Guest Experience Associate Gift Shop

Description

Guest Experience Associate – Gift Shop

Department: Guest Experience

Supervisor: Guest Experience Manager

Supervises: n/a

FLSA Salary Classification: Non-exempt

Availability: Position requires regular weekday, evening hours, weekend hours, and occasional holidays. Hours may fluctuate based on the seasonal needs of the Gift Shop. 

General Summary:

Deliver excellent customer service to Garden visitors by educating and assisting in the sale of merchandise, memberships, and garden admissions.

Essential Duties:

• Welcome and interact with guests with a friendly and positive attitude. Educate, interact, and answer questions about the Garden and merchandise.
• Fulfill the primary responsibility for selling merchandise and participate in suggestive selling and add-on sales. Gauge customer needs and make merchandise suggestions. 
• Stay current and familiar with merchandise in order to share information with customers. 
• Restock the selling floor with merchandise. Help to keep displays clean, and merchandise presentation neat, orderly, and attractive. 
• Help to prepare merchandise for sale by inspecting, pricing, and packaging new merchandise for sale.
• Sell merchandise and ring sales using the computer POS system. Wrap and pack merchandise as needed. Sell memberships and educate guests about the various benefits the garden membership offers.
• Process phone orders and special orders according to established procedures.
• Open and close the desk by preparing and balancing the POS terminals according to established procedures.
• Facilitate deposit and paperwork. Run reports, count the bank, and order change as needed.
• Restock membership forms and other office supplies, as needed. 
• Support Garden events by assisting with set up, merchandise, and process sales.
• Participate in department meetings and performs other duties as assigned.

Requirements

Minimum Qualifications:

No formal educational requirements exist for this role, however, candidates must be able to perform basic mathematical calculations commonly used in retail environments and be able to read and understand all safety and departmental guides and procedural requirements. 

Success Factors:

• A strong desire to contribute to the guest experience in a positive and engaging way by displaying a willingness to learn and share your knowledge about the Garden, its programs, and its mission of connecting people to plants.   
• Exemplifies the Garden’s Core Values while engaging with visitors, volunteers and staff.
• Communicate effectively with guests and staff by sharing knowledge and engage in proactive and suggestive selling of merchandise and membership. 
• Must be organized, excellent at multitasking, and display strong interpersonal and sales skills. Proactively maintain orderly, neat, and clean visual displays and store.
• Ability to work positively in a team environment. 

Preferred Qualifications:  

2+ years of retail or customer service experience preferred.

Physical Demands and Work Environment: The physical demands and work environment characteristics described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. 

• Physical Demands: Must be able to remain in a stationary position continuously in order to observe visitors entering and exiting the Gift Shop. This role is required to continuously communicate with visitors and Garden associates. Frequently positions self to stock shelves, receive merchandise and lift up to 25 lbs. Occasionally ascends step ladder and lifts more than 25lbs.
• Work Environment: Work is frequently performed indoors with occasional outdoor activity in varied terrains and all weather conditions for events or programs.
• Equipment: General office equipment, point of sale (POS) system, tablets, 2-way radios.

Job descriptions are guidelines that attempt to characterize essential functions and responsibilities of a job, and are subject to change as needs and programs change. At Huntsville Botanical Garden job descriptions are considered neither inclusive nor exclusive. It is expected that up to 20% of your duties may change annually.

Employees must be able to perform the essential functions of the position satisfactorily and, if requested, reasonable accommodations will be made to enable employees with disabilities to perform the essential functions of their job, absent undue hardship.

The Huntsville Botanical Garden supports a culture of inclusion that attracts, inspires, and engages people to achieve success. The Garden is committed to hiring and developing employees based on job-related qualifications irrespective of race, religion, color, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, or veteran status. To increase diversity in professions related to the public garden realm, we encourage applications from underrepresented minorities, persons with disabilities, and veterans.