Customer Experience Manager

Royal & Derngate; England; On-site; GBP 36,000 - 48,000; Full time

Job summary

Royal & Derngate is seeking a Customer Experience Manager to lead the visitor journey across both venues. You will drive exceptional service, manage Front of House operations, and lead teams including volunteers with a strong emphasis on hospitality and inclusivity.

You will work closely with the Head of Customer Experience and other departments to ensure standards, budgets and safety requirements are met while delivering memorable experiences for audiences in a dynamic cultural setting.

Qualifications

• Significant customer-facing management or supervisory experience in entertainment, hospitality, leisure or cultural environments.
• Experience leading and motivating teams in fast-paced operations.
• Experience delivering consistently high customer service standards.
• Experience dealing professionally with diverse customers.
• Experience resolving challenging situations and customer issues.
• Experience of working with EPOS/till systems.
• Experience of managing volunteers and casual staff.
• Experience working during evenings, weekends and busy periods.
• Experience managing income and expenditure against budgets or targets and variances.

Responsibilities

• Lead delivery of an exceptional customer experience across both venues.
• Maintain a visible, approachable presence during busy periods.
• Ensure a consistent, welcoming and inclusive customer journey.
• Identify and implement customer journey improvements.
• Ensure Front of House teams deliver Customer Experience Handbook standards.
• Work across the organisation to resolve issues and improve processes.
• Promote a culture of hospitality and inclusion.
• Oversee Front of House operations, staffing and rotas within budget.
• Liaise with visiting companies, hirers, artists and colleagues.
• Support volunteer recruitment, induction, training and management.
• Manage health and safety, compliance and licensing responsibilities.

Job description

About the Role

Join Royal & Derngate as our next Customer Experience Manager. If you're passionate about delivering exceptional customer service, leading high-performing teams, and creating memorable visitor experiences, this is your chance to make a real impact in one of the region's leading cultural venues.

Job Opportunity

Key Task Areas:

Customer Experience & Customer Journey

• Lead delivery of an exceptional customer experience across both venues.
• Maintain a visible, approachable presence, particularly during busy periods.
• Ensure a consistent, welcoming and inclusive customer journey.
• Identify and implement customer journey improvements.
• Ensure Front of House teams consistently deliver Customer Experience Handbook standards.
• Work across the organisation to resolve issues and improve processes.
• Ensure inclusive support for customers with access requirements.
• Promote a strong culture of hospitality.

Front of House & Venue Operations

• Oversee effective Front of House operations during all activity including keyholder and alarm responsibilities.
• Set staffing and rotas to meet operational, service and safety needs within budget, correcting actual or forecast variances.
• Brief teams clearly on event requirements, risks and customer priorities.
• Liaise effectively with visiting companies, hirers, artists and colleagues.
• Ensure venues are prepared, presented and staffed before opening including VIP Lounge and related services.
• Maintain high standards of cleanliness, presentation and customer facilities.
• Check customer areas regularly and resolve issues promptly.
• Resolve operational issues and escape appropriately.

Leadership & People Management

• Act as Duty Manager when required and provide visible, supportive leadership to Customer Experience colleagues.
• Line manage designated colleagues, providing supervision, feedback and development.
• Manage performance, attendance, conduct and employee relations with the Head of Customer Experience.
• Identify training needs and support the Customer Experience training programme.
• Ensure colleagues understand and can fulfil their responsibilities.
• Recognise excellent service and team performance.

Volunteers

• Support volunteer recruitment, induction, training and management.
• Ensure volunteers are briefed, supported and valued.
• Develop volunteer engagement, training and progression with the Head of Customer Experience.
• Ensure volunteers understand their role in the customer journey and culture.

Commercial, Budget & Financial Management

• Manage relevant income and expenditure within agreed budgets and targets.
• Monitor actual and forecast performance against budget and identify material variances promptly.
• Correct income shortfalls or overspends and elevate significant risks or variances.
• Support budgets and forecasts with accurate operational information on pressures and opportunities.
• Control staffing and other costs within budget while maintaining service and safety.
• Support commercial objectives through service and secondary-spend opportunities.
• Coach teams to increase appropriate upselling and customer spend without compromising experience.
• Oversee bars, retail and other customer-facing commercial activity.
• Monitor sales and financial performance against budget, understand variances and act on underperformance.
• Ensure effective stock, ordering, cash and EPOS controls to minimise waste, loss and discrepancies.
• Maintain high presentation standards in retail and bar areas.
• Implement commercial initiatives, promotions and new products.

Health, Safety, Safeguarding & Compliance

• Maintain a safe environment for customers, colleagues, volunteers and visiting companies.
• Ensure Health & Safety procedures are followed and communicated.
• Manage emergency procedures, including evacuation, lockdown and vulnerable-person incidents.
• Identify hazards, risks and maintenance issues and ensure action is taken.
• Ensure compliance with licensing and relevant legislation.
• Hold, or work towards, required First Aid qualifications.
• Contribute to relevant Health & Safety, Operations and safeguarding meetings.

General

• Work collaboratively across Royal & Derngate and Northampton Filmhouse.
• Represent the organisation professionally with customers and partners.
• Support organisational sustainability initiatives and ensure that customer experience minimises its impact on the environment.
• Attend relevant meetings and training.
• Undertake other reasonable duties as required.
• Work evenings, weekends, Bank Holidays and other hours required by venue operations.

Responsibilities are shared across the Customer Experience Manager team. Each post-holder has specific accountabilities while collaborating to provide consistent operational leadership across both venues.

Essential Skills

Essential Experience:

• Significant customer-facing management or supervisory experience in entertainment, hospitality, leisure, cultural or visitor environments.
• Experience leading and motivating teams in fast-paced operations.
• Experience delivering consistently high customer service standards.
• Experience dealing professionally with diverse customers.
• Experience resolving challenging situations and customer issues.
• Experience of working with EPOS/till systems.
• Experience of managing or supporting volunteers and/or casual staff
• Experience working evenings, weekends and busy periods.
• Experience managing income and expenditure against budgets or targets and acting on variances.

Essential Knowledge/Qualifications:

• Strong understanding of customer experience and the customer journey.
• Understanding of Health & Safety and safe working practices.
• Understanding of safeguarding responsibilities.
• Understanding of equality, diversity, inclusion and accessibility.
• Understanding of commercial service and secondary-income opportunities.
• Understanding of theatre, cinema or comparable venue operations.
• Willingness to develop knowledge of licensing and relevant legislation.

Essential Skills/Abilities:

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills.
• Strong leadership and people management skills.
• Calm, confident and solution-focused under pressure.
• Excellent organisational and time-management skills.
• Strong decision-making and problem-solving ability.
• Ability to prioritise in a busy, unpredictable environment.
• Ability to build positive relationships with customers, colleagues, volunteers and partners.
• Ability to coach colleagues and improve performance.
• Strong financial and commercial awareness; able to manage budgets, explain variances and take corrective action.
• Good IT skills, including Microsoft Office and operational systems.
• Ability to use data and feedback to improve customer experience.
• Commitment to equality, diversity, inclusion and a welcoming environment

Desirable Experience:

• Experience in theatre, cinema, arts, cultural or entertainment environments.
• Experience of managing Duty Managers or Front of House teams.
• Experience of working with volunteers.
• Experience delivering customer or operational training.
• Experience developing or implementing customer service standards.
• Experience managing events, performances or large customer operations.

Desirable Knowledge/Qualifications:

• Personal Licence Holder, or willingness to obtain one.
• First Aid at Work qualification.
• Knowledge of licensing law and premises/event licences.
• Knowledge of EPOS and stock management systems.
• Understanding of theatre/cinema operations and cross-departmental working.