-screening ensures visitors provide up to date information before they visit from health information to travel details. The pre-screening is a simple question and answer form that can be created and customised in Bluepoint by each tenant. This is also sent with the email invite and includes instructions on completion.
2. Contactless check-in and entry
Visitor management solutions make the arrival process easier for your visitors. The email invitation can be added to their Apple Wallet or Google Pass, which allows the QR code to pop up on their phone when the visitor gets close to the building. They can then check-in contact-free via reception, kiosk or on the speed lane with the QR code.
For sites with entry turnstiles or lifts, Yardi Bluepoint can facilitate smart access by synchronising directly with the building access control system, ensuring access is secure and time-limited, and that visitors can only go where they have permission.
3. Host notifications
Keeping everyone in the loop is key to minimising confusion and saving time. As soon as your visitor has checked in, Bluepoint will automatically notify the host and can instruct the visitor on the next steps, such as “wait in reception for collection” or “use the QR code to enter through the speed lane”.
This contactless experience minimises interaction and waiting times to help increase the safety of your reception and building teams, as well as the tenant and visitors
4. Improve visitor flows
As Yardi Bluepoint is web-based, you won’t need to invest in extensive hardware. You can use your existing calendar, such as Outlook or Gmail, to create appointments within the system – you can also scale the system, so it works better for your tenants. By improving visitor flows to and through your building, you can help increase your overall tenant satisfaction.
One example is access control integration. Yardi Bluepoint integrates with the main access control manufacturers and then, if required, you can add QR readers to your existing speed gates. This type of integration can also work to automate lifts and car parking for your short-term visitors. This not only enhances the experience for visitors but minimises interaction and friction.
As businesses go back to the office and adjust to hybrid ways of working, it doesn’t matter whether your building has one visitor a day or hundreds – it’s important to make sure your visitors are accounted for and have a great experience with safety and security at the forefront.
