Visitor Management: Facilitate the welcome & access control to company car park!

Embodying the subtle art of hospitality & organisational efficiency, visitor management is of paramount importance, yet it is often relegated to the background within companies.

These entities primarily focus on their core activities, such as production, sales & product development, which are directly linked to their financial performance and growth.

Visitor management, although important, is perceived as a secondary task that does not have a (direct) impact on revenue. Moreover, with limited human and financial resources, companies generally prioritise investments in “strategic” areas, thus leaving visitor management with restricted means.

This trend can nonetheless be counterproductive, particularly because poor visitor management can affect the company’s image, as well as the satisfaction of its partners & potential clients.

So, given this situation, how can visitor management be improved at a lower cost (financial & human)? What solutions are conceivable? How should one proceed? The answers in this article!

What does visitor management (really) mean for companies?

Postmen, delivery personnel, service providers, visiting clients, maintenance staff, candidates…

There are many daily visitors to a company. That’s why welcoming & managing them represents significant challenges for organisations, and should not be overlooked.

This management starts right from the company car park, with clear signage & reserved spots, which demonstrate a commitment to hospitality and facilitate visitor access. The ballet continues at the reception, the real nerve centre of the company, where the courtesy & competence of the staff create a lasting first impression.

Visitors are thus handled with exemplary meticulousness, where their needs are anticipated and their expectations met in advance, reinforcing the company’s image of professionalism & benevolence.

Consequently, it’s easy to understand that visitor management is ultimately a set of practices & procedures aimed at orchestrating the welcome, registration & monitoring of external individuals entering the company premises.

This management involves not only the identification & verification of the visitors’ identities but also ensuring they are correctly directed to the services and individuals they have come to see. Additionally, it includes stringent security measures to protect sensitive information & material resources of the company, while ensuring a smooth & professional experience for visitors.

In the age of digitalisation, this management often relies on IoT & Artificial Intelligence (AI), technologies that ease the visitors’ journey and offer precise traceability, as well as optimisation of flows.

In other words, professional visitor management not only saves a great deal of time, but, combined with a functional access control, it is an effective means of significantly enhancing the security of the company.

How can you facilitate the reception of your visitors & access control to your car park?

By combining various technologies & strategies, you can create a welcoming environment for your visitors while simplifying the management & access control to your parking.

1.  Adopt a parking management application, such as Sharvy.

Let us remember: for many of your visitors, the parking lot is the entry point to your work environment. Therefore, this welcome must be a holistic experience, marked by friendliness, personalization, and efficiency.

However, company parking is often the very opposite! In other words, a daily irritant. The number of users regularly exceeds the number of available parking spaces, which inevitably leads to situations of congestion, frustration, and (sometimes) non-compliance with the rules established within the parking lot.

That’s why you need to anticipate the arrival of your visitors to avoid these pitfalls and ward off potential negative first impressions. Thanks to the Sharvy application, you can send invitations via email to your future visitors, indicating all the information related to parking (date of the appointment, host’s contact details, assigned parking space, etc).

An interactive map (Google Maps) and a parking map are also included in the email, so that the visitor can easily find their way in a place they may not be familiar with. Finally, a parking barrier opening button is activated (in the case where your company has access control via an IoT module) only on the day of the visitor’s reservation, so they will not even need to seek assistance from a third party on the day of their visit.

2. Create groups of parking spaces dedicated to your visitors.

If the configuration & size of your parking area allows, consider partitioning it according to your needs. On one hand, this enables you to meet organizational, security, and environmental responsibility requirements while optimizing the use of available space.

On the other hand, by assigning specific zones for employee drivers, carpoolers, cyclists, motorcyclists, and visitors to your company, you promote a harmonious and efficient management of your parking lot.

Beyond encouraging sustainable mobility practices with dedicated areas for carpooling, shared charging points, and cyclists (with adequate infrastructure), you enhance the employee and visitor experience by creating segmentation that helps prevent conflicts and congestion.

You can easily create groups of parking spaces (and enforce your parking policy) using the Sharvy solution.

With the application, reserve & guarantee spaces close to the main entrance of your offices for your visitors, to avoid potential sources of stress and disorientation in the parking lot. In this way, you demonstrate particular attention to your visitors, reinforcing your image of professionalism and courtesy.

Moreover, if your parking has multiple levels, and you want level -1 to be filled before level -2, you can easily set filling priorities. For instance, the application can prioritize distributing spaces on level -1 over level -2.

Similarly, if your company has multiple buildings and you wish to allocate your employees and visitors based on the building they work in, you can create different groups of spaces and assign each employee/visitor to the group of spaces closest to their building (for example, group 1 = building A parking, group 2 = building B parking, etc). If necessary, overflow between groups of spaces can be managed via the Sharvy app.

3.  Use a license plate recognition system.

Installed near the entrance barrier of the parking lot, these cameras are technologies designed to identify the license plates of vehicles wanting to access the parking area, using character recognition algorithms.

If you choose this type of access control, you only need to provide the list of license plates for vehicles of visitors authorized to enter the parking lot. Subsequently, when these visitors present themselves in front of the camera, it will automatically activate the opening of the barrier if the user has access to the parking.

This technology is essential if you want to streamline traffic around your parking area. Your regular visitors (like your employees) won’t waste time searching for their RFID badges/cards, and queues at the lifting barriers become rarer.

Moreover, this technology not only improves efficiency and security but also contributes to a positive first impression, demonstrating a modern and technologically advanced organization. Additionally, the traceability and reports generated by the camera allow for optimal management of visitor flows, thus facilitating coordination with the company’s security and reception services.

4.  Simplify your multisite management & unify visitor access.

It’s not uncommon for your visitors (and employees) to regularly rotate between sites, like some salespeople, for example. While some make these trips for just a day, others are required, by their roles, to be on one site for two to three days a week, and on another for the remainder of the time.

However, given the frequent flow of parking access requests, it can be challenging for security managers and reception staff to manage everyone’s entries and exits.

Consequently, managing multi-site parking was long considered a real headache for companies! Especially since many companies mistakenly believe they have no choice but to opt for a separate access control solution for each of their buildings. However, the cost of implementation, maintenance, and management can be quite burdensome!

It’s important to know that it is now entirely possible to unify the access management of all your company’s sites by opting for a centralized SaaS solution, like Sharvy. Today, this type of solution is compatible with many access control systems (badges & RFID cards, IoT modules, cameras, etc).

By doing so, you establish standardized procedures, simplifying the welcoming process, reducing ambiguities and delays for visitors who move between different sites.

5.  Dare to use artificial intelligence (AI) in your company’s reception processes.

In recent years, many companies are considering installing AI-based virtual assistants to answer frequently asked questions, guide visitors through registration procedures, and even offer personalized advice. These assistants can be accessed via interactive kiosks and mobile apps, for example.

Moreover, AI helps optimize human resources by freeing your reception staff from repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on more value-added interactions. This technology also supports the collection and analysis of data related to visits, enabling continuous improvement of the services offered. These technologies are not to be overlooked!

In conclusion

Ultimately, implementing the measures mentioned above contributes to creating an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect, which is essential for the development and sustainability of successful business relationships with your visitors (as well as your employees).

Therefore, investing in meticulous visitor management and effective access control has become an essential strategic lever for any company wishing to combine security, practicality, and hospitality.

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