Melissa Kempf Email and Phone Number

In my current role overseeing group events at Kings Island, I serve as a liaison between the Group Sales/Marketing department and key park stakeholders to coordinate events. I communicate with clients to plan the details of their events and oversee the execution of the event on the day of. I work closely with our park operations and catering teams to ensure all of our client's requests are met for a flawless event.

In my role in the Food & Beverage Department at Kings Island, I coordinated and led over 16,000 training hours required of the 1,700 Kings Island Food and Beverage associates. Imonitored all associate's training progress and reported out the pathway of onboarding associates to the rest of the Food and Beverage Full-Time team and important park stakeholders. I also maintained accurate records to meet Cedar Fair Compliance Standards for Food Safety Training. I partnered with location managers in creating effective communication flyers to aid stands in achieving service and revenue goals. Within my first couple of months in this position, I devised and implemented an auditing program to ensure compliance of wardrobe, point of sale system usage, and guest service standards for in-park crews. I created innovative methods to train new leadership team members on how to effectively lead their crews. I also worked hands on with subordinate staff through the initial hiring process, training them on how to facilitate classes, and teaching them appropriate methods to maintain park standards and coach associates.

I prepared essential paperwork, files, payment vouchers, and entered records into the department database. I also answered telephone inquiries from citizens and assisted them by providing requested reports and background checks. I redirected phone calls to the appropriate individual within the department or dispatch center when necessary. As an Evidence Custodian, I processed, audited, and managed the chain of custody for evidence submissions. I also applied great attention to detail while helping gather materials to respond to Freedom of Information Act requests including communicating with deputies to gather their documentation for a requested incident, redacting Body Worn Camera footage and photographs using Axon, and composing response letters and invoices to be sent to the requestor to ensure I did not release anything they were not legally permitted to receive.

In my role as an operations supervisor, I oversaw daily operations of all locations under the Admissions & Guest Services department, serving as the on duty manager for the department during operating hours.I supervised subordinate supervisory staff and also trained and mentored location supervisors to become area supervisors. I resolve conflict with guests & associates through multiple mediums including email, phone, and face to face. I also have continued writing a weekly newsletter to communicate with my associates.

In my role as an Area Supervisor, I oversaw and worked with location supervisors from various teams in our department including, Admissions Location Supervisors, Guest Services Supervisors, Call Center Supervisors, and our mobile guest services team, The Park Ambassadors. In this position, I ensured all locations in my area were operating efficiently and that they had appropriate staffing numbers throughout the day. I also utilized rhetorical strategies to resolve conflict with guests and associates through multiple mediums including, email, phone, and in person. Something else I did in this role was strategically communicate with associates through writing a weekly newsletter titled "The Best Day Blurb" which updates associates on important information, policy changes, reminders, photos, associate recognition, and upcoming events in our department. I also had a more involved role in training, as I updated training modules to strategically communicate information to new and returning associates through implementation of PowerPoint presentations, videos, and engaging breakout activities. I coached and mentored Team Leads and Supervisors to higher positions in the department, and had regular meetings with them to create goals, give feedback, and ensure they were performing well in their position. I also create associate schedules that meet operation demands while maintaining equal hours among associates. I reported directly to the on-duty manager.

As an admissions location supervisor, I was specifically assigned to be the supervisor of our Sales Team. In this role, I led our salesmanship team to coach and mentor them in strategically upselling products to our guests and to have guest service centered interactions. As I often worked with the same team of associates, I was able to oversee their growth to give them feedback and evaluations on their performance. I also communicated with my associates through graphics to display top-performing team members. I lead shift meetings every day, informing my associates of updates, policy changes, and date specific information, ensuring to keep all crews updated throughout the day. I trained new and returning associates in ticket sales and various other locations in the department, troubleshooted ticket and season pass issues, de-escalated guest complaints, and effectively set up locations for daily operation. In this role, I created schedules for the sales team.

As a Team Lead, I was essentially a supervisor in training, where I reported to an Admissions Supervisor, being a resource to them. In this role, I learned how to successfully operate admissions locations including: counting down associate tills, enforcing workplace rules and procedures, deescalating guest complaints, working with my supervisor to troubleshoot ticketing and season pass issues, and training associates. In this position, I was an available resource to answer questions and to any associate who needed assistance.

As an admissions associate at Kings Island, I had a variety of different tasks from greeting guests and assisting them in entering our park at the tolls plaza, taking tickets and welcoming them at the front gate, to processing season passes, and selling tickets, season passes, and add-on products to enhance guest experiences. As a season pass processing associate, I worked diligently to ensure guests received their season passes in a timely manner, while ensuring to welcome them with a friendly and outgoing demeanor. Working in ticket sales, I would strategically up-sell add on products to both single day ticket holders and guests purchasing season passes. Guest service centered interactions were very important in this role, as it was very important to welcome the guest to Kings Island, offer them products and experiences that would enhance their visit, and offering additional assistance to see if they had any additional questions.

In this position, I gave feedback and support as a peer writing center consultant to student writers, helping to develop their writing in varied contexts and genres. In my role at the writing center, I focused on making the writer feel welcomed by greeting them with a cheerful demeanor. I utilized collaboration as a tool for promoting learning and self-efficacy among student writers. In these consultations, I made the session centered around the writer's concerns and we came up with goals , creating an outline for the session together. This allowed for writers to be motivated to take the strategies and feedback from the consultation and apply it to their future writing.