Director of Guest Experience

SUMMARY

The Director of Guest Experience provides functional and business expertise and strategic perspective to identify, evaluate, develop and drive optimization and efficiencies across the property, creating an extraordinary guest experience.

This person oversees property-level service improvement initiatives for the resort and is responsible for the research, reporting, and facilitation of programs related to service enhancement.

The Director of Guest Experience acts as a strategic partner to the operating department leadership, proactively assessing needs and assisting departments with developing customized solutions.

The Director focuses on ensuring all Team Members are serving our guests with a meaningful and personalized experience throughout the property.

All duties are to be performed in accordance with department and property policies, practices and procedures.

Owns the analysis around guest complaints, and leads the departmental action planning process for each complaint, with the goal of reducing or eliminating the overall number of guest complaints.

Identifies and implements systems, technologies and processes to assist operating departments in these efforts.

• Works closely with the Vice President of Guest Experience on strategies to build a culture around established guest service standards in line with the corporate gaming culture and company initiatives.
• Continually looks for service opportunities and new strategies to enhance and enrich the guest experience through analysis of guest feedback and other established metrics.
• Provides leadership, training and guidance to department heads on guest service initiatives, enabling best practice sharing.
• Identifies opportunities and creates strategic recommendations for continuous process improvements, increased efficiencies and cost savings.
• Oversees guest relations for all guest-impact departments in accordance with property service standards.
• Measures, analyzes and reports out on guest satisfaction metrics from InfoSearch, TripAdvisor, Social Media channels, Revinate, and internal inspections.
• Serves as the administrator for the platforms used in Guest Experience : adding / deleting users, training users, and providing support.
• Ensures users of our Guest Satisfaction survey platform are trained and responding to guest issues in a timely manner. Assigns multiple-issue tickets to correct department for guest follow up.
• Provides insights on key service trends and gaps to the Vice President of Guest Experience, while transitioning ownership of service improvement processes to department leaders.
• Partners with operating departments, regularly reviewing and analyzing their guest service data to generate action plans to address service deficiencies / goals, utilizing process improvement, training and team member performance improvement practices.
• Collaborates with departments to monitor progress of their guest service action plans and assist in service training as needed.
• Reporting to the Vice President of Guest Experience, establishes company policies, procedures and best practices for guest service practices at the property level.
• Assists in the Learning and Development function by providing guest service training at New Hire Orientation. Also assists HR with Team Member engagement initiatives.
• Responds to guest reviews and inquiries about the property in a professional and timely manner, achieving positive resolutions.

Interactions include verbal and written format, through multiple feedback channels.

• Helps to promote a culture of teamwork, performance feedback through coaching, recognition, mutual respect and team member satisfaction.
• Contributes in overseeing the guest text-messaging platform, ensuring guests are receiving timely, professional responses and accurate information.
• Responsible for hiring, training, and overseeing Guest Service Ambassadors.
• Performs all other job related duties as requested.

Required :

• Bachelors Degree in Hotel or Business Administration or equivalent education and experience.
• At least 4 years of management experience.
• At least 3 years of experience in leading quality improvement initiatives.
• Strong influential leadership, solution-driven thinking, solid analytical and project management skills.
• Excellent guest service skills.
• Able to lead and mentor a team.
• Effective interpersonal skills and Emotional Intelligence to deal effectively with all business contacts.
• Professional appearance and demeanor.
• Work varied shifts, including weekends and holidays.
• High school diploma or equivalent required.
• Strong working knowledge of Microsoft Excel, Word, Outlook and PowerPoint.
• Able to effectively communicate in English, in both written and oral forms.
• Training Facilitation experience with small and large group settings.

Preferred :

• Large scale, fast-paced hospitality and / or gaming experience.
• Lean, Six Sigma, or other quality and process improvement certification.
• Training Facilitation certification.
• Previous experience working in a similar resort setting.

PHYSICAL DEMANDS

• While performing the duties of this job, the Team Member is constantly standing, sitting, kneeling, walking, reaching, twisting, grasping, lifting, listening, using computer, telephone, and speaking.
• Frequently using wrist motion, dexterity, eye-hand coordination, and writing, typing on computer keyboard.
• Must be able to lift, push, or pull up to 25 pounds.

WORKING CONDITIONS

Work performed indoors, in climate controlled environment. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate. Team Member may be exposed to odor and secondhand smoke.

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

WORK SCHEDULE / HOURS

Grand Sierra Resort and Casino is a 24 / 7 operation. Therefore, Team Member must be flexible if needed for occasional work outside of normal business hours.