Visitor Services

Waverley Excursions Ltd., operators of Paddle Steamer Waverley – the World’s last seagoing paddle steamer, is seeking to appoint a Customer Service Assistant as Waverley returns to service in 2023 to work within the company’s booking office delivering a high standard of customer service.

The Customer Service Assistant will work closely with the Assistant General Manager and Booking Office Manager to ensure the smooth operation of the passenger business.

This is a great opportunity for someone who is looking to gain wider experience. You should be well organised, have good people skills, be flexible with an ability to rise to the challenge when the unexpected happens.

This position is based in Glasgow though attendance on board Waverley may be required. This is a unique role working with the dedicated team who manage and operate Waverley. Everyone in the team helps in whatever capacity necessary to ensure that the demands of the business are met. Flexibility and commitment are essential for this role.

Please send your CV along with a cover letter demonstrating your experience and suitability to info@waverleyexcursions.co.uk

Role:
To work within the company’s booking office, ensuring high standards of customer service and support the Assistant General Manager and Booking Office Manager in delivering a high standard onboard service.

About you:
• Educated to a high standard
• Self-motivated with strong organisational and prioritisation skills
• Excellent communication skills, able to write in an engaging manner to suit a variety of audiences
• Ability to manage own workload and multitask
• Ability to work flexibly as a team player in a busy environment
• Ability to process and interpret complex information
• Prepared to learn new skills and assist within other areas of the business
• Competent in the use of Microsoft Word, Excel, Teams

Job Description
• Process bookings via telephone, online or mail efficiently.
• Ensure tickets are dispatched in a timely manner.
• Respond to customer enquiries by telephone and or email
• Ensuring customer satisfaction and dealing appropriately with customer feedback
• Administration relating to our membership scheme Friends of Waverley including recording data accurately and sending acknowledgements.
• Dispatching Gift Vouchers and Shop orders in a timely manner.
• Any other duties required by the Assistant General Manager and Booking Office Manager
• Work onboard in a commercial role if required and practicable

Hours of Work:
Summer: Monday to Friday 8.30am until 5.30pm with occasional weekend & evening required.

Remuneration: £10.50 per hour.

We are hiring tour guides for this tour season of 30 March through 30 October.

Inveraray Castle is based in Scotland, on the edge of Loch Fyne, and surrounded by the majesty of the west highlands. The castle is the seat of Clan Campbell, home to the Dukes of Argyll since the eighteenth century and it has been featured in many films and documentaries.

We are looking for flexible, full-time seasonal guides who will give castle tours and answer visitor queries in an idyllic setting. You will describe unique castle and family history, and help visitors transport back in time through our varied artifacts, exhibitions, and stories.

Inveraray Castle is one of Scotland’s most famous stately homes with a rich history, so the applicant should enjoy history and sharing it with visitors from across the world.

Being multilingual is an additional bonus, but not a must and full training is provided.

We are looking for friendly and outgoing individuals who can provide a high level of customer service and enjoy telling the history that is housed within our walls.

Please enquire about accommodation, if needed.

This position is an hourly rate of £12 per hour.

Please enquire about working with our friendly team by sending your CV and enquiries to: enquiries@inveraray-castle.com.

The closing date for application is 12 April 2023.

We look forward to hearing from you!

JOB PURPOSE
To provide operational coordination and supervision of catering, retail, visitor services, and events at in line with the Trust’s policies, priorities, performance standards and targets to contribute to the enjoyment of the property by visitors and members, and help ensure commercial, financial, and conservation objectives are achieved.
The Visitor Services Supervisor at a Trust property plays a pivotal role ensuring that the management objectives are achieved through excellent customer service, and, with delegated responsibility for catering, retail, events and duty management is very often the “face” of the Trust to visitors and suppliers. As such, s/he directly influences public perceptions of the Trust and is crucial to developing and maintaining the property’s local/national reputation.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES
Supervising/undertaking the day-to-day operation of the property and environs to ensure an excellent customer/visitor experience. This includes supervision of:
Catering Operation
 Lead with menu development and the preparation and presentation of a high-quality food and drink offer.
 Ensure compliance with health and safety, food hygiene, food allergen, licensing and environmental health standards, completing all related record-keeping.
 Accountable for cost-effective stock management, ordering, storage and wastage control.
Visitor experience
 Offer excellent customer service and ensure all members of the team do the same.
 Support property-wide targets for completion of visitor surveys to understand more about our visitors.
 Act as one of our duty manager team, responsible for ensuring a safe and smooth visitor operation, opening/closing the visitor centre, addressing issues and emergency procedure and providing relief cover, as required.
Line management of Visitor Services Assistants and volunteers
 Duty management and oversight/maintenance of the property.
 Ensure the property social media is managed to generate interest, engagement and help drive visitors.
 Support the informal learning and community engagement / outreach activity.
 Ticketing & Membership sales (to targets) and general customer service (individuals, education visits, other groups).
 Security of the Property;
o Ensuring the completion of cash/till reconciliation.
o Week-end reports and reconciliation.
o Completion of banking and cash handling processes.
o Health & Safety procedures, emergency procedures, and environmental procedures.
o Deputising for the Visitor Services Manager / Operations Manager on-site and off-site as required.
o Recruitment; induction; development; and management of all visitor services employees and volunteers such that they understand and are equipped to fulfill their roles to the standards required and that they feel valued, respected and supported.

Working closely with other managers across the Property to deliver a programme of visitor events, which increase visitor numbers, drive secondary spend and support overall Property targets.

Instil a Health & Safety culture across the property, ensuring the team work within the property’s ‘Safe System of Work’ to reduce risk of incidents and accidents to volunteers, employees and visitors.

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE & KNOWLEDGE
Qualifications
 No formal educational qualification required (but see “Experience” below).
 A full, clean driving license for driving in the UK.

Skills, Experience & Knowledge
Essential
 Significant previous experience of working in an operations role in the hospitality industry – including supervision of staff and/or responsibility for specific activities.
 Previous event coordination/management experience.
 Excellent customer service skills.
 Excellent organisational, administrative and time-management skills with the ability to prioritise and re-prioritise workload to meet changing demands.
 Proven sales skills with the ability to achieve targets.
 The ability to think and act quickly when confronted with emergencies.
 Competent user of Microsoft Office products.
 An understanding and commitment to the aims and objectives of the National Trust for Scotland.
 Access to own transport.

Desirable
 Food Hygiene Qualification.
 A formal qualification in Heritage Management, Hospitality, Tourism or Event Management.

DIMENSIONS AND SCOPE OF JOB

Scale
 Responsible for all areas of the property. This includes the cafe, apartments, retail and the museum.

People Management
 Responsible for supervising up to 12 team members (mixture of permanent and fixed term). All VSAs are café based but trained to work in all areas of the property. On a normal day there will be 4 staff members on at any one time.
 Currently the property has over 60 volunteers. As a supervisor you will be responsible for managing no more than 5 at any one time. The shifts in the house are either morning (10am-12:30pm) and afternoons (12:30-3pm). As a supervisor you will be responsible for their safety, inductions, and training.
 In the Edinburgh cluster there are 2 other properties which can impact on your role. On occasion supervisors can assist these properties when support is required.
 It is important to develop good relationships with key suppliers and stakeholders.
Tools / equipment / systems
 As a supervisor you will be required to use various systems for your role. These include EPOS (for till process, admissions, and retail), MIDAS (recording deliveries), word processing and spreadsheets
 Use of financial systems to process purchases and to process invoices.

Variable work pattern, with regular evening and weekend work, fixed tern till October 2023.

KEY PURPOSE

To maximise our visitors’ enjoyment of National Trust for Scotland managed sites by maintaining excellent standards of service, optimising opportunities to generate income and ensuring that the site and its assets are safe and secure.
Specifically, to ensure the smooth and safe operations in Admissions, Tours, Retail, Catering and Events activities making the property the best possible place to visit and work.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND ACCOUNTABILITIES

To provide a consistently high standard of visitor care at all times

• Welcoming visitors to the site and processing their admission/retail or catering purchase in a friendly, efficient, and knowledgeable manner.
• Welcoming visitors with special needs / impairments and providing a high level of service in accordance with the Disability Discrimination Act.
• Welcoming International visitors and aiding with specific needs.
• Welcoming groups in an efficient and warm manner
• Answering visitors’ queries about the site, education facilities and the local area.
• Providing information about the site, its history, contents, offers and merchandise.
• Promoting National Trust for Scotland brand to include our Membership scheme, events, upselling other properties and any promotional campaigns, being proactive in the selling of Membership and Gift Aid.
To maintain excellent standards of site and personal presentation at all times

• The general ongoing operational cleaning of all areas as necessary, toilet cleaning, emptying waste bins and as appropriate vacuum cleaning, mopping, sweeping, dusting, and polishing when required.
• Ensuring site is ready to open and
• Welcome visitors by the set opening time.
• Wearing correct uniform, name badges, or PPE as required.
• Reporting all issues of damage and wear and tear, promptly to your Line Manager
• Working in harmony with other departments; housekeeping, gardening, grounds maintenance and site repair employees/contractors.
Financial Responsibilities

• To adhere to all financial procedures to include till operation and banking and safeguarding of monies

Retail/Catering/Events/Cashier duties

• To ensure good housekeeping of catering kitchens, serveries, back and front of house areas and including dishwashing
• To ensure that retail merchandising is in accordance with NTS policy.
• To assist in achieving site retail/catering/events targets and KPI’s.
• To actively upsell products and services to facilitate the visitor’s enjoyment.
• To actively feedback visitor comments to line managers to develop and improve offer, service, operations.
• To work flexibly across departments and sites as needed.
• To assist with the set-up, stewarding and break-down of events in liaison with the functions and events manager.
• To assist with hospitality events. This includes evening events and staff may be asked to work through into the night hours.
Health and Safety
• To ensure site meets with Health and Safety legislation in liaison with your department manager.
• To ensure that visitors vacate the site at close of business and that the site is secured at end of day.
• To use personal protection equipment as provided and directed by your line manager

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS, SKILLS, EXPERIENCE & KNOWLEDGE

Qualifications
• No formal educational qualification required.

Skills, Experience & Knowledge
Essential
• Demonstrable experience in a customer-facing role: sales or ticketing/ event/ admissions and/or retail and/or catering, delivering impeccable customer care through excellent inter-personal skills and food safety standards (where applicable)
• Experience in EPOS style till operation, confidence undertaking till-work and reconciliation.
• Excellent cash handling skills.
• Excellent “front of house” persona – warm, welcoming, patient, understanding.
• Excellent selling skills – adaptable to customer type and product.
• Demonstrable excellent time management skills and the ability to prioritise.
• Flexible, helpful outlook to customers and colleagues.
• An understanding and commitment to the aims and objectives of the National Trust for Scotland.
• Living the values of the National Trust for Scotland and encourage colleagues to do the same
o The ability and willingness to understand others’ perspectives and to consider the impact of your actions on them and to adapt your actions as necessary.
o The ability and willingness to learn and try new things, to be flexible and step outside of your comfort zone.
o An open and honest way of communicating, ready to ask others for their ideas and to be open to hear and consider different points of view.
o A pro-active approach to taking initiative and to driving forward ideas and projects designed to improve daily operations and deliver an exceptional visitor experience.

Desirable
• Ideally experience in a heritage/tourism environment.
• Food hygiene certificate.
• Basic cooking skills and willingness to be trained.
• Personal Licence for sale of alcohol
• Experience in storytelling and a passion for Scottish heritage and history
• A full UK driving licence
• Access to your own transport

DIMENSIONS AND SCOPE OF JOB

Scale
 The role is based in the main museum building and at Robert Burns Birthplace cottage.
 The role works across several departments: retail, catering and admissions and assisting with events and functions when required.
 The role is customer facing and the role-holder can expect that the working day will mainly be spent front of house, providing customer service to our visitors.
 There may be times when you are required to work at other NTS properties such as but not exclusively Souter Johnnies Cottage and the Batchelor’s Club
 The role requires the post holder to work flexible working patterns and hours including evenings, weekends, and public holidays.

People Management

• This is not a line management role
• Will work closely with other property colleagues and will have regular interaction with other technical/specialist advisory colleagues based in other locations and departments
• Will have regular (daily) interaction with members of the public of all ages and abilities

Finance Management
 Is not a budget holder
 Responsibility for ensuring customer payment is processed correctly, handling cash and card information

Tools/ equipment/ systems

 Will regularly use a wide range of ICT equipment including land-line phone, two-way radio, email, scanner, laptop/PC, printer etc.
 Will use catering equipment including coffee machines, dishwashers, and some cooking equipment.

Fixed term, various hours available.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

Culzean Castle is one of Scotland’s most loved castles, as one of the Visitor Services team within the castle, you will ensure that all visitors receive an excellent visitor experience and leave felling inspired by this magical place. This will be achieved through being welcoming; engaging and knowledgeable; prepared to answer visitors’ questions about objects, stories of the castle and its family and the NTS.

The role involves some physical activity and will include standing for periods of time and/or walking through the building during guided tours. Due to the historic nature of the building physical access from the upper levels in the event of an emergency is currently only by stairs.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

• Warmly welcome Visitors to the Castle by checking tickets and upselling Guidebooks to enhance their visit.
• Sharing the benefits of Membership with ticket holders and always actively looking at innovative and interesting ways to encourage Membership recruitment.
• Ensure the highest level of customer service ensuring all visitors receive an excellent visitor experience
• Maximise visitor enjoyment and understanding of the property through engaging visitors with the history of Culzean and the Kennedy family
• Delivery of a broad range of high-quality guided tours and talks about Culzean for the general public and organised groups
• To deliver a range of engaging school workshops, for all ages and abilities
• Enhance the visitor experience through use of third person costumed interpretation, object handling and cookery demonstrations where applicable
• Actively promote the work of the NTS and the value of NTS membership to existing and potential members
• Be mindful of security needs of the property and its contents, minimising opportunities for theft or damage through diligent monitoring of visitors and the implementation of security measures (e.g., locking up procedures etc.)
• Be aware of the conservation needs of the property and its contents and minimise the risk of accidental damage through engaging with visitors and the implementation of appropriate conservation measures
• Share in the common responsibility of implementing the Trust’s Health & Safety policy, being mindful at all times of health & safety of self, staff, volunteers, and visitors
• Share in the common responsibility for the safe evacuation/management of colleagues and visitors in the event of a fire or security alert or alarm

SCOPE OF ROLE

People Management
• Not a line manager but will work closely with other property colleagues and will have interaction with other technical/specialist advisory colleagues based in other locations and departments;
• Will have daily interaction with members of the public of all ages and abilities

Financial Management
• Not a budget holder.

Essential
• A personal commitment to excellence in customer care with the ability to enthuse and motivate others
• Must have enthusiasm for Scottish heritage and in particular family history and history of art/architecture
• Must be a very able and enthusiastic communicator, in particular verbally
• Must have sound working experience dealing effectively with a wide range of people in a public situation
• Must have a genuine understanding of and belief in the work of the NTS
• Willing to show commitment and flexibility in work practice
• Ability to be flexible, in particular to adapt working patterns and tasks to meet day-to-day variations in property needs.
• Ability to adjust pace to match customer flow without compromising quality of service.
• Excellent front of house persona – warm, welcoming, patient and understanding.
• Excellent selling skills
• Genuine belief in the value of good customer service.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Demonstrable time management skills and the ability to prioritise.
• Ability to be proactive and to take the initiative.

Desirable
• Previous cash handling experience
• Historical knowledge of the site and a passion for heritage
• Previous experience or volunteer experience in museum, tourism, or conservation sector
• Epos

Available Posts
1 x 18 hours posts (3 days from 7), 1 x 24 hours posts (4 days from 7),