Welcome Host

Newcastle Castle; Newcastle upon Tyne; On-site; GBP 17,000 - 19,000; Part time

Job summary

The Heart of the City Partnership (Newcastle Castle) is recruiting for a visitor-facing role to deliver outstanding service across the Castle site. You will welcome and admit visitors, provide information, and assist in retail and catering outlets.

Role includes weekend work, outdoor duties, and lone working; reports to Welcome Manager within the Visitor Experience Team. Training on EPOS and stock control will be provided to ensure a great visitor day.

Qualifications

• Dedication to delivering high standards of customer care.
• Experience in face-to-face customer service.
• Excellent people skills, enabling good relations with visitors, volunteers and staff.
• Ability to learn EPOS (till) and stock control systems.
• Ability to support volunteers within day-to-day operations.
• Knowledge of Health and Safety and safeguarding best practice.

Responsibilities

• Everyday responsibility for the overall delivery of an outstanding visitor welcome.
• Delivery of the set touchpoint standards across deployment areas on site.
• Understanding visitors’ needs and ensuring memorable visits.
• Use of the POS (till) system for tickets, retail and food & beverage.
• Delivering targets against key performance areas, such as Gift Aid and guidebook sales.
• Maintaining presentation standards across public areas and general cleaning duties.
• Upselling retail products or tickets to events, activities and/or tours.
• Effective communication with visitors, volunteers and the wider staff team.
• Capturing visitor feedback to feed into Castle evaluation strategy.
• Advocating for the charity and its work in line with objectives.
• Working within the Visitor Experience Team to deliver the wider Castle strategy.
• Maintenance of all personal issue uniforms.
• Compliance with risk assessments and Health and Safety policies.

Skills

Customer service

Face-to-face service

People skills

Teamwork

Adaptability

IT literacy

Tools

EPOS till

Stock control

POS system

Job description

The Heart of the City Partnership (Newcastle Castle) is recruiting one position to deliver visitor facing duties across the Castle site. These roles will deliver outstanding customer service to a broad range of visitors and do everything possible to ensure they have a great day. There will be a variety of duties which may range from welcoming and admitting visitors, providing information and orientation, to presentation of public areas or serving customers in our retail and catering outlets.

Role Description

The Heart of the City Partnership (Newcastle Castle) is recruiting one position to deliver visitor facing duties across the Castle site. These roles will deliver outstanding customer service to a broad range of visitors and do everything possible to ensure they have a great day. There will be a variety of duties which may range from welcoming and admitting visitors, providing information and orientation, to presentation of public areas or serving customers in our retail and catering outlets.

The Heart of the City Partnership

Newcastle Castle is operated by The Heart of the City Partnership, a registered charity (#1165434), which is a joint venture between several Newcastle organisations, all of whom have a passionate and vested interest in the Castle’s future preservation:

Newcastle City Council, The Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle Upon Tyne, Newcastle Cathedral

Our Charitable Objectives

• The preservation and protection of Newcastle Castle
• The advancement of culture and heritage
• The advancement of education and promotion of learning

Our Spirit of Place

CASTLE CENTRAL: Connecting people to the city and inspiring discovery of the past.

Our Values

• Be welcoming ambassadors for our city and our local area
• Be the heart of our community
• Be an inclusive space for all
• Be a place of discovery

The Details

One position available:

Variable hours contract, fixed term until 4 th January 2027.

Pay rate: £12.71 per hour

Reports to: Welcome Manager and sits within the wider Visitor Experience Team.

Line Management: No line management responsibility

Area of impact

• Day to day responsibility for delivering exceptional service to all visitors
• Direct impact on the quality and nature of the visitor experience for all visitors interacted with
• Close working relationship with volunteers and other operational teams across the Castle
• Contributes to our visitor experience ratings and scores

Internal/ external relationships

• Regular day to day contact with visitors and service users
• Must maintain good working relationships within the wider Castle Team
• Regular working alongside volunteers

Additional information

• This role does include regular weekend work.
• This role does include outdoor working.
• This role does include lone working.

Due to the nature of the site and the role requiring being on your feet for periods of time, a good level of physical fitness is required.

The Role

Role Overview

Its about ensuring our visitors have a great experience – Projecting a friendly, helpful, and approachable image of Newcastle Castle, you will have a flexible customer focused approach. Working in a variety of customer facing roles across the site, you will strive to deliver exceptional service to all of our visitors.

Its about great teamwork – You will be an excellent team player, working flexibly across the site to support staff and volunteers to achieve our objective of providing the best possible visitor experience. Flexibility to support any aspect of the Castle operation as required.

Its about growing support – You will help to promote events, offers, activities and the benefits of actively supporting the Castle in a way most appropriate to visitors’ needs, linking this to our focus on everyday excellence and striving to be efficient and ensure cost effectiveness at all times.

Its about standards of presentation – You will help to keep visitor areas to agreed standards. You will undertake general cleaning duties, make sure displays are up to date and take great pride in ensuring the Castle is looking at its very best for everyone.

Its about working safely and securely – You will comply with the Castle’s processes and procedures in order to minimise risk to the public, staff, volunteers, and contractors. You will follow clearly established routines and rota requirements being in the right place at the right time with the right resources.

Responsibilities

• Everyday responsibility for the overall delivery of an outstanding visitor welcome
• Delivery of the set touchpoint standards across a variety of deployment areas on site
• Understanding visitors’ needs and being available to ensure visitors have a memorable and impactful visit
• Use of the POS (till) system for sale of tickets, retail and food and beverage
• Delivering targets against key performance areas, specifically Gift Aid and guidebook sales
• Taking pride in presentation standards across all public facing areas, including general cleaning duties
• Upselling where appropriate retail products or tickets to events, activities and/or tours
• Effective communication with visitors, service users, volunteers, and the wider staff team
• Capturing visitor feedback to feed in to a wider Castle evaluation strategy.
• Advocating for our charity and the work that we undertake in line with our charitable objectives
• Working within the Visitor Experience Team to deliver the wider Castle and departmental strategy.
• Maintenance of all personal issue uniform.
• Compliance with all Castle risk assessments and policies including Health and Safety, Safeguarding and others.

The Candidate

Knowledge skills and experience needed

• Dedication to the delivery of high standards of customer care
• Experienced in working in face-to-face customer service situations
• Excellent people skills, enabling good working relations with visitors, volunteers and the wider Castle team
• Ability to learn digital EPOS (till) and stock control systems and procedures
• Understanding of volunteer motivations and ability to support volunteers within day-to-day operations
• Ability to follow guidelines to promote and present product ranges to specified standards
• Interest in developing product knowledge
• Knowledgeable on the application of Health and Safety and Safeguarding compliance and best practice
• Strong interpersonal and communication skills including being empathetic, and having an understanding and ability to adapt to a variety of needs
• Literate and numerate
• Flexible and adaptable
• Well organised and attentive to details
• Good IT skills

Desirable attributes

• Multilingual and/or competency in British Sign Language
• Interest in the heritage of Newcastle-Upon-Tyne