Director of Visitor Services at Folger Shakespeare Library

Job Title: Director of Visitor Services

Job Status: Full-time

Location: Washington, D.C.

Salary: $100,000.00 – $120,000.00

Description

The Folger Shakespeare Library, located on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, is seeking a Director of Visitor Services to lead in a fast-paced, service-oriented environment. The Director of Visitor Services will implement the shared vision and standards for the visitor experience, delivering a welcoming, safe, inspiring, meaningful and fun experience for all visitors. Reporting to the CFO, the Director of Visitor Services will have primary responsibility for understanding and providing for Folger’s diverse and intergenerational public audiences, implementing a visitor experience that inspires repeat visitation and supports earned and contributed income.   

This new public facing position will set the tone for the visitor services functions as the Folger Shakespeare Library reopens to the public after a three-year, $80 million renovation and expansion. This individual will build and lead an integrated team that will fulfill admissions, ticketing and group sales, information and house management functions, with an emphasis on repeat attendance, revenue development, and long-term visitor support and engagement. The Director of Visitor Services will work collaboratively across all areas of the institution in support of the visitor experience. This individual will play a central role in advancing Folger’s diversity, equity, access and inclusion priorities.   

The standard schedule for the role is Monday-Friday 8:45am-4:45pm. However, this schedule may vary as the Visitor Services team works with the public as early as 8:00am and as late as 12:00am for evening programs. The successful candidate for this position will develop a routine work schedule but should anticipate evening and weekend work will be necessary. Work outside of the standard schedule will be scheduled well in advance. This is a fully onsite role. The selected candidate will need to be within a commutable distance to the D.C. office (DC, MD, VA) by their start date.    

Pandemic response: All staff, contractors, and visitors working or visiting onsite are required to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 and furnish proof of vaccination (unless they have a medical or religious exemption). Masks are required in all shared or public spaces until further notice. 

Compensation: 

  • This is a monthly-paid salary position with a salary range of $100,000-120,000. 
  • Total compensation includes extensive benefits plan, including fully covered health, dental, and vision insurance and a generous 403b match, outlined athttps://www.folger.edu/employee-benefits. 
 

Duties and Responsibilities: 

Vision and Engagement 

  • As the first point of contact for visitors, the Visitor Services team will deliver a welcoming, safe, inspiring, meaningful and fun experience for all visitors.  
  • Represent the visitor as a key stakeholder across all areas of the Folger and bring that voice to the table, with a direct line of sight to visitor needs and feedback. 
  • Collaborate across the organization to develop and monitor visitor satisfaction metrics that will strengthen visitor engagement, inspire repeat visitation, and increase earned revenue. 
  • In partnership with security and facilities teams, ensure the entire on-site visitor experience is safe and comfortable from arrival to departure, keeping in mind access, cleanliness, climate, crowd management, and life safety.
  • Work across the organization to center diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion in Visitor Services operations and decision making to ensure that all visitors feel seen, respected, warmly welcomed, and comfortable in the Folger.
  • Contribute to an organizational culture of mutual respect and a spirit of collegiality, collaboration, innovation, and openness to many perspectives.
  • Collaborate on the design, implementation, and evaluation of public programming and community engagement that will encourage repeat visitation.  
 

Team Leadership  

  • Oversee front-of-house operations, including admissions, ticketing and group sales, accessibility measures, information and house management functions, gallery attendant staffing and training, group tours and special events. 
  • Recruit, train, supervise, and mentor visitor services staff and volunteers to encourage retention and support professional growth. 
  • Be an active, engaged, and lead-by-example leader who encourages and empowers the visitor services team to successfully provide outstanding customer service. 
  • Build a collaborative, solution-oriented team that understands accountability and achieves established goals.
  • Partnering with Human Resources, design and implement customer service training for all staff to ensure that all Folger staff communicate effectively with audiences from a wide range of backgrounds.
  • Participate in local, regional, and national industry meetings and conferences to share and implement current best practices and industry standards with staff. 
 

Team Performance 

  • Manage all steps in a visitor’s experience at the Folger with an emphasis on hospitality, warm welcome, and fun.
  • Continually work to evaluate and improve the visitor experience, including wayfinding and information services, and ensure that visitor concerns are quickly addressed
  • Oversee the following staff functions:  respond to phone and email inquiries and sales transactions; greet all visitors to the Folger gardens, facilities and programs; register and/or ticket arriving guests; provide information and wayfinding assistance; staff support for programs and activities; house management functions for performances; promote additional visitor participation in ticketed and non-ticketed events and other amenities such as the shop and café. 
  • Oversee cash and banking related to ticket sales.
  • Manage the institutional calendar and room reservations. 
  • Develop and manage divisional budgets, analyze budget to actuals. Develop strategies for increasing and reducing expenses in support of institutional priorities and manage earned income and implement strategies to support income growth. 
  • Collaborate with the marketing team on visitor information, including print materials, signage, online and digital information, and advertising and promotional materials.  Ensure on-site print and digital signage are current and readily available. 
  • Collect, analyze and use data to measure visitor satisfaction and improve the visitor experience.  Share data analysis across the organization to build awareness and understanding. 
  • Working with marketing and business development, develop and implement strategies for increasing admissions, revenues and overall visitor engagement locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. 

Work with marketing and development staff on strategies to deepen visitor engagement so that visitors become members, lapsed members renew, current members upgrade, and visitors make onsite donations.

Supervisory Duties: 

The Director of Visitor Services will oversee three to five Visitor Services Managers who will manage a team of 15 to 20 full and part-time staff.  Visitor Service is responsible for reception/admissions, ticketing, group sales, special events, in gallery and program support, visitor accessibility, and house management functions.

Requirements

Education and Experience: 

  • A Bachelor’s degree is required.  
  • Seven to ten years of related experience directing a visitor/public customer service operation with a demonstrated track record of success required. Experience in cultural, nonprofit, arts, or educational organizations is preferred.  
  • Demonstrated experience successfully leading both full and part time staff, including hiring and training teams working in customer facing roles, and/or a similarly complex project management background required. 
  • Experience collaborating with communications, marketing and new revenue development is strongly desired.  

Skills and Knowledge: 

  • Proven leadership and problem-solving skills with a track record of managing high performing teams.  
  • Knowledge of the local community, its available resources, and a deep commitment to furthering the connection between the Folger and its DC community.  
  • Passion for outstanding customer service.  
  • Value teamwork, continuous improvement, and collaboration with others.
  • Bring creativity, innovation, and resourcefulness to the position.
  • Expertise in project management and budget development.
  • Proficiency in Tessitura or comparable CRM software systems.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, oral presentation skills, and ability to multitask. 
  • Strong scheduling, time management, and organizational skills.  
  • Fluency in Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint) required and social media platforms preferred. 

Physical Requirements: 

This position operates in a vibrant, active museum/library environment, working both in the museum with public audiences and in an office environment. The employee may be exposed to various components of an office environment such as florescent lighting, pollen, dust, recycled air, cooling fans, semi-enclosed areas, central heating, seasonal warmer temperatures and office noise.  The employee will work with crowds both inside and outside as well as offsite to support admissions and events functions including both routine operations and occasionally in emergency situations.  The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.   

  • The position requires the ability to engage with the public in crowded and occasionally noisy spaces and manage the movement of visitors and groups in and around the facility, sometimes in crowded situations.   
  • The position requires working at a computer for an extended period of time, with accuracy.  
  • The position must be able to move and connect, or direct the movement and connection of, small equipment, such as printers, tablets, and monitors.  
  • Willingness and capacity to work in an office environment at a workstation, and to come and go repeatedly throughout the day as is necessary, to perform various responsibilities. 
  • Capacity to communicate, in person, or using video, phone, or electronic communication methods, in a manner which can be understood by others both one on one and in large group presentations. 
  • The working environment is active, with medium to high noise levels and both high and low light conditions.

Apply via AAM

Job Information

  • Job ID: 67925233
  • Workplace Type: On-Site
  • Location:
    Washington, Dist. Columbia, United States
  • Company Name For Job: Folger Shakespeare Library
  • Position Title: Director of Visitor Services
  • Job Function: Visitor Services/Customer Service
  • Job Type: Full-Time
  • Job Duration: Indefinite
  • Min Education: BA/BS/Undergraduate
  • Min Experience: 5-7 Years
  • Required Travel: None
  • Salar