Director of Guest Services [Grounds For Sculpture, Hamilton, NJ]

Description

Nestled in the heart of central New Jersey lies Grounds For Sculpture (“GFS”), a magical place where art and nature are always at play. At its core are more than 270 sculptures by renowned and emerging contemporary artists, each thoughtfully positioned on meticulously landscaped parkland full of thousands of exotic trees and flowers. It is a feast for the senses.

Grounds For Sculpture (GFS) is a 42-acre sculpture garden, museum and arboretum with major exhibition, education, performance, restaurant and visitor amenities that make contemporary art accessible by showcasing it in beautiful settings that encourage discovery and learning.  Its arboretum has more than 200 cultivars of trees, thousands of flowering shrubs, and settings grand and intimate, all to spotlight art and engage the visitor.  GFS’ indoor rotating gallery exhibitions, performing arts events, educational programs, and family activities invite people to approach and interact with art on their terms, growing in knowledge, understanding, and joy. Last year Grounds For Sculpture attracted over 230,000 visitors.

Grounds For Sculpture is currently hiring for the following full-time position Director of Guest Services:

The Director of Guest Services reports directly to the Executive Director and serves as a member of the senior management team.  The Director of Guest Services will be responsible to serve as a leader and advocate for innovative approaches in both museum and guest service experience at Grounds For Sculpture. The Director of Guest Services at Grounds For Sculpture will serve as the primary liaison with the public supervising, coordinating and leading the Guest Service management team in providing a welcoming, responsive and exceptional first impression to our visitors. The guest service department is comprised of a total of 37 employees that include full time, part time and seasonal staff serving 230,000 plus visitors annually. Grounds For Sculpture is seeking a strong leader with a confident public presence that has strong organizational, technical and customer service skills, is highly detail oriented, responsible and flexible. Candidates must possess excellent communications skills, both verbal and written, be capable of carrying out a wide array of duties, and work well in a team environment. The position will require the candidate to work weekends and be available to work flexible hours, when necessary, during peak season.

Duties and Responsibilities 

• Responsible to serve as a leader and advocate for innovative approaches in museum and guest services experience
• Responsible for supervising, coordinating and evaluating the work of the Managers of Guest Services and Manager of Events as well as leading and supporting the evaluation, hiring and training of all Guest Services staff, interns and volunteers
• Design, develop and implement Guest Services experience for the organization
• Actively participate in long range planning for the Guest Services department as well as institution wide strategic planning
• Representative of GFS to members, special constituencies, partners and general public
• Cultivate community and professional partnerships to advance GFS work
• Responsible for the development, management and oversight of the departmental budget, the preparation of daily, weekly and monthly attendance and revenue reports, as well as other reporting and goal-setting requirements
• Oversight and implementation of short-term and long-term Guest Services departmental policies, projects and goals
• Work collaboratively with Finance and IT department to ensure terminal set-up, reliable operability, maintenance and hardware to facilitate ticketing and reporting needs
• Proactively research and adopt new technology to ensure continued relevancy and efficiency with regards to operational systems including but not limited to on-line ticket sales, reporting and analytics

• Handle visitor concerns, comments and complaints to resolution. Work closely with other departments to implement visitor surveys and audience research studies
• Maintain a well-informed, working knowledge of the mission, activities, services, programs and exhibitions available. In addition, continuously communicate to Guest Service staff and public
• Analyzes, identifies and monitors admission sales trends and ticket trends; Prepare annual admissions projects and statistical reports using relevant budget and admission data. Assemble and analyze relevant data, and prepare and deliver reports, detailing Guest Service activities to the senior management team and the board of trustees.
• Establish and maintain effective working relationships with all departments, staff, volunteers and the public
• Responsible for implementing and overseeing internal communication, conduct, discipline, assessments, and staffing programs. Ensure that all Guest Service staff maintain excellent customer service standards and adhere to policies, systems and procedures
• Oversee the development and coordination of all job-specific training and on-going education programs for the Guest Service staff, including incorporating knowledgeable and appropriate background material in coordination with Curatorial staff.
• Works collaboratively with CFO in handling all insurance claims and interactions
• All other duties as assigned

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in relevant field with course work in business or arts administration, hospitality, management, marketing or a related field or discipline
• Minimum 4-7 years of progressive leadership responsibility, customer service, supervisory or management capacity, preferably in a nonprofit museum and/or public garden sector.
• Working knowledge of database centered POS systems, credit card machines and office equipment
• Proficient in MS Office Suite, Outlook, Altru