Visitor Services Manager in Stoke-on-Trent

We are one of the UK’s biggest charities and we care for 2,000 miles of canals, rivers, docks and reservoirs because we believe life is better by water. We are looking for people who support our cause and want to make a difference for future generations. Along with our waterways, we also manage museums, archives and the country’s third largest collection of historic buildings, as well as the nature and wildlife that calls our canals home. All of this enables us to provide wellbeing opportunities for millions of people each year.

We’re excited to welcome a new Visitor Services Manager at our East Midlands location. This role follows a 37 hours, over a 7 day working pattern. This is a site-based role, requiring occasional travel to meetings with partners, other attractions and to our main hubs for collaborative meetings and team activities.

Role Overview

The purpose of the post is to manage and lead the day-to-day operations, business development and visitor experience at our Canal Museum Stoke Bruerne. The Visitor Services Manager (VSM) will lead the site team at Stoke Bruerne (colleagues and volunteers) on a day to day basis to focus on the visitor offer, striving for excellence in experience, achieving financial sustainability around income generation and charitable giving and delivering a consistently high-class visitor welcome across the board. This includes managing a range of front of house functions including food and beverage, retail, events and commercial boat trips. The Visitor Services Manager plays a central role in overseeing, coordinating and championing the experience of every visitor from site presentation, to large/small scale events and programming, making the site a must-see attraction, acclaimed internationally, nationally and loved locally.

As a key member of the Destinations and Attractions Management Team, the VSM will work strategically with colleagues in other attractions and with other teams within the Trust such as Operations, Fundraising, Collections, Marketing and Volunteering teams amongst others to promote, drive and deliver excellence in customer service and a visitor centred approach. The VSM will work collaboratively with teams and volunteers to ensure focused visitor activity which will help build our audiences and increase visitor footfall whilst building engagement for the Trust brand.

A key accountability of the role is managing and reporting on financial performance, delivering on KPI’s and leading and motivating teams to deliver income targets whilst effectively managing costs. The Visitor Services Manager will manage a range of stakeholder relationships including representing the Trust at local partnership groups, representing the site at relevant external meetings as appropriate.

Key Responsibilities

• Deliver on financial KPI’s working to control costs and maximise income (commercial and charitable giving) including managing diverse budgets relating to the Front of House operations.
• Monitoring and delivering other appropriate KPIs set in the Business Plan, reporting back to the management team on progress and actions.
• Overseeing the recruitment of permanent and seasonal staff and volunteers and ensuring they are trained to carry out their duties efficiently and effectively.
• Owning the visitor experience and ensuring colleagues and volunteers work as a team to deliver an unforgettable, quality visit whether in the café/shop or at events.
• Lead on volunteer growth, building the volunteering team to deliver key operational functions.
• Maintain an overview of the presentation of the site at all times.
• Leading on gathering visitor data and analysing customer feedback to ensure that necessary actions are taken to improve performance.
• Playing a key role in all projects that have an impact upon our visitors and the public.

About You

You will have extensive experience of working operationally in a customer-focused environment, ideally in a visitor attraction, delivering financial targets and creating dynamic and innovative projects and programming that will engage and inspire audiences. You will have experience of leading teams, including volunteers to deliver successful initiatives and keep them motivated and involved. You will be able to demonstrate the ability to create safe working environments and understand the importance of compliance in day to day operations. If you love working with people and want to make a difference then this role is for you.

Skills & Qualifications

• Educated to degree level or equivalent.
• Knowledge/experience of customer care and visitor services preferably in a museum context.
• Knowledge / experience of managing staff rotas over two sites.
• Knowledge of heritage and interpretation issues.
• Experience of managing staff and dealing with customers.
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Considerable people management and hands-on team leading experience including managing volunteers.
• Proven experience of planning operations & staffing in a visitor-based attraction.
• Ability to work in partnership with internal and external staff and organisations.
• Experience of managing budgets.
• Good understanding of Health & Safety Policy, Principles, Standards, Procedures & Guidance.
• Able to creatively & innovatively develop solutions to obstacles and challenges.
• Ability to travel between sites.
• Demonstrate an interest and competency in effective museum management.

The successful candidate will require a DBS check.

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to us. We encourage early applications as we may close the vacancy once we receive enough suitable candidates.

What We Offer

We offer an annual salary of £33,677. Enjoy a competitive pension scheme, increasing holiday entitlement, and a range of employee benefits.