PRM: Front of House

Visitor services can be somewhat of a struggle: there's so much information to know! But luckily my experience in customer service helped me to catch on quickly to the various hats that the visitor services associate wears.

I learned that the three different areas in which VSAs work have two different computer systems. The front desk system is most complicated, so naturally I tackled it first. It seems to me that having a simple system in a museum seems a near impossible task: there are just too many functions that need to be done. However, PRM's system is fairly intuitive, so I caught on quickly.

The morning was full with five different school groups visiting on field trips. The lobby area was chaos much of the time! However, after about 1 PM everything died down and it actually became very slow. The quick change of pace was surprising and somewhat unexpected. It made the afternoon drag on a bit.

I was trained by a fellow VSA. I really liked this system of shadowing the job rather than simply learning the steps out of context because it helped me learn the ropes more quickly, and I was answering phones and processing memberships within a couple of hours!