Customer Service Coordinator & Photographer
Based at: Waikoloa Beach Marriott Resort & Spa, Waikoloa Beach Resort
Full-time, in person · Hourly, non-exempt · Five days a week, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM
Reports to the General Manager
Version 2 · October 2026
The Role
We are the leading family beach portrait company on the Big Island. Families plan these sessions about a month before they travel, they inquire with two or three photographers at once, and they book the one who answers first. Right now our median time to first human contact is over four hours, and 165 inquiries have gone without any follow-up at all. That is the problem this seat exists to solve.
Your primary job is every inquiry that reaches this company gets a human response within five minutes during business hours, and every customer message gets answered.
Built on top of that is the booking, sales and photographer function. You are not just replying, you are converting: running consultation, confirming the session, and selling the collection at the viewing appointment. Fast response is what earns you the conversation; the booking and the sale are what you do with it. Then you are doing sessions on an as needed basis.
You are based at the Waikoloa Beach Marriott.
The Schedule
At the desk five days a week, 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. Days off rotate; weekends and holidays are working days in this business and are shared across the team, not assigned permanently to the newest person.
Inquiries that arrive overnight are the first thing you touch at 10:00, before anything else on the desk. Nothing that came in while we were closed waits until mid-morning.
Sessions mostly run before and after desk hours.
July runs roughly three times February's volume. The queue moves with the season and with the weather.
What You Own
Speed to lead, the five-minute standard
- Every inquiry, from every source, contacted by a human within five minutes during business hours. Web form, phone, text, email, chat, social message, lobby walk-up, concierge handoff. There is no channel that is somebody else's problem.
- The overnight queue cleared first thing, with every lead from the closed hours contacted at the start of your day.
- Zero leads with no follow-up. That number is the one we will look at first every month, and the target is zero.
- Flagging broken automation if/whenyou see it. If the autoresponder stops firing or a form stops routing, you are the first person who would know and the first person who says so.
Customer communications
- Every customer message answered: questions before booking, changes after booking, reschedules, weather calls, what-to-wear, where-to-meet, gallery and print questions, and the ones that arrive at an inconvenient moment.
- One voice across every channel. A family should get the same answer whether they text, email, or walk up to you in the lobby.
- Owning the awkward conversations: a late family, a missed slot, a delayed gallery, a disappointed guest. You answer them directly and early.
- Escalating when something is above you, with enough detail that the person you hand it to does not have to start over.
- Asking for the review after a happy delivery.
Booking and sales
- Run pre-booking or post-booking consultations. You set expectations on timing, location, wardrobe, and price.
- Closing the booking. A conversation that ends with a family thinking about it is not finished.
- The viewing appointment: showing the work, guiding the family to the right collection, and asking for the sale.
Shooting Sessions
- Sessions run early and early afternoon and at sunset, which is outside desk hours. You are paid your hourly rate for that time, plus the session commission & Tips.
- Delivering to our standard on every session, including the ones that go perfectly: bad light, late families, wind, rain, a toddler who is being a toddler.
- Knowing the beaches we shoot, the light at each one, and where to move a family when the wind comes up, or the tide is unfavorable.
- Your gear ready before you leave: bodies and batteries charged, cards cleared and formatted, a backup for anything that can fail. No family waits because of equipment.
- Carrying what you learned at the desk onto the beach. The names, ages, group dynamics, and requests you recorded when you booked them are what let you run the session without asking a family to repeat themselves.
- Weather calls made by the deadline, using our weather and safety policy, and communicated to the family by you rather than left to the last minute.
- Your own gallery turnaround: culled and submitted inside the standard.
- Correct attribution on every session you shoot, so your production is on the record and your commission is correct.
The Marriott desk and the resort relationship
- Lobby walk-ups and in-person guest questions at the property.
- Daily, friendly, useful contact with the concierge desk, the front office, the Vacation Club desk, and guest services. They send us families when they know you by name.
- The concierge cheat sheet: kept current, kept stocked, and delivered in person.
- Our lobby presence at this property: the display, the slideshow, the printed material, the QR codes. It looks immaculate every day, or you fix it.
The record
- Every inquiry and booking logged in the CRM updating the pipeline as every client moves through it.
- Recording detailed notes about the client and their family/group so the photography knows what theyre walking into.
- Referral sources recorded accurately on all bookings.
- Correct attribution on every booking and every sale, not only for you but for the photographer.
- The CRM reflects reality at the end of your shift. Nothing lives only in your head or your phone.
The property standard
- Everything we do at the Marriott sits inside the resort's brand standards. Working within those rules is part of the job.
- Uniform, posture, and presentation are the first things a guest reads about our company.
- Problems get flagged early. Nothing should be a surprise for your manager a week later.
Who You Are
- Fast. You answer things. A message sitting unread bothers you, and you would rather reply in two minutes than write a perfect reply in twenty.
- Fluent in text, email, and phone, and comfortable switching between them all day without losing track of who said what.
- Warm with strangers and quick to start a conversation, in writing and in person.
- Comfortable selling. You can ask a family to spend more than they planned and feel good about it, because the work is worth it.
- Organized and can prioritize tasks. When six things arrive at once, you work them in the right order instead of freezing or picking the easiest one.
- Competent in a CRM and reservation systems, or clearly able to become competent fast. We run GoHighLevel (crm) and FareHarbor (reservations).
- Able to photograph families outdoors in uncontrolled conditions: Harsh direct sunlight, wind, sand, a group of twelve, and a two year old who is melting down.
- Disciplined about the unglamorous half of shooting: gear charged, photos backed up, cards cleared, and your own galleries edited and delivered inside our turnaround standard.
- Available for the Desk schedule: five days a week, 10:00 to 4:00, including weekends and holidays on rotation.
- Available for sessions outside of desk hours on an as-needed basis.
- Legally able to work in the United States, with reliable transportation to the Waikoloa Beach Resort.
The Scorecard
Reviewed monthly with the General Manager. The first four are the job. Some of these cannot be measured cleanly today, and building the measurement is part of the job rather than a reason to skip the metric.
What we measure
- Response speed
- Leads with no follow-up
- Close Rate booking
- Lead-to-close rate
- Average order value
- Upgrade conversion
- On-time gallery delivery
- Review Volume
Compensation
Your pay has two parts today, with a third being built: an hourly base, two lines of commission, and a monthly bonus once targets are set. The more you book and the more you sell, the more you make. There is no cap.
Base pay
$20.00 per hour, paid on the regular payroll schedule. This position is non-exempt, so hours over 40 in a workweek are paid at the overtime rate required by law, and commissions earned in the period are included in the regular rate when overtime is calculated.
Ways to earn commission
How you earn: These stack.
- Booking the session
- Selling upgrades
- Portrait Sessions
- Review Spiff
Commission is earned on top of your hourly pay.
Who You Report To
You report to the General Manager.
The Bar
At six months, this seat has succeeded if:
- Median time to first human contact is under five minutes during business hours.
- No inquiry goes without follow-up. The count of untouched leads is zero and stays zero.
- Customers get answers the same day, every day, on whatever channel they used.
- Booking and sales volume sees a meaningful upward trend
- Concierge and front office staff at the Marriott know you by name and send families to you.