5 questions to help you use data to improve your visitor experience

Workplace visitors are back. And with nine out of 10 companies requiring their people to work in-person in some capacity by the end of 2024, the number of visitors to these workplaces will only go up. 

Welcoming visitors onsite gives you a chance to amplify your brand and showcase your thriving workplace community for prospective hires, investors, and more. But only if your workplace management team is prepared for an uptick in visitors.. They’ll need the right tools and policies in place to accurately track who’s coming in and out of the office, as well as what they’re doing while onsite.

So how can you keep up with more foot traffic while meeting visitor expectations? The answer: data. You may have a visitor management tool that provides you with visitor analytics or an old-school manual visitor log. No matter the method you use, that data can help you identify areas of improvement so you can create a better workplace. In this post, we’ll cover:

• 5 questions to ask when looking at visitor data
• How you can use analytics to improve your visitor management process and beyond

5 questions to ask when looking at visitor data

Collecting visitor data is only the first step. Understanding it is a whole different beast. Let’s say you pull a report from your visitor management system. It’s full of tables, charts, and bar graphs to parse through. Not sure where to begin? We’ve got you‌ covered. Here are five key questions to get you started.

1. Which visitor type comes to your office most often?

With a visitor management tool, you can create customized sign-in flows that prompt guests to provide their reason for visiting. For example, your visitors can let you know if they’re onsite for an interview, a delivery, or a board meeting. Once you’ve got data on what types of visitors are signing in, you can figure out the frequency for each type. Maybe one of your offices relies on many contractors coming in each week so you need an exceptionally strong guest WiFi network. Or let’s say you’re a law firm with different clients coming in daily. Do you have enough coffee and lunch orders for everyone? When you know which visitor type comes to the office most, you can plan ahead and tailor their experience to best meet their needs.

2. Which teams invite the most visitors?

Chances are, certain teams are going to invite visitors more often than others. Your sales teams might invite prospects to lunch, and your HR team likely has candidates onsite on a weekly basis. If you have this data available to you, you can set up meetings with these teams and provide them with proper training and guidelines to manage their visitors. For example, you can train them on how to pre-register visitors, book desks for them, or give a great office tour.

3. What time are visitors checking in?

Do your visitors arrive first thing in the morning or do you typically have a lunch-time rush? This data can help you make sure that your front lobby and security teams are appropriately staffed and that these teams are prepared for any influx in foot traffic to give your guests the best experience possible. Arrival data can also help your workplace managers or front lobby team plan their own work schedules more efficiently and avoid scheduling a team meeting when visitor foot traffic is at its heaviest.

4. How much time do visitors spend onsite?

As helpful as sign-in data is, sign-out data is just as important. Sign-out data shows you whether a visitor was onsite for just 10 minutes, a few hours, or the entire workday. Depending on the length of their visit, there may be important follow-up actions you can take. For example, a very brief, unrecognized visitor might be a security red flag. Or if you notice a visitor’s been onsite for more than four hours, you may want to make sure they have a desk or room booked. Knowing the average duration of visits can help you more accurately assess security threats, prepare for emergencies, and allocate space..

5. How did your visitor enjoy their experience onsite?

Rolling out a formalized visitor management process is a great start, but you need to factor in what your visitors think, too. Based on their feedback, you can continuously iterate and improve upon the process. After your visitors sign out, your visitor registration system can automatically send a post-visit feedback survey. You can ask your guests questions about their visit, the sign-in process, and if they have any recommendations for improvement. This feedback can provide valuable insights on what’s working well and where you can improve the visitor experience. 

You might also find patterns in the data. For example, are your candidates having a great experience, but your clients are having a poor one? You might not be investing enough time and consideration into this major visitor type. Or do your visitors feel well-taken care of initially but left on their own after a while? Maybe you need to set up more frequent check-ins with your visitors.

How to use analytics to improve your visitor management process

You’ve asked the important questions. You’ve pulled the data to answer those questions. Now what? It’s time to see what you can‌ do with your data. Visitor analytics can inform improvements to your overall visitor management process and workplace experience. Let’s walk through two action items you can add to your queue once you’ve pulled your analytics report.

Audit your resources

With workplace visitor data, you and key stakeholders can make informed decisions around staffing, budgeting, real estate, and more. Take a look at your current resource and space management plan. Do you have the amenities and staff in place to support visitor management? Here are a few areas to audit first:

• Front desk and security staffing: Your sign-in data will paint a picture of how many visitors are arriving and when. This way you can confidently staff your front desk and security teams with the right number of people.
• Capacity planning: If you know who’s expected to be onsite at each location, you can order the right amount of food and make sure you have desks and rooms set up to handle the capacity.
• Workplace compliance: Your visitor management system will track who has signed or uploaded required documents. It will also allow you to pull accurate reports for audits. This will ensure all workplace locations meet their regulatory requirements. Take a look at the data to make sure your visitors are signing these documents and whether you need to make any changes to them.
• Recruiting: You can collect data around candidate no-show rates and figure out which days are the most popular for onsite interviews. With that information, you can make sure you’ve equipped your HR staff to handle busy interview days.

Customize pre-visit communication

Collecting visitor information before they arrive gives you critical data you can use to tailor the experience for each type of guest. Use custom sign-in questions to better understand the goal of their visit and their needs while onsite. For example, will they need lunch? Will they need a desk? Do they have any special accommodation requests? With this information available to you prior to their visit, you can prepare in advance. You can also provide valuable information to your visitors before arrival, such as parking recommendations or instructions to get into the building. Plus, you can compare these answers with your post-visit feedback survey to see how well you’re doing and look for new ways to improve.

Visitor analytics can help you not only create a data-informed visitor experience but also ‌improve your processes, resource management, capacity planning, security, and more. 

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Ready to learn more about improving your visitor management? Read our “Ultimate guide to choosing a visitor management system” to learn about must-have features, common compliance standards, and questions to ask, and more.

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