JOB TITLE: Visitor Services Manager
REPORTS TO: Vice President, of Operations
STATUS: Full-Time, Fully Benefited, Exempt, On-site
LOCATION: Portland, Oregon
COMPENSATION: $50,000-55,000 (Depending on experience)
Lan Su Chinese Garden mission is to cultivate an oasis of tranquil beauty and harmony to inspire, engage and educate our global community in the appreciation of a richly authentic Asian culture.
About Lan Su Gardens:
Lan Su Chinese Garden is one of Portland's greatest treasures and most interesting sites to see. A result of a collaboration between the cities of Portland and Suzhou, our sister city in China's Jiangsu province that is famous for its beautiful Ming Dynasty gardens, Lan Su was built by Chinese artisans from Suzhou and is one the most authentic Chinese gardens outside of China.
Lan Su may have the purposeful career you have been wanting to grow with this position scope:
In this dynamic role you will support Lan Su’s Visitor Services operations in order to create memorable experiences for our visitors. You will lead our Visitor Services Associate (VSA) team which is the responsible for the daily operations of Lan Su, including opening and closing the garden, assisting visitors and volunteers on the plaza/front gate, and throughout our garden, and occasionally assisting with after-hours special events. In addition to this, you will use manage, report and reconcile financials from admissions revenue and utilize data to assist in visitor and business development.
Essential Responsibilities:
- Lead, follow and embrace the Lan Su Vision, Mission & Values.
- Supervises one Assistant Visitor Services Manager (AVSM), two full-time and six or more part-time employees, on a regular basis. Collaborates with the Retail and Art Manager on the delegation and execution of appropriate responsibilities to staff to facilitate smooth ??low of operations.
- Makes decisions regarding hiring, evaluation, promotion, and termination of employees, or makes related recommendations that are given weight. Assists in staff training.
- Leads service standards to ensure the best possible experience. Interacts with visitors and members in a proactive and engaging way selling tickets, memberships, and merchandise.
- Serve as the team's go-to person for customer service issues. Manage visitor emails and voicemails.
- Coordinates advance ticket and gate sales for activities and events, consulting with marketing and programming on promotional activities and logistics.
- Evaluate optimal hours and ticket pricing structure based on data, peer pricing, tourism trends. Choose ticket promotions judiciously using such data.
- Coordinates with Membership Department to perform onsite membership sales.
- Develops and executes strategies to increase admission, including partnering with travel, hotels, tours, Oldtown community for promotional opportunities.
- Partners with peer managers in multiple departments to produce exceptional garden events and programs.
- Manages all garden rentals, including correspondence and site visits with clients.
- Troubleshoots hardware and software needs for frontline staff.
- Manages and books group sales.
- Assists with Facility and Operation projects.
- Reconciles admissions sales with cash deposits. Ensures daily cash register opening and closing procedures and register accuracy and integrity are maintained by all staff on duty. Maintains accurate starting tills and banks for all retail locations.
- Projects admission annual budget and monitors throughout the year. Compiles reports regarding admissions.
- Executes garden safety and security protocols and procedures. Ensures incident reports are completed.
- Other responsibilities as assigned.
You may not have everything needed. You have a strong combination of experience, technical, academic skills and passion in the following areas:
- 4-year degree or commensurate experience.
- 3+ years’ experience within the hospitality industry, tourism, retail services, visitor information services and sales.
- 2+ 3+ years’ of direct supervisory experience.
- Experience with online and onsite ticketing and events logistics.
- Experience working with volunteers, diverse clientele, and/or member-based organizations.
- Ability to lead and develop a team and provide effective feedback to ensure expectations are clear and able to be met.
- Excellent verbal and written communication skills with visitors, colleagues, volunteers, and members of all ages and backgrounds.
- Aptitude for independent problem solving with a positive, calm, and professional demeanor.
- Cash register and cash handling experience.
- Willingness to work in various environments (indoors and outdoors).
- Basic computer skills required: POS systems and Outlook, iOS touchscreens; computer savvy highly preferred with a love of learning new technology.
- Knowledge of Chinese culture and Mandarin language skills desired but not required.
- Ability to work evenings, weekends and holidays as needed.
- Knowledge of the Greater Portland area, hotels, attractions, assets.
For your personal well-being, the Garden offers:
- Beautiful garden environment with areas to walk and enjoy an oasis of tranquil beauty.
- Employer Paid Health and Dental Insurance for employee only coverage.
- Employer-paid Group Life/ADD and short-term disability insurance.
- Vacation time accrual.
- Sick time accrual.
- One (1) Personal Floating Holiday per year.
- Holiday pay or accrual of ??loating holiday if you are scheduled to work on a Lan Su recognized paid holiday.
- Garden Shop & Teahouse Discount.
- 401K Participation and Employer match.
- Complimentary Family & Friends Membership to Lan Su Chinese Garden.
- Complimentary gym access to the workout facility in the administrative of??ice building.
- Complimentary access to reciprocal venues throughout Portland.
We look forward to hearing from you, just follow these few steps to send your information to us:
Placing “Visitor Services Manager” in the subject line of your email along with your cover letter, resume, & three references to lansuhr@lansugarden.org Please, no drop-in’s or phone calls. Applications will be received on a rolling basis until the position is filled.
Lan Su Chinese Garden is committed to maintaining an environment where employees contribute to the organization’s achievement, take pride in the results of their work, are appreciated as individuals, and are encouraged to develop to their fullest extent. Lan Su is an Equal Opportunity Employer. It is our policy that employees will not be discriminated against in the terms and conditions of employment because of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, marital status, sexual orientation, disability, or any other classification protected by law.