Travel Consultant

Package Description

The fun facts – our colleagues play the most important part in creating exceptional experiences for our customers every day. It is their empathy, collaboration, and drive to succeed for our customers that make them the best at what they do. We offer them a competitive salary and benefits, including:

• Starting salary of £16,580
• Rapid promotion potential with pay increases in basic salary and commission
• The ability to work from anywhere in Kent with our work-from-home tech capabilities 
• Dress for your day dress code policy - basically casual dress!
• An enhanced holiday allowance – 28 days holiday including all bank holidays and the opportunity to purchase an additional 5 days holiday each year
• Paid volunteer days
• Free private medical insurance after 1 years' service 
• Workplace Pension 
• A range of wellbeing initiatives and support including Unmind and AXA Be Supported  
• Discounts on Saga holidays and insurance products which extend to your family
• A range of reductions and offers from leading retailers, travel groups and entertainment companies 
• Team centred comprehensive training with opportunities to gain new skills and experience

Job Introduction

** Remote/home working allowed ** 

With visits to the Folkestone office required so the role would suit those that are Kent and East Sussex based as you will need to be within a reasonable commuting distance, ideally 1hr from Folkestone.

Our people are everything to us. The way they deliver exceptional experiences every day for our customers, for their colleagues. The way they own what they do. Their 'Why's it like that?' curiosity. How they always think of others and work together to get things done. For us, for you, make do will never do. Good enough? Not even close. Come and do the best work of your life alongside lovely colleagues. Come to Saga. 

The travel business is at the heart of the Saga brand and it is from these origins that the business evolved. We take guests all over the world on package holidays, escorted tours, river cruises, and ocean cruises with Saga Holidays and Saga Cruises but let’s be clear! We have all had a tough year, and many of us are aching to go back on holiday. When that happens, we need to be there to deliver an exceptional service to our customers and we need people that share our excitement for travel to be there with us. 

This is your opportunity to get onboard with a company that is going places, literally! This is your chance to build a career within the travel industry at a time when those breaks and escapes will become even more valuable to all of us and when our customers will be leading the charge for the beach, the ships, or the cities to explore once more. 

2020 was quite a year to say the least, but our team have been amazing – digging deep to find the creativity, resilience and innovation needed to get us out the other side – we will emerge from this crisis stronger than we went in. 

In addition, we have not wasted any time as we have developed our new strategy which is bold and transformational – we now just need to grow the team to help us get there.  

We are looking for Travel Advisors to drive our holiday sales and Cruise Advisors to drive our cruise sales. Whilst this is deemed as a contact centre position, Saga is a company that trusts our colleagues to work from home and we will set you up with the right equipment and training for you to be a success. We will require you to come into the office on occasions because we value the team get-togethers but for the most part you will work from home saving commuting time and costs. 

If you are driven, can work at pace, can empathise with our customers, and are keen to learn about the travel industry then we may be the next destination for you. 

Take a look at our holidays below:

See how our cruise ships are built above.

Below you can learn more about the role and about Saga, including our commitment to diversity, belonging and inclusion and our commitment to welcoming applications from those that are over 50 as we are age-inclusive champions.

Main Responsibilities

• To provide our customers with exceptional experiences when calling to enquire or book a holiday
• To play your part in the Team’s objectives, as set by your Team Manager
• To meet and exceed the quality standards set by the Saga call handing standards with all promises to our customers kept
• To provide flexibility in working arrangements around customer demand
• To use your best questioning and listening skills to provide an exceptional customer experience
• To develop and maintain a thorough knowledge of our products and processes
• To be able to deal with all situations with empathy and professionalism
• To maintain customer confidentiality always
• To be able to investigate and resolve any customer complaints providing first class service

Our contact centre opening hours are 9 am-7 pm Monday to Friday and Saturday to Sunday 9 am - 5 pm, and successful candidates would be expected to work on a rotational shift pattern spread across these hours. Please bear this in mind before making your application. 

The Ideal Candidate

We are looking for new colleagues who have a love for travel, share our values and have the right skills in the following areas: 

• Precision pace whilst working in a busy, fast-paced customer service environment
• Empathy and taking ownership of the customer’s journey, going above and beyond for each customer, and overcoming and finding solutions to their queries and complaints should they arise
• Curiosity and ability to use their experience and knowledge for influencing and negotiating
• Collaboration to succeed in working to demanding targets, KPIs and deadlines whilst remaining self-motivated and driven
• Digital skills and able to articulate strengths in using typical technologies for work such as laptops and Microsoft Office.

Our values are:

• Precision Pace - Always owning and making things happen
• Empathy – Always aware of others
• Curiosity – Always asking why
• Collaboration – Always one team, the Saga team!

About The Company

Having spent our first 30 years focused on travel, Saga launched Saga Magazine and developed home and motor insurance and financial services in the 1980s. Private medical and pet insurance followed in the 1990s, along with the launch of our own cruise ship operation. The strength of the Saga brand provides the Group with the ability to develop in-house or partner with suppliers to offer our customers and members highly differentiated, competitively priced products which meet their evolving needs. 

Saga exists to help our customers and members lead the life they want to lead. To succeed in this, we know that the most important thing to do is to listen to our customers and members. At the heart of our business model is our drive to know more about our customers’ wants and needs so we are best placed to serve them.

Applying this approach over the past 70 years has enabled us to become the UK's specialist provider of products and services to people aged over 50 in the UK. The Saga brand has become one of the most recognised and trusted brands amongst UK consumers in this demographic and is recognised for its high-quality products and exceptional standards of service. These include cruises and holidays, insurance, personal finance, the Saga Magazine and our membership programme, Possibilities.

When you join Saga you will see that we are committed to treating all employees fairly and to offering equal opportunities in all aspects of employment and advancement. 

We value diversity not just because it is the right thing to do, but because diverse teams perform better. Creating a culture in which everyone feels welcome and offering equal opportunities in all aspects of employment and advancement is incredibly important to us. Fair consideration is given to applications from all applicants, including those with disabilities and those over who are over 50 as we are champions of age inclusivity.

We are an official Disability Confident Committed employer and ensure that our recruitment process is inclusive and accessible and we will make reasonable adjustments as required.

We are a member of the 30% Club and partner with Women Ahead which offers us a fantastic opportunity to take part in a leading, global, cross-company, leadership mentoring scheme to champion female talent.

We are a signatory of the Armed Services Covenant and have received a Silver Award from the Employer Recognition Scheme. 

To all recruitment agencies: Saga does not accept agency CVs unless specifically engaged on the role by the HR Recruitment Team. Please do not forward CVs to our recruiters, employees or any other company location. Saga is not responsible for any fees related to unsolicited CVs.

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