Between visitor management and administrative tasks, frontline staff have plenty to do and they deal with several challenges on a daily basis. If managed poorly, these tasks can make employees vulnerable to burnout and other stress-related issues.
Employee well-being is often directly linked to productivity, employee retention, and employee satisfaction in a company. Businesses must learn how to support their team members with wellness offerings and the appropriate tools to help them do their jobs.
5 Common Challenges for Customer-Facing Employees
1. Keeping Track of Visitor Arrivals
Between guests, regular meeting attendees, daily employees, contractors, and more, frontline employees can sometimes feel overwhelmed by the number of visitors they have to keep track of. Front desk staff are expected to vet each of these individuals and provide them with the appropriate information and the level of access and support they need.
2. Often Needing to Be in Multiple Places at Once
There is a perception that frontline employees are constantly stationed at the front desk. While that is a home base of sorts, they are required to oversee visitors until their host arrives, send deliveries to recipients in more secure areas, and more. These responsibilities can sometimes overlap, causing frontline staff to be needed in more than one place at a time.
3. Dealing With Deliveries
Deliveries can be challenging for frontline staff in offices where areas have different security requirements or staff who are constantly on the move. Frontline staff must keep track of who is in the office and where they are in the premises to deliver packages to them.
4. Impatient or Unhappy Visitors
Despite any organization’s best efforts, delays are sometimes unavoidable. Frontline staff are required to manage visitors who are dissatisfied or unhappy. Customer-facing staff are an important touchpoint for businesses and almost half of such employees don’t believe their organization does enough to meet customer expectations.
5. Keeping Workspaces Uncluttered
For visitors and customers, forms and ID requirements are a minor inconvenience—but front desk staff have to deal with numerous forms, copies of IDs, incoming and outgoing deliveries, telephones, printers, mail, and more. It can be challenging to keep workspaces uncluttered with all the equipment, documents, and packages lying around.
Why Businesses Should Consider Improving Employee Wellness Offerings for Frontline Staff
Burnout and Stress Have a Direct Impact on Employee Morale and Retention
A McKinsey & Company study found that 56% of American employees feel at least somewhat burned out at work. This low morale and high level of burnout can make it difficult for businesses to find and retain top talent. Frontline employees juggle many critical tasks and build strong relationships throughout the organization, providing the support they need is essential to keeping them engaged and satisfied.
Frontline Staff Are the Visitors’ First Touchpoint With the Business
Visitors quickly form first impressions of a business that influence them throughout their relationship with the organization. Frontline staff can give these visitors a strong positive or negative first impression that will define their view of the business as a whole. Businesses should empower their employees with the tools necessary to ensure that this critical first interaction is smooth and positive.
Highly Motivated and Healthy Employees Are More Productive and Engaged
Businesses rely on employees to get work done efficiently and effectively. Study after study has shown that highly motivated and healthy employees are willing to give back to their employers. The right tools can help employees stay healthy while also making it easier for them to be more productive at work.
4 Ways a Visitor Management System Can Ease the Burden on Frontline Employees
1. Streamline Your Processes
Processes such as signing people in and providing security clearances are important for any organization wishing to keep records of employees and visitors entering the premises. However, these processes need not be cumbersome and time consuming. With mobile sign-ins and quick information delivery systems, visitors can share their information and record their attendance with their mobile devices before they arrive and ease the burden placed on front desk staff to manage them manually.
2. Help to Provide a Positive Experience for Visitors
Paperless sign-ins and easy identity verification can significantly reduce waiting time and make data sharing easier for visitors. Regular visitors can also choose to automate these processes after their first visit to the organization. All these come together to make entering a place of business seamless and convenient.
3. Divide Tasks Evenly Between the Team
Front desk staff can often be the default point of contact for everything from deliveries to document management and managing visitor impressions. This can place the burden of coordination solely on their shoulders. Automated processes and a fully integrated visitor management system can make a cloud-based platform the first point of reference for employees and make it easy for different team members to get the information they need when they need it.
4. Make It Easier for Receptionists to Notify Team Members About Important Things
Before the introduction of digital visitor management systems, receptionists had to call, email, or ping team members manually to let them know of a delivery or the arrival of a visitor. A fully integrated information sharing platform makes it easier for front desk staff to highlight important data points or calendar events to the relevant team members without delay.
SwipedOn’s digital visitor management system gives frontline, customer-facing employees the tools they need to stay on top of everything their role throws at them. With specialized software that can be accessed via the cloud, frontline employees have quick and easy access to attendance data, calendar information, visitor information, security clearances, delivery management systems, and more. Ensuring that these essential staff members are supported increases the likelihood they will continue to be assets to your organization.
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