Supervises: Student front of house staff (30-40 students)
Hours: Wednesdays, noon-8, Thursday and Friday, 9-5:30, Saturday and Sunday 10-5:30
On-site position
Salary: $54-57,000 per year
Are you excited by the challenge of making someone’s day at the Weisman as memorable for the welcome they receive as for the impressive architecture of the building? Do you get a thrill from the prospect of being WAM’s front person—leading a team of student gallery staff to ensure campus and community visitors feel a sense of belonging when they walk through our doors? This may be the gig for you!
Weisman Art Museum’s Visitor Experience Coordinator is a full-time University of Minnesota staff position, with responsibilities that include deepening student engagement, enhancing visitor experience, and expanding access to the museum as a community resource.
This position is responsible for the successful daily operation of the Museum’s front-of-house services and amenities at the Visitor Experience Desk; recruits and supervises a team of 30-40 students who provide high standards of visitor experience while maintaining security for works of art on view.
Visitor Experience Coordinator works cross-departmentally to manage a successful employee training program. Work hours include weekend and evening hours to support public programs.
Hire, Train and Supervise student gallery staff (50%)
- Manage daily staffing needs and scheduling for multiple shifts of direct reports
- Develop, implement and maintain student staff onboarding and ongoing training program
- Collaborate with security director to train students in appropriate methods of museum security
- Schedule, train and supervise student visitor services and student guards ensuring proper procedures are followed
- Initiate an assessment/evaluation process for student employees
- Set regular performance check-in schedules for student employees during onboarding process
- Conduct exit interviews and use feedback to improve current practices
- Ensure appropriate security, supervision, coaching, and modeling of behaviors that are consistent with exceptional hospitality on the museum gallery level at all times
Oversee front desk and entryway experience (25%)
- Lead the daily operations of the front desk with a focus on customer service, organization and efficiency ensuring visitors are attended to professionally and promptly
- Collaborate with other members of Building Operations to ensure readiness for handling building evacuations, guest injuries, and other potential emergency situations
- Liaise with curatorial and education departments to provide up-to-date exhibition content to front line staff
- Work with registration to understand museum-related conservation standards
- Work with development department to understand membership program in order to present/promote benefits to visitors
- Collaborate with marketing and communications department to provide current museum information to front line staff and to visitors
- Develop ways to engage visitors in appropriate and meaningful ways
Establish and work to continually improve museum visitor experience (25%)
- Acts as an interdepartmental liaison to ensure exceptional service with a focus on the visitor experience, ensuring visitors who call or visit are attended to professionally and promptly and visitor concerns and complaints are resolved to their satisfaction and the Museum’s
- Gather visitor feedback data and identify potential improvements and/or changes to current Museum practice; COVES
- Collect visitor demographic information.
- Be present in the public spaces, directly observing the quality of the guest experience on a daily basis.
- Greet tours that come in; develop protocols for orienting groups when they arrive
- Provide related insights and advocate for services and amenities on behalf of visitors, members, and other external constituents
- Maintain dashboards related to the guest experience, allowing for a common understanding of organizational performance over time. Coordinate prioritization and follow-up for areas of improvement
- Collaborate cross-departmentally to monitor and interpret attendance data
- Identify ways to improve accessibility and inclusion for all Museum visitors and student workers
- Collaborate across departments to implement increased accessibility
- Stay abreast of organizational and community happenings and be able to disseminate relevant information to guests
- Demonstrate leadership in fostering an organizational culture that values innovation, promotes inclusion, and inspires excellence in the work environment
- Provide support for Museum special programs, including some held during evenings
- Stay abreast of trends and best practices in the art museum field
QUALIFICATIONS–required
- Bachelor’s Degree, Hospitality Management, Public Relations, Non-Profit, or Museum experience
- Supervisory experience, including hiring, scheduling and training
- Experience in a public-facing, customer service environment
- Demonstrated ability and willingness to collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders
- 3-5 years of customer service experience
- Experience working in a team based environment and managing multiple priorities
- Superior interpersonal, facilitation, and public speaking skills.
- Demonstrated strong project management skills.
- Demonstrated leadership and management skills, with the ability to engage a diverse range of individuals in matters of vision and strategy, as well as day-to-day workplace issues.
- Demonstrated sensitivity and awareness of issues relating to access and inclusion.
- Able to take ownership of problematic situations using proper judgment to find possible solutions or alternatives. Leadership skills necessary for responding authoritatively under stress.
- Proven ability to engage individuals of diverse backgrounds and experiences.
QUALIFICATIONS–preferred
- Computer experience with Google Suite; Microsoft Office programs, Familiarity with museum database software, as well as new systems, as required.
- Passion for creating a world-class museum that is recognized for a truly outstanding guest experience.
- Enthusiasm for working in an organization where change is frequent, structure is evolving, and flexibility, teamwork, and good humor are necessary.
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