We’ve always championed technology and people working in harmony to give visitors the best experience. Nothing beats a friendly face when walking into a building that you may not have visited before. Or seeing a familiar face greeting you by name on your return visit. And we’re hopeful that when we start to return to some kind of normal this will still be the case. But what changes can be made to make this a safer and more considered visitor experience with coronavirus top of mind?
Automation
Logbooks and physically signing visitors into your building or site will become a thing of the past. The majority of buildings have embraced a cloud-based visitor management process but those who have lagged or put the decision on hold, now need to move quickly to replace this antiquated process.
Bluepoint, our cloud-based visitor management solution, in its basic form, can be implemented in most multi-tenant buildings rapidly. This will allow visitors to be pre-planned by your tenants so that you have an awareness of visitors to the building. This includes the ability to tailor email invites with proactive communications, such as health and safety information for your building that the visitor should be aware of before coming to your building.
Contactless
According to the latest survey by YouGov and the Imperial College London people’s behaviour and attitudes are changing rapidly. Over half of the UK are scared of contracting coronavirus and over 80% are avoiding crowded public places. 58% of people on 17 April, up from 30% of people on 13 March, are refraining from touching objects in public (eg. using objects to press lift buttons).
Contactless experiences will become the preferred process for all types of transactions and experiences. When this comes to visiting a building being able to check-in and gain access to where you need to be for a meeting in a contactless journey will be the desired route.
Secure QR codes sent as part of the visitor meeting email invite by Bluepoint can be used to scan via phone to check-in and move through speed gates to access the building. This removes the need for plastic access cards or lanyards to be handed to visitors. One time use printed paper passes are also an option with Bluepoint.
Our Forge desk and free-standing kiosks with the addition of anti-bacterial screens can also be used to process visitors quickly and safely minimising contact with your reception team or helping to take the pressure off during busy times.
In this recent RIBA Journal article you can read how working in partnership with Boon Edam Ltd we have implemented contactless visitor entry at Knight Frank’s Riverscape building in London.
Data
Knowing when and how many visitors are coming to your building will no longer be a nice to have. There is a lot of speculation that when we return to work there will be social distancing in place or staggered working patterns to minimise density in buildings and reduce close contact.
The ability to access real-time data on when and how many visitors are expected in your building will be a critical way of keeping on top of understanding how busy your building is and controlling it. It will help you to ensure your reception area is not clogged with people queuing to check-in, so you can maintain social distancing. It will also help you manage to resource on your reception – increasing staff at busy times and reducing capacity when there are few visitors expected, which will ultimately help to manage costs.
Bluepoint can help you with the real-time data you need to make informed decisions about your building or site utilisation. Occupancy data from infra-red cameras situated at access points and visitor data from Bluepoint can be used to determine high and low capacity times to help with strategic decisions on risk and management.
Get in touch to find out how we could help you and your building.
