All you need to know to impress these 5 common visitor types

The mark of a best-in-class visitor experience is customization. A personalized experience can make a visitor feel important and welcomed. Plus, they’ll associate more positively with your business and brand. People always remembered tailored experiences more than cookie-cutter ones.Depending on the visitor, you’ll likely welcome each differently. For example, you might welcome a candidate differently than you would a vendor. For a candidate, you might offer water and a quick tour of the office, whereas, for a vendor, you might want to show them the supply closet and provide them access codes. To create a great visitor experience, you have to think about the entire visitor journey. The visitor experience actually starts well before they walk through your door. It begins the very moment they are invited to your office. That's why a visitor management system is crucial. This helps you both streamline the visitor management process and tailor the experience for each visitor type.Let’s walk through five examples of visitor types and what features you might use to customize their experience.

1. Business partners

Business partners are essential to driving growth and revenue. These visitors could be investors, current customers, prospective clients, or anyone who you have a working business relationship with. These visitors aren’t royalty, but they are the next closest thing.A great visitor experience will help strengthen your working relationship, foster a deeper sense of connection between them and your team, and impress your visitors with your brand, products, and culture. For this visitor group, speed and comfort are top priorities.This group is busy! They care about attending their meetings and being able to go about their day. A digital communication integration like Slack, can help alert hosts when their visitors arrive so your guests are never left waiting. Use Docusign or Dropbox, so the visitor can securely sign any important documents before they arrive. This will help speed up their entrance and ensure compliance.

Pro tip: To create a comfortable experience, make sure you book the right meeting room for their visit. Also, be sure to offer them a beverage and ask if they have any other needs you can help with.

2. Job candidates

Candidates coming for on-site interviews are nervous. On top of wanting to impress their interviewers, they’re also going to use this visit to assess whether or not they want to work at your company. You want to make sure you create a seamless experience for candidates, so they walk away with a great impression of your company.To tailor each candidate's visit, you'll want to customize the invite email specifically for this visitor type with the details of their interview. Look for a visitor management system that integrates with your recruiting tools, like Greenhouse or Goodtime.io, so you can automatically create a customized invite email for onsite interviews.This visitor is going to be thinking about your company culture and whether they fit in. They’re going to want to feel comfortable and at-ease when they arrive and wait in your lobby. So go above and beyond to wow them with a great first impression by having their badge and interview schedule printed out for them when they arrive.

3. Contractors

Contractors or freelancers are integral parts of your work community. They add their skills and expertise to your workforce. While some contractors might work behind the scenes, many contractors will come to your workplace to attend team meetings and work on projects on-site.You’ll want to make sure your contractors can be productive in your workplace by providing a designated workstation. This is where a visitor management tool that is part of a larger workspace management platform can come in handy. You can sync your desk reservation, scheduling, and visitor management tool all in one place. Contractors can easily register for the day, sign-in, book a desk, and check-out. Plus, you’ll want a Wi-Fi sharing integration like Cisco Meraki to automatically internet access when they sign-in, so that when your contractors come on-site, they can, well, work.

4. Food and supply vendors

Return to the office means a return to the office snacks! A lot of employees don’t know what goes on behind the scenes to make sure the chip drawer is stocked, the coffee is hot, and the lunch buffet is set up for easy eating. It’s the food and supply vendors that visit your workplace daily who take care of everything that keeps the office running. You’ll want to use a feature such as ezeep, that prints visitor badges when visitors sign-in. This will help them comfortably and help your workplace managers identify and work with them. You’ll also need an access control feature like Kisi, that allows you to grant specific access to certain areas of the building. You don’t want the person restocking the snacks to get locked out of the supply closet.

5. Family and friends

For employees, it can be exciting to invite family members or friends on-site to share a meal or get a tour of the office. These visitors won’t have a business purpose, so they don’t need a desk or to sign non-disclosure agreements. But you do want to make sure they meet your visitor policy before they come onsite. Ask these guests to verify their health and identity in order to keep themselves and the entire workplace safe and healthy. Look for a visitor registration that has a built-in health screening that prompts visitors to upload their health information or vaccine card. This makes it easy for your HR or workplace teams to quickly approve visitors and let the family reunion in the office begin! Plus, having these guests pre-registered in your visitor registration system is important so your workplace team can know how many people to expect. This makes food ordering and space planning easier. —Regardless of who your visitor is, you want to make sure you’re tailoring the experience for each person. Your visitor management solution can help take care of the speed and efficiency part of the visitor experience, but a human touch and friendly connection is important to make them feel welcome and invited to your workplace community.