How to build a stellar brand through visitor management

For consumer goods companies, reputation is everything. Your reputation can be what helps set your company apart from competitors and build fondness with consumers. Part of maintaining a great reputation among competitors, peers, and business partners is creating a great first impression for folks who visit your production sites. Regardless of whether these visitors are key business accounts, potential future deals, or job candidates, it’s essential to leave a positive impression. Why? A great visitor experience can help bolster your brand and set your company apart from others. In this blog post, we’ll talk about how you can build a stellar brand reputation through a top-tier visitor management experience. We’ll go over tips for creating a welcoming front-desk experience as well as how to make the most of your visitor management system.

5 tips for creating a great front desk experience

The front desk of your HQ or production site is what your visitors are going to see first when they enter, and the perception of your brand starts forming the second they walk in. So why not make it a pleasant experience? That means upleveling their interactions, investing in a digital sign-in, and making the space comfortable. Here are some tips for creating a welcoming and inviting front desk experience:

1. Provide training on how to make a good first impression

A “hello, how are you” or “can I get you anything while you wait?” can go a long way in making your visitors feel welcomed. A friendly and optimistic attitude towards your visitors sets the tone for their visit and makes the experience a bit more personalized. Train your front desk staff with best practices for welcoming and guiding visitors when they arrive. Plus, you’ll want to make sure your front desk staff is knowledgeable about the production site. They should be able to answer questions about directions and share information about the company’s history, mission, and values.

2. Provide clear signs around the facility

Visitors might be entering your site for the first time, so they don’t know the layout that well. You’ll want to make it easy for visitors to find their way around the facility by providing clear wayfinding signs. This could look like posters and arrows hung up around the site. You’ll also want to make sure you have plenty of safety signage up as well. If your production site includes dangerous machinery or chemicals, you’ll want to make sure you have signs indicating where they are or how to keep yourself safe near them.

3. Bring your brand to life in your lobby

Your lobby doesn’t have to just be a plain desk and chair. Add elements of your company’s personality and brand into the space. For example, turn your company values into wall decor. Place the evolution of your product on a wall shelf or hang up photographs of your first facility site in frames. These kinds of touches not only give visitors something to do while they wait, but also help strengthen your brand reputation.

4. Offer comfy seats and snacks

Visitors may have to wait for a few minutes before their host comes out to greet them, so make sure they are comfortable while they wait. Offer comfortable seating like couches and a variety of chairs. Plus, place refreshments and a coffee bar in the lobby. If you're a food or beverage manufacturer, place a few of your own products in the lobby for your guests to enjoy. Plus, let your visitors grab a few items to take home! This helps make the experience more memorable, and allows your visitors to leave with a fun souvenir.

5. Invest in the best technology

The last but not least important tip for creating a memorable front desk experience is to invest in the right technology. Consider a visitor management system that includes features for all the things you need to take care of: data storage, compliance, personalization, documentation, and more. Good technology can make your front desk stand out from the crowd of desks with paper clipboards.

How a visitor management system can create a great brand experience

Even though the front desk might be the first thing your visitors see, you can actually start making a great impression long before they enter your facility. A visitor management system (VMS) is a tool that can upgrade your paper and pen sign-in process to a seamless, digital experience. Let’s walk through a few ways a VMS can level up the visitor experience for your company.

High-quality technology makes a good impression

Bad technology can absolutely leave a bad impression. And one visitor’s bad experience with your company can become damaging. That’s why you want to make sure you’re investing in top-tier, user-friendly, and efficient technology that will impress your visitors. A good tech stack shows that your company is up to date with the latest trends and prioritizes experience for everyone in their company.Imagine visiting a production site and having to pull out your license, vaccine card, and find a pen in order to sign-in. This tedious process is frustrating to the visitor and might make your business feel out-dated. A visitor management system collects all the necessary information from your visitors before they arrive, so all they have to do to sign-in is tap a few buttons on an iPad.

Speed up the process without sacrificing compliance

Maybe your executive team is meeting with a potential new brand partner and there are confidential meeting notes you need the partners to read through. With a VMS, you’ll be able to prompt your visitors to sign NDAs or other important legal documents before they arrive. You’ll be able to safely and securely send all of that documentation over before their visit to make their arrival even more seamless.Plus, you can make sure that all your visitors have signed safety waivers or watched necessary safety videos. Consumer goods facilities are often stocked with dangerous machinery or chemicals. Your visitor management system can make sure all visitors are trained and aware of any necessary safety precautions. Lastly, your VMS can ensure you are upholding your compliance standards while still balancing a welcoming environment. You can use your VMS to make sure everyone who enters your facility has signed the necessary documentation. Then in the case of an audit, you have a digital record of all visitors and their paperwork. The best part is that you can gather this information so seamlessly so it won’t make the sign-in process any longer.

Scale across all your sites

If you have production sites and corporate offices spread all across the globe, then you’ll want to make sure that the visitor experience is consistent across all sites. This is not only because it makes it easier for your workplace operations team to collect overall data, but it also helps build a consistent brand. Imagine having a visitor take a tour of a few different facilities and undergo a completely different sign-in process. That could get frustrating and redundant after a while. If the visitor is able to provide their documentation at one point and have that information stored, it makes it much more efficient for your company as well as for the visitor.

Protect your people with better security

Consumer goods facilities aren’t immune to security threats. And a facility without a security plan in place puts their people (including visitors) at risk. Plus, the company can come off indifferent to the wellbeing of their brand and people if they aren’t thinking about onsite security. A visitor management system can help increase security measures for production sites with block lists, host notifications, visitor badges, and access control integrations. This makes sure that only people who are approved can be onsite.

Use data to stay on top of compliance

Once you’ve got a good rhythm of visitors coming in and out of your production sites, you’ll be able to collect tons of data on your visitors. This will come in handy when you need to prepare for an upcoming audit. Data will allow you to see who visited, when they visited, and what documentation they filled out. A VMS with an analytics function can make pulling a report as easy as snapping your fingers. Plus, a company who regularly passes compliance audits is a big deal when it comes to reputation. Business partners and customers notice and care about whether a company is taking measures to pass their safety audits.—A well-designed visitor management system can help you create a stellar visitor experience and build a positive brand reputation. It can also help ensure you stay compliant in the face of a safety audit without sacrificing a warm, welcoming visitor experience. The right visitor management system and features can help you upgrade your technology, increase efficiency, and stand out from the crowd. Want to learn more about how a visitor management system can improve your production site? Learn more about the benefits of Envoy Visitors.