I am sure you have already noticed because most of our tours are so full, but the Sales Team is excited to share with our volunteer community the great news that we are quickly returning to 2019 attendance and sales levels, in some areas even surpassing that. In April walking tours were 92% back, Group Sales were even, and the river cruise was actually 112% of the 2019 sales. We are still not offering public bus tours, but plan to bring at least some of them back in 2023. These numbers do not include the nearly $100K in tours we are offering the AIA for their convention in June. Center admissions have been a bit slower to return, but since it is seen as an indoor activity that is not a total surprise. Retail sales are showing a steady increase and customer satisfaction with our selection is consistently high.
I always say I have the easiest sales job in the world because the product is so great and that is highly due to your quality work. Our staff however is not yet back to our 2019 levels. We have been a bit overwhelmed and unfortunately I feel that the volunteers and docents have suffered from this. I apologize, it is not that we don’t value you, we are simply swamped. We are making progress in hiring, and will continue to have this as a focus but I am sure you have all heard in the news how difficult it is to hire in the service industry at this time. In the meanwhile, we can help each other in a few ways.
What the CAC Sales Team is doing:
- Attending job fairs, posting to universities, doing all we can to attract new staff
- Streamlining processes wherever we can to increase efficiency
- Cross training more staff to help back each other up
- Simplifying group bookings to be as close to standard tours as possible
- Temporarily prioritizing tour and membership sales over other revenue streams
How volunteers and docents can help:
- Know of someone looking for a job? Send them here to see everything we have available
- Operating short staffed creates a lot of stress on our team. Please be respectful and patient. Say a quick hi but know they may not have time for a long visit.
- Try not to interrupt customer conversations (including answering e-mails), staff will assist you soon as possible
- Remember that the Call Center area is an active work space. Please do not congregate in this area for conversations but rather treat this area as a Quite Zone
Genuinely, thanks for all you do. Reviews are great and plentiful these days as well, and that influence is getting stronger every day.
Deb Rodak, Director of Sales.